【正文】 rmations”等復(fù)數(shù)形式曾被認為是正確的，賽繆爾?約翰遜(Samuel Johnson)就曾經(jīng)這么用過。Those who insist on standard English grammar remain in a powerful position. Scientists and academics who want their work published in international journals have to adhere to the grammatical rules followed by the native Englishspeaking elites.那些堅持標準英語語法的人仍處于強大地位?？茖W(xué)家和學(xué)術(shù)人員如果想要國際刊物上發(fā)表文章，就必須堅持英語母語精英人士遵循的語法規(guī)則。But spoken English is another matter. Why should nonnative speakers bother with what native speakers regard as correct? Their main aim, after all, is to be understood by one another. As Mr Graddol says, in most cases there is no native speaker present.但英語口語就完全不同了。非英語母語人士為什么要在意英語母語人士的看法呢？畢竟，他們的主要目的就是了解彼此的意思。正如葛拉多爾所說，在大多數(shù)場合，根本就沒有英語母語人士在場。Prof Seidlhofer says that the English spoken by nonnative speakers “is a natural language, and natural languages are difficult to control by ‘legislation39。.賽德爾霍弗教授表示，非母語人士講的英語“是一種自然語言，而自然語言難以通過‘立法39。進行控制”。“I think rather than a new international standard, what we are looking at is the emergence of a new ‘international attitude39。, the recognition and awareness that in many international contexts interlocutors do not need to speak like native speakers, to pare themselves to them and thus always end up ‘less good39。 – a new international assertiveness, so to speak.”“我認為，與其說我們看到的是一個新的國際標準，不如說是一種新的‘國際態(tài)度39。的誕生，人們意識到并承認，在許多國際場合，對話者不需要像母語人士一樣講話，也不需要去和他們比較，進而總是感覺‘遜人一籌39?！@可以說是一種新的國際自信?！盬hen native speakers work in an international organisation, some report their language changing. Mr Crystal has written: “On several occasions, I have encountered Englishasafirstlanguage politicians, diplomats and civil servants working in Brussels menting on how they have felt their own English being pulled in the direction of these foreign language patterns . . . These people are not ‘talking down39。 to their colleagues or consciously adopting simpler expressions, for the English of their interlocutors may be as fluent as their own. It is a natural process of acmodation, which in due course could lead to new standardised forms.”當母語人士在國際組織中工作時，有些人表示，他們的語言在變化。克里斯特爾寫到：“有幾次，我遇到一些在布魯塞爾工作、以英語為母語的政治家、外交官和公務(wù)員，他們都提到如何感覺自己的英語被引向了這些外國語言模式的方向……這些人不是在‘貶低39。自己的同事，也不是在有意識地采用更簡單的表達方式，因為對話者的英語可能和他們一樣流利。這是一個互相遷就的自然過程，經(jīng)過適當?shù)臅r間，就會形成新的標準形式?！盤erhaps written English will eventually make these acmodations too. Today, having an article published in the Harvard Business Review or the British Medical Journal represents a substantial professional acplishment for a business academic from China or a medical researcher from Thailand. But it is possible to imagine a time when a panAsian journal, for example, bees equally, or more, prestigious and imposes its own “Globish” grammatical standards on writers – its editors changing “the patient feels” to “the patient feel”.也許書面英語最終也會進行這種調(diào)節(jié)。目前，對于來自中國的商科學(xué)術(shù)人士或是來自泰國的醫(yī)學(xué)研究員，在《哈佛商業(yè)評論》(Harvard Business Review)或《英國醫(yī)學(xué)期刊》(British Medical Journal)上發(fā)表文章是一項重大專業(yè)成就。但我們可以想象，也許有一天，一個泛亞洲刊物會具有同樣或是更高的聲望，并要求作者采用自己的“國際英語(Globish)”語法標準——它的編輯將“the patient feels” 改成“the patient feel”。Native English speakers may wince but are an evershrinking minority.英語母語人士也許會厭煩這種情況，但這些人是少數(shù)，而且數(shù)量在不斷減少。