经济学人40:语言,文化的工具

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review;Understanding language；Talk, talk；

　　文艺；书评；理解语言；不停地说；

　　Language: The Cultural Tool. By Daniel Everett.

　　《语言：文化的工具》，丹尼尔·埃弗雷特著。

　　For half a century an influential¹ group of Western linguists³, led by Noam Chomsky, have argued that language is an innate⁴ human faculty⁵, the product of a “language organ” in the mind. Other prominent “innatists” include Steven Pinker, an evolutionary⁶ psychologist and author of “The Language Instinct”, and Derek Bickerton, a linguist² at the University of Hawaii and developer of a “bioprogramme” theory of language. Innatists believe that all languages share fundamental features. And linguistic⁷ innatism is part of a wider debate about just how much of human nature is wired into the brain.

　　半个世纪以来一个由乔姆斯基领导的西方语言学家的群体已经证实，语言是一种先天的能力，是大脑中“语言器官”的产物。另一个杰出的“先天派”包括进化心理学家、《语言本能》的作者——史蒂夫皮克和夏威夷大学的语言学家、“生物计划”语言理论的创始人——德里克贝克顿。“先天派”认为所有的语言都有共同的基本特点，并且语言天赋论是关于到底有多少人类本性被用于智力运作的宽泛讨论的一部分。

　　Daniel Everett, a linguist at Bentley University in Massachusetts, disagrees on both innatism and the fundamental similarity of languages. He spent years learning tiny languages in forbidding jungle villages, experiences he recounted in his 2008 memoir⁸, “Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes”. (A former Christian⁹ missionary¹⁰ whose original goal was spreading the gospel, he fell away from his faith.) In his new book, “Language: The Cultural Tool”, Mr Everett moves away from narrow linguistic anthropology¹¹ to broad theory. He argues that language is not the product of a “language organ” but an extension of general intelligence.

　　丹尼尔 埃弗雷特，马萨诸塞州宾利大学的语言学家，对语言的天赋论和基本相似性都持有不同的看法。他在与世隔绝的小村庄里花费了数年的时间研究一些小语种，并在他2008年的自传《不要睡，有蛇！》里重新总结了这段经历。（一个曾经把传播福音作为最初目标的基督教传教士，后放弃了他的信仰。）在他的新书《语言：文化的工具》中，埃弗里特先生把狭隘的语言人类学从宽泛的理论中分离出来。他认为语言并不是语言器官的产物，而是一般智力的延伸。

　　Instead of unfolding in the same way in Paris and Papua New Guinea, languages are crafted by their speakers to meet their needs. He cites the Piraha, the Brazilian Amazonian group he has spent the longest time living with. There are no numbers beyond two in Piraha because, Mr Everett argues, they have no money, engage in little barter¹² trade, do not store food for the future and do not think about the distant past. This “living for the moment”, which the Piraha enjoy (they think Western life sounds dreadful), shapes their language.

　　相反地，以同样的方式在巴黎和巴布亚新几内亚展开，语言发言者精心制作以满足他们的需求。他用他在巴西亚马逊居住时间最长的种群皮尔哈举例，他证实在皮尔哈没有超过两位数的数字因为他们没有货币去进行小型货物交换贸易，不用为未来储存食物，也不用思考遥远的过去。这种皮尔哈人享受的“活在当下”的生活方式削弱了他们的语言。（他们认为西方人的生活听着很可怕）

　　That different cultures have different words is unsurprising. It is when these differences affect cognition (the Piraha cannot do maths, for example) that things get interesting. But Mr Everett's most controversial argument, and his biggest challenge to linguistic innatism, is about grammar.

　　不同的文化有不同的文字并不令人惊奇，但当这些不同之处影响到了认知能力时事情就变得有趣了。（举例来说，皮尔哈人不会数学。）但是埃弗里特最有争议的论据和对语言天赋论最大的挑战是关于语法的。

　　Mr Chomsky has argued that “recursion” is the key feature of all human language. This is the embedding¹³ of smaller units inside bigger ones: a subordinate clause is a kind of recursion, embedding a sentence in a bigger one. Mr Everett says that the Piraha lack grammatical recursion, and that even if recursion is universal (Piraha use it in stories if not within sentences), this does not prove the existence of the language organ. Information is naturally organised with smaller bits nesting inside larger ones. That nearly all humans would find this linguistically¹⁴ useful is little different than widely varying societies independently inventing the bow and arrow—it is simply useful, and no proof of an instinct. True instincts, like turtles making their way to the sea or ducklings bonding with their mothers, require no learning. Language does. Animals do not truly excel in their deployment¹⁵ of basic instincts, whereas some humans clearly use language much better than others.

　　乔姆斯基已经证明“递归”是所有人类语言的关键特征。递归是让更小的单位嵌入更大的单位内部：一个从句是一种递归，把一个句子嵌入更大的句子中。埃弗里特说皮尔哈缺乏符合语法规则的递归，即使递归是普遍存在的（皮尔哈人把它用在没有长句子的故事中），也不能证明语言器官的存在。信息是用小字节嵌入更大的字节而自然组成的。几乎所有人都能发现这种语言学的用途和广泛变化的社会独立发明弓和箭是不同的，它是有用的而且没有本能的证明。真正的本能是不用证明的，就像海龟用它们的方式去海边和小鸭子总是跟着它们的妈妈一样。语言也是如此。动物们并不是真的擅长本能的调度，而有些人显然能比其他人更好的使用语言。

　　But Mr Everett, in trying to reach a popular audience while making an argument aimed at professional linguists, makes some awkward compromises. He cites a paper by other researchers claiming to have found that there are no features that are common to all languages, an argument that is crucial to his thesis. But he does not give enough detail for the reader. Later he even contradicts himself, saying that all languages have nouns and verbs.

　　但是当埃弗里特针对语言学家得出结论时，为了争取到受众的欢迎而做了一些笨拙的妥协。他援引其它研究者的论文，声称已经发现了没有所有语言共通的特征，作为他的论文中一个重要的论据。但他并没有向读者展示更多细节。不久后他甚至自相矛盾的说所有语言都是有动词和名词的。

　　He argues that differences between societies lead to profound differences between languages, but fails to drive the point home fully¹⁶. The Wari' people use the word “hole” or “vagina” as the ordinary word for “wife”. Could this be denigrating¹⁷ of women? Or, since the birth canal is the point of departure for human life, could it be a way of praising them? Mr Everett is not sure.Or take Banawá, another Amazonian language, in which the default gender¹⁸ of an unknown person or mixed group of people is feminine, not masculine as in most languages. The Banawá also practise rigid¹⁹ gender segregation²⁰, even whipping young girls bloody²¹ after their first menstruation. Could the unusual gender-assignment of Banawá be a product of this gender-segregated Banawá society? “The only answer at present is, ‘Perhaps',” he writes. Even the lack of grammatical recursion in Pirah?, Mr Everett's key piece of evidence that it is culture that creates language, cannot tell the whole tale. Similar tribal²² cultures have languages bristling²³ with recursion.

　　他认为，社会之间的差异导致不同语言之间的深刻分歧，却不能充分证明其原理。沃利人用“洞”、“阴道”这样的词汇作为“妻子”的代名词；难道这是对女人的玷污？或者，产道是人类生命的出发点，难道这是一种赞美他们的方式？埃弗里特并不能确定。或者用亚马逊地区的另一种语言巴纳沃来举例，在大部分语言中，一个不知名的人或者一个混合群体的默认性别是女性，而不是男性。巴纳沃人仍然坚持严格的性别隔离，甚至要在女孩们第一次来月经后把她们鞭打的鲜血淋漓。巴纳沃的这种特殊的性别对待难道是巴纳沃社会性别隔离的产物？“现在唯一的答案是‘也许吧'”，他写到。即使是缺乏语法递归的皮尔哈，埃弗里特证据的关键点仍然是文化创造了语言，但这不能断定整个叙述。类似的种族文化里存在着充满了递归式的语言。

　　Mr Everett thinks it possible that culture influences grammar, but he is not sure. He acknowledges that conjecture²⁴ about what causes linguistic differences has been a staple²⁵ of much irresponsible amateur linguistics²⁶. It is hard to work out where culture has affected²⁷ language, where language affects culture and cognition (a hot topic of psycholinguistic research), and where the differences are unrelated. Mr Everett has taken a shot across the innatists' bow, and an impressively modest and reasoned one given that Mr Chomsky once called him a charlatan²⁸. His case is not wholly proven, but it deserves a serious reading, and a response beyond name-calling.

　　埃弗里特认为文化影响语法是可能的，但他并不确定。他承认，关于引起语言差异原因的猜想已经成为多数不负责任的业余的语言学的主题。文化在哪影响了语言、语言在哪影响了文化和认知（心理语言学研究的一个热门话题）、差异在哪是无关联的都很难计算。埃弗里特提醒先天派，一个印象深刻的谦逊的合理的人是会考虑到乔姆斯基曾经笑话他是个骗子。他的情况并不能完全证明，但值得一读，还有超越了人身攻击的回应。

1 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

2 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

3 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

4 innate   

adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的

参考例句：

• You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
• Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。

5 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

6 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

7 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

8 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

9 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

10 missionary   

adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士

参考例句：

• She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
• I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。

11 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

12 barter   

n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易

参考例句：

• Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上，鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用。
• They have arranged food imports on a barter basis.他们以易货贸易的方式安排食品进口。

13 embedding   

把…嵌入，埋入( embed的现在分词 )； 植入； 埋置； 包埋

参考例句：

• Data embedding in scrambled Digital video complete source code, has been tested. 数据嵌入在炒数字视频完整的源代码，已经过测试。
• Embedding large portions of C++ code in string literals is very awkward. 将大部分C++代码嵌入到字符串中是非常笨拙的。

14 linguistically   

adv. 语言的, 语言学的

参考例句：

• But this group is linguistically, culturally, and even genetically diverse. 但这个人群在语言上，文化上，甚至在遗传上都是多样化的。
• Like the EU, Belgium is linguistically and culturally divided. 与欧盟一样，比利时是个多语言、多文化的地区。

15 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

16 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

17 denigrating   

v.诋毁，诽谤( denigrate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They bristled at his denigrating description of their activities. 听到他在污蔑他们的活动，他们都怒发冲冠。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The KGB pigeonholed his report and reprimanded him for denigrating a brother officer. 克格勃把他的调查报告扔在一边，不闻不问，反而说他往同志脸上抹黑。 来自辞典例句

18 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

19 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

20 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

21 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

22 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

23 bristling   

a.竖立的

参考例句：

• "Don't you question Miz Wilkes' word,'said Archie, his beard bristling. "威尔克斯太太的话，你就不必怀疑了。 "阿尔奇说。他的胡子也翘了起来。
• You were bristling just now. 你刚才在发毛。

24 conjecture   

n./v.推测，猜测

参考例句：

• She felt it no use to conjecture his motives.她觉得猜想他的动机是没有用的。
• This conjecture is not supported by any real evidence.这种推测未被任何确切的证据所证实。

25 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

26 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

27 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

28 charlatan   

n.骗子；江湖医生；假内行

参考例句：

• The charlatan boasted that he could charm off any disease.这个江湖骗子吹牛说他能用符咒治好各种疾病。
• He was sure that he was dealing with a charlatan.他真以为自己遇上了江湖骗子。