“可燃冰”小考

Origin of Chinese Term for Flammable Ice

2017年5月18日,国土资源部宣布我国海域天然气水合物试采成功,国内众多媒体对此进行密集跟踪报道。报道中多采用天然气水合物的俗称"可燃冰"。这一词语将"冰""火"不容的两个矛盾体组合在一起,引起人们的广泛关注,成为热搜词。虽然它是一个语义自身矛盾的词语,但究其本质却是有科学依据的。对"可燃冰"一词的历史渊源与传播进行考证;分析了《现代汉语词典》对其释义的局限性,并对之进行完善,同时建议使用flammable ice或combustible ice作为其英文术语。

In May 18,2017 the Ministry of Land and Resources of China announced that the production of natural gas hydrates in the South China Sea was successful,and many domestic media conducted followup reports of this achievement,in which the colloquial name,i.e."flammable ice"was used.The word "flammable"means fire.The two words of"ice"and"fire"are two extremes which resemble two contrasting worlds,but"flammable ice"sounds like to blend ice and fire together into a substance,arousing much more attention.Although it is a type of semantic paradox,it has a scientific basis.This study investigated the origin and spread of"flammable ice"with lots of documents,and found that its meaning explained in Modern Chinese Dictionary was somewhat equivocal,then gave a revised meaning and recommended the use of"flammable ice"or"combustible ice"as its English terms for Chinese documents.