This article is reproduced from "A Zewai English Notes" and has been authorized.
At the beginning of the spread of the epidemic in March 2020, the British Prime Minister put forward the proposal of "herd immunity", which made many people feel "refreshing". At that time, the successful development of the vaccine against COVID-19 was still far away, and the British Prime Minister could only imagine the HERD Immunization achieved through "infection of diseases". This proposal with low safety attracted a lot of criticism at that time.
Since the beginning of this year, with the listing of various vaccines, safer herd immunity has become an important means to fight the epidemic. Countries are encouraging people to vaccinate, and strive to reach the vaccination scale needed to realize herd immunity as soon as possible.
Herd immunity will effectively reduce the negative impact of the epidemic and protect people’s health; This statement itself also contains a remarkable feature of English in language and culture, as well as the great differences between English and Chinese.
Before explaining English knowledge, let’s first understand the principle of group immunity.
What’s with Herd immunity?
The definition of Herd immunity is roughly as follows:
Herd immunity is a phenomenon seen when a high percentage of individuals within a population have developed immunity to a pathogen.Group immunity is a phenomenon: in a certain population, a large proportion of people are immune to a certain pathogen (such as bacteria or viruses).
Because so many people within the community are unable to contract the disease or virus, this reduces the likelihood that those who have not developed immunity will contract the disease. Because most individuals in this population have acquired immunity, they will not be infected with related diseases or viruses; In this way, the possibility and risk of exposure to related diseases or viruses will be greatly reduced for those individuals who have not acquired immunity in the whole population.
There are two ways to obtain immunity from a virus or bacteria: infection or vaccination. Comparatively, vaccination is the safer, more effective path, as it provides immunity without illness.
There are two ways to get immunity from a virus or bacteria: one is to infect the disease, and the other is to vaccinate. In contrast, the method of vaccination is more effective and safer, and it will not cause illness while generating immunity.
Different expressions for "group"
In English, there are several other expressions of held immunity, including community immunity, population immunity and social immunity, but in newspapers and media, most articles use the wording of held immunity.
The original meaning of the word herd in English is not used for "people", but to describe "groups of animals".
In practical use, herd mainly refers to cattle, and sometimes also refers to deer or elephants, such as: A herd of cows/deer/elephants and so on.
Using herd to refer to people is strictly an extended metaphor. In addition to newspapers and magazines, people are often referred to in various fictional novels, and the language effect is herd vivid, such as:
She pushed her way through a herd of lunchtime drinkers.
She struggled through the crowd who were having lunch and drinking.
Two idioms
Although the description of "crowd" with herd is vivid and interesting, its meaning is not completely neutral, and it is somewhat disapproving or even critical. It is emphasized that when many people get together, they often lose the ability to think independently as individuals.
Herd mentality or herd instinct, which is often used in English, is usually described as "herd mentality" in Chinese, which means: like flocks of animals and livestock, they have no thinking ability, only know that follow the herd takes action with the whole group; What most other members of the group do, they follow suit.
There is an idiom to ride herd on sb/sth in American English, which is often used to describe crowds. This idiom comes from the plains of the western United States, which reminds people of the scene of cowboys riding horses and herding cattle on the grassland.
Although it originated in the countryside, to ride herd on sb/sth is mainly used in urban areas, which refers to crowd control, usually refers to unorganized crowds, such as:
The police rides herd on crowds of youths on the streets.
The police kept order in the street to prevent groups of young people from getting out of control.
Situation difference
This figurative use of herd to refer to the crowd mainly exists in newspaper articles and literary novels, and is also used in popular science books for the public.
However, in academic articles and official documents of various institutions and departments, most people deliberately avoid using Herd to describe people. For example, in academic and formal occasions, herd immunity is usually replaced by community immunity and population immunity.
Although this will reduce the vividness of the language, it can rule out the possibility of association and avoid being offended. Although it is vivid, it is more objective and accurate.
cultural difference
Different from English culture, many other languages and cultures are not used to using words specially used to describe animals to describe human beings, and even are very taboo about it. This is the case in Chinese, and an obvious example is a large number of insulting expressions in traditional Chinese that originated from "dogs".
This cultural difference between Chinese and English deserves special attention when learning and using English. When translating English-quoted media articles, it is especially important to realize that when "animals" are used to describe "people" in English, they are usually not insulting, and they are not intentionally offending others and calling them "animals, pigs and dogs are inferior".
Most of the time, Herd’s analogy of "animal" to "human" can be directly translated into plain language without rhetorical meaning.
Two more "groups"
Realizing the cultural differences between Chinese and English in animal metaphor can also help us to use English more vividly and effectively, and we will not be timid because of this "burden" of traditional Chinese rhetoric expression.
English words like herd, which use animals to describe "people", are very rich and constitute a systematic series.
For example, herd is suitable for cattle, deer, elephants and other large animals; The "flock" of smaller animals is called flock in English, which mainly refers to sheep.
In addition, flock can also refer to a flock of birds, such as the proverbial birds of a feather flock together, which often corresponds to the Chinese word "birds of a feather flock together". When describing insects, such as bees, it will be called swarm.
Like herd, flock and swarm are often used to describe people, which not only remind people of vivid images, but also have their own division of meaning and function, describing different characteristics and aspects of "group behavior" respectively. In English, these statements are usually not regarded as insulting or demeaning.
China Daily intensive reading program is coming!
20 minutes a day,
Take you to learn English and see the world!
Source: China Daily Bilingual News
Reporting/feedback