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"Obama" enters English language as a word
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He is calling for change, but US presidential candidate Barack Obama probably didn't think his campaign's theme extended to the English language and US television culture.
"ObamaSpeak" -- encompassed by words such as "obamamentum," "obamabot," "obamacize," "obamaramaand", "obamanation" -- has been the second-most-used catchphrase on U.S. television this past year, topped only by No. 1 word "Beijing" referencing the recent Olympics, according to a study from the Global Language Monitor released on Tuesday.
The Beijing Olympics in August also ushered in Phelpsian -- the No. 5 "teleword" -- coined to describe American swimmer Michael Phelps' feat of winning eight gold medals in a single Olympics, the Global Language Monitor said.
Phelps helped boost TV audiences for the Olympics to record figures, including the 31 million people who tuned in on Aug 16 to watch him clinch his 8th gold medal at the Beijing Games.
"This year, two events dominated television -- the Beijing Olympics and the US presidential elections, " said Paul Payack, president of the Texas-based Global Language Monitor which tracks the latest trends in word usage.
The survey measures words used starting in fall 2007 and running to late spring 2008, and is released just as the major broadcast networks are launching their 2008/2009 schedule.
Other popular words and phrases among the top telewords of 2008 were the cliche used frequently by sportsmen and women, "It is what it is" at No. 3; "third screen" at No. 6, as in watching TV on a mobile phone; and No. 7 "vincible" applied to the upset of the seemingly invincible New England Patriots by the New York Giants in the 2008 Superbowl.
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(Agencies)
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美國民主黨總統候選人奧巴馬可能沒想到，他在呼吁“變革”這一競選主題的同時，也“改變”了英語語言和美國電視文化。
全球語言監控組織于本周二公布的一項研究顯示，在過去一年中，“ObamaSpeak”（“奧巴馬派生詞”）成為美國電視媒體中的第二大高頻詞，僅次于奧運會舉辦城市“北京”。由Obama派生出的新詞包括“obamamentum”、“obamabot”、“obamacize”、“obamarama”、”obamanation”等。
該機構稱，今年八月的北京奧運會還催生了一個新詞“Phelpsian”，這個排名第五的電視流行詞主要用來形容美國游泳名將菲爾普斯在奧運會上獨攬八枚金牌的輝煌戰績。
在菲爾普斯的推動下，收看奧運會的電視觀眾數創下新紀錄，在8月16日這一天，共有3100萬觀眾收看了他奪第八金的比賽。
全球語言監控組織主席保羅?帕亞克說：“今年電視媒體主要關注兩件大事，一是北京奧運會，二是美國總統大選。” 全球語言監控組織設在得克薩斯州，主要負責追蹤語言使用的最新走勢。
這項調查主要涉及從去年秋天至今年春天晚些時候電視中出現的一些詞，其結果公布時正值美國各大電視廣播媒體公布“08-09年度”節目時間表。
2008年度電視流行語還包括：排在第三位的“It is what it is（就是這樣）”，這是運動員常說的一句話；第六位是“the third screen（第三屏幕）”（即在手機上看電視），第七位是“vincible（可戰勝的）”，這個詞源自2008年的“超級碗”（美國橄欖球聯盟賽），在這屆比賽中，新英格蘭愛國者隊打敗了貌似“不可戰勝（invincible）”的紐約巨人隊。
（實習生瞿漫 英語點津姍姍編輯）
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