PBS高端访谈:转变儿童语言的认知

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tonight's Brief But Spectacular¹ essay features psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason. She's a professor emeritus² at Boston University, and is best known as the creator of a test that helped to transform what we know about children's language.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：今晚《简短而精彩》的主人公是语言心理学家格里森。她是波士顿大学的名誉教授。她最为人所知的是她发明了一种测试，助力转变我们对儿童语言的认知。

JEAN BERKO GLEASON, Psycholinguist, Boston University: I have an intolerance for certain things, yes, intolerance for rudeness, actually. I don't like it when people make noises eating things, and I never stay in the house if anybody is eating soft boiled eggs, because soft boiled eggs are an abomination. Anybody who knows me knows that I really love technology. I have streaming cameras in my house that I set up. I installed my own video doorbell. I do all of those things. So I'm in my kitchen one day, and a woman rang the doorbell, and she said she wanted to get ahold of the neighbor next door, if she could send him a message. So I pulled my Pixel out of my pocket. And this young woman turned to me and said: Look at you with your smartphone. And I was just appalled³. I was just appalled that she would talk to me that way. And I said: What? And she said: Well, well, well, my mother wouldn't know how to use a smartphone. And I said: Well, I do have a Ph.D. from Harvard. And that shut her up. I was fascinated⁴ by language as a child, because I was under the impression that whatever you said meant something in some language. My brother Marty was 6 years older than me, and he had cerebral⁵ palsy. He was so smart that, ultimately⁶, he got a Ph.D. From Cornell. But when he was little, and even when he wasn't little, he had trouble speaking such that other people could understand him. I was the person who always understood what he said. So I felt some closeness with language, as well as with my brother. Other people didn't appreciate the fact that he was a sensitive, intelligent person. In fact, a lot of people with disabilities have this problem. People see that they have trouble walking or talking, and they assume that they have no intellectual capacity. He wasn't treated with the respect he deserved, and he felt that acutely⁷. I didn't start out to study psycholinguistics. I started out to study a million languages, because I loved them. I do speak Norwegian, French, Russian, bits and pieces of Arabic, German, enough Spanish to get dinner. OK, if we're going to talk about this little creature that's on me, it's called a Wug. It comes from a study I did a very long time ago, called The Wug Test. Steve, why don't you come over here, and we will practice on you and see if you can pass The Wug Test? This is a man who knows how to bing, OK? He is binging. He did the same thing yesterday. What did he do yesterday? Yesterday, he...

格里森，语言心理学家，波士顿大学：我对几样东西是零容忍的。没错，粗鲁就是其中一个。我不喜欢别人吃东西的时候发出很大的声音，我不喜欢在家里有人吃糖心蛋的时候待在家，因为糖心蛋令人讨厌。了解我的人都知道我喜欢科技。我在家里安了流播摄像头。我家的可视门铃是我自己安装的。这些事情我都会一手操办。所以，有一天，我在自家厨房里的时候，一位女士按响了门铃，她说，她想联系隔壁的人，她问是否可以给隔壁的人发信息。所以我从我兜里拿出了摄像头。这个年轻的女人转向我说：用你的智能手机好好看看你自己。我惊了，我惊了只是因为她居然以这种方式跟我说话。于是我说：哈？她说：好吧，我妈妈这种年纪的人可不知道怎么用智能手机。我说：我确实有哈佛的博士后学位。然后她就语塞了。我小时候就沉迷于语言的魅力，因为我有一个印象是——无论你说了什么，在某种语言里总会有一些含义的。我的哥哥马蒂比我大6岁，他患有大脑性麻痹。他真的很聪明，获得了康奈尔大学的博士后学位。但他小的时候，甚至长大之后，他说话都有障碍，以至于别人没法理解他在说什么。我就是那个能懂他意思的人。所以我觉得跟语言很亲近，跟我哥哥也很亲近。其他人都不欣赏哥哥敏感、聪明的品性。但实际上，很多有身心障碍的人都有这个问题。人们只因为看到他走路或者说话有问题，就认定他们有智力问题。他没有得到应有的尊重，他自己也真真切切地感受到了这一点。我一开始不是学语言心理学的。我一开始是把精力放在了研究各种语言上，因为我真地很喜欢语言。我会说挪威语、法语、俄语和一点点阿拉伯语、德语，我西班牙的水平能让我应对吃晚餐的问题。好吧，如果要讨论这个跟我有关的小东西，我会说，它叫Wug。Wug源自于我很久之前做过的一项研究，叫Wug测试。史蒂夫，你怎么不过来？我们会让你做练习对象，看看你能否通过Wug测试。这位男士知道如何用必应，记住了吗？他现在正在用必应。他昨天也用了必应。那么他昨天做了什么呢？昨天，他……

MAN: Binged.

男：他昨天用必应了。

JEAN BERKO GLEASON: That is a perfect child answer, OK? Four-year-olds will say that.

格里森：这对孩子来说是个完美的答案，不吗？4岁的孩子会这样回答。

MAN: Great.

男：棒。

JEAN BERKO GLEASON: I created The Wug Test to try to find out if even young children have internal systems of grammar that allow them to deal with words they have never heard before. I think that it's very important that children acquire language in a loving atmosphere. Kids need to have some kind of one-on-one relationship with other people, so that they care. If we care to communicate with them, we want them to care to communicate with us. My name is Jean Berko Gleason, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on language.

格里森：我发起这个测试的是想确认儿童是否有天生的语法体系，让他们可以应对自己从未听过的词语。我想，很重要的一点是：儿童在有爱的氛围下获取语言。儿童需要跟别人建立起面对面的关系，这样他们才会给予关注。如果我们关心他们并跟他们交流的话，那么我想他们也会在意跟我们交流这件事的。我是格里森，这是我本期分享的与语言有关的《简短而精彩》。

JUDY WOODRUFF: Thank you, Jean Berko Gleason.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：谢谢你，格里森。

1 spectacular   

adj.引人注目的，出色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• This is a spectacular film.这是一部场面壮观的电影。
• This is the most spectacular financial crash of the decade.这是10年里最引人注目的金融破产事件。

2 emeritus   

adj.名誉退休的

参考例句：

• "Perhaps I can introduce Mr.Lake Kirby,an emeritus professor from Washington University?"请允许我介绍华盛顿大学名誉教授莱克柯尔比先生。
• He will continue as chairman emeritus.他将会继续担任荣誉主席。

3 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 fascinated   

a.被强烈地吸引住，感到着迷的

参考例句：

• China has always fascinated me. 中国一直令我心驰神往。
• The children watched, fascinated, as the picture began to appear. 电影开始以后孩子们入迷地观看着。

5 cerebral   

adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的

参考例句：

• Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
• He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

6 ultimately   

adv.最后地，最终地，首要地，基本地

参考例句：

• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience.那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。
• Vitamin C deficiency can ultimately lead to scurvy.缺乏维生素C最终能道致坏血病。

7 acutely   

adv. 尖锐地, 剧烈地

参考例句：

• I am acutely aware of the difficulties we face. 我十分清楚我们面临的困难。
• After her mother's death, she became acutely aware of her own mortality. 她母亲去世后，她开始强烈意识到自己的生命是有限的。