介绍： Johnson

约翰逊语言专栏
How to talk to aliens
如何与外星人交谈
The challenge says a lot about talk among people, too
这个挑战也说明了很多人与人沟通的问题
Imagine dining in a European capital where you do not know the local language. The waiter speaks little English, but by hook or by crook you manage to order...

介绍： Johnson

约翰逊语言专栏
How to talk to aliens
如何与外星人交谈
The challenge says a lot about talk among people, too
这个挑战也说明了很多人与人沟通的问题
Imagine dining in a European capital where you do not know the local language. The waiter speaks little English, but by hook or by crook you manage to order something on the menu that you recognise, eat and pay for. Now picture instead that, after a hike goes wrong, you emerge, starving, in an Amazonian village. The people there have no idea what to make of you. You mime chewing sounds, which they mistake for your primitive tongue. When you raise your hands to signify surrender, they think you are launching an attack.
想象一下，你在一个不懂当地语言的欧洲首都用餐。服务员几乎不会说英语，但你想尽办法点了菜单上你认识的菜，吃了，付了钱。现在想象一下，一次远足出了问题，你饿着肚子出现在亚马逊的一个村庄。那里的人根本不知道你是干什么的。你模仿咀嚼的声音，他们会误认为是你的原始舌头有什么问题。当你举手示意投降时，他们认为你是在发起进攻。
Communicating without a shared context is hard. For example, radioactive sites must be left undisturbed for tens of thousands of years; yet, given that the English of just 1,000 years ago is now unintelligible to most of its modern speakers, agencies have struggled to create warnings to accompany nuclear waste.

没有共享背景信息的沟通是困难的。例如，放射性场所必须保持数万年不受干扰；然而现在，考虑到仅仅1000年前的英语对大多数说现代英语的人来说是难以理解的，各机构一直在努力创造核废料的警告话语。