美華盛頓州花六年使法律“中性化”

In Washington state, dairymen, freshmen and even penmanship could soon be things of the past.

Over the past six years, state officials have engaged in the onerous task of changing the language used in the state's copious laws, including thousands of words and phrases, many written more than a century ago when the idea of women working on police forces or on fishing boats wasn't a consideration.

That process is slated to draw to a close this year. So while the state has already welcomed "firefighters," "clergy" and "police officers" into its lexicon, "ombuds" (in place of ombudsman) and "security guards" (previously "watchmen,") appear to be next, along with "dairy farmers," "first-year students" and "handwriting."

"Some people would say 'oh, it's not a big thing, do you really have to go through the process of changing the language,'" said Seattle Councilmember Sally Clark who was one of the catalysts for the change. "But language matters. It's how we signal a level of respect for each other."

About half of all US states have moved toward such gender-neutral language at varying levels, from drafting bills to changing state constitutions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Florida and Minnesota have already completely revised their laws as Washington state is doing.

The final installment of Washington state's bill already has sailed through the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee with unanimous approval. The nearly 500-page bill has one more committee stop scheduled before full Senate debate.

Crispin Thurlow, a sociolinguist and associate professor of language and communication at the University of Washington-Bothell, said the project was admirable.

He said that as language evolves, such efforts are more than symbolic.

"Changing words can change what we think about the world around us," he said. "These tiny moments accrue and become big movements."

As in past bills on the issue that have tackled sections of the state code, some revisions were as simple as adding "or her" after "his." Others required a little more scrutiny. Phrases like "man's past" changes to "humankind's past" and a "prudent man or woman" is simply a "prudent person." Kyle Thiessen, the state's code reviser who has been working on the project along with two attorneys since 2008, said that the work was not without obstacles.

Words like "manhole" and "manlock" aren't so easily replaced. Substitutes have been suggested — "utility hole" and "air lock serving as a decompression chamber for workers." But Thiessen said those references will be left alone to avoid confusion.在華盛頓州，諸如“牛奶房工人”、“大學新生”甚至“書法”這類英文含有“man”有男性傾向的詞很快都會成爲過去。

在過去六年裏，州政府官員一直忙於一項繁重的任務，即更換華盛頓州衆多法律裏的語言，包括成千上萬的單詞和短語。這些法律條文很多都是一個多世紀之前撰寫的，當時根本沒有考慮到女性在警局或漁業工作的可能性。

這道工序預定在今年結束。華盛頓州已經在其詞庫裏更新了諸如“消防員”、“神職人員”、“警員”等詞彙，之後“監察專員”、“保安”、“乳牛廠工人”、“大學新生”、“書法”等中性的詞也會相繼代替含有“man”的原有詞彙。

西雅圖市議員薩利•克拉克是此次語言變革的推動者之一，他表示：“有些人也許會說語言變革並不重要，沒必要費這麼多精力更換這些語言。但語言是尤爲重要的，它代表了我們彼此尊重的程度。”

根據全美州議會會議，美國約一半的州在不同程度上採取了起草法案以及改變州憲法等多種措施進行中性語言改革。佛羅里達州和明尼蘇達州已經和華盛頓州一樣對法律用詞進行了徹底修改。

華盛頓州議案的最後一部分已經獲參議院商業和勞工委員會全體一致通過。這份近500頁的議案經委員會最後一次審覈即可送往參議院進行全面討論。

社會語言學家兼華盛頓大學博塞爾校區語言與交流專業副教授克里斯平•瑟洛表示這個項目很棒。

他認爲隨着語言的不斷髮展演變，這種努力不僅具有象徵意義，還具有實際意義。

他說道：“改變用詞能夠改變我們思考周圍世界的方式，這些微小的時刻累積起來會帶來巨大的改變。”

就像過去在處理州法律章節相關問題的議案那樣，有些修訂只是簡單地在“他”後面加上“或她”。其他一些修訂則需要更多的斟酌，比如把“（男）人的過去”改爲“人類的過去”，把“謹慎的男人或女人”改爲“謹慎的人”。州法規修訂人凱爾•狄森從2008年以來就一直和兩名律師一起從事這個項目，他表示工作過程中遇到不少障礙。

要替換像“檢修孔”和“人孔閘”這些含有“man”的詞就沒那麼容易。有人提議用“故障排查洞”和“給工人減壓的氣閘”來替換上述兩個詞，但狄森表示不會採納這些參考意見以免引起人們的困惑。