FOR a man untroubled by the need for linguistic purity, President Bush surpassed even himself yesterday as he sought to portray President Saddam Hussein as a scheming and evasive dictator.
 | | U.S. President George W. Bush speaks to members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America on Neville Island in Pittsburgh on September 2, 2002. |
Declaring that Saddam had "crawfished" out of previous agreements with the United Nations, Mr Bush accused him of "stiffing the world". In doing so, Mr Bush appeared to have invented a word. The verb "to crawfish" is unknown even to slang dictionaries, although it must derive from the crawfish, or crayfish, a reshwater crustacean. According to linguistics experts, such evocative use of the word as a verb has grown in recent years in the US to describe someone who backs out of a position. Asked about the President's use of the word, Ari Fleischer, his spokesman, referred to broken Iraqi commitments to disarm, adding: "This is what Saddam Hussein has tried his best to slither out of, as the President put it, 'to crawfish out of'." Mr Bush went on to say that he would use an address to the United Nations General Assembly next week "to call upon the world to recognise that he is stiffing the world". In this context, the President meant cheating or duping the world. An American who has been short-changed would complain in the vernacular of being "stiffed". But it may be wise for Mr Bush to rethink his choice of words before he addresses the United Nations in New York on September 12. Apart from threatening to plunge the simultaneous translators into meltdown, such language feeds the image overseas of Mr Bush as a hopelessly inarticulate, trigger-happy cowboy, one that Tony Blair was at pains to say this week he regards as a parody. But it is not the first time that Mr Bush has raised eyebrows with his homespun choice of words to articulate pivotal moments in his presidency. In the days after September 11, Mr Bush referred to the 19 hijackers as "those folks". When talking of al-Qaeda, he promised to "smoke 'em out". And in his most famous lapse into folksy rhetoric, he demanded Osama bin Laden "dead or alive".
(Agencies) | 作為一個已經不需要為說一口純正英語而刻意花工夫的美國人，布什總統似乎總能"語驚四座"。昨天，當他把薩達姆·侯賽因形容成一個詭計多端、奸詐狡猾的獨裁者時，又一次產生了這樣的效果。 布什總統在指責薩達姆單方面破壞與聯合國的協議是"退出協議"的行為時，不但把"龍蝦"一詞名詞動詞用作，還將形容詞"僵化的"用作動詞，稱薩達姆"欺騙了全世界。" 看起來這個詞應該是總統獨家創造的。因為即便是在俚語詞典中，也看不到把"龍蝦"作動詞的用法。但可以肯定的是，這種用法跟那淡水殼類動物多少有點淵源。 據語言學專家介紹，把"龍蝦"當成動詞用的現象近兩年來在美國民間漸漸多了起來，主要是用來形容人們中途撒手退出某項活動。  總統發言人阿里·弗萊舍解釋說，布什總統的言下之意是指責伊拉克單方面退出了解除武器的承諾，"薩達姆總想在這件事上開溜，也就是總統先生所說的'龍蝦'"。
總統似乎覺得這樣的形容還不夠生動，他還打算在下周的聯合國大會上"號召各國看清薩達姆'僵化全世界'的真面目。" 這里頭又有典故了。布什的意思是薩達姆欺騙了全世界。在美國土話中，常把被人愚弄形容成"僵化了。" 看來，總統先生明智的做法是在9月12日聯合國大會之前，再斟酌一下他的演講辭，免得貽笑大方。 這樣的措辭不僅可能使現場的同聲傳譯人員徹徹底底的崩潰；還可能替布什總統在全球樹立表達低能、好逞口舌之快的牛仔形象。托尼·布萊爾本周就已經對此作了一番評價，稱之為"極為拙劣的模仿"。 而這樣的"語驚四座"早就不是第一次了。布什總統經常在某些重要場合讓聽眾為他笨拙的措辭大跌眼鏡。"9·11"之后不久，他把9位劫機犯稱為"那群伙計"，還發誓要把本·拉登"從山洞里面熏出來。" 而他最不應該的一次，是在大庭廣眾之下通緝拉登的時候，還不忘惡狠狠地加上一句，"活要見人，死要見尸!”
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2002-09-09 01:00
