字典中的dog whistle

  1. 先查常见英汉词典的解释,很少有英汉词典有这个词条:

来自简明英汉必应版 - CSS收起文章
dog whistle
[网络] 狗哨;犬笛;狗哨子

完全没有提到这个词更常用的意思。

  1. 再看看学习型词典的解释,仍旧不明不白,只有部分听众能听懂,为什么?那又怎么样?例句毫无帮助。
    oald 10
    a political message that is only intended for and heard by a particular group of people狗哨:一种仅用于特定人群并听到的政治信息
    He made use of the dog whistle on issues like immigration and crime.他在移民和犯罪等问题上利用了狗哨。
    dog whistle politics狗哨政治

  2. 几部母语词典的表现也一般:
    来自ODE 3e 20191231M-----与oald相同
    1.1 [usually as modifier] A subtly aimed political message which is intended for, and can only be understood by, a particular demographic group: dog-whistle issues such as immigration and crime

来自Macmillan-British-English 2收起文章
dog whistle
ADJECTIVE [ONLY BEFORE NOUN] SHOWING DISAPPROVAL /ˈdɒɡ ˌwɪs(ə)l/
used for referring to political messages that are aimed at particular groups and will only be fully understood by them

  1. 最好的解释来自Dictionary.com
    noun
    这里的关键就在于,不仅说能被某些听众听到,而是具体地告诉你,是被支持这种信息的人听到,也就是说,虽然话中有可能冒天下之大不韪的话(controversial),但懂的人自然懂(secondary message),不懂的人不过是以为自己懂了(only by those who support the message:):
    Politics. a political strategy, statement, slogan, etc., that conveys a controversial, secondary message understood only by those who support the message:
    His criticism of welfare was a dog whistle appealing to racist voters.
    ORIGIN OF DOG WHISTLE
    First recorded in 1995–2000; <dog whistle a high-frequency whistle audible to dogs but not humans

从词源这里也可以看到,这个词出现时间不长。
来看一些例句:
来自MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY收起文章
dog whistle noun
variants: or less commonly dog-whistle \ ˈdȯg-​ˈhwi-​səl , -​ˈwi-​
Definition of dog whistle
1 : a whistle to call or direct a dog
especially : one sounding at a frequency inaudible to the human ear
2 politics : an expression or statement that has a secondary meaning intended to be understood only by a particular group of people
Democrats and liberals sometimes have gone to ridiculous lengths to portray speech by Republicans and conservatives as dog whistles responsible for inciting unstable people to carry out violent acts …
— The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch
… habitually inserts dog-whistles into his speeches to motivate evangelical voters.
— The Economist
—often used before another noun
That is the fundamental perversity of ‘dog whistle politics’, whereby political parties send coded messages that will be heard one way by their core supporters and another way altogether by others.
— Robert E. Goodin
Examples of dog whistle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The questions lead to refreshingly blunt conversations about everything from dog whistles to how race affects dating.
— Eliana Dockterman, Time, “The 50 Best Podcasts to Listen to Right Now,” 20 Dec. 2019
Back then, though, the communication tool of choice was the dog whistle, rather than Twitter and the Presidential podium.
— John Cassidy, The New Yorker, “Donald Trump and Lax Gun Laws Are Tearing America Apart,” 7 Aug. 2019
To call it a dog whistle disrespects canine subtlety.
— Tim Fernholz, Quartz, “Why the US probably won’t pass stronger gun control laws,” 10 Aug. 2019
Where conservatives in the past have employed dog whistle rhetoric to mask the manipulation of racial tensions, Trump’s itchy Twitter fingers dole out something more like smart missile rhetoric.
— Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, The New Republic, “The Destructive Politics of White Amnesia,” 6 Aug. 2019
To be serious for a moment, what Trump tweeted wasn’t a dog whistle.
— Kevin Cullen, BostonGlobe.com, “In a confrontation with Trump, my money’s on Ayanna Pressley,” 17 July 2019
This marvelous piece of history is now a dog whistle to round up other racists and religious persecutors.
— Dp Opinion, The Denver Post, “Letters: Defending culling of geese; Culling angers Canadian; If the shoe fits…; Give that team a raise (7/10/19),” 10 July 2019
Politicians whose demands for justice reverberate as racist dog whistles.
— Alex Bhattacharji, Town & Country, “When They See Us,” 8 May 2019
As such, some organizations on Facebook use coy in-jokes and other far-right dog whistling tactics to circumvent Facebook’s algorithmic filters.
— Nick Statt, The Verge, “Hundreds of active and former police officers are part of extremist Facebook groups,” 14 June 2019

本地案例:


这是在劝谁耗子尾汁,懂的人自然懂,而不懂的人以为自己懂了。

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确实有些强人所难了,词典和百科确实不同,这一点完全同意。只是既然牛津收了这个词,还是应该做得尽量好一些,比如在例句的选择上。

我的理解和您的并无根本差别,我说“不懂的人以为自己懂了”,就是说这种狗哨话语能说出来而不冒犯人,但实际想说的意思又能被该知道这种意思的人知道,也就让人难以反对。

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有时对词汇的理解,如果仅停留在字面意思是很难理解词汇的含义的。就此例而言,理解难点在于很多人不知道“犬笛”的工作原理,自然无法理解例句中dog whistle的含义,百度一下“犬笛”就好理解了。

犬笛会发出一种人耳不易察觉但狗却能听见的高频短波。因为狗的耳朵可以接收120000赫兹的声波,而人顶多可以听到20000赫兹。而犬笛除了能发出人类能够听到的管状声音外,同时发出的声音正是人听不到的,只有听得到的频率。利用的这项特长制造的犬笛,可以把追赶猎物跑远了的狗狗轻而易举的唤回来·

就是 黑话,“春点”