从“非典”到“新冠肺炎”:科技术语技术性与人文性的意义进化论解读

Evolution from SARS to COVID-19: Technical and Humanistic Natureof Scientific Terminology from the Evolutionary Theory of Meaning

本文运用系统功能语言学的意义进化理论分析了科学家和新闻媒体指称某新型未知病毒所使用的多种术语,如SARS、TARS、PARS、CARS以及世界卫生组织官方宣布的"COVID-19"。文章指出,这些术语的产生和进化过程既表明了人类认识未知事物所经历的艰辛,又表明了语言对于人类认识的影响。系统功能语言学所强调的语言的非本源属性、语法隐喻理论以及语篇建构的对话性充分阐释了意识形态是如何渗透到科技术语之中的,因此科技术语并非纯粹客观的概念,而是技术性与人文性的融合。

Based on the evolutionary theory of meaning proposed by Halliday &Matthiessen(1999),this paper looks into the terms employed by both scientists and news media correspondents to designate the unknown virus including SARS, TARS,PARS,CARS etc.and eventually COVID-19 proclaimed by WHO.It is argued that the evolutionary process of the term COVID-19 represents on the one hand the difficulty man experiences when learning about the unknown elements as well as the impact of language system on human epistemology on the other.The second order nature of texts,the grammatical metaphor theory and the dialogic nature of discourse construction emphasized in systemic linguistics,therefore,well illustrate the ways by which scientific terms are ideologically loaded and it is safely concluded that scientific terminology is both technical and humanistic in nature.