《宋氏快譯》英漢對照（39）：男人比女人更健談

《宋氏快譯》英漢對照（39）：男人比女人更健談


Men Talk More Than Women

男人比女人更健談

By Andrea Thompson , LiveScience Staff Writer
29 November 2007 07:56 am ET

《生命科學》在編作家 安德烈-湯普森 文

宋德利 譯


Women may have a reputation as the chattier gender, but research into the matter shows that men may actually be a little more talkative than women—though it all depends on the situation.

女性可能享有“更健談性別”之譽，但對此展開的研究表明，男性實際上可能比女性更健談一些 - 盡管這一切都要視情況而定。


Psychologist Campbell Leaper of the University of California Santa Cruz conducted a review of research into the topic spanning from the 1960s to today and which is detailed in the November issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review . The studies Leaper examined looked at talkativeness and different types of speech under a range of social situations and comparing mixed-gender and same-gender conversations.

美國加州大學聖克魯斯分校心理學家坎貝爾-裏波對以往的調研做了一次回顧，話題範圍從1960年代直至今天，話題內容詳細地深入到《人格與社會心理學研究》雜誌鎖定的11月問題。裏波在回顧中審視了在一係列社會狀況下健談的程度以及談話的不同方式，並對異性交談及同性交談一一加以比較。


One clear point that emerged from all the studies was that the type of activity people were engaged in influenced how much they talked.

在所有的研究中都出現一個明顯的問題，人們從事活動的方式影響著他們談話的多少。


"So even though on the average we're finding a slight trend toward men being more talkative than women, we found larger differences when you looked at particular situations," Leaper said. "

“因此，盡管研究的是一般情況，但我們卻正在發現一個不太明顯的趨勢，男人要比女人更健談，同時我們也發現當你麵對特殊情況時，就會發現更大的差異。”裏波說。


During decision-making tasks, men were more talkative than women, the studies showed, but when talking about themselves or working with children, women were more talkative than men.

研究表明，在執行做決策的任務中，男人比女人更健談，但在談到人們自己或同兒童一起做事時，女人要比男人更健談。


Leaper said that these gender differences could have to do with differences in gender socialization; typically, women are socialized to be more comfortable talking about their feelings, while men are socialized to be dominant and take charge.

裏波說，這些性別差異，可能都與性別社會化的差異相關；典型的一點就是，女人追求社會化，為的是在談到她們的情感時會感到更舒適；而男人追求社會化，為的是獲得對事物的支配權及掌管權。


"One gender isn't inherently more talkative than the other, it's just that a lot of times it depends on the situation and gender role influences," Leaper said. "

“一種性別並非天生就比另一種性別更健談，在很多時候，那要取決於具體情況以及某種性別所扮演角色的影響，”裏波說。


A recent study in the journal Science that recorded conversations of university students supports Leaper's idea, finding that on average, men and women used about the same number of words per day. (Leaper said that studies that used this measure of talkativeness tended to find less difference between men and women than studies that looked at how much time people spent talking. In these latter studies, men used up more time in the conversation than women, Leaper said.)

最近對記錄大學生交談內容的科學雜誌所做的一項研究證實了裏波的觀點，調查發現，一般來講，男人和女人每天所使用的詞匯量大致是相同的。（裏波說，有兩種調查，第一種就是采取上述健談衡量標準的調查，著眼點在於每天究竟使用多少詞匯，而第二種調查的著眼點則在於每天究竟用多少時間說話。在探討男女之間差異的時候，以這兩種調查相比，就會有這樣的傾向，即前者調查出的差異，比後者調查出的差異要少。在以後者方式做出的調查顯示，在交談時，男人所花去的時間要比女人多，裏波說。）

注釋：
括號裏的第一句話有點麻煩，我采取解析的方式翻譯，雖然句子多了些，但讀者看起來可能比較容易。其實這句話就是在某個方麵拿兩種調查相比較。“某個方麵”就是“男女之間的差異”（difference between men and women）。第一種調查就是著眼點在每天用多少詞匯量（studies that used this measure of talkativeness， 具體講就是上文提到的number of words per day），第二種調查就是著眼點在每天說話用多少時間（studies that looked at how much time people spent talking）。這句話之所以不易看懂，就是因為相互比較的兩者都是句子，如果隻是兩個簡單的名詞，那就會一目了然。比如說：the first study tended to find less difference than the second study. 其實，對這個臃腫的複合句，如果把肥肉都剔出幹淨，不究隻剩下這個簡單的骨架了嗎？


Talkativeness was also influenced by whether a person was talking to someone of their same gender or the opposite gender.

健談程度受影響的原因也在於一個人是在與同性交談，還是與異性交談。


"Men tend to be more talkative than women, but particularly when they're interacting in mixed-gender settings," Leaper said, explaining that this could also be a result of men traditionally being socialized to dominate. "

有趨向表明，男人比女人更健談，特別是當他們在男女混雜情況下進行人際交往的時候，”裏波還解釋說，這也可能是男人在按照傳統方式追求社會化，以便獲得主導作用所產生的一種結果。


The situation was reversed when looking at different types of speech, specifically assertive (used to achieve dominance and goals) and affiliative (used to connect to others): differences emerged in how much these types of speech were used when comparing two men talking to each other to two women conversing than when a man and a woman were talking.

當人們著眼於不同類型的講話時，情況就發生了逆轉性變化，尤其那種充滿自信的講話（往往能夠獲取主導地位或實現目標）以及交際性的講話（往往能夠與他人建立聯係）：於是差異就出現了，主要表現在，在下麵兩種情況下這些類型的談話究竟會被使用多少次，一種情況是用兩個正在互相講話的男人和兩個正在交談的女人相比較，另一種情況是一個男人和一個女人在談話。


These differences have actually declined with time though.

不過這些差異實際上已經隨著時間的推移逐漸減少了。


"In terms of styles of communication, gender differences are decreasing," Leaper said. "My interpretation is that it reflects the historical changes in gender roles," with women coming into the workplace more and men being more open about their feelings.

“從交流方式的角度來談，性別差異正在減少，”裏波說。“ 我的理解是，它反映了隨著越來越多的女性進入職場以及男性對自己情感的越來越開放，性別作用所發生的曆史性變化。