介绍： 1 Why language is humanity's greatest invention
为什么语言是人类最伟大的发明

Speaker:David Peterson .Language creator, writer, artist，creates languages for television shows, for films and for fun.

00:13
Spoons. 勺子。 
Cardboard boxes. 纸箱。
Toddler-size electric trains. 儿童电动小火车。 
Holiday ornament...

介绍： 1 Why language is humanity's greatest invention
为什么语言是人类最伟大的发明

Speaker:David Peterson .Language creator, writer, artist，creates languages for television shows, for films and for fun.

00:13
Spoons. 勺子。 
Cardboard boxes. 纸箱。
Toddler-size electric trains. 儿童电动小火车。 
Holiday ornaments. 节日装饰品。 
Bounce houses. 蹦蹦床。 
Blankets. 毯子。 
Baskets. 篮子。 
Carpets. 地毯。 
Tray tables. 小桌板。 
Smartphones. 智能手机。 
Pianos. 钢琴。 
Robes. 睡袍。 
Photographs. 照片。 

00:37
What do all of these things have in common, aside from the fact they're photos that I took in the last three months, and therefore, own the copyright to? 
这些东西有什么共同点？除了它们是我在最近三个月中拍的照片，并且拥有著作权外？ 

00:46
They're all inventions that were created with the benefit of language. None of these things would have existed without language. Imagine creating any one of those things or, like, building an entire building like this, without being able to use language or without benefiting from any knowledge that was got by the use of language. Basically, language is the most important thing in the entire world. All of our civilization rests upon it. And those who devote their lives to studying it -- both how language emerged, how human languages differ, how they differ from animal communication systems -- are linguists. Formal linguistics is a relatively young field, more or less. And it's uncovered a lot of really important stuff. Like, for example, that human communication systems differ crucially from animal communication systems, that all languages are equally expressive, even if they do it in different ways. 
它们是发明的产物，得益于语言，它们被创造出来。如果没有语言，这些东西都不会被创造出来。试想创造任何一个这些东西，像建造这样一个完整的大楼，没有语言沟通或不借助因使用语言而获得的知识。从大体上来说，语言是这个世界上最重要的东西。我们所有的文明都依存于语言之上。那些终生致力于研究语言的人—— 语言是怎么出现的，人类的语言为什么有差异，与动物的交流系统有什么不同—— 是语言学家。 形式语言学，或多或少算是一个比较新的领域。并且它揭示了许多真正重要的东西。例如，人类的交流系统与动物的交流系统有相当大的差异，所有的语言表达能力都是一样的，即便他们的表达方式不同。 

01:45
And yet, despite this, there are a lot of people who just love to pop off about language like they have an equal understanding of it as a linguist, because, of course, they speak a language. And if you speak a language, that means you have just as much right to talk about its function as anybody else. Imagine if you were talking to a surgeon, and you say, "Listen, buddy. I've had a heart for, like, 40 years now. I think I know a thing or two about aortic valve replacements. I think my opinion is just as valid as yours." And yet, that's exactly what happens. 
当然，尽管如此，还是有许多喜欢随便谈论语言的人，就好像他们有语言学家那样高的理解似的，当然，他们会说某种语言。如果你会讲一种语言，那就意味着你有同样多的权利像其他人一样去谈论它的功能。想像一下假如你对一个外科医生说， “听着，哥们儿。我的心脏在我体内呆了四十年了。我想我会知道一些关于主动脉瓣置换的事情。我认为我的意见和你的一样有效。” 是的，这就是正在发生的事。 

02:17
This is Neil deGrasse Tyson, saying that in the film "Arrival," he would have brought a cryptographer -- somebody who can unscramble a message in a language they already know -- rather than a linguist, to communicate with the aliens, because what would a linguist -- why would that be useful in talking to somebody speaking a language we don't even know? Though, of course, the "Arrival" film is not off the hook. I mean, come on -- listen, film. Hey, buddy: there are aliens that come down to our planet in gigantic ships, and they want to do nothing except for communicate with us, and you hire one linguist? 
这是尼尔.德格拉塞.泰森，对电影《降临》的评论，他说他会带一个密码专家—— 能够用他们知道的语言去解读信息的人而不是一名语言学家，去和外星人对话，因为一名语言学家—— 他怎么会在和一个说着一门我们都不懂的语言的人交谈时派上用场呢？当然，《降临》这部电影并没有好到哪里去。我的意思是，瞧这部电影：外星人坐巨大的飞船里降临到我们地球，他们只是想和我们交流，别无所求，而你只雇了一名语言学家？ 

02:51
What's the US government on a budget or something? A lot of these things can be chalked up to misunderstandings, both about what language is and about the formal study of language, about linguistics. And I think there's something that underlies a lot of these misunderstandings that can be summed up by this delightful article in "Forbes," about why high school students shouldn't learn foreign languages. I'm going to pull out some quotes from this, and I want you to see if you can figure out what underlies some of these opinions and ideas. "Americans rarely read the classics, even in translation." So in other words, why bother learning a foreign language when they're not even going to read the classic in the original anyway? What's the point? "Studying foreign languages in school is a waste of time, compared to other things that you could be doing in school." "Europe has a lot of language groups clustered in a relatively small space." So for Americans, ah, what's the point of learning another language? You're not really going to get a lot of bang for your buck out of that. This is my favorite, "A student in Birmingham would have to travel about a thousand miles to get to the Mexican border, and even then, there would be enough people who speak English to get around." In other words, if you can kind of wave your arms around, and you can get to where you're going, then there's really no point in learning another language anyway. 
美国政府给了多少预算？许多这样的事情可以让人们对什么是语言，什么是正规的语言学习，什么是语言学存在误解。 我认为支撑这些误解之下的东西可以由这篇发表在《福布斯》上的令人愉悦的文章来概括， 这是一篇为什么高中生不应当学习外语的文章。我会从中抽取一些文段，我想看看，你们是否能够搞清这些观点和想法的基础是什么。 “美国人很少读原著，即便是译本。” 所以，换句话说，为什么要为学一门外语而烦恼呢，既然他们无论如何都不去阅读原著典籍？有什么意义呢？“与其他可以在学校做的事情相比，在学校里学习外语是浪费时间。” “欧洲有许多语种聚集在一个相对狭小的空间里。” 所以对于美国人，学习一门外语的意义何在呢？你又不会从那得到什么大的好处。这是我最爱的， “一名在伯明翰的学生可能会旅行大约一千英里来到墨西哥边界，即使这样，那里也有足够多讲英语的人在周围。” 换句话说，如果你能稍微招招手，你就能到达任何你想去的地方。 所以，就真没有意义去学习一门外语。 

04:13
What underlies a lot of these attitudes is the conceptual metaphor, language is a tool. And there's something that rings very true about this metaphor. Language is kind of a tool in that, if you know the local language, you can do more than if you didn't. But the implication is that language is only a tool, and this is absolutely false. If language was a tool, it would honestly be a pretty poor tool. And we would have abandoned it long ago for something that was a lot better. Think about just any sentence. Here's a sentence that I'm sure I've said in my life: "Yesterday I saw Kyn." I have a friend named Kyn. And when I say this sentence, "Yesterday I saw Kyn," do you think it's really the case that everything in my mind is now implanted in your mind via this sentence? Hardly, because there's a lot of other stuff going on. 
这些看法的基础是这种概念隐喻，语言是一种工具。 这个隐喻听起来非常真实。语言是一种工具， 如果你懂当地的语言，你可以做更多之前不能做的事情。但是这暗示了语言只是一种工具，这是绝对错误的。 如果语言是一种工具，老实说，这是种相当不好用的工具。我们会在很久以前就抛弃它而去使用更好的工具。随便想一个句子。这里有个我确信在生活中说过的句子： “昨天我看见凯恩了。” 我有一位叫凯恩的朋友。当我说这句话，“昨天我看见凯恩了，“ 你真的以为我脑海里此时此刻的一切与通过这句话植入你大脑的一切是一样的吗？当然不是，因为还有许多其它的东西。