| 释义 |
back channel, n.
Brit. |ˈbak ˌtʃanlˌ|, U.S. |ˈbæk ˌtʃæn(ə)l|
[‹ back adj. + channel n.1]
1. A secondary channel of water, esp. one forming an island in a stream or river.
1744W. Smith New Voy. to Guinea 42 He betook himself to his Boat, row'd up the back Channel to a small Island call'd Tombo. 1832Lady's Bk. Aug. 92/2 One or two dark objects upon the water, driving..upon a strong current and before a violent gale up the ‘back channel’. 1862Sessional Papers Province Canad. XX. ii. No. 3 App. D. 94 A dam was placed across the navigable channel.., to drive the surplus water down the back channel, where it could do no damage. 1903J. London Call of Wild iii. 78 He..crossed a back channel filled with rough ice to another island.., curved back to the main river, and in desperation started to cross it. 1955Public Works Appropriations 1956 (U.S. Senate Comm. on Appropriations) 1262 In New Jersey, on the Jersey side, we have what we call a back channel, which goes behind an island. 2001Western Daily Press (Bristol) (Nexis) 7 Dec. 21 The Agency has been spending 20,000 on widening the river, removing silt and creating a back channel to improve flow during times of spate.
2. orig. N. Amer. Polit. A means of communication which circumvents official channels, esp. in order to facilitate informal or clandestine negotiations. Freq. attrib.
1968Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 38027/1 The American military have long since developed the ‘back channel’ technique to the state of fine art. 1977N.Y. Times Mag. 13 Feb. 23 The United States SALT delegation..didn't know that Nixon's national security adviser had set up a ‘back channel’ and was making a deal or two on his own with the Russians. 1987Times (Nexis) 25 Aug. The machines [sc. personal computers] are also useful as small printing presses and back-channel communications networks, which both threaten to decentralize political power. 2003Village Voice (N.Y.) 26 Mar. 54/4 Fighters in the gorge were contacted, both openly and through back channels, and told to leave.
3. Psycholinguistics. Any of various means, such as gestures or short verbal prompts, by which a listener may indicate attention to a speaker and thereby invite continued speech; (also) these means considered collectively. Freq. attrib.
1970V. H. Ingve in Papers 6th Regional Meeting Chicago Linguistic Soc. 568 Both the person who has the turn and his partner are simultaneously engaged in both speaking and listening. This is because of the existence of what I call the back channel, over which the person who has the turn receives short messages such as 'yes' and 'uh-huh' without relinquishing the turn. 1977MIS Q. 1 42/2 Back-channel behavior consists..of nods and shakes and verbalizations such as ‘m-hm’ and ‘yeah’ which serve to give the speaker feedback. 1991Appl. Linguistics 12 400 Back-channels..are a listener's signal to the speaker that she or he is listening, yet is not attempting to take the floor away from the speaker. 2002Social Psychol. Q. 65 39/1 Researchers..have used insights from conversation analytic research by focusing on interruptions, overlaps, back-channel cues, and other turn-taking structures. |
