2016年经济学人 诺姆乔姆斯基 世界最知名语言学家提出诡异理论(上)

 

Johnson

约翰逊

Noam Chomsky

诺姆·乔姆斯基

The theories of the world's best-known linguist¹ have become rather weird²

世界最知名语言学家提出了更诡异的理论

FEW disciplines are so strongly associated with a single figure: Einstein in physics and Freud in psychology³, perhaps. But Noam Chomsky is the man who revolutionised linguistics⁴. Since he wrote “Syntactic Structures” in 1957, Mr Chomsky has argued that human language is fundamentally different from any other kind of communication, that a “linguist from Mars” would agree that all human languages are variations on a single language, and that children's incredibly quick and successful learning (despite often messy and inattentive parental⁵ input) points to an innate⁶ language faculty⁷ in the brain. These ideas are now widely accepted.

很少有学术领域能如此紧密地与某个人挂钩：就像爱因斯坦之于物理学、弗洛伊德之于心理学，而诺姆·乔姆斯基则彻底改革了语言学。自从其著作《句法结构》于1957年问世以来，乔姆斯基一直认为人类的语言与其他任何交流方式有着本质的不同。“来自火星的语言学家”可能会同意所有的人类语言最初都是由单一语言变种而来，而儿童之所以能够快速地学会一门语言（尽管有时候家长会无意教些乱七八糟的东西）则都归功于大脑中天生的语言机制。这种观念已经被广泛接受了。

Over the past 60 years, Mr Chomsky has repeatedly stripped down his theory. Some aspects of human language are shared with animals, and others are part of more general human thinking. He has focused ever more narrowly on the features of language that he reckons are unique to humans. All this has led to a remarkable⁸ little book, published late last year with Robert Berwick, a computer scientist. “Why Only Us” purports⁹ to explain the evolution of human language.

在过去的60年中，乔姆斯基不断地在精简自己的理论。人类语言的某些方面与动物类似，而其余的则来源于人类的思考。他一直专注于研究人类语言中独一无二的特性，并于去年与计算机科学家罗伯特·贝里克合著了一本名为《为什么我们是唯一的》的书，书中解释了人类语言的进化历程。

Other biologists, linguists¹⁰ and psychologists have probed the same question and have reached little consensus¹¹. But there is even less consensus around the world's most eminent¹² linguist's idea: that a single genetic¹³ mutation¹⁴ created an ability called “Merge¹⁵”, in a single human whom Mr Chomsky has called “Prometheus”, some time before the human exodus¹⁶ from Africa. That mutation was so advantageous¹⁷ that it survived and thrived, producing today's 7,000 languages from Albanian to Zulu. But the vast differences among the world's languages, Mr Chomsky argues, are mere¹⁸ differences in “externalisation”. The key is Merge.

虽然其他各路生物学家、语言学家和心理学家也一直在探寻这个问题，却并没有达成多少共识。然而对于语言学中最著名的理论则分歧更大—在一个乔姆斯基称之为“普罗米修斯”的人中，一次单一的基因突变创造了“合并”的能力，而当时人类还没有迁徙出非洲。该突变如此强大，在之后的岁月中存活并繁衍，创造出如今从阿尔巴尼亚语到祖鲁语的7000种人类语言。而世界各种语言中存在的广泛差异，乔姆斯基认为这只不过是外在的区别，核心仍然是“合并”。

But what is it? Merge simply says that two mental objects can be merged¹⁹ into a bigger one, and mental operations can be performed on that as if it were a single one. The can be merged with cat to give a noun phrase, which other grammar rules can operate on as if it were a bare noun like water. So can the and hat. Once there, you can further merge, making the cat in the hat.

但“合并”到底是什么？是两个精神客体互相融合成一个更大的，如果这是一个单一个体，就能产生各类心理活动。”The”与”cat”合并就能组成一个名词短语，如果只有一个名词（例如”water”）从语法规则上来说也是可以的。”The”与”hat”的组合也同理。之后，你可以进一步合并更多的词”the cat in the hat”。

1 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。

2 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

3 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

4 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。

5 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

6 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。

7 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。

8 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

9 purports   

v.声称是…，（装得）像是…的样子( purport的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She purports to represent the whole group. 她自称代表整个团体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The document purports to be official but is really private. 那份文件据称是官方的，但实际上是私人的。 来自辞典例句

10 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

11 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

12 eminent   

adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的

参考例句：

• We are expecting the arrival of an eminent scientist.我们正期待一位著名科学家的来访。
• He is an eminent citizen of China.他是一个杰出的中国公民。

13 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

14 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

15 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

16 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

17 advantageous   

adj.有利的；有帮助的

参考例句：

• Injections of vitamin C are obviously advantageous.注射维生素C显然是有利的。
• You're in a very advantageous position.你处于非常有利的地位。

18 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

19 merged   

（使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中

参考例句：

• Turf wars are inevitable when two departments are merged. 两个部门合并时总免不了争争权限。
• The small shops were merged into a large market. 那些小商店合并成为一个大商场。