纪录片《为何讲话》 第45期：人与人之间的语言产生（在线收听）

We talk about the innate abilities and the learnt abilities,

我们谈论天生的能力和习得的能力

what we inherit and what we acquire,

哪些是遗传的 哪些是后天获取的

what we're given by our culture, our society, our parents,

哪些是我们的文化社会和父母给予的

and what we get from our genes.

哪些是从基因中获得的

Chapulin. - Cricket.

Chapulin呢 -蟋蟀

Cocone. -Children.

Cocone呢 小孩

I think both of those abilities, both of those sets of things

我认为我们需要同时具备

need to be in place for you

这两大类能力

to have the full, fully-fledged abilities with language.

才能拥有成熟的语言能力

And being able to identify all these components

识别语言的所有这些成分

and understand how they fit together

并懂得如何适当地组合它们

may tell us what it is to be human.

这种能力让我们成之为人类

A cat.

猫

And somehow out of this complicated soup

如果我们想要了解语言的起源

of interactions between people, language emerges,

以及语言为什么是这样的

and that's really what we need to understand

那就需要去了解

if we are to understand where language comes from

语言如何在复杂的人与人之间的

and why it is the way it is,

互动之中产生

and it's a really difficult problem.

这件事情真的很难理解

But answering the problem is important

但解决这个问题相当重要

because it defines us,

因为它成就了如今的我们

it defines who we are.

决定了我们是谁