The Role of English in the 21st Century
2013-10-03 15:12阅读：
Wondering whether all the
time and effort spent learning
English is worthwhile? Here are
some good reasons why it
is.
你怀疑费那么多时间和精力学英语是不是值得？本文列举充分理由说明完全值得。
The Role of English in the
21st Century
Melvyn A. Hasman
1 The global
spread of English over the
last 40 years has been
remarkable. (1)It is unparalleled
in several ways: by the
increasing number of users of
the language; by its depth
of penetration into societies;
by its range of functions.
英语在21世纪的作用
梅尔文·A·哈斯曼
在过去的40多年间，英语在全球的传播引人瞩目。这一过程在几个方面都是前所未有的：英语使用人数的增加，英语在不同社会渗透的深度，以及英语功用的广度。
2 Worldwide over
1.4 billion people live in
countries where English has
official status. One out of
five of the world's population
speaks some English. And at
present one in five --
over one billion people --
are learning English. Over 70%
of the world's scientists read
English. About 85% of the
world's mail is written is
English. And 90% of all
information in the world's
electronic retrieval systems is
stored in English. By 2010,
the number of people who
speak English as a second
or foreign language will exceed
the number of native speakers.
This trend will certainly affect
the language.
全世界有14亿多人生活在英语享有官方地位的国家。世界人口的五分之一讲英语。在目前就有五分之一的人——超过10亿人——在学英语。全世界70%以上的科学家阅读英语。全世界约有85%的邮件是用英语书写的。世界上各种电子检索系统90%的信息用英语储存。到2010年，将英语作为第二语言或外语使用的人数将超过以英语为母语的人数。这一趋势无疑会对英语产生影响。
3 English is
used for more purposes than
ever before. Vocabularies, grammatical
forms, and ways of speaking
and writing have emerged
influenced by technological and
scientific developments, economics and
management, literature and
entertainment. (2)What began some
1,500 years ago as a
crude language, originally spoken
by little known German tribes
who invaded England, now covers
the globe.
使用英语的目的比以往任何时候都多。英语的词汇，语法形式，以及说写方式演变深受科技发展、经济状况，以及管理、文学、娱乐的影响。大约1500年前，英语还只是那些入侵英格兰的鲜为人知的日尔曼部落使用的一种粗俗的语言，如今它却遍及全球。
4 When Mexican
pilots land their airplanes in
France, they and the ground
controllers use English. When
German physicists want to alert
the international scientific community
to new discoveries, they first
publish their findings in
English. When Japanese executives
conduct business with Scandinavian
businessmen, they negotiate in
English. When pop singers write
their songs, they often use
English. When demonstrators want
to alert the world to
their problems, they display
signs in English.
墨西哥飞行员在法国降落飞机时，与地面控制人员用英语通话。德国物理学家要将新发现通报国际科学界时，他们首先用英语发表他们的研究成果。日本经理与斯堪的纳维亚商人做生意时，双方用英语谈判。流行歌手写歌时常常用英语。游行示威者要引起世界关注他们的问题，就打着用英语书写的标语。
5 Three factors
continue to contribute to this
spread of English: English usage
in science, technology and
commerce; the ability to
integrate vocabulary from other
languages; and the acceptability
of various English dialects.
有三个因素继续促进着英语的传播：英语在科技、商务上的应用；英语融合其他语言词汇的能力；对各种不同的英语方言的认同。
6 In science,
English replaced German after
World War Ⅱ. (3)With this technical
and scientific dominance came
the beginning of overall
dominance by the language, first
in Europe and then globally.
在科学领域，英语在二战之后取代了德语。随着它在科技领域主导地位的确立，英语先是在欧洲，继而在全球开始取得全面的主导地位。
7 Today, the
information age has replaced the
industrial age and has
compressed time and distance.
This is transforming world
economies from industrial production
to information-based goods and
services. Ignoring geography and
borders, the information revolution
is redefining our world. In
less than 20 years, information
processing, once limited to the
printed work, has given way
to computers and the Internet.
Computer-aided communication is closing
the gap between spoken and
written English. It encourages
more informal conversational language
and a tolerance for diversity
and individual style.
今天，信息时代已经取代了工业时代，并缩短了时间和距离。这一情况正在改变世界经济使其从工业生产转向以信息为基础的产品与服务。信息革命不再受地域与国界的限制，正在重新界定我们的世界。在不到20年的时间内，过去仅限于出版物的信息处理已经让位于计算机和互联网。借助于计算机的通讯交际正在弥合英语口语与书面语之间的距离。它鼓励人们使用更多非正式的会话语言，包容多样性和个人风格。
8 English, like
many languages, uses a phonetic
alphabet and fairly basic
grammar. But most importantly,
it has a large and
extensive vocabulary, of which
about 80% is foreign. It
has borrowed and continues to
borrow words from Spanish and
French, Hebrew and Arabic,
Hindi-Urdu and Bengali, Malay
and Chinese, as well as
languages from West Africa and
Polynesia. This language characteristic
makes it unique in history.
英语像许多语言一样使用语音字母以及比较基本的语法。但最重要的是，它拥有庞大且覆盖面宽广的词汇，其中约有80%是外来词。它从西班牙语和法语、希伯来语和阿拉伯语、印地－乌尔都语和孟加拉语、马来语和汉语，以及西非和波利尼西亚等各种语言中曾经借用过并继续借用各种词汇。这一特点使得它成为历史上独一无二的语言。
9 Finally, no
English language central authority
guards the standards of the
language, therefore, many dialects
have developed: American, British,
Canadian, Indian, and Australian,
to name a few. There is
no standard pronunciation. But
within this diversity is a
unity of grammar and one
set of core vocabulary. Thus,
each country that speaks the
language can introduce aspects
of its own culture into
the usage and vocabulary.
最后一点是，由于没有英语语言中央权威机构维护英语标准，因此形成了许多方言：美国英语、英国英语、加拿大英语、印度英语和澳大利亚英语，就是众多的方言中的几种。英语没有标准的发音。但在其多样性里存在一个统一的语法和一套核心词汇。这样，每一个讲英语的国家都能将各自的文化融入英语的用法和词汇中。
10 However, the
future is unpredictable. There
has never been a language
so widely spread or spoken
by so many people as
English. So, there are no
examples to help us predict
what happens to a language
when it achieves genuine world
status.
然而，英语的未来无从预测。从来没有一种语言像英语这样为这么多人如此广泛地传播使用。因此，没有先例来帮助我们预测，当一种语言取得真正的国际性地位之后会发生什么情况。
11 The world is
in transition, and the English
language will take new forms.
The language and how it
is used will change, reflecting
new patterns of contact
with
