研究生英语课件以及课后详细答案第九单元.ppt
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1、Unit NineThe Equality of Languages By David CrystalQuestionsn1.Do you think languages are equal?Whats the authors point of view?Do you agree?n2.As we all know the human race has evolved from primitive to civilized states,have languages gone through the same kind of evolution?n3.What do you think of
2、the“natural superiority”of certain languages?Text It comes near to stating the obvious that all languages havedevelopedtoexpresstheneedsoftheirusers,andthatinasensealllanguagesareequal.Butthistenetofmodernlinguisticshasoftenbeendenied,andstillneedstobedefended.Partoftheproblemisthatthewordequalneeds
3、tobeusedverycarefully.Wedonotknowhowtoquantifylanguage,soastobeabletosaywhetheralllanguageshavethesameamountsofgrammar,phonology,orsemanticstructure.Theremay indeed be important differences in the structural complexity oflanguage,andthispossibilityneedstobeinvestigated.Butalllanguagesare arguably eq
4、ual in the sense that there is nothing intrinsicallylimiting,demeaning,orhandicappingaboutanyofthem.Alllanguagesmeetthesocialandpsychologicalneedsoftheirspeakers,areequallydeserving of scientific study,and can provide us with valuableinformationabouthumannatureandsociety.nPrimitive LanguagesThereare
5、,however,severalwidelyheldmisconceptionsaboutlanguageswhichstemfromafailuretorecognizethisview.Themostimportantoftheseistheideathattherearesuchthingsasprimitivelanguages-withasimplegrammar,afewsounds,andavocabularyofonlyafewhundredwords,whose speakers have to compensate for their languagesdeficienci
6、es through gestures.Speakers of primitivelanguageshaveoftenbeenthoughttoexist,andtherehasbeenagreatdealofspeculationaboutwheretheymightlive,andwhattheirproblemsmightbe.Iftheyreliedongestures,howwouldtheybeabletocommunicateatnight?Withoutabstractterms,how could they possibly develop moral or religiou
7、sbeliefs?Inthe19thcentury,suchquestionswerecommon,anditwaswidelythoughtthatitwasonlyamatteroftimebefore explorers would discover a genuinely primitivelanguage.from stem to stern:From one end to another.从头到尾stem from out of 出自;来源于;发生于customs stemming from the past;来自过去的习俗;The fact of the matter is th
8、at every culture which has been investigated,no matter how primitive it may be in cultural terms,turns out to have a fully developed language,with a complexity comparable to those of the so-called civilized nations.Anthropologically speaking,the human race can be said to have evolved from primitive
9、to civilized states,but there is no sign of language having gone through the same kind of evolution.There are no bronze age or stone age languages,nor have any language types been discovered which correlate with recognized anthropological groups(pastoral,nomadic,etc.).All languages have a complex gr
10、ammar:there may be relative simplicity in one respect(e.g.no word-endings),but there seems always to be relative complexity in another(e.g.word-position).People sometimes think of languages such as English as“having little grammar because there are few word-endings.But this is once again the unfortu
11、nate influence of Latin,which makes us think of complexity in terms of the inflectional system of that language.Simplicity and regularity are usually thought to be desirable features of language;but no natural language is simple or wholly regular.All languages have intricate grammatical rules,and al
12、l have exceptions to those rules.The nearest we come to real simplicity with natural languages is in the case of pidgin languages;and the desire for regularity is a major motivation for the development of auxiliary languages.But these are the only exceptions.Similarly,there is no evidence to suggest
13、 that some languages are in the long term easier for children to learn than others-though in short term some linguistic features may be learned at different rates by the children of speakers of different languages.None of this is to deny the possibility of linguistic difference which correlate with
14、cultural or social features(such as the extent of technological development),but these have not been found;and there is no evidence to suggest that primitive peoples are in any sense handicapped by their language when they are using it within their own community.Languages of excellenceAttheotherendo
15、fthescalefromso-calledprimitivelanguagesareopinionsaboutthenaturalsuperiorityofcertainlanguages.LatinandGreekwereforcenturiesviewedasmodelsofexcellenceinwesternEurope because of the literature and thought which these languagesexpressed;andthestudyofmodernlanguagesisstillinfluencedbythepracticesofgen
16、erationsofclassicallinguisticscholars.Theideathatonesownlanguageissuperiortoothersiswidespread,butthereasonsgivenforthesuperiorityvarygreatly.Alanguagemightbeviewedastheoldest,orthemostlogical,orthelanguageofgods,orsimplytheeasiesttopronounceorthebestforsinging.Arabicspeakers,forexample,feelthatthei
17、rclassicallanguageisthemostbeautifulandlogical,with an incomparable grammatical symmetry and lexicalrichness.Classical Arabic is strongly identified with religion,as thelanguageoftheQuranisheldtoprovidemiraculousevidenceofthetruthofIslam.Fromthisviewpoint,itwouldbeself-evidentthat,asGodchoseArabicas
18、thevehicleofhisrevelationtohisProphet,thismustbethelanguageusedinheaven,andthusmustbesuperiortoallothers However,a similar argument has been applied to several other languages,such as Sanskrit and Classical Hebrew,especially in relation to claims about which language is the oldest.For example,J.G.Be
19、canus(1518-72)argued that German was superior to all other languages.It was the language Adam spoke in Eden,but it was not affected in the Babel event,because the early Germans(the Cimbrains)did not assist in the construction of the tower.God later caused the Old Testament to be translated from the
20、original German(no longer extant)into Hebrew.There have been many other spurious linguistic evaluations,reflecting the sociopolitical situation of the time.Charles V of Germany(who ruled from 1519 to 1558)is said to have spoken French to men,Italian to women,Spanish to God,and German to horses!The S
21、wedish writer,Andreas Kempe(1622-89),satirized contemporary clerical attitudes in presenting the view that in Paradise Adam spoke Danish,God spoke Swedish,and the serpent spoke French.nA Linguistic Myth A belief that some languages are intrinsically superior to others is widespread,but it has no bas
22、is in linguistic fact.Some languages are of course more useful or prestigious than others,at a given period of history,but this is due to the preeminence of the speakers at that time,and not to any inherent linguistic characteristics.The view of modern linguistics is that a language should not be va
23、lued on the basis of the political or economic influence of its speakers.If it were otherwise,we would have to rate the Spanish and Portuguese spoken in the 16th century as somehow better than they are today,and modern American English would be better than British English.Yet when we make such compa
24、risons,we find only a small range of linguistic differences,and nothing to warrant such sweeping conclusions.At present,it is not possible to rate the excellence of languages in linguistic terms.And it is no less difficult to arrive at an evaluation in aesthetic,philosophical,literary,religious,or c
25、ultural terms.How,ultimately,could we compare the merits of Latin and Greek with the proverbial wisdom of Chinese,the extensive oral literature of the Polynesian islands,or the depth of scientific knowledge which has been expressed in English?Perhaps one day some kind of objective linguistic evaluat
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