Today (6) day, the editorial board of "Chewing Words" released the top ten language errors in 2021, and Huang Anjing, editor-in-chief of "Chewing Words", said that the annual "Top Ten Language Errors" began to be released in 2006, and it has been 16 years. The purpose of releasing the annual "Top Ten Language Errors" is to arouse people's awareness of language norms to the greatest extent and to arouse people's awareness of the reverence of their mother tongue to the greatest extent. In this way, they want to open a "social classroom" and use the "ant move" method to reduce social language errors.
Huang Anjing said that in 2021, there have been many "hot spots" in language life that have aroused widespread concern in society. For example, in the reports on the "epidemic" and "anti-epidemic", "Ningxia Yinchuan" was mistaken for "Yinchuan, Gansu", "Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province" was mistaken for "Zhangjiajie in Hubei Province", "Bayuquan" was mistaken for "Squid Circle" and so on.
There is also a misidentification and misreading on the ID card, which has also caused widespread discussion in society. It can be said that this is a number symbol that more than a billion people may recognize and misread. Some people have a citizenship number with a "X." This "X." is considered by many to be the penultimate letter "X" in the English alphabet, and some pronounce it as "chā". None of this is true. According to the national standard "Citizenship Number" (GB11643-1999), China's citizenship number is composed of 18 digits, the first 6 digits are the address code, the 7th to 14th digits are the birth date code, and the 15th to 17th digits are the sequential code (that is, in the same address area, the sequence number is set for people born on the same day of the same month of the same year, the odd number is assigned to the male, and the even number is assigned to the female). The 18th bit is the check digit, which is calculated according to a specific formula, and the result is "0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10", one of the 11 digits. Because "10" is two digits, in order to ensure that the citizenship number is 18 digits, "10" is represented by the Roman numeral "X.". It can be seen that "X." is best pronounced as shí. Reading it casually in private and informal settings may not be a big deal, but it is better to read accurately in public and formal settings.
Huang Anjing also said that the "top ten language errors" in 2021 showed the following characteristics.
First, "typos" are in a trend of proliferation, and "typos" are almost extinct, indicating that language errors have entered the "keyboard" era from the era of "handwriting". In the past era of "handwriting", typos were rampant, such as the word "risk" on the top of the word "Yue", the word "Ang" below the word "卯", the word step to add a little more to the lower right, the word "worship" to the right side of the word written as three horizontal, and so on. In today's "keyboard" input era, such errors have been greatly reduced, or even almost extinct. At present, the mistakes are mainly concentrated on other words, such as mistaking "man" for "man", "jing" for "trail", "geng" for "geng", "偾" for "spray", and so on. Use the keyboard to type, unless you "make" it yourself, generally will not type the wrong word. This should be related to the continuous improvement of the Chinese character input system.
Second, there are 5 articles involving "epidemic" and "anti-epidemic", indicating that the "epidemic" is not over, and the "anti-epidemic" is still in the critical period. The "new crown epidemic" is the biggest challenge facing mankind, and the "epidemic" and "anti-epidemic" are still the focus of attention of the world this year. Vaccination, spread and prevention and control of Delta and Olmikeron strains remain the most talked-about annual themes and topics of concern in 2021. In the construction of this year's "discourse system", "epidemic" and "anti-epidemic" still play an important role, and the focus of social attention is still concentrating on topics such as "epidemic" and "anti-epidemic". This is the reason why there are many articles involving "epidemic" and "anti-epidemic" in the "Top Ten Language Errors in 2021".
Cover of "Chewing Words"
For more than ten years, the annual "Top Ten Language Errors" selection of "Chewing Words" has basically been carried out in accordance with a relatively fixed procedure, divided into five steps:
The first is material collection. The collection of the "Top Ten Language Errors" alternative materials has undergone a "sea selection" process. There are three main sources: 1, "Chewing Words" is a publication characterized by "error correction", every day to receive hundreds of readers' manuscripts, can collect a large number of various types of error materials; 2, "Chewing Words" magazine has a publication editing quality testing center, every year to organize experts to review a large number of publications, will also accumulate a large number of error materials; 3, "Chewing Words" has established dozens of "Chewing Words Observatory" throughout the country, each station employs language observers, Purposefully collect errors in linguistic life.
The second is article collation. The editorial board of "Chewing Words" sorted out and screened the erroneous materials collected, and proposed 50 preliminary entries.
The third is expert review. The editorial department organized language experts to review and vote on the 50 primary entries one by one, forming 15 alternative entries.
The fourth is to solicit opinions. The editorial board of Chewing Words sent 15 alternative entries to professionals throughout the country for their comments.
Fifth, the final examination and approval. According to the feedback, the editorial department organized experts to do the final review of the "15 into 10" and completed the final draft of the "Top Ten Language Errors".
Huang Anjing said that their purpose has been achieved to a certain extent, and after the release of the "Top Ten Language Errors" every year, the society pays wide attention to it, which is actually a proof. The specific error correction effect is also very obvious. For example, "Shenzhou No. 6" was once listed in the "Top Ten Language Errors", and later in the news reports on "Shenzhou No. 7", "Shenzhou No. 8", "Shenzhou No. 9", "Shenzhou No. 10", "Shenzhou No. 11" and other news reports, there were few mistakes in mistaking "Shenzhou" for "Shenzhou". In the past, in news reports on the relationship between "doctors and patients", the idea of "killing doctors" often appeared, and after being listed in the "Top Ten Language Errors", this statement was immediately reduced, and when the media reported such cases, most of them changed the "killing" to "killing". "Single second child" has also been often mistaken for "single second child", and there are also institutions that include "single second child" as the annual "buzzword". After "single second child" was listed in the "Top Ten Language Errors", "single second child" rarely appeared in the media. The economic term "basket of currencies" was often mistaken for "basket of currencies", and this error was rarely seen after "basket currency" was listed as one of the "top ten language errors". In the past, "non-profit institutions" (or "for-profit organizations") were often mistaken for "non-profit organizations" (or "for-profit institutions"), and after being listed in the "Top Ten Language Errors", the error rate was also significantly reduced. The "corner" of "corner" has always been mispronounced as jiǎo, the correct pronunciation is jué, after being listed as one of the "top ten language errors", the error rate seems to be decreasing... Some surveys have shown that all the entries listed in the annual "Top Ten Language Errors" by "Chewing Words" have been significantly reduced in frequency later.
Red Star News reporter Chen Mou
Edited by Li Jie
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