《经济学人》：正确的废话有哪些妙用？

原文标题：
Johnson
More is more
Redundancy can be useful in writing and speech. Here’s when, why and how
约翰逊
多就是好
冗余在写作和口语中有用，以下是何时、为什么以及如何使用冗余
“Omit needless words!” But not all of them
“省略不必要的词语！” 但不是省略所有

[Paragraph 1]
“PLEASE RETURN your tray tables to their full upright and locked position.” “Remember to take all of your personal belongings with you when you leave the train.”
“请将您的托盘置于完全竖直的位置并固定好。”“下火车时，请记得带走您所有的个人物品。”

Something about writing announcements for public transport seems to bring out the wordiness in people.
公交通告的撰写似乎总是让人觉得啰嗦。

These instructions can be shortened to “Please put your trays up” and “Please take your things.”
这些指示可以简化为“请收好托盘”，“请带走您的物品”。

[Paragraph 2]
Redundancy is widely seen as a stylistic sin.
冗余通常被视为是文体上的病句。

“Omit needless words” is perhaps the least redundant statement of this view, made famous by “The Elements of Style”, a bestselling usage manual published in 1959.
这种观点最简洁的表述可能是“省略不必要的词语”，这一观点因1959年出版的畅销手册《英文写作要素》而闻名。

In it, E.B. White, an essayist and novelist, attributed the dictum to his university English teacher, William Strunk.
在书中，随笔家和小说家E.B.怀特将这句格言归功于他的大学英语老师威廉·斯特朗克。

In the classroom, Strunk “omitted so many needless words” that he was often “left with nothing more to say, yet with time to fill”.
在课堂上，斯特朗克“省略了许多不必要的词语”，以至于他常常“无话可说，但上课时间要上满”。

So Strunk resorted to saying everything three times: “Omit needless words! Omit needless words! Omit needless words!”
因此，斯特朗克重复说三遍：“省略不必要的词语！省略不必要的词语！省略不必要的词语！”

[Paragraph 3]
On reflection, though, did he really need to say that three times himself? If he had already said everything that was required, he could have let the class out early rather than repeating his call for concision.
但仔细想想，他是否真的需要重复三遍？如果他已经说了必要的话，他其实可以让班级提前下课，而不是一再呼吁简洁。

That he did so suggests there may be more value in redundancy than meets the eye. Language scholars, indeed, think it fulfils several functions.
他这样做表明，冗余可能有更多的价值。实际上，语言学者认为它具有几个功能。

[Paragraph 4]
One, hinted at by Strunk’s repetition, is learnability. Repetition, after all, is reinforcement.
根据斯特朗克的重复，冗余的第一个功能是易学。毕竟，重复就是强化。

Languages that include the same piece of grammatical information in more than one way are probably more easily acquired by children, or indeed adults.
用多种方式表达相同的语法信息，可能更容易被儿童或成年人掌握。

For example, the -ed ending on the verb gives no new information in “Yesterday, he walked”, because “yesterday” already situates the event in the past.
例如，动词的-ed结尾在“Yesterday, he walked（昨天，他走路了）”句子中没有提供新信息，因为“昨天”已经说明了事件发生在过去。

Many languages—Mandarin, for example—do not require such endings. In those, such as English, which do, the doubling up of signals may have developed to make them easier to learn.
许多语言不需要这样的结尾（如汉语）。在需要-ed结尾的语言中（如英语），重复信号使语言更容易学习。

[Paragraph 5]
Another benefit of redundancy can be seen on those trains and planes.
冗余的另一个功能是用在火车和飞机上。

These are noisy and distracting places where a brusque “Please take your things” may not be heard by all passengers.
这些地方很嘈杂，人很容易分心，一句简短的“请带走您的物品”可能不会被所有乘客听到。

Redundancy makes a signal robust. Here redundancy is a feature not a flaw.
冗余可以更好地传递信息。这些情况下，冗余是一种特征而不是缺陷。

[Paragraph 6]
A recent study of Dutch and English confirmed this is true of human languages, too.
最近对荷兰语和英语的一项研究证实，人类语言也符合这个规律。

It looked at how both languages handle sentences like “She gave the book to him”: ie, those with both a direct object, “the book”, and an indirect one, “him”.
它研究了这两种语言如何处理“She gave the book to him”这样的句子，即既有直接宾语“the book”，也有间接宾语“him”。

Strictly, either the form of the pronouns or the word order could distinguish giver from recipient, but most such sentences in English and Dutch offer both.
严格地说，代词的形式或词序都可以区分赠与者和受赠者，但英语和荷兰语中的大多数这样的句子都提供了两种方式。

[Paragraph 7]
Languages may even adapt to maintain an optimal level of redundancy.
语言甚至可能会适应和维持最佳的冗余水平。

The grammar of English responded by making word order, which had once been fluid, more rigid.
英语语法反应了原本灵活的词序变得更为固定。

And English still employs other features—such as the use of the preposition “to”, or the objective-case forms “him” and “her”—just in case.
并且英语仍然使用其他特征，例如介词“to”或宾格形式的“him”和“her”，以防万一。

[Paragraph 8]
Another possible use of redundancy is simply to make listening or reading less taxing.
冗余的另一个潜在功能是使听和读变得更轻松。

If every possible word that can be removed is removed, so that every remaining one is absolutely crucial, listening and reading become stressful. You cannot let your mind wander for even a moment.
如果所有可以省略的单词都被删去了，那么剩下的每一个单词都变得至关重要，这会让听和读变得紧张。你不能有片刻的放松。

Such prose is almost too dense with information; even a short passage of this kind would be demanding to read. Sometimes a little room to breathe is no bad thing.
这样的文体信息量过度密集；即使是读这样的一小段文字也很费劲。有时稍微给读者一些喘息的空间并不是什么坏事。

[Paragraph 9]
Just a little, that is. The advice to keep it trim is still good counsel.
但是，只要稍微给些空间即可。保持简明扼要仍然是明智之举。

Blaise Pascal, a French author of the 17th century, once apologised for a long letter by saying: “I have not had time to make it shorter.”
17世纪法国作家布莱兹·帕斯卡曾因写了一封长信而道歉，他说：“我没有时间把它写短点。”

Keeping things tight can be hard work for the writer, but it saves time for the reader, at least up to a point.
对作者来说，保持内容精简可能很费力，但对读者来说，在某种程度上可以节省时间。

Make your prose as lean as necessary to keep your reader reading—but not more.
把你的散文简化到可以让你的读者持续读下去的程度即可，但不要过度简化。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量864左右，有删减）
原文出自：2023年3月18日《The Economist》Culture版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
《英文写作的要素》“The Elements of Style”是一本英语写作指南书，由William Strunk Jr.和E.B. White合著，第一版出版于1959年。这本书在许多大学和学校的写作课程中被广泛使用，也是英语写作领域最受欢迎和广泛使用的书之一。它提供了有用的写作技巧和规则，包括如何避免不必要的单词、使用主动语态、避免过度修饰等等。该书已经出版了多个版本，并成为英语写作领域的经典著作之一。

【重点句子】（3 个）
One, hinted at by Strunk’s repetition, is learnability. Repetition, after all, is reinforcement.
根据斯特朗克的重复，冗余的第一个功能是易学。毕竟，重复就是强化。

Redundancy makes a signal robust. Here redundancy is a feature not a flaw.
冗余可以更好地传递信息。这些情况下，冗余是一种特征而不是缺陷。

Another possible use of redundancy is simply to make listening or reading less taxing.
冗余的另一个潜在功能是使听和读变得更轻松。