The Risk of Being Labelled a Covidiot

“新冠白痴”标签带来的风险

2020-05-29 04:00 GALA

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28 May 2020 Lockdown, social distancing, shutdown, death rate, pandemic, patient zero, covidiot and many more. Corona is a worldwide crisis event and the word creations and words that shape this time are almost all negative ones – like the above mentioned examples. This shows quite impressively how quickly a language can integrate new incidents into its vocabulary and grammar. But apart from the pure description and classification of something new, language can also be a powerful instrument to influence our thoughts and attitudes and thereby exploit or direct them politically. Covidiot: All opinions beyond the politically defined mainstream An impressive example, which in a very short time has spread around the world, is the word covidiot. A neologism made up of the two nouns covid-19 and idiot. The linguistic term used for this type of word-building is contamination or portmanteau word (other examples include brexit, smog, brunch, Oxbridge, motel). Two words are blended into one to form a new word in order to achieve a deliberate effect. Here, two already negatively connotated words (covid = disease + idiot = idiocy, stupidity) become a powerful ally. Covidiot was originally used to denote people who ignore public health advice, such as social distancing or engage in panic-buying. In the meantime, however, its meaning has expanded. Now it is also being used to discredit people and even scientists who do not believe that all the measures implemented by most governments, such as social shutdown or the compulsory wearing of masks, are appropriate or even necessary. The term is now being used to discredit those other opinions and people who hold these views and to portray them as "sick" and "idiotic". Controversial discussions, a scientific and interdisciplinary discourse, and possibly a compromise solution is excluded and a debate does not take place. Covidiot has thus mutated into a politically motivated ideologically coined term to denigrate opponents. The word creates negative associations and our brain can hardly escape them. It is no surprise then that authoritarian regimes always were and still are afraid of the power of language, the power of poems, songs or independent journalism and aimed to silence them. They tried to turn this effect into an advantage of their own by trying to influence people through language and through language unconsciously direct thoughts. George Orwell has shown this aptly in his dystopia 1984 using newspeak.
2020年5月28日 封锁、社交距离、关闭、死亡率、大流行、零号病人、新冠白痴 ……新冠肺炎疫情肆虐全球,已成为世界性危机。如上面的例子所示,此次危机催生的新词汇几乎都为贬义。 这表明语言能以极快的速度将新事件整合到自己的词汇和语法。 但除了能够对新事物进行纯粹的描述和分类之外,语言还是一种强有力的工具,可以影响人们的思想和态度,从而对其进行政治利用或指导。 新冠白痴:超越政治主流的观点 “新冠白痴”这个词就是一个很明显的例子,该词由“新冠肺炎”和“白痴”这两个名词组成,一经产生就迅速传遍全球。 这类构词在语言学中被称为“混合词”(如“脱欧”、“烟雾”、“早午餐”、“牛剑”、“汽车旅馆”),即把两个词混合形成一个新词,以达到特殊效果。 在这里,两个有负面内涵的词(新冠肺炎疾病+愚蠢白痴)组合在一起成为一个强有力的新词。 “新冠白痴”最初用来指那些不遵守公共健康措施的人,比如不保持社交距离或参与恐慌性抢购。 与此同时,该词的含义也在扩大。 现在它还用于抹黑某些人甚至是某些科学家,这些人认为大多数政府采取的措施都不恰当甚至没有必要,他们反对封锁或强制戴口罩。 人们现在用这个词来批评那些与自己相左的观点和持有这些观点的人,将这些人描绘成“病态”和“白痴”。 这种做法将争议、基于科学和跨学科的论述甚至是折衷方案排除在外,同时也扼杀了辩论。 “新冠白痴"因此变成了一个出于政治动机和意识形态而创造的术语,用来诋毁反对者。 这个词会产生负面联想,让人难以摆脱。 因此,专制政权一直都惧怕语言的力量,惧怕诗歌、歌曲或独立新闻业的力量,并力图予以压制,这也就不足为奇了。 他们试图通过语言影响大众,通过语言潜移默化地引导思想,为己所用。 乔治·奥威尔在他的反乌托邦小说《1984》中用”官话“恰当地表现了这一点。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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