英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

◎管淑平

Reading a nasty word in a second language may not pack the punch it would in your native tongue, thanks to an unconscious brain quirk that tamps down potentially disturbing emotions, a new study finds.

用第二語言唸一個不雅字眼，威力或許不如用母語讀來得大，這是拜大腦一種無意識的奇怪特性之賜，新研究發現，這種特性會壓制可能令人不安的情緒。

When reading negative words such as "failure" in their non-native language, bilingual Chinese-English speakers did not show the same brain response as seen when they read neutral words such as "aim." The finding suggests that the brain can process the meaning of words in the unconscious, while "withholding" information from our conscious minds.

說中英雙語的人以非母語語言唸像「失敗」這類負面字眼時，不會出現讀到「目的」等這類中性字眼時同樣的大腦反應，這項發現表示，大腦可在無意識下處理字句意義，「壓制」訊息不讓我們有意識的心智察知。

"We think we’ve identified, for the first time, the mechanism by which emotion controls fundamental thought processes outside consciousness," study researcher Yanjing Wu, a psychologist at Bangor University in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.

「我們認為，我們首次找出了情緒在人的意識之外控制基本思維過程的機制」，進行這項研究的英國班戈大學心理學家吳嚴金（Yanjing Wu）在聲明中說。

It’s not yet clear why the brain dampens the response to these words, the researchers report in the Journal of Neuroscience.

研究人員在「神經科學期刊」發表的報告中說，目前還不清楚大腦為何抑制對這些字眼的反應。

新聞辭典：

pack a punch：動詞片語，猛力一擊，有非常大的威力、效力或影響力。例句：I don’t know what she has said to him, but it really packed a punch.（我不知道她對他說了什麼，但真的很有效。）

quirk：名詞，古怪的舉止、特性，怪癖，妙語，突然出現的莫名轉變。例句：Taking cold showers is one of his many quirks.（洗冷水澡是他許多怪癖中的一個。）

dampen：動詞，抑制、減弱。例句：The car accident has dampened our spirits.（這起車禍讓我們很掃興。）

文章出處：自由電子報