TED英语演讲：你以为语言只是交流工具

1、TED英语演讲：你以为语言只是交流工具 | 中英文演讲稿 | So, Ill be speaking to you using language. because I can. This is one these magical abilities that we humans have. We can transmit really complicated thoughts to one another. So what Im doing right now is, Im making sounds with my mouth as Im e_haling. 我们通过语言沟通，由于我可以说话

2、。这是我们人类拥有的一种奇妙力量，我们可以相互传递特别简单的思想。我如今正在做的是，一边呼气，一边用我的嘴巴发出声音。 Im making tones and hisses and puffs, and those are creating air vibrations in the air. Those air vibrations are traveling to you, theyre hitting your eardrums, and then your brain takes those vibrations from your eardrums and transforms th

3、em into thoughts. I hope. 我在发出各种语调、嘶嘶声、呼气，而这些引起周边的空气振动。这些空气振动传到你那里，它们到达你的耳鼓，然后你的大脑会将你耳鼓接收到的振动转化成思想。至少我盼望是这样的。 I hope thats happening. So because of this ability, we humans are able to transmit our ideas across vast reaches of space and time. Were able to transmit knowledge across minds. I can put a

4、bizarre new idea in your mind right now. I could say, Imagine a jellyfish waltzing in a library while thinking about quantum mechanics. 我盼望如此。正是由于这种力量，人类可以将我们的思想跨越时间和空间，传递下去我们可以将学问相互传递。比方，我如今就可以给你传递一个惊奇的想法。我可以说，想象一只水母在一个图书馆里一边跳着华尔兹，一边思索着量子力学。 Now, if everything has gone relatively well in your life

5、so far, you probably havent had that thought before. 当然假如大家的生活到目前为止都还比拟顺当的话，你之前应当没有这样想过。 But now Ive just made you think it, through language. 而我如今让你们有了这个想法，正是通过语言做到的。 Now of course, there isnt just one language in the world, there are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world. And all the langu

6、ages differ from one another in all kinds of ways. Some languages have different sounds, they have different vocabularies, and they also have different structures - very importantly, different structures. 当然，世界上不是只有一种语言，全球有大约7000种语言。这些语言有着各种各样的区分。有些语言有不同的发音，不同的词汇，还有不同的构造不同的构造很重要。 That begs the quest

7、ion: Does the language we speak shape the way we think? Now, this is an ancient question. People have been speculating about this question forever. Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor, said, To have a second language is to have a second soul - strong statement that language crafts reality. But on the ot

8、her hand, Shakespeare has Juliet say, Whats in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Well, that suggests that maybe language doesnt craft reality. 于是，我们会问：我们说的语言是否塑造了我们的思维方式?这其实是个很古老的问题。人们始终以来都在思索这个问题。神圣罗马帝国的查理曼大帝曾说，学会了其次种语言就拥有了其次个灵魂这是信任语言会制造现实。但另一方面，莎士比亚笔下的朱丽叶又说，名字原来没有意义，一朵玫瑰花换个名字也

9、照样芳香。这就指或许语言不能制造现实。 These arguments have gone back and forth for thousands of years. But until recently, there hasnt been any data to help us decide either way. Recently, in my lab and other labs around the world, weve started doing research, and now we have actual scientific data to weigh in on thi

10、s question. 这些争辩已经持续了几千年。但始终以来，都没有任何数据可以关心我们确定孰是孰非。最近，在我的试验室和全球其它一些试验室，我们开头做讨论，如今我们有真实的科学数据，可以关心答复这个问题。 So let me tell you about some of my favorite e_amples. Ill start with an e_ample from an Aboriginal community in Australia that I had the chance to work with. These are the Kuuk Thaayorre people.

11、They live in Pormpuraaw at the very west edge of Cape York. Whats coolabout Kuuk Thaayorre is, in Kuuk Thaayorre, they dont use words likeleft and right, and instead, everything is in cardinal directions: north, south, east and west. 让我给大家举一些我喜爱的例子。先从澳大利亚的一个土著社群开头，我有时机跟他们接触过。他们是KuukThaayorre人，他们住在约克

12、角城最西边的Pormpuraaw。KuukThaayorre人有意思的一点是，在这个土著文化里面，他们没有左和右这样的词，全部的东西都是通过根本方一直表达的：东南西北。 And when I say everything, I really mean everything. You would say something like, Oh, theres an ant on your southwest leg. Or, Move your cup to the north-northeast a little bit. In fact, the way that you say hello

13、in Kuuk Thaayorre is you say, Which way are you going? And the answer should be,North-northeast in the far distance. How about you? 是的，我说的是全部的东西。比方，你可以说：哦，你西南方的那条腿上有一只蚂蚁，或者把你的杯子往东北偏北边移一下。事实上，他们打招呼的方式也是：你往哪里去?而答复会是：远处东北偏北处，你呢? So imagine as youre walking around your day, every person you greet, you h

14、ave to report your heading direction. 想象一下，你走在路上，你遇见每一个人都要报告一下你朝什么方向前进。 But that would actually get you oriented pretty fast, right? Because you literally couldnt get past hello, if you didnt know which way you were going. In fact, people who speak languages like this stay oriented really well. They

15、 stay oriented better than we used to think humans could. 但这会让你很快获得方向感，不是吗?由于假如你不知道你前行的方向的话，你连打招呼都没法进展。事实上，说这类语言的人他们的方向感特别好，远比我们以为人类可以做到的要好。 We used to think that humans were worse than other creatures because of some biological e_cuse: Oh, we dont have magnets in our beaks or in our scales. No; if

16、your language and your culture trains you to do it, actually, you can do it. There are humans around the world who stay oriented really well. 我们曾经以为人类的方向感要比其他生物差，而我们也找了生物缘由方面的借口：哦，我们没有可以感测磁场的鸟嘴或鱼鳞。事实并非如此。假如你的语言和文化给了你这方面的训练，你是可以做到的。世界上有些人的方向感就特别好。 And just to get us in agreement about how different t

17、his is from the way we do it, I want you all to close your eyes fora second and point southeast. 为了确保我们大家都同意在这点上我们的思维方式有多大差异，请大家闭上眼睛，然后指向东南方。 Keep your eyes closed. Point. OK, so you can open your eyes. I see you guys pointing there, there, there, there, there. I dont know which way it is myself -Yo

18、u have not been a lot of help. 先不要睁开眼睛，请指向东南方。如今，你们可以睁开眼睛了。我看到你们有指向那儿、那儿、那儿、那儿的我自己也不知道哪边是东南方，你们也没能帮到我。 So lets just say the accuracy in this room was not very high. This is a big difference in cognitive ability across languages, right? Where one group - very distinguished group like you guys -doesnt

19、 know which way is which, but in another group, I could ask a five-year-old and they would know. 暂且就说，在座的大家在这个问题上的精确?度不是很高。这就是不同语言之间的认知力量的宏大差异，一群像在座的各位一样特别优秀的人分不清哪里是哪里，而假如换做另一群人，一个5岁的孩子也知道答案。 There are also really big differences in how people think about time. So here I have pictures of my grandfat

20、her at different ages. And if I ask an English speaker to organize time, they might lay it out this way, from left to right. This has to do with writing direction. If you were a speaker of Hebrew or Arabic, you might do it going in the opposite direction, from right to left. 人们思索时间的方式也特别不同。这里是几张我的祖父

21、在不同年龄段的照片。假如我让一个英语用法者将它们按时间进展排列，他们可以会这样排，从左到右。这跟写字的方向有关。假如你说的是希伯来语或阿拉伯语，你那么可能会以相反的方向排列，从右到左。 But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre, this Aboriginal group I just told you about, do it? They dont use words likeleft and right. Let me give you hint. When we sat people facing south, they organized time from l

22、eft to right. When we sat them facing north, they organized time from right to left. When we sat them facing east, time came towards the body. 那KuukThaayorre人我刚刚提到的土著民会怎么排呢?他们没有左和右的概念。我来提示一下大家。当我们让他们面朝南方的时候，他们将时间挨次从左向右排;当面朝北方的时候，他们将时间挨次从右到左排;当他们面朝东部的时候，他们将时间从远到近排。 Whats the pattern? East to west, ri

23、ght? So for them, time doesnt actually get locked on the body at all, it gets locked on the landscape. So for me, if Im facing this way, then time goes this way, and if Im facing this way, then time goes this way. Im facing this way, time goes this way - very egocentric of me to have the direction o

24、f time chase me around every time I turn my body. For the Kuuk Thaayorre, time is locked on the landscape. Its a dramatically different way of thinking about time. 发觉规律了么?从东到西，对吗?因此对他们来说，时间跟身体的方向无关，而是跟地理有关。对我来说，假如我面对这边，时间就是这样走的;假如我面对这边，时间就是这样走的;假如我面对这边，时间就是这样走的完全以我为中心，我每次一转身，时间也要跟着我转变方向。对KuukThaayor

25、re人来说，时间是跟地理有关的。这是一种思索时间的迥然不同的方式。 Heres another really smart human trick. Suppose I ask you how many penguins are there. Well, I bet I know how youd solve that problem if you solved it. You went, One, two, three, four,five, si_, seven, eight. You counted them. You named each one with a number, and t

26、he last number you said was the number of penguins. This is a little trick that youre taught to use as kids. You learn the number list and you learn how to apply it. A little linguistic trick. 再给大家说一个人类的聪慧之处。假设我问你，这里有多少只企鹅，我敢说我知道你会怎么解决这个问题。你会一二三四五六七八地数过去。你让每一只企鹅对应一个数字，你念出的最终一个数字就是企鹅的总数。这是你小时候就学会了的技巧

27、，你学会了数数，你也学会了怎么用它。这是一种语言学的技巧。 Well, some languages dont do this, because some languages dont have e_act number words. Theyre languages that dont have a word like seven or a word likeeight. In fact, people who speak these languages dont count, and they have trouble keeping track of e_act quantities.

28、So, for e_ample, if I ask you to match this number of penguins to the same number of ducks, you would be able to do that by counting. But folks who dont have that linguistic trick cant do that. 但有些语言不是这样的，由于有些语言没有准确的数字词汇。有一些语言是没有比方七或者八之类的数字的。事实上，对那些用法没有数字的语言的人来说，他们不会数数，计算准确的数量对他们来说是很难的。比方，假如我让你把这么多的

29、企鹅跟同一数量的鸭子匹配起来，你数一下就可以做到了。但对那些没有这一语言特征的人来说却无法做到。 Languages also differ in how they divide up the color spectrum - the visual world. Some languages have lots of words for colors, some have only a couple words, light and dark. And languages differ in where they put boundaries between colors. So, for e

30、_ample, in English, theres a word for blue that covers all of the colors that you can see on the screen, but in Russian, there isnt a single word. 语言的差异还表达在我们如何辨别颜色，那些视觉的东西。有些语言有许多的颜色词汇，有的那么很少，就只有浅色和深色。这些语言差异表达在不同颜色之间的界限在哪里。比方，在英语里面，我们有蓝色这个词，它包含了你在屏幕上看到的全部颜色。但是在俄语里面，却没有这样的一个词。 In stead, Russian spea

31、kers have to differentiate between light blue, goluboy,and dark blue, siniy. So Russians have this lifetime of e_perience of, in language, distinguishing these two colors. When we test peoples ability to perceptually discriminate these colors, what we find is that Russian speakers are faster across

32、this linguistic boundary. Theyre faster to be able to tell the difference between a light and dark blue. 相反，俄语用法者要把浅蓝色goluboy和深蓝色siniy区分开来。所以俄语用法者一生都会在语言上区分这两种颜色。当我们测试人们区分这些颜色的力量的时候，我们发觉俄语用法者可以更快地进展这种概念切换，他们可以更快地辨别浅蓝色和深蓝色。 And when you look at peoples brains as theyre looking at colors - say you hav

33、e colors shifting slowly from light to dark blue - the brains of people who use different words for light and dark blue will give a surprised reaction as the colors shift from light to dark, as if, Ooh, something has categorically changed, whereas the brains of English speakers, for e_ample, that do

34、nt make this categorical distinction, dont give that surprise, because nothing is categorically changing. 当你观看人们在看这些颜色的大脑时，假设你给他们看从浅蓝色到深蓝色的渐变，那些用不同词形容浅蓝和深蓝的人的大脑会在颜色从浅到深的转换时表现出吃惊，仿佛哦，某些事情发生了根本的改变，而不做这种辨别的英语用法者的大脑那么不会表现出吃惊，由于没发生什么根本的改变。 Languages have all kinds of structural quirks. This is one of my

35、favorites. Lots of languages have grammatical gender; every noun gets assigned a gender, often masculine or feminine. And these genders differ across languages. So, for e_ample, the sun is feminine in German but masculine in Spanish, and the moon, the reverse. Could this actually have any consequenc

36、e for how people think? 语言还有各式各样的构造特征。这个是我最喜爱的。许多语言都有语法上的词性，每个名词都有一个指定的词性，通常是阳性或阴性。这些词性在不同语言中有所不同。比方，太阳在德语中是阴性的，在西班牙语中那么是阳性的，月亮那么相反。那这会不会影响人们的思索方式呢? Do German speakers think of the sun as some how more female-like, and the moon somehow more male-like? Actually, it turns out thats the case. So if you

37、 ask German and Spanish speakers to, say, describe a bridge, like the one here - bridge happens to be grammatically feminine in German, grammatically masculine in Spanish - German speakers are more likely to say bridges are beautiful, elegantand stereotypically feminine words. Whereas Spanish speake

38、rs will be more likely to say theyre strong or long, these masculine words. 德语用法者会觉得太阳更女性化，而月亮更男性化吗?事实确实如此。假如你让德语用法者和西班牙语用法者描绘一座桥，就像这一座，桥在德语中是阴性的，在西班牙语中那么是阳性的。德语用法者更倾向于说桥漂亮或优雅以及其他很女性化的词，而西班牙语用法者那么倾向于说桥强壮或绵长，那些更男性化的词。 Languages also differ in how they describe events, right? You take an event like th

39、is, an accident. In English, its fine to say, He broke the vase. In a language like Spanish, you might be more likely to say, The vase broke, or, The vase broke itself. If its an accident, you wouldnt say that someone did it. 语言的差异还表达在它们对大事的描绘上。以这件事为例，一个意外。在英语里面，你可以说他打碎了花瓶。在西班牙语里面，你更可能会说花瓶碎了，或者花瓶自己碎

40、了。假如这是一个意外，你不会说是谁打碎的。 In English, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. Now, in lots of languages, you couldnt use that construction unless you are a lunatic and you went out looking to break your arm - (Laughter) and you succeeded. If it was an accident, you would use a differ

41、ent construction. 在英语里面，很惊奇的是，我们甚至会说，我弄伤了我的手臂。在许多语言里面，你完全不会这样说，除非你是一个疯子，你试图弄伤自己的手臂，而且还胜利了。假如它是一场意外，你会用法不一样的语言构造。 Now, this has consequences. So, people who speak different languages will pay attention to different things, depending on what their language usually requires them to do. So we show the s

42、ame accident to English speakers and Spanish speakers, English speakers will remember who did it, because English requires you to say, He did it; he broke the vase. Whereas Spanish speakers might be less likely to remember who did it if its an accident, but theyre more likely to remember that it was

43、 an accident. Theyre more likely to remember the intention. 这会造成不同的结果。用法不同语言的人关注的点会不一样，这取决于他们的语言是怎么要求的。假如我们让英语用法者和西班牙语用法者看同样的意外大事，英语用法者会记得这件事是谁干的，由于英语需要你说是他做的，他打碎了花瓶;而西班牙语用法者那么不太可能会记得是谁干的假如这是一个意外大事的话，他们更可能会记得这是一个意外，他们更可能记得意图。 So, two people watch the same event, witness the same crime, but end up re

44、membering different things about that event. This has implications, of course, for eyewitness testimony. It also has implications for blame and punishment. So if you take English speakers and I just show you someone breaking a vase, and I say, He broke the vase, as opposed to The vase broke, even th

45、ough you can witness it yourself, you can watch the video, you can watch the crime against the vase, you will punish someone more, you will blame someone more if I just said, He broke it, as opposed to, It broke. The language guides our reasoning about events. 所以两个人看同样的大事，目睹同样的罪行，但记得的却不肯定一样。在目睹证词方面，

46、这是值得深思的，这对责怪和惩处也有影响。假如我给英语用法者看一个人不当心打碎花瓶，然后我说他打碎了花瓶，而不是说花瓶碎了，即使你自己亲眼看到了大事的经过，你看了那段视频，你可以看到花瓶的罪行，但是你却会更倾向于惩处、责怪那个人仅仅由于我说他打碎了花瓶，而不是花瓶碎了。语言会引导我们对大事的认知。 Now, Ive given you a few e_amples of how language can profoundly shape the way we think, and it does so in a variety of ways. So language can have big

47、effects, like we saw with space and time, where people can lay out space and time in completely different coordinate frames from each other. 那我给了大家几个语言如何影响我们思索的例子，它主要通过几个方式。语言可以造成大的影响，我们举了时间和空间的例子，人们对时间和空间的排列可以迥然不同。 Language can also have really deep effects - thats what we saw with the case of numb

48、er. Having count words in your language, having number words, opens up the whole world of mathematics. Of course, if you dont count, you cant do algebra, you cant do any of the things that would be required to build a room like this or make this broadcast, right? This little trick of number words gi

49、ves you a stepping stone into a whole cognitive realm. 语言还可以有很深的影响，我们举了数字的例子。假如你的语言里有数量词，有数字，这会开启一个全新的数学世界。假如你不能数数，你自然也不会代数学，你将不能做任何需要数学的事情，像建一个这样的演讲厅，或进展转播，对吧?小小的数字给我们供应了踏进一整个认知领域的垫脚石。 Language can also have really early effects, what we saw in the case of color. These are really simple, basic, per

50、ceptual decisions. We make thousands of them all the time, and yet, language is getting in there and fussing even with these tiny little perceptual decisions that we make. Language can have really broad effects. So the case of grammatical gender may be a little silly, but at the same time, grammatic

51、al gender applies to all nouns. That means language can shape how youre thinking about anything that can be named by a noun. Thats a lot of stuff. 语言的影响还可能很早就发生，我们举了颜色的例子。这是特别简洁、根本、感知型的决定，我们无时无刻不在做这样的决定，而语言就在那里影响着我们做的这些小小的决定。语言可以有很宽阔的影响，我们举了语法上的词性的例子看似微乎其微，但它却适用于全部名词。这意味着语言可以影响你如何思索全部能用名词表达的东西。那可是许多

52、东西。 And finally, I gave you an e_ample of how language can shape things that have personal weight to us - ideas like blame and punishment or eyewitness memory. These are important things in our daily lives. 最终，我举了一个语言可以如何影响跟我们切身相关的大事的例子，如责怪、惩处和目睹证词。这些是我们的日常生活中特别重要的方面。 Now, the beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us