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本帖最后由 klwo2 于 2020-8-29 01:37 编辑
「affirmative action」是个有争议的话题，事先声明：这里只说语言，不争该政策本身的对错，爱争政策本身对错的，麻烦去Freestyle发挥～
「affirmative action」是个难词，看一下陆谷孙《英汉大词典》就知道了：
陆谷孙《英汉大词典》（第二版）：
陆谷孙《英汉大词典》（第一版）：
邪门不！两个版本的译文不一样，可见编者是深思熟虑过的。
新时代英汉大词典：
看！我早说过《新时代英汉大词典》在译文上严重依赖陆谷孙《英汉大词典》（第一版），这回验证了。
「affirmative action」在英国叫「positive discrimination」，这个一点毛病没有，大家都翻译作「积极区别对待, 积极差别待遇」什么的，再差也差不到哪儿去。
「affirmative action」这个短语难在哪儿呢，难在「affirmative」这个字不知道怎么落实。所以坊间有「肯定性行动、优惠性差别待遇、积极平权措施、平权法案、矫正歧视措施」等五花八门的译名。加上《英汉大词典》给的这几个，简直眼花缭乱。
首先，有几个译名是不行的——
《英汉大词典》（第二版）给的「wei权行动」，这个真是吓死人，「wei权」可是中国大陆2000年以后出现的新词，轻易用不得。跟「affirmative action」的内涵差得远。
《英汉大词典》（第一版）给的「赞助性行动」，也有问题：1. 「赞助」往往隐含金钱，不妥 2. 一不小心就分不清「赞助性//行动」还是「赞助//性行动」了，实在不是什么好译名
「积极平权措施、平权法案」里面的「平权」，模糊得很，妇女争取普选，也算「平权」的啊。至于「法案」，哪儿来的法案啊？
《新英汉词典》说“（鼓励雇用少数民族成员及妇女或改善他们受教育机会等的）希望行动”，这译名绝了，大概是比照「希望工程」来的——反正谁也说不清「希望」具体是什么不是嘛！
这些译名混乱，根子都是一个，就是不知道「affirmative」这个字到底是怎么回事。
翻遍了各家辞书，有N本只说「affirmative action」是什么意思，就是不肯说「affirmative action」里面的「affirmative」是什么意思。不过好在，OED说了：
affirmative action n. originally U.S. action taken to affirm an established policy; spec. active measures taken by an employer, college, etc., to provide opportunities for members of minority groups, women, or other people regarded as having suffered from discrimination. 1834 Reg. Deb. Houses of Congr. II. 785/2 He had said before, this body could not control the operations of Government; it might check affirmative action, but it could not of itself carry through any particular measure.
1895 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 34 304 But the latter right [sc. that of enjoyment of land] is in its nature indeterminate, and can be realized only by the affirmative action of the State. 1935 N.Y. Times 2 July 15/1 If..the Board shall be of the opinion that any person..has engaged or is engaging in any such unfair labor practice, then the Board shall..issue..an order requiring such person..to take such affirmative action, including reinstatement of employees with or without back pay, as will effect the policies of this Act.
OED的答案干脆明了：「affirmative action」里面的「affirmative」就是字面意思！（你看OED都直接用affirm来解释了）。「affirmative action」本义「为了维护一个既定政策而采取的措施」特指「为了（给少数民族女性等等……提供机会）而采取的积极措施」
affirmative 新牛津：
1.3
offering support, help, or encouragement
提供支持的, 提供帮助的, 鼓励性的:
the family is usually a source of encouragement from which affirmative influences come.
家庭通常是鼓励的源泉, 能给予家庭成员积极的影响。
只不过，「采取积极措施」「采取积极行动」听着怪像人民日报的官腔的，这个短语真的如此嘛？
New Yorker 有一篇 The Changing Meaning of Affirmative Action， 可以佐证：
The term was introduced to the Kennedy Administration almost sixty years ago, and its arrival was somewhat haphazard. According to Nicholas Lemann’s history of meritocracy, “The Big Test,” the man who suggested it was an African-American lawyer named Hobart Taylor, Jr. He was a Texan, and when John F. Kennedy was sworn in, in 1961, he dropped in on the inaugural ball for Texans in order to shake hands with the new Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson.
They chatted, and Johnson asked him to come by his office. When Taylor showed up, Johnson handed him a draft of what would become Executive Order 10925, setting up the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which Johnson was to chair. Taylor read the draft and said he thought it could use a little work; Johnson asked him to do a rewrite. And that is when Taylor inserted the words “affirmative action.” He liked the phrase, he later said, because of the alliteration (or the assonance).
这个短语原本是Hobart Taylor提出来的，提出来以后当时的副总统Johnson挺喜欢的，因为……呃……压韵……（affirmative 和 action 第一个音节一样）
Taylor needed a flexible phrase because Kennedy’s committee was a bureaucratic entity with a vague mandate meant to signal the Administration’s commitment to fairness in employment. Its purview, like the purview of committees dating back to the Administration of Franklin Roosevelt, was the awarding of federal contracts, and its mandate was to see that companies the federal government did business with did not discriminate on the basis of race. The committee had no real enforcement mechanism, though, so “affirmative action” was intended to communicate to firms that needed to integrate their workforce something like “Don’t just stand there. Do something.” What they were supposed to do, aside from not discriminating, was unspecified.
“Do something” is still one of the meanings of “affirmative action” today. Many firms and educational institutions have affirmative-action or diversity officers. Their job is to insure not only that hiring and promotion are handled in a color-blind manner but that good-faith efforts are made to include racial minorities (and sometimes individuals in other categories, such as women or veterans or disabled persons) in the hiring pool, and, if they are qualified, to attempt to recruit them. In this context, “affirmative” means: demonstrate that you did your best to find and promote members of underrepresented groups. You do not have to give them preferential treatment.
为什么要用这么个短语呢，因为当时那个肯尼迪的committee 并没有实际权力去强制什么，所以「你们要采取积极行动啊」「你们要动起来啊」就传达了一个意思「哎你们不要站在原地没动作啊」「我只泄漏一点线索，你们大家伙要主动积极走钢索」……
要主动，要积极，这层意思今天还在。
Since the late nineteen-sixties, however, affirmative action has also had a more proactive meaning, as the name of an effort to attain a certain number, or, as it’s called today, “critical mass,” of underrepresented groups in a business or an educational institution by, if necessary, giving applicants from those groups preference over similarly or better qualified whites. This form of affirmative action is usually branded by those who disapprove of it with the dreaded Q-word, “quota.” After 1978, when the Supreme Court declared racial quotas unconstitutional, affirmative-action programs avoided any suggestion of the Q-word. But that is essentially what affirmative action in this second sense entails. You can use terms like “targets” and “goals,” both of which are constitutionally legit, but if you have an idea of the point at which you would attain a critical mass then you have a quota.
下面这段我觉得挺好理解的，就是说后来这个东西愈演愈烈，搞出了一股「指标」的风气，这个事儿，我想很多人应该都理解：
汪曾祺
我当了一回右派，真是三生有幸。要不然我这一生就更加平淡了。
我不是1957年打成右派的，是1958年"补课"补上的，因为本系统指标不够。划右派还要有"指标"，这也有点奇怪。这指标不知是一个什么人所规定的。
所以说「affirmative action」是一个挺官僚的词儿，比较合适的注解应该是：积极行动、积极措施、主动措施、积极举措（本为官场用语，「take affirmative action」即「采取积极行动」，后来「affirmative action」独立出来，不再限于做take的宾语，而是特指对少数民族、妇女等群体在就业、教育等方面给予特别照顾的措施）
还有没有别的证据呢？有！请看SMITHSONIANMAG 发表的The Origins of the Term “Affirmative Action”
Though education is largely the focus of today’s affirmative action debate, the origin of the term is rooted with legalese in employment law, explains Shirley J. Wilcher, the executive director for the American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity. To take an "affirmative action" was to literally act affirmatively—not allowing events to run their course but rather having the government (or employers) take an active role in treating employees fairly.
在英国，「affirmative action」还有个同义的叫法是「positive action」，这就更证明了，它就是从「take positive action」变来的：
柯林斯例句：
This energy could be much better spent taking some positive action.这些精力若用于采取某些积极行动的话，可能会更值得。
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这么看来，陆谷孙《英汉大词典》（第一版）里面的「积极措施」其实是对的，只是没有说清楚内涵，翻译的时候也常常要变通 —— 毕竟中国读者看见「采取积极行动」这样的官场八股，直接当空话套话跳过了，谁会想到「积极行动」竟然能词义缩小，特指高考加分这样的措施呢？
最后补一句，《英汉大词典》（第二版）给的「wei权行动」，大概是受了Webster's Third New International Dictionary的影响：
an active effort to improve employment or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and women; also : a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons
W3 先是解释了「对少数民族、妇女等群体在就业、教育等方面给予特别照顾」，然后大概是怕这个定义有朝一日太窄了，补了一句「推动……人权、进步」什么的，被《英汉大词典》的编者看在眼里，记在心里，琢磨来琢磨去，干脆统一升华成了「wei权」！
真是吓死人喔！
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发表于 2020-8-29 01:15:57
楼主
