作者：王银泉  

与美国著名时事新闻杂志《时代》周刊每年年底评选出的年度风云人物(man of the year)异曲同工的是，美国方言学会（American Dialect Society）也会在岁末年初评选出其年度词汇(word of the year)，在其2008年1月4日举行的2007年度大会上评选出来的年度词汇是Subprime。请看以下新闻报道：

‘Subprime’ is linguists' word of year

By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jan 5, 7:56 AM ET

CHICAGO - Even the American Dialect Society knows how risky home mortgages are these days. The group of wordsmiths chose "subprime" as 2007's Word of the Year at its annual convention Friday.

"`Subprime' has been around with bankers for awhile, but now everyone is talking about `subprime,'" said Wayne Glowka, a spokesman for the group and a dean at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Ga. "It's affecting all kinds of people in all kinds of places."

从上文不难看出，Subprime表示的是高风险的家庭抵押贷款（risky home mortgages）。这是一个在当前辞典上尚未收录的单词，也是运用构词原则创造出来的一个新单词，让人感觉有点怪怪的。美国方言学会的发言人Glowka说，“subprime”这个词有些怪——至少在语言学家们看来是这样（As for "subprime," Glowka said it is an odd word — at least as far as linguists are concerned.）根据外研社出版的《朗曼当代高级英语辞典》，从构词法原理来说，sub这个前缀在这里表示的意思是“在重要性和级别方面次于……或低于……”（less important or powerful than someone or something, or of lower rank than someone）。美国方言学会也是这么解释的：The prefix "sub" translates roughly to "below the standard," while "prime" means something close to "the best." So, according to Glowka, the word really means "far below the best."（前缀“sub-”的大致含义为“不达标”；而“prime”则表示“最好”。所以，两部分意思合在一起其实应该是“远没达到最好”。）

Subprime最近在英语世界、尤其是美国英语中已成为热门词汇，光是在Yahoo News Only中搜索的新闻报道结果就显示相关页面多达3,294个，在GOOGLE搜索到的结果更是多达几十万个，其主要词汇搭配是subprime mortgage(次级抵押贷款)。那么，什么是次级抵押贷款呢？其实说白了就是指风险很大的抵押贷款。要了解这个单词，首先必须了解美国的房贷市场。对于购房者来说，除了少量手头资金充裕者，大多数人是要通过贷款的，而这类贷款主要由两种金融机构运作。对于信用记录好，还贷能力健全的贷款者，他们的贷款通常由银行来运作，他们可以享受优惠利率(prime rate)，他们的贷款也就被称之为prime mortgage。美国银行大多不发行次级房贷，因此，对于信用不佳或者背负债务包袱的购房者，他们的贷款通常由专门的房贷公司运作，这种贷款就叫做“次级抵押贷款”。也就是说，次级抵押贷款是指一些贷款机构向信用程度较差和收入不高的借款人提供的贷款，也就是银行或贷款机构提供给那些不具备资格享受优惠利率贷款的客户的一种贷款。这种贷款的利率通常比一般抵押贷款高出两个百分点到三个百分点。美国的次级抵押贷款大多是前几年住房市场高度繁荣时贷出的。在住房市场降温后，房价下跌和利率上升使很多次级抵押贷款市场的借款人无法按期偿还借款，不少次级抵押贷款机构因此陷入严重财务困难，甚至破产，由此而来的结果就是“次级抵押贷款危机”（subprime mortgage crisis）。

如果光凭上述解释，也许还不足于说明为何subprime这个最新创造出来的单词会成为年度词汇。那是因为美国最近出现的“次级抵押贷款危机”已经对本国经济乃至全球经济造成了极其严重的影响。2007年8月，由于投资者对美国次级抵押贷款市场乃至整个信贷市场担忧加剧，美国、欧洲及拉美主要股市全线暴跌，创下了今年的第二大跌幅，亚太地区主要股市开盘后也是跌声一片。在此之后，美国次级抵押贷款市场危机影响呈现扩大态势，美欧以及亚洲金融市场出现较大波动。美、欧、日等主要发达经济体货币当局向金融系统注入巨资，以应对风险。一场愈益严重的美国次级房贷危机正向全球金融市场深度蔓延，不仅包括法国、德国在内的一些欧洲国家受到传染；亚太国家和地区包括中国大陆的一些银行也未能幸免。这种情况不由得也让语言学家十分敏感了。

既然subprime已经变得如此热门，作为英语学习者，我们就有理由及时去多多了解它的相关用法，以便更好地学习英语，提高语言应用能力。在此，我们不妨看看从英语媒体里随机选择的一些最新相关新闻报道的标语和导语中subprime的使用以及相关搭配词语，从原汁原味的英语中学习英语。

1．New York probes Wall St. banks over subprime data: report

Reuters via Yahoo! News - Jan 12 2:19 PM

New York prosecutors are investigating whether Wall Street banks withheld information about the risks stemming from subprime loan-linked investments, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

2．Cleveland Sues 21 Lenders Over Subprime Mortgages

NYTimes.com via Yahoo! Finance - Jan 12 1:39 PM

The city is suing 21 of the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions, accusing them of knowingly plunging it into a financial crisis.

3．Bank M&A heats up amid subprime fallout

AP via Yahoo! News - Jan 12 1:51 AM

The bank branch on the corner might be changing names — again. Get set for the next wave of consolidation that could sweep through the nation's banking industry this year. Chief executives at some of the top regional players might be mulling deals to salvage businesses pummeled by the subprime mortgage market's collapse.

4．Stocks open lower amid subprime concerns

AP via Yahoo! News - Jan 11 6:36 AM

Stocks slid in early trading Friday amid renewed fears that financial companies will suffer larger-than-expected writedowns from credit market troubles.

5．Subprime woes make a mess of student loans

CNNMoney.com via Yahoo! Finance - Jan 11 12:51 PM

Students relying on college loans will soon feel the pinch from the subprime mortgage crisis, according to a report by financial aid guide FinAid this week.

6．Stocks slide amid subprime woes

AP via Yahoo! News - Jan 11 9:32 AM

Stocks resumed their downward slide Friday amid renewed fears that the financial sector's troubles with bad credit won't soon end and that some consumers are buckling under signs of a slowing economy.

7．O'Melveny's $12 Million Cash Cow: New Century Subprime Lending Case

Law.com via Yahoo! Finance - Jan 11 12:02 AM

At O'Melveny & Myers, the white-collar lawyers representing bankrupt subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. had a busy -- and lucrative -- September. Faced with subpoenas from both the Justice Department and the SEC, the firm's government investigations team billed more than 4,000 hours that month.

8．Citi, Merrill look overseas to raise capital amid continued subprime losses

The Canadian Press via Yahoo! Canada News - Jan 10 2:49 PM

NEW YORK - Two of the biggest names on Wall Street are scrambling again to secure major cash infusions from foreign governments to offset billions of dollars in losses from risky subprime mortgage securities, analysts said on Thursday.