A US-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one-millionth word or phrase in the English language yesterday, although other linguists¹ slammed it as a stunt².

The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate³, one-millionth word.

It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.

Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity⁴ and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.

"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics⁵ professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.

Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically⁶ sound. "If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria⁷ is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.

He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.

"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard⁸, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon⁹ Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK," said Payack.

美国一家语言监测机构昨日认定Web2.0为英语中第100万个词汇，而一些语言学家认为这是在玩噱头。

全球语言监测机构使用数学模式来监控印刷和电子媒体中词汇的使用频率。该机构称， Web 2.0在搜索中出现超过两万五千次，并受到广泛认可，这使它名副其实地成为英语中第100万个词汇。

该机构称，Web 2.0最初是一个技术术语，意指下一代互联网产品及服务，该词汇在过去半年间迅速普及。

但有些语言学家抨击这个词汇表纯属炒作，也不符合科学。他们说，对使用中的英语单词进行计数是不可能的，另外单词在被使用多少次之后才被正式收录也没有统一的规则。

加州大学伯克利分校的语言学教授杰弗里•纳恩博格在接受记者采访时说：“这完全是无稽之谈，并不是伪科学，而是毫无意义。”

全球语言监测机构主席鲍尔•JJ•佩雅克回应了这一批评，称其统计方法在技术上是可行的。他说：“如果你想数清天上有多少颗星星，你先要搞清楚什么是星星，然后再开始数。我们的标准非常简单，只要使用这些标准，你就能计算出词汇量。大多数研究人员认为我们的方法非常有价值。”

据佩雅克计算，英语每天新增14.7个词汇。他还表示，即将成为第100万个单词的五个新词彰显出英语如何“与时俱进”。

佩雅克说：“莎士比亚已经去世大约四百年了，如今的新词不再只来自斯特拉福德镇（译者注：莎士比亚的故乡），而是从硅谷、印度、中国、波兰、澳大利亚、加拿大、美国以及英国各地涌现出来。

Vocabulary:

stunt：噱头，特技

Bard：在此处指莎士比亚