There are some words which, when spoken frequently, might indicate that you are stressed, a new US study has found.

　　一项新研究发现，频繁使用某些词语可能意味着你的压力有点大。

　　According to a group of speech experts, when someone is stressed they will naturally use more adverbs such as “really”, “so” and “very”.

　　根据一组演讲专家的表现，当他们紧张时会使用一些诸如“实际上”、“这样”、“非常”这样的副词。

　　They will also speak less, the researchers found.

　　研究人员还发现压力大往往还会伴随着寡言。

　　Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study examined the speech patterns of 143 volunteers, each of whom wore a voice recorder which was turned on every few minutes for two days.

　　《美国国家科学院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)杂志上发表的一项研究通过让143名志愿者每人都佩戴一个隔几分钟记录一次的声音记录仪，从而分析这些志愿者的说话模式。

　　Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona, subsequently transcribed and studied the recordings, listening out for any repeated words and expressions.

　　亚利桑那大学的心理学家Matthias Mehl随后对这些录音进行了转录和研究，着重听那些重复的单词和表达。

　　He was particularly interested in the volunteers’ use of pronouns and adjectives.

　　他对志愿者的代词和形容词的使用特别感兴趣。

　　“By themselves they don’t have any meaning, but they clarify what’s going on,” Mehl told Nature.

　　Mehl 告诉《自然》(Nature)记者：“这些代词和形容词本身可能没有任何意义，但却能反映一些事情。”

　　Next, he and a team of genomicists analysed participants’ psychological stress levels by looking at the gene expression in their white blood cells.

　　然后，他和一些基因学家通过观察参与者白细胞中的基因表达来分析他们的心理压力水平。

　　In addition to finding that stressed participants were more likely to use adverbs, they also found that they were less likely to use third-person plural pronouns such as “their” and “they”.

　　除了有压力的参与者更有可能使用副词，他们还发现他们不太使用“他们的”和“他们”这样的第三人称复数代词。

　　This might be due to the fact that people tend to focus on themselves when they feel under pressure, rather than thinking about those around them, the researchers suggested.

　　研究人员表示，这可能是因为人们在感到压力时倾向于关注自己，而不是考虑其他人。

　　They concluded that speech patterns were a better indicator of stress levels than a volunteer’s personal assessment.

　　他们的结论是，语言模式比志愿者的个人评估更能反映压力水平。

　　While much research has been conducted on the subject of stress, linking it to speech patterns is a relatively new approach, explains David Creswell, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

　　宾夕法尼亚匹兹堡卡内基梅隆大学的心理学家David Creswell解释说，虽然关于压力的研究有很多，但将其与语言模式联系起来还是一种相对较新的方法。

　　Creswell said that the study “holds tremendous promise” for providing a deeper understanding into how psychological pressures can impact our health, reports Nature.

　　据《自然》杂志报道，Creswell说这项研究“前景大好”，因为它能让人们更深入地了解心理压力如何影响我们的健康。