2019年经济学人 约翰逊语言专栏--哪种语言最好?(1)

 

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Books and arts

来源于《图书与艺术》版块

Johnson

约翰逊语言专栏

First among equals

同侪之首

Which is the best language? You decide

哪种语言最好？你来决定

Maurice Druon of the French Academy once proposed that French should be made the principal legal language of the European Union. He argued that its logic¹ and precision rendered it the judicial² language par³ excellence⁴. Others chortled. How very French of him!

法国科学院的莫里斯·德鲁昂曾提议，应使法语成为欧洲联盟的主要法律语言。他认为，法语的逻辑性和精确性使其成为最优秀的司法语言。其他人则一笑置之。他真是个地道的法国人！

The French are hardly alone in believing that their language is especially poetic⁵, emotional, logical, precise, accessible or rich. But it turns out that the things people prize in their own languages can often be the same things foreign learners hate. Take the formal-informal distinction in words for “you”. German and French have du and tu for friends and family, and Sie and vous for unknown adults and formal speech. Natives of those languages miss that distinction when speaking English. Those whose languages (like English) don’t make it in the first place often resent having this choice forced on them in French or German.

并非只有法国人认为自己的语言特别富有诗意、情感丰富、逻辑严密、通俗易懂并且内容丰富。但事实证明，人们在母语中珍视的东西往往与外国学习者讨厌的东西是一样的。以“你”一词的正式和非正式区别为例。德国人和法国人对朋友和家人使用du和tu，用Sie和vous表示不知名的成年人和正式讲话。母语为德语和法语的人在讲英语时忽略了这一区别。那些母语(如英语)一开始就没有排在第一的人，往往在法语或德语中被迫做选择感到不满。

A dictum among linguists⁶ is that languages differ not in what they can express, but in what they must. Given the time and willingness to explain or coin basic terms, any language could be used to talk about anything. But they vary wildly in what they insist speakers say, with the tu-vous distinction just the tip of an iceberg⁷. Washo, a native language of Nevada, has four past and three future tenses, depending on how distant an event is in time. Tariana, from Brazil, has “evidentiality”: speakers choose one of five verb-endings to show how they know what they aver⁸ to be true. Jarawara, also from Brazil, distinguishes “we (including you)” and “we (without you)”.

语言学家的一个格言是，语言的差异不在于它们能表达什么，而在于它们必须表达什么。只要有时间和意愿解释或创造基本术语，那么任何语言都可以用来谈论任何事情。但他们在坚持讲话人的用词方面有很大不同，而 tu-vous 之间的区别也只是冰山一角。Washo是内华达州的一种本土语言，有四种过去时态和三种将来时态，具体取决于事件发生的时间间隔。来自巴西的塔利亚娜有一个明显的特点：说话者从五个动词尾中选择一个来表明他们知道自己所断言的是正确的。同样来自巴西的查拉瓦拉将“我们(包括你)”和“我们(没有你)”区分开来。

1 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

2 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

3 par   

n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的

参考例句：

• Sales of nylon have been below par in recent years.近年来尼龙织品的销售额一直不及以往。
• I don't think his ability is on a par with yours.我认为他的能力不能与你的能力相媲美。

4 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

5 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

6 linguists   

n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家

参考例句：

• The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field. 语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。 来自辞典例句
• The linguists' main interest has been to analyze and describe languages. 语言学家的主要兴趣一直在于分析并描述语言。 来自辞典例句

7 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

8 aver   

v.极力声明；断言；确证

参考例句：

• I aver it will not rain tomorrow.我断言明天不会下雨。
• In spite of all you say,I still aver that his report is true.不管你怎么说，我还是断言他的报告是真实的。