1、Unit Nine,The Equality of LanguagesBy David Crystal,Questions,1. Do you think languages are equal? Whats the authors point of view? Do you agree? 2. As we all know the human race has evolved from primitive to civilized states, have languages gone through the same kind of evolution? 3. What do you th
2、ink of the “natural superiority” of certain languages?,Text,It comes near to stating the obvious that all languages have developed to express the needs of their users, and that in a sense all languages are equal. But this tenet of modern linguistics has often been denied, and still needs to be defen
3、ded. Part of the problem is that the word equal needs to be used very carefully. We do not know how to quantify language, so as to be able to say whether all languages have the same amounts of grammar, phonology, or semantic structure. There may indeed be important differences in the structural comp
4、lexity of language, and this possibility needs to be investigated. But all languages are arguably equal in the sense that there is nothing intrinsically limiting, demeaning, or handicapping about any of them. All languages meet the social and psychological needs of their speakers, are equally deserv
5、ing of scientific study, and can provide us with valuable information about human nature and society.,Primitive LanguagesThere are, however, several widely held misconceptions about languages which stem from a failure to recognize this view. The most important of these is the idea that there are suc
6、h things as primitive languages-with a simple grammar, a few sounds, and a vocabulary of only a few hundred words, whose speakers have to compensate for their languages deficiencies through gestures. Speakers of primitive languages have often been thought to exist, and there has been a great deal of
7、 speculation about where they might live, and what their problems might be. If they relied on gestures, how would they be able to communicate at night? Without abstract terms, how could they possibly develop moral or religious beliefs? In the 19th century, such questions were common, and it was wide
8、ly thought that it was only a matter of time before explorers would discover a genuinely primitive language.,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 that every culture which has been investiga
9、ted, 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 to civilized states, but there is no
10、 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 grammar: there may be relative
11、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 unfortunate influence of La
12、tin, 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 all have exceptio
13、ns 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 that some
14、 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 cultural o
15、r 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 excellenceAt the other end of
16、the scale from so-called primitive languages are opinions about the natural superiority of certain languages. Latin and Greek were for centuries viewed as models of excellence in western Europe because of the literature and thought which these languages expressed; and the study of modern languages i
17、s still influenced by the practices of generations of classical linguistic scholars.The idea that ones own language is superior to others is widespread, but the reasons given for the superiority vary greatly. A language might be viewed as the oldest, or the most logical, or the language of gods, or
18、simply the easiest to pronounce or the best for singing. Arabic speakers, for example, feel that their classical language is the most beautiful and logical, with an incomparable grammatical symmetry and lexical richness. Classical Arabic is strongly identified with religion, as the language of the Q
19、uran is held to provide miraculous evidence of the truth of Islam. From this viewpoint, it would be self-evident that, as God chose Arabic as the vehicle of his revelation to his Prophet, this must be the language used in heaven, and thus must be superior to all others,However, a similar argument ha
20、s 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. Becanus (1518-72) argued that German was superior to all other languages. It was the language Adam spoke in Eden, but it was not af
21、fected 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 original German (no longer extant) into Hebrew.There have been many other spurious linguistic evaluations, reflecting the
22、 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 Swedish writer, Andreas Kempe (1622-89), satirized contemporary clerical attitudes in presenting the view that
23、in Paradise Adam spoke Danish, God spoke Swedish, and the serpent spoke French.,A Linguistic MythA belief that some languages are intrinsically superior to others is widespread, but it has no basis in linguistic fact. Some languages are of course more useful or prestigious than others, at a given pe
24、riod 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 valued on the basis of the political or economic influence of its speakers. If it were otherwise, we w
25、ould 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 comparisons, we find only a small range of linguistic differences, and nothing to warrant such sweepi
26、ng 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 cultural terms. How, ultimately, could we compare the merits of Latin and Greek with the
27、 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 evaluation measure will be devised; but until then, the thesis that some languages are i
28、ntrinsically better than others has to be denied.From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988,Notes tenet 5tenit n. 主义，教义，信条 quantify 5kwCntifai vt. 确定的数量，量度 phonology fEu5nClEdVi n. 音位学 semantic structure语义结构 investigate in5vestieit v. 调查，研究 arguably 5B:j
29、uEbl adv. 可论证地；恐怕，大概 intrinsically in5trinsikEl adv. 本质上地，本来 demean di5mi:n v. 贬抑，降低（品格） stem stem vt.（与from连用）源自 compensate 5kCmpEnseit v. 补偿，赔偿，弥补 deficiency di5fiFEnsi n. 不足，缺乏；不足之数额 speculation 7spekju5leiFEn n. 推测 comparable 5kCmpErEbl adj. 可比较的；类似的 incomparable 5kCmpErEbl adj. 无可比拟的,anthropolo
30、gy 7AnWrE5pClEdVi n. 人类学 pastoral 5pB:stErEl adj. 牧人的; 田园的 nomadic nEu5mAdik adj. 流浪的，游牧的 inflectional system （语言的）屈折系统（语法词形变化系统） intricate 5intrikit adj. 错综复杂的；难懂的 pidgin languages (不同语种的人在商业交往中形成的)混杂语言 auxiliary C:5ziljEri adj. 辅助的；附属的 lexical 5leksikEl adj. 辞典的，词法的，词汇的 Quran kurB:n, -rAn n. (伊斯兰教
31、)可兰经 Islam 5izlB:m,-lAm,-lEm n. 伊斯兰教 symmetry 5simitri n. 对称(性)，匀称；协调 revelation 7revi5leiFEn n. 启示；（事实、秘密等的）揭发，暴露，显示 Sanskrit 5sAnskrit n. 梵语，梵文（古代印度的标准文语）,Hebrew 5hi:bru: n. 希伯来语 the Babel event巴别在旧约全书中希纳的一个城市（现在被认为是巴比伦），古巴比伦人想要建筑通天塔。 上帝因他们狂妄, 责罚他们各操不同的语言, 彼此不相了解, 结果该塔无法完成。 extant eks5tAnt adj. 现存
32、的 the Old Testament 圣经的两个主要部分之一的旧约全书 spurious 5spjuEriEs adj. 假的；伪造的，欺骗的 satirize 5sAtiraiz vt. 讽刺，挖苦 clerical 5klerikEl adj. 办事员(式)的，书记的；牧师的，神职（人员）的 Paradise 5pArEdaiz n. 伊甸乐园；天堂 serpent 5sE:pEnt n. 大毒蛇 prestigious 7pres5ti:dVEs adj. 有名望的, 有威信的，一流的 preeminence pri(:)5eminEns n. 优势，卓越，杰出 warrant 5wC
33、rEnt v. 保证，担保 aesthetic i:s5Wetik adj. 美的，审美的；美学的,ExercisesII. Choose the best word from the list given for each blank. Use each word once only and make changes where necessary. spurious investigate demeaning prestigious warrant speculationcompensate preeminence intricate stem deficiency intrinsical
34、ly 1. When I went up to _ it the floor caved in beneath me and I fell into the middle of all those nasty plants. 2. Young people dont want to enter a hotel as a waiter or bar person, because of the _ stigma attached to the job, unlike Greece, Italy or Spain where it is regarded as a worthwhile caree
35、r. 3. All these means of travel have their own _ interesting features largely generated by the method of movement involved: bridges, turnpike cottages, milestones in the case of roads.,investigate,demeaning,intrinsically,4. In transactional analysis (TA) it is assumed that our habitual ways of feeli
36、ng and behaving largely _ from the way we feel about ourselves in relation to other people. 5. We put together a team of _ judges from the world of fashion and beauty. 6. In that case the police searched under _ the defendants home for stolen jewelry. 7. Japans economic development has been followed
37、 by rapid growth in South Korea, sufficient to challenge Japans _ in some fields. 8. However, both arguments are _, for there is a very loose connection between tense and time.,stem,prestigious,warrant,preeminence,spurious,9. The nests are _ structures beautifully woven by the male birds, who then d
38、isplay on them to attract females to the nest. 10. Vitamin A _ usually only occurs in the presence of a grossly inadequate diet or when severe digestion problems exist. 11. The _, inevitably, was that Cat was Princes new girlfriend, but she insists that their relationship was strictly professional.
39、12. Investors demand high returns to _ for possible failure, making share issues an expensive way to raise cash.,intricate,deficiency,speculation,compensate,III. Word BuildingWe often encounter words that end in the suffixes ic and ical. The suffixes help form adjectives. While studying such adjecti
40、ves we should bear in mind that there are some nouns that also end in ic such as logic, music, republic, topic and traffic. Secondly, it seems that there are a number of adjectives only end in -ic. For example we use alcoholic but not alcoholical, basic but not basical, dramatic but not dramatical,
41、patriotic but not patriotical, plastic but not plastical, and so on. Thirdly, there are some adjectives that always end in -ical. Thus chemical but not chemic, farcical but not farcic, practical but not practic, radical but not radic, and so on. Fourthly, some adjectives may end either with -ic or w
42、ith -ical with no discernible difference. In such pairs as analytic/analytical; anthropologic/anthropological; astronomic/astronomical; geologic/geological; there appears to be no difference of sense. But pairs such as classic/classical; economic/economical; historic/historical are different in mean
43、ing,Sixthly, it is a curiosity that all the above pairs of words have icallyas their adverbial equivalents, not -ly. The main exceptions are thatpublic (which has no corresponding adjective form in -ical) has onlypublicly as the corresponding adverb. What is the difference in meaning between the fol
44、lowing pairs ofwords? Use the appropriate word in the following sentences: 1. skeptic / skeptical So if the_ is right, we should not pay attention toskepticism, since the skeptic arrives at the _conclusion byreasoning. 2. ethic/ethical And since work _has become part of our vocabulary, weveallemploy
45、ees and managers alike - unconsciously accepted the notion that working hard is an obligation when theres no logic at all to support this notion.,skeptic,skeptical,ethic,The report of the inquiry into the scientific, and regulatory aspects of human cloning and stem cell research was tabled in the Ho
46、use of Representatives on 20 September 2001. 3. mechanic/mechanicaDont risk having an inexperienced auto repair technician do a disappointing repair on your vehicle. It is important that you know how to select a good auto_ and the right questions to ask.While _ watches cant compete with quartz watch
47、es for accuracy, there is something about having a watch that ticks that a quartz watch just cant replace. 4. critic/critical Calm people with a little restraint impress a_, especially if the critic has already been _of your work. 5. statistic /statistical _analysis will be an easy subject for you i
48、f you know how to use computer software to calculate the_.,ethical,mechanic,mechanical,critic,critical,statistical,statistic,6. economic/economical Finding the most _ use of our resources is one of the most basic _ questions. 7. historic/historical The 100th meeting of the Waterford _ Society was indeed a _occasion. 8. classic/classical There are many recordings of jazz, rock and blues not just of _ music. 9. logic/logical What they said violated all the rules of _. The next _ move would be to ask for an estimate.,
