A still from the movie "People to Middle Age" (1982). The film directors Wang Qimin and Sun Yu, screenwriter Chen Rong, starring Pan Hong, Da Shichang, Ren Xiuyan, etc.
Friends got together, and during the banquet, they talked about some popular dramas that "satirize and persuade a hundred" or just show off the "three customs" and cannot talk about "sarcasm" and "persuasion", some people jokingly called it "a treasure book of middle-class degeneration", and was kindly reminded by a fashionable lady on the spot: "Don't become a nine-pound old lady!" So the hall burst into laughter, and the topic quickly switched, staggering, and laughing like a ritual.
But I couldn't help but think about it. The reason for Gai's laughter is not that one of the guests in the audience is known as a "nine-pound old lady", but because the speaker claims to be fashionable, but he spits out a very outdated word in a serious manner, which is somewhat humorous. "Nine-catty old lady" is a character in Lu Xun's ** "Storm", which has been popular with Ah Q, Xianglin's sister-in-law, Runtu, fake foreign devils, and Kong Yiji, and now it is quite old, even if it is a little more famous than the "Marxist-Leninist old lady" in Chen Rong's "People to Middle Age", it is much inferior to the "national scolding" that has also gone to Lu Xun's pen and kept fresh forever. Some of the "common names" (how many words) in modern literature have quietly retreated, mainly because a large number of new words have emerged in the past decade or two, covering the old words that were once popular.
New words have emerged to represent social progress. For example, what to "carry forward" has been used since childhood, and once upon a time it has been replaced by "promoting". With one heart, salty and "carry forward" will be overshadowed. On some occasions, the use of "carry forward" is not solemn enough. People who have come from the red era are familiar with the word "brilliance", and at that time they only felt that it was extremely extreme, and there was no way to add more, but it was expected that there was "brilliance" again, and it was a hundred feet ahead, and it went further. If the grand scene is not described and set off by "recreating brilliance" and "creating brilliance together", there is nothing missing. For a long period of time, "feelings" used alone, is likely to become a "sensitive word". In literature, feelings are not written, to what extent, who is the subject, and everything is leisurely, but this is great, and now it is not replaced by the infinite "feelings"? With the microphone in hand, if you give up "feelings", you will have "feelings", I am afraid that you will not be able to pass. There are also "cultural consciousness" replaced by "humanistic spirit", "living and working in peace and contentment" replaced by "poetic dwelling", "outstanding figures" replaced by "a beautiful scenery", and the "writing" of computers instead of brushes, pencils, ballpoint pens, and fountain pens is more said to be "writing". "Unforgettable moments" have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and suddenly upgraded to a "visual feast" and even a "feast of audio-visual gluttony". "Performance" has just broken through the blockade of "reproduction", and it is soon absorbed by the overwhelming "interpretation". The "interpretation" of everything in the entertainment industry is almost equivalent to the "engagement" of the nature of all-purpose glue. "Presentation" is more sublimated than "appearance", but there is still a "great offering" yellow finch behind. The "grand launch" is grand enough, and there is a "grand debut" and "staged with love". Flowers, fire, everything is superlative! Many people walking together have been called "incidents" and "turmoil", and even fell into the embarrassment of naming. How "brilliant" is the "four modernizations" and "well-off", over the past few decades, George Orwell's so-called "new words" have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and the speed of renewal is comparable, but the renovation of houses and roads can be comparable. To use the old words again, if it weren't for "the white-headed palace maid is here, sitting idle and talking about Xuanzong", it can only be "who loves to be romantic and high-style, and pities the times and grooming".
Language development is not only about discarding the old and drawing on the new, but also about bringing forth the new. Eschatology believes that all speech will ultimately be judged. Once a word is created, it is not discarded, but at most stored in eternity unknown to man. When the time comes, it will be activated. It is said that English is the worst, and new things have to be tailored to match new nouns, and the mass increase makes it difficult to learn, while Chinese only needs a few commonly used words to be combined slightly, and the strain is endless. There are far "science", "economy", "freedom", "democracy", "cells" and "atoms", and there are "laid-off", "waiting for work", "anti-pornography", "cracking down on illegal activities", "foreign investment", "subsistence allowance", "social security", "five ones", "computer", "blog", "Internet", "irrigation", "environmental protection", "globalization", "brain damage", "pseudo-mother" - alienation from old words and old usages, or imitation, or return, rebirth, turning stones into gold, like the new and the old, but the old can be new, unlike modern Japanese and Korean, let the "transliteration" Foreign words wantonly destroy the purity of the mother tongue.
Idioms have nothing to do with utensils, they are rooted in culture and have greater stability. Many of them have been immovable since the beginning of the "Book of Songs" and "Book of Songs", and there is no danger of abandonment (storage). "Shangshu Yugong" states that Yao has a "southern tour" in his twilight years. "Gonggong", "Donkey", "Three Miao" and "Yu" are just the "four sins". Yao died, and the people were "like mourning". Shun Xing Virtue and Politics, "Hundred Beasts Lead the Dance". "Poetry Steaming People" has "Careful", "Mingzhe Protects Himself", "Love Can't Help", "Xiaoya" has "Longevity Without Borders", and "Guan Ju" has "My Fair Lady, Good Gentleman" - it is still used today, and it is endless.
Orwell once said, "Wrestling with the misuse of language is often sentimental and quirky" (Politics and the English language). Wrestling" Yunyun is a bit exaggerated. If you let go of abuse, you won't be able to open the web of language. Many clusters of new words are nothing more than repackaging of old words. For example, aren't the nicknames of "Internet celebrities" all "sentimental and funny"? The inertia of language makes all creation obsolete beforehand. Mr. Zhang Shilu once used the Book of Songs: The Gentleman in Service as an example to illustrate that many "basic words" in the Chinese language "have been preserved for thousands of generations without changing" ("Lexical Changes in Chinese History"). Living in the moment", intoxicated by the brilliant light of words**, and doing cangjie every day probably will not admit it, but this is precisely a belief: "The basic vocabulary is basically completely preserved, and it is used as the basis of the vocabulary of the language - the basic vocabulary accumulated for thousands of years is eliminated, and it is impossible to create new basic vocabulary in a short period of time, which will paralyze the language and completely lose the possibility of mutual communication." (Stalin, Marxism and the Problem of Linguistics). What does man "speak" about language? What does language "say" about people? It's hard to tell.
Will the "nine-catty old lady", who is not a "basic word", also turn over and become popular again? If you want to bet, you may be able to win the game.
Written on July 5, 2010 and changed on September 7, 2010
This article was published in Wen Wei Po PEN on November 6, 2010
Author: Gao Yuanbao.
Text: Gao Yuanbao Editor: Qian Yutong Editor: Shu Ming.
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