好英语网韦氏词典2019年度词汇：they
Merriam-Webster announced the pronoun “they” as its word of the year on Tuesday, marking the rise of the use of the venerable plural pronoun to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.
周二，韦氏词典宣布人称代词they（他们/她们）为年度词汇，这标志着越来越多人使用这个古老的复数人称代词，来指代性别认同非二元的个人。
The word of the year, the dictionary publisher said, is based on data: Searches for the definition of “they” on the publisher’s website and apps increased by 313 percent in 2019 over the previous year. Last year’s word was “justice.” In 2017, it was “feminism.”
该词典称，年度词汇是基于数据选出的：2019年，韦氏词典网站和应用程序中，they的词义搜索量比去年增加了313％。去年的年度词汇是justice（正义），2017年则是feminism（女权主义）。
The public’s interest in words is often driven by major news events, said Peter Sokolowski, an editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster. Other words that generated high year-over-year comparisons this year — “quid pro quo” and “impeachment” — are tied to political headlines.
韦氏词典总编辑彼得·索科洛夫斯基(Peter Sokolowski)说，公众对词汇的兴趣通常是由重大新闻事件驱动的。今年其他一些获得了较高搜索量的词语包括quid pro quo（交换条件）和impeachment（弹劾），这些都与政治头条新闻相关。
But a surge of searches for the meaning of a utilitarian word like “they” is less common. It is likely to reflect both curiosity and confusion about the growing use of the pronoun for nonbinary individuals.
但像they这样的实用性词语获得搜索热潮并不常见。它可能反映出人们对越来越多使用非二元人群的代词产生的好奇和困惑。
Many Americans, especially older ones, stumble over the use of “they” as a singular pronoun. “For those who haven’t kept up, the complaint is this,” Merriam-Webster wrote in an earlier blog post on the topic. “The use of they as a gender-neutral pronoun (as in, ‘Ask each of the students what they want for lunch.’) is ungrammatical because they is a plural pronoun.”
许多美国人，尤其是年长的美国人在发现人们把they用作单数人称代词时，会感到有些困惑。“对于那些没有跟上形势的人，他们会这样抱怨，”韦氏词典在一篇博客文章中写道。 “将they用作不特指性别的代词是不合语法的，因为they是复数代词。”
But for nonbinary individuals who identify as a gender other than male or female, being referred to as “he” or “she” is inaccurate. Over a third of Americans in their teens and early 20s know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns, according to a Pew Research survey conducted last fall. That is double the number of those in their 40s, and triple those in their 50s and 60s.
但是对于那些性别认同非二元的个人来说，被称为“他”或“她”是不准确的。皮尤研究中心(Pew Research)去年秋天进行的一项调查显示，超过三分之一的美国青少年和20出头的年轻人认识使用性别中立代词的人。这个数字是40岁左右的人的两倍，是50和60岁人的三倍。
Efforts to destigmatize other gender identities have sparked the disclosure of pronouns on social media profiles and email signatures. Some state and city governments have recently added an “X” option for nonbinary genders on state identification documents, which used to be limited to the options “M” and “F.” And amid efforts this year in at least six states to make the practice law, state legislators have been grappling with the singular “they,” The New York Times reported.
为其他性别认同正名的努力触发了社交媒体资料和电子邮件签名上出现的新代词。最近，一些州和市政府在身份文件中为非二元性别者添加了“X”选项，该选项以前只有“M”（男性）和“F”（女性）。此外，据《纽约时报》报道，今年至少有六个州的立法者在司法实践中努力促成单数they的使用。
Merriam-Webster added the singular “they” for a person with a nonbinary gender as a definition of the word in its dictionary, noting that the use of the singular “they” to refer to nonbinary individuals is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as on social media.
韦氏词典在其词条中为they添加了单数人称代词的定义，用来指拥有非二元性别的人，并指出在出版、编辑和社交媒体中，使用单数they来指非二元性别个人的现象越来越常见。
To illustrate, the dictionary cited a passage from a recent Times article:
为了详细说明这一点，韦氏词典引用了《纽约时报》最近的一篇文章：
On Tuesday, Merriam-Webster cited several 2019 news events to explain the curiosity that appears to have driven searches for “they.” During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Representative Pramila Jayapal noted that “they” is her child’s pronoun; the singer Sam Smith announced that their pronouns are “they” and “them”; and the American Psychological Association recommended that singular “they” be used in academic writing to refer to a person whose gender is unknown or who uses it.
周二，韦氏词典援引2019年的几则新闻来解释促使人们搜索they一词的好奇心。在众议院司法委员会的一次听证会上，议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕(Pramila Jayapal)表示，they是她孩子的代词。歌手山姆·史密斯(Sam Smith)宣布其代词是they和them。美国心理学会(American Psychological Association)建议在学术写作中使用单数形式的they来指代性别未知者，或那些自己使用they的人。
“As a word lover, what’s interesting in this story is to see that social factors play so directly into language change,” Mr. Sokolowski said. “That is something that we sort of know intuitively but we don’t often see it as clearly as we see it here.
“作为一个语言爱好者，这个事情中有趣的是我们目睹了社会因素直接影响语言的转变，”索科洛夫斯基说。“这种影响我们大概凭直觉就能知道，但很少能像在这件事中看到的那么清晰。””