2018年经济学人 迁徙美洲:检查站(1)

 

Science and Technology

科技

Peopling the Americas: Checkpoint

迁徙美洲：检查站

The first migrants to the new world had to wait 8000 years to be admitted.

新大陆的第一批移民在8000年后才被公认。

HOW America was originally colonised is a topic of perennial¹ interest at the AAAS. Until recently, the earliest uncontested archaeological evidence of people living in the New World came from Swan Point, in Alaska. This dates back 14,400 years. Linguists³, however, maintain that the diversity of native languages in the Americas could not have arisen so quickly. Conventional models of linguistic⁴ evolution assume tongues separate in the way populations of organisms do—so that the flow of vowels⁵, words and grammatical structures between groups must cease before new languages can emerge, just as a cessation of gene⁶ flow gives rise to new species. This suggests it would take at least 50,000 years for a single population speaking a single language to diversify⁷ and spread through the Americas in a way that yielded the pattern heard today. Since Native Americans’ genes⁸ do, indeed, indicate they all derive⁹ from a single population, this discrepancy¹⁰ in timing¹¹ is a paradox¹².

美国最初如何沦为殖民地一直是美国科学促进会（AAAS）非常感兴趣的话题。最近，我们从阿拉斯加天鹅点得到了一些当时居住在新大陆的部落的考古信息，这些信息是无可争议的。可追溯到14400年前，不过，语言学家认为，美洲本地语言的多样性不可能如此迅速的形成。语言进化的传统模式认为，语言以生物种群的方式分开，因此在新语言出现之前，种群之间的元音，词语和语法结构就不再相互的流动，正如基因流动的停止会形成新的物种一样。这表明，说着单一语言的单一民族，要想语言达到多样化并且通过美洲传播达到今天所听到的模式，至少需要5万年。由于美洲印第安人的基因表明它们都来自同一群体，因此这种时间上的差异是一个矛盾。

That paradox may be close to resolution. Recent digs have pushed the physical evidence of America’s settlement back in time. Meanwhile, as the meeting heard from Mark Sicoli, a linguist² at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, a different model of linguistic evolution brings the common ancestor of Native-American tongues forward. Apply a few error bars to the results and the two estimates touch—at about 25,000 years ago.

这种矛盾可能即将解决。最近的挖掘发现了美国定居点的实物证据。同时，正如Charlottesville的弗吉尼亚大学的语言学家Mark Sicoli在会议上所说的，一种不同的语言进化模式，使得拥有相同祖先的美国本土语言不断的发展。运用一种新的条形图误差分析结果，得出在2500年前，两个估计数值非常接近。

The problem with explaining linguistic evolution in pure Darwinian terms is that words are not genes. Species, once separate, do not exchange genetic¹³ information because they do not interbreed. Languages, though, can exchange grammatical and semantic elements when they meet, which can speed up diversification¹⁴. DrSicoli thus turned to computational phylogenetic analysis, an area of linguistic research that tries to work out whether and how such interaction may have taken place.

完全用达尔文的观点解释语言进化是有问题的，即：语言不同基因。物种一旦分离便不能再进行遗传信息的交流，因为它们无法交配。但不同的语言相遇时，他们的语法和语义可以相互交流，这可以加快语言的多样化的进程。因此，西里科利斯转向利用计算系统分析，一个试图找出语言如何相互交流的研究领域。

From the thousand or so Native-American languages he chose four dozen spoken in Alaska and northern Canada, the part of the Americas closest to humanity’s point of entry from Asia. He and his colleagues created a database that recorded, for each of them, 116 linguistic features such as sounds, parts of words, the functions of these parts and the ways a language combines words into phrases. They then used this to identify the influences of languages on each other. They also added geographical¹⁵ information, plotting the flow of linguistic change along the Pacific coast and through the river valleys. This nearly halved¹⁶ the time needed to give rise to the modern situation if the languages had evolved independently from a single common ancestor. That suggests the process of divergence¹⁷ may have begun as recently as 25,000 years ago.

从成千上万的美洲土著语言中，他选择了四十八种阿拉斯加语和加拿大北部语言，他们是美洲最接近人类进入亚洲的一部分。他和他的同事们创建了一个数据库，记录了每个人的116个语言特征，例如声音，部分单词，这些语言特征所起的作用，以及将单词组合成短语的方式。然后，他们利用数据库来分析语言的相互影响，还增加了地理信息，绘制了沿太平洋海岸和通过河谷的语言变化流动的路径。如果语言是独立的从共同的祖先发展而来，只需要原本的一半时间，就会进化到现在社会的情况。这表明分歧过程的起点可能是在25,000年前开始的。

1 perennial   

adj.终年的；长久的

参考例句：

• I wonder at her perennial youthfulness.我对她青春常驻感到惊讶。
• There's a perennial shortage of teachers with science qualifications.有理科教学资格的老师一直都很短缺。

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 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。

5 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

6 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

7 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

8 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

9 derive   

v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• We shall derive much benefit from reading good novels.我们将从优秀小说中获得很大好处。

10 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。

11 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

12 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

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 diversification   

n.变化，多样化；多种经营

参考例句：

• The seminar was to discuss diversification of agriculture. 该研讨会讨论的是农业多种经营。 来自辞典例句
• Firm diversification is increasingly achieved by the means of takeover and merger. 通过接管和兼并，厂商经营范围日益多样化。 来自辞典例句

15 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。

16 halved   

v.把…分成两半( halve的过去式和过去分词 )；把…减半；对分；平摊

参考例句：

• The shares have halved in value . 股价已经跌了一半。
• Overall operating profits halved to $24 million. 总的营业利润减少了一半，降至2，400 万元。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 divergence   

n.分歧，岔开

参考例句：

• There is no sure cure for this transatlantic divergence.没有什么灵丹妙药可以消除大西洋两岸的分歧。
• In short,it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values.总之，这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。