讀《FT·金融時報》學英語：如何優(yōu)雅懟川普，韋氏詞典教你用subtweet

自從“推特治國”的特朗普上臺之后，推特也陣地不保，網(wǎng)民懟總統(tǒng)十分起勁，而韋氏詞典則“悶聲發(fā)大財”，以subtweet走天下。

“Subtweet” is not yet an official entry in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, because it has not met the dictionary's strict usage requirements.That is likely to change this year.
“Subtweet”尚未正式選入韋氏詞典，因為韋氏詞典選詞具有嚴格的使用頻率要求，而這個詞還沒達到要求，不過今年情況可能發(fā)生變化了。

在上一周，這個詞在線上和線下都廣泛使用，主要用于推特網(wǎng)民狂懟特朗普的運動當中，諸多大V們?yōu)檫@場運動舉旗吶喊，不過有些卻背后放暗箭，這其中就有韋氏詞典的推特賬號。默默推送一個詞語定義，就能把當事人懟得顏面掃地，這罵人不帶臟字的功夫甚高。

那么subtweet是什么意思呢？

A subtweet is a standalone response to someone else's tweet that does not mention the other person or their tweet at all.The people who follow both the tweeter and the subtweeter will see the tweets and make the connection, but the original tweeter won't be alerted to the comment.It's a sly—or passive-aggressive, depending on your view—interaction that appears only on Twitter.
Subtweet是一個單獨的推文，其內(nèi)容是對其他人的推文的回應，但并不會提醒那個人或者關(guān)聯(lián)那個人的推文。同時關(guān)注這兩個推主的人會看到subtweet，并做相關(guān)聯(lián)系，而原推主不會收到提醒。這種做法只出現(xiàn)在推特上面，是比較狡猾，或者說是消極對抗的反應，取決于你怎么看。

不過這個詞也運用到了現(xiàn)實中。

2016年格萊美頒獎禮上，泰勒·斯威夫特隱晦地回應了侃爺（Kanye West）在歌詞中表示的是他“造就了她的成功。”

霉霉也不甘示弱，她的獲獎感言是這樣的：
As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there: There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments, or your fame.But if you just focus on the work, and you don't let those people sidetrack you, some day when you get where you're going, you'll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there.And that will be the greatest feeling in the world.

媒體們可都品出了霉霉的言下之意，他們也稱這種暗戳戳的反擊為Subtweet。就這樣，這個詞也在現(xiàn)實中流行起來。

Lauren Naturale, Merriam-Webster's content and social media manager, has been in charge of managing the dictionary's Twitter for about a year.Naturale, 33, says that while her approach to the account's tweets has remained the same, the public response has changed drastically.
Lauren Naturale是韋氏詞典的內(nèi)容與社交媒體運營經(jīng)理，已經(jīng)管理韋氏詞典推特賬號快一年了。她今年33歲，她說這一年來她發(fā)推的方式?jīng)]變，但公眾的反應卻發(fā)生了天翻地覆的變化。

“Things that shouldn't be politically charged, like the definition of a fact, are being received as if they are politically charged,” Naturale says.“But our job is to provide people with accurate definitions.And some of the most interesting things we share on Twitter are the words people are looking up at a given moment.”
她說：像一個事實的定義這樣的內(nèi)容，并不會出現(xiàn)政治敏感，但是人們的解讀使其變得似乎政治敏感起來。但我們的工作就是給人們提供準確的定義，而且我們發(fā)在推特上的有趣內(nèi)容往往也是人們在某個特點時間點上正在查詢的詞。

While Merriam-Webster's “word of the day” tweets are decided on weeks ahead of time, its posts about trending searches are the ones making the post impact.Take, for example, the definition of “fact,” which was posted on the same day as Kellyanne Conway's much-mockedtelevision interview, in which Conway used the term “alternative facts” to describe false information.
盡管韋氏詞典“每日單詞”推特發(fā)布的內(nèi)容提前幾周決定的，但其與熱搜相關(guān)的推文影響最大。比如說，“事實（fact）”的定義，當天凱利安·康威（Kellyanne Conway）在電視采訪中也用到了這個詞，她用“另類事實（alternative fact）”來描述假消息，備受諷刺。



These tweets, though based on trending user look-ups, reveal hypocrisy and draw sharp attention to the actions of the Trump administration.Naturale says that the response to recent tweets has been “overwhelmingly positive” and that many people have said they are subscribing to the Unabridged dictionary, buying a physical copy, or downloading the accompanying app.
這些推文，雖然是根據(jù)人們的最近查詢的詞匯確定的，卻暴露了虛偽，還使得特朗普的一舉一動備受關(guān)注。Naturale表示，最近這些推文反響出奇地好，許多人開始訂閱這本包容萬象的詞典，買了實體書，或者下載了相關(guān)應用。
Before joining Merriam-Webster as their social lead, Naturale taught English at the University of California, Berkeley, while earning her Master's degree.“Running the Twitter for Merriam-Webster feels like all of the fun parts of teaching without any of the grading,” she says.
在做韋氏詞典社交媒體負責人之前，Naturale在加州大學伯克利分校教英語，同時完成碩士學習。她說：“運營韋氏詞典的推特時，我能感受到教學的一切樂趣，還不用判分。”

Educating the public has taken on new meaning in the current political climate.The fact that Naturale does so with subtle snark makes Merriam-Webster's posts all the more engaging.The account followed up the definition of “fact” days later with another pertinent response to Conway's “alternative facts” statement.
在當前的政治環(huán)境下，教育公眾已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了新的意義。Naturale找的微妙的小麻煩，讓韋氏詞典的推文更受歡迎。在發(fā)布了“事實”的定義幾天后，該賬號又一次對康威的“另類事實”的言論做出回應。



Other posts require little explanation to get the message across.
其他的推文也淺顯易懂。



What's next for Naturale, and the Merriam-Webster Twitter account, after a rise to subtweeting fame?
因為Subtweet火了一把之后，Naturale和韋氏詞典推特賬戶下一步有什么打算呢？

“The more you learn about language, the more obvious it is that English is constantly changingand that even the rules you really should follow don't make a lot of sense,” Naturale says.“Those complexities make English more interesting, not less.We want to use Twitter to show people how interesting English really is.”
Naturale表示：“當你學語言學得越多，你就會越明顯地感受到英語是在不斷變化的，那些奉為金科玉律的規(guī)則對你來說也沒什么意義了。英語的復雜之處使其更加有趣，而不是相反。我們想要用推特向人們展示英語實際上有多有趣。”

If pointing out these complexities means exposing holes in statements made by politicians, so be it.
如果說，指出英語的復雜之處意思就是揭露政客們言語中的漏洞，那么繼續(xù)吧。