"Professor and Madman"
Film interpretation is diverse, and because of its multimedia characteristics, it must contain more information and knowledge than literature.
There are only two clues that the movie shows. One of them is the story of Dr. William Chester Miner, a madman. As a military doctor, he once burned marks on the faces of prisoners of war on the battlefield. The anger and hatred of the prisoners at the time were deeply imprinted. His mind. He is a kind person, so he felt fear, and this fear even forced him into a split personality. He always felt that the prisoner of war was looking for him to seek revenge, so one day, feeling that the enemy was approaching, he took out his gun and chased him, only to accidentally kill an innocent poor. Although the court did not sentence him, he was sent to a mental hospital. In order to repent, he has been working hard to make up for his faults and used his pension to help the victim raise his children. In the end, he was forgiven by the other's wife, but because of his feelings for the victim's wife, he felt guilty and even did not hesitate. Self-inflicted, and took the initiative to accept those backward and cruel mental treatment. The other is how James AH Murray, chairman of the Linguistic Society, a self-taught linguist, a person whose life is to study language, how to rely on his own wisdom and diligence, with the help of Dr. Miner, contribute to the British "Oxford English" Great contribution to the compilation of the Dictionary. The intersection of the two lines lies in how Miner helped Murray write a dictionary, and then how Murray helped Miner gain freedom.
Although a large amount of pen and ink in the movie shows Miner's self-salvation, it shows extremely noble character, as well as the contradictions and conflicts of human nature. But such content and quality are not new, especially for Chinese people. Therefore, I pay more attention to the power of language presented in the film.
The difficulty and significance of compiling a dictionary
First of all, we may feel that it is nothing to compile a set of dictionaries, but in fact it is a lot of work and will encounter many unimaginable problems. The significance of compiling a dictionary is extremely far-reaching. Regarding these two points, the film can fully understand the words of the representative of Oxford University Press who hired Murray as the chairman of the Linguistic Society and presided over the work of dictionary compilation:
We representatives of Oxford University Press have been writing this dictionary for the past 20 years. Despite the best efforts of the entire academic community, including me, of course, we have not made any progress. Please forgive me, it’s wrong to say that. We are actually regressing. The development of language is much faster than our progress. This great language has extended to all parts of the world. It has revealed its weapons and sharpened her. Bayonet, proclaiming to us that it will never be tamed, we dislike the scope, pattern, and meaning of the vocabulary, and all our achievements will be defeated in front of it. We are now behind bars, at this moment, these efforts have failed.
Obviously, there are two reasons.
The first is the rapid development of language. As for the specific development, there will be more specific expressions later, here I will extract them (this language has reached its peak, and excessive refinement will only make it go downhill and solve this permanently. The problem is our responsibility. If you make a mistake and cannot modify it, who has the right to decide whether you can modify the dictionary? Neither you, Max, or me. All words are persuasive in the language. Ancient or emerging words, outdated words or commonly used words, foreign words or local words, this book must record in detail the nuances of each word, the misunderstanding of each etymology and the explanatory quotes that may be used by each English writer Either write it in full or not write it. That would mean reading all the materials and quoting all the vocabulary that has been used and quoted in history. This project is too huge. But the significance is extraordinary and impossible.) It is also accompanied With the expansion of colonies and the influence of powerful ideological, economic, technological, and military capabilities, English has become an "Esperanto" and a rapidly developing "dynamic language". It's as if we have entered 5G in communications today, and we have to add the word "5G" for a long time, and then enter the quantum Internet in the future, then we have to add the word "quantum Internet". Our current Chinese dictionary dictionary already has a large amount of foundation, so we can adapt it by updating it accordingly every year. What's more, with the backward communication methods, and backward collection tools and word processing methods, it was not so convenient, and everything was difficult to get started. There was no way to do it with just one organization and a dozen linguists.
The second is the context and source of English. It is quite difficult to clarify the context. Why should we clarify the context and source of English? English is actually a kind of "vulgar" and "sordid" language in Europe. It is not old enough, not exemplary enough, nor elegant enough. However, English has become the mainstream in Europe, so it is eager to use many English writers in the past to rectify the name of English. And it must be directly linked to the source of English, the elegant and classic Latin and other "Old English", just as we find our famous ancestors through "genealogy", to link with other famous families, and lay the historical and cultural foundation for our status. The same (as in the film, in order to test Murray, Oxford side proposed a test, I think of a word: clever. Do you know its definition and its source? Murray replied: Okay, let me try it, clever, adjective , Which means agile, agile, and dexterous. It may be derived from the word Klover in northern Germany or the word Klever in the central part of the Netherlands, which means active and smart.). The reason why Oxford Press found Murray is because although Murray has no formal education, he is very talented in language, proficient in multiple languages, and loves language research (human beings are always particularly enthusiastic about what they are good at). According to Murray (I am proficient in Latin and Greek, besides, I am also familiar with romantic languages, Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan, for Portuguese, Vadu Wa, Provençal and other dialects are also somewhat familiar. In the Germanic subregion, I am familiar with German, Dutch, Danish and Flemish. I specialize in Old English and Mississian German. I have also prepared some to use these Language published works. I also have a good understanding of Russian, I have enough knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac, can read "Old Testament" and ancient narrative "Bible", I also understand some Aramaic and Arabic, as well as the exquisite Phoenician language), obviously he is equivalent to a Chinese, not only proficient in various Chinese dialects, but also proficient in ancient Chinese, even for the ancient languages of the eastern countries that border with China, such as Sanskrit Also understand. Such a person is needed to write words.
Of course, the people at Oxford Press found Murray not only because of his language ability, but more importantly because of his extraordinary creativity. He thought of brainstorming, and adopted the strategy of "people's war" (this matter may take a hundred lifetimes if one person does it, and one hundred people can do it in this life. In any English-speaking place, in Every bookstore or school, workplace or home. We ask them to read the material of the word we are looking for, and then ask them to write down the word they find on a slip of paper, and also write down what the word is used to describe in the literature. Quoting the content, and then sending their notes to us. It’s a legion, covering the entire vast language empire, spreading a large net across the entire British literary world, listing all the content in their own language, one by commoners The dictionary compiled, it is still edited by us scholars). So, this is the idea of Wikipedia and Baidu Baike. The problem is that there was no such advanced network and word processing methods as modern. Besides, the interest of ordinary people is not great enough. So in reality, Murray's work process is still slow. Fortunately, Miner helped. Miner was detained in a mental hospital, bored, and finally found a chance to use his light and heat, and became a good helper for Murray, and he proposed a set of methods: I invented a trick, a dictionary of dictionaries. , Through this you can collect words and add citations. The film did not specifically show this method, but according to my understanding (Miner and the director of the mental hospital in the film requested "a large number of books", and he strictly stacked small pieces of paper on the ground), I think Miner The method is to "reverse" the operation, find keywords from the main classics (should be in accordance with the historical age of the classics), and then arrange them in alphabetical order. It's like compiling the "Ancient Chinese Dictionary", then I find out the corresponding "ren" and analyze the subtle differences in meaning in accordance with "The Analects", "Mencius", "Chunqiu Fanlu", "Four Books, Chapters and Annotations", and "Zhuanxilu". The development of the meaning of the word "benevolence" can be found. This is naturally easier than if I had to write "benevolence", and then find out the benevolence in the classics, and then analyze it, without repeating reading "The Analects" and other books. All the words and phrases can be sorted out in one reading. Of course, the reality is still difficult or beyond imagination, or the phrase "everything is difficult at the beginning". Because with a few people "Hao Shou Qiao Jing", there is no way to complete it. Therefore, at the end of the film, Murray will only write to the dictionary beginning with the letter "T" until his death. The first edition of the "Oxford English Dictionary" has 12 volumes, a collection of 414,825 words and 1 million words in the whole book. It was completed on January 1, 1928. It has been 70 years since the first conception and compilation. year. Today this is a small dictionary. But the difficulty can be imagined.
As for the meaning of compiling a dictionary, it is obvious that it is political influence that determines language influence, and in turn, language development supports political influence. If Britain can firmly nail English into the languages of various countries, squeeze language space, and even become the official language of each country, then English, British culture, British thought, and even British politics will firmly rule the world. So the meaning of "Oxford English Dictionary" lies in this. For this, Murray is also very clear (My original intention of doing this was to create history, to establish an order for the word world, to make them more unified, easier to accept, and more useful! I swear for this goal, I will not Will make any concessions, especially now, my determination is firmer than ever). Therefore, Murray's work was not only known to Churchill, but was also knighted by the king on June 26, 1908. In the same way, if the whole world speaks Mandarin, it means that China has truly become the language of the world, and it has truly demonstrated China's influence.
The concrete power of language
The previous content can help us understand the macroscopic power of language. Now we use movies to explore the micro and concrete power.
In order to save Miner, Murray went to Churchill, but unfortunately, it was not the timing: a group of armed Latvians gathered in a building on Sydney Street, the Royal Guard surrounded the building, and the situation escalated into a siege. The situation is critical, so he is not in a good mood now. Waiting here, I'm very sorry, he doesn't have time to see it, it's out of season.
Should have retreated quietly, unable to give up. But Murray found Miner's help to him and knew Miner's value, so he bit his head and turned to Churchill, facing the battered Churchill, shouting: Sir, sir, Mr. Churchill, please, forgive my recklessness. I don’t know you, sir, and I don’t know what kind of person you are, but your busy office makes me believe that you are the person I want. Your decision affects every life in this country, and I stand in front of you for one of them, a complicated person who suffers from pain and sorrow. Despite this, it is also a life and therefore worthy of being respected. If you believe, I hope you can believe that everyone deserves an opportunity, please give me this opportunity and let me explain my purpose here. Please, sir.
Obviously, Murray's words are based on sincerity on the one hand, and benefit from his language ability on the other hand. His words implied "the way of built-in contradictions", a way that people cannot refute. Simply saying "you are a person for the people, then you should not give up any people" logic, so that Churchill can only find time to solve his problems.
We all understand Miner's problem, and we all think he should be pardoned. The problem is that what the judge previously sentenced was "You will be safely held in Broadmoor Hospital due to a permanent mental disorder until the King's forgiveness." Being "permanently locked up in a mental hospital" means "life imprisonment", and the only answer is "king forgiveness." It is not difficult for the king to forgive. The difficult thing is how to get the people to accept the reasons for forgiveness, because it is difficult for the people to understand Miner’s contribution and even more difficult to understand Miner’s guilt (think about it today, we are still angry at the crime of mental patients , It is difficult to express understanding). So the wonderful thing is, Churchill's reply and solution: I will not release Dr. Miner, the Prime Minister will not agree, and the public will not tolerate it. Fortunately, your dictionary provides us with a way to cover up all the unpleasantness. What I can do is to deport Dr. Miner. I think he has family in Connecticut. I will inform the committee that he will be released and sent back to the country. The unwelcome foreigners will let the United States manage her people. That's how the matter is resolved, Dr. Murray. Go back to work, this country still needs you. In other words, "dictionaries" give people a way of thinking, and words give people a way. To put it bluntly, it is to play word games and find a wording that everyone can accept: such a bastard American, drive him out, and return it to the Americans to deal with it.
Just as Chu Yin mentioned in his speech "The Wisdom of Tongues and Teeth", a group of Taiwanese who used Kenya as a base to organize telecommunications fraud. In this way, you can escape the government's pursuit. So a diplomat tracked them, and then found the illegality of their entry (it must be a violation of local laws), and asked the Kenyan side to repatriate them, because Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, so They were sent directly to Beijing for trial. This is a strategy on the surface, but in essence it is the wisdom of language. Therefore, we will say that language is thinking! 19.5.4
View more about The Professor and the Madman reviews
