TED演讲： 谈语言和思想(7)

 　　Just to give you a few examples: "ending a pregnancy¹" versus² "killing³ a fetus⁴;" 这里是一些例子：是“终止怀孕”还是“杀死胚胎”

　　"a ball of cells" versus "an unborn child;" “一个细胞聚合的小球”还是“一个尚未出生的孩子”

　　"invading Iraq" versus "liberating⁵ Iraq;" “侵略伊拉克”或是“解放伊拉克”

　　"redistributing wealth" versus "confiscating⁶ earnings⁷." “收入重新分配”抑或“没收财产”

　　And I think the biggest picture of all would take seriously the fact 而整个图景中最显著的一部分是要看到一点：

　　that so much of our verbiage⁸ about abstract events is based on a concrete metaphor⁹ 就是我们对抽象事件的描述，大多都是基于实体的隐喻

　　and see human intelligence itself as consisting of a repertoire¹⁰ of concepts 这反映出人类智能本身是由一整套概念组成

　　such as objects, space, time, causation and intention 比如物体、空间、时间，因果关系与意图

　　which are useful in a social, knowledge-intensive species,  对我们这种群居的、知识密集型的种群非常有用

　　whose evolution you can well imagine, and a process of metaphorical¹¹ abstraction 我们能想象人类的进化和语言的隐喻抽象化过程齐轨并行

　　that allows us to bleach¹² these concepts of their original conceptual content 慢慢地这些概念里原先的实际内容就淡化了

　　space, time and force -- and apply them to new abstract domains¹³, 空间、时间和力--而它们却被用在全新的抽象领域里

　　therefore allowing a species that evolved to deal with rocks and tools and animals, 如此就使得我们这个原本是进化出来，和石头、工具与动物打交道的种群

　　to conceptualize mathematics, physics, law and other abstract domains. 能够形成数学、物理、法律等等概念，涉足其他抽象的领域

　　Well, I said I'd talk about two windows on human nature 我曾说过我要谈谈人性的两扇窗户

　　the cognitive¹⁴ machinery¹⁵ with which we conceptualize the world,  我们用来概念化世界的知性机能

　　and now I'm going to say a few words about the relationship types  现在我要说说几种人际关系

　　that govern human social interaction, again, as reflected in language. 它们支配着人类的社交活动，同样，这些都体现在语言里

　　And I'll start out with a puzzle, the puzzle of indirect speech acts.  我要从间接话语行为这个谜题开始。

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

5 liberating   

解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
• They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中，他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

6 confiscating   

没收（confiscate的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• There was Mame by my side confiscating my intellects and attention. 有玛米坐在我身边，害得我心不在焉。
• Intimidate book sellers by confiscating books deemed unfavourable to the Barisan government. 充公被视为对国阵不利的书籍，威胁书商。

7 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

8 verbiage   

n.冗词；冗长

参考例句：

• Stripped of their pretentious verbiage,his statements come dangerously close to inviting racial hatred.抛开那些夸大其词的冗词赘语不论，他的言论有挑起种族仇恨的危险。
• Even in little 140-character bites,that's a lot of verbiage.即使限制在一条140个字也有很大一部分是废话。

9 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

10 repertoire   

n.(准备好演出的)节目，保留剧目；(计算机的)指令表，指令系统， <美>(某个人的)全部技能；清单，指令表

参考例句：

• There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。
• He has added considerably to his piano repertoire.他的钢琴演奏曲目大大增加了。

11 metaphorical   

a.隐喻的，比喻的

参考例句：

• Here, then, we have a metaphorical substitution on a metonymic axis. 这样，我们在换喻（者翻译为转喻，一种以部分代替整体的修辞方法）上就有了一个隐喻的替代。
• So, in a metaphorical sense, entropy is arrow of time. 所以说，我们可以这样作个比喻：熵像是时间之矢。

12 bleach   

vt.使漂白；vi.变白；n.漂白剂

参考例句：

• These products don't bleach the hair.这些产品不会使头发变白。
• Did you bleach this tablecloth?你把这块桌布漂白了吗？

13 domains   

n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产

参考例句：

• The theory of thermodynamics links the macroscopic and submicroscopic domains. 热力学把宏观世界同亚微观世界联系起来。 来自辞典例句
• All three flow domains are indicated by shading. 所有三个流动区域都是用阴影部分表示的。 来自辞典例句

14 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

15 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。