Origin of LanguagePPT学习课件PPT课件

1、 Language is a gift of God to mankind imitative, cries of nature, the grunts of men working together the result of physical and psychological development第1页/共15页1 The Divine-Origin Theory And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them

2、unto Adam to see what he would call them, and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. 第2页/共15页 圣经旧约创世纪中上帝创造亚当，亚当给万物取名的描述； 古埃及人认为语言的创造者是透特神； 中国古代传说女娲抟土造人的故事； 印度人认为语言是宇宙创造者梵

3、天之妻，学习女神沙拉斯瓦提赋予人类的 这些都反映了“语言神授”的原始观念。第3页/共15页2 The Invention TheoryThe “bow-wow” theoryThe “pooh-pooh” theoryThe “yo-he-ho” theory第4页/共15页2 The Invention Theory第5页/共15页 In primitive times people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that

4、. Onomatopoeic words seem to be a convenient evidence for this theory. But they are very different in the degree of resemblance they express with the natural sounds. This theory lacks supportive evidence. The “bow-wow” Theory 摹声说第6页/共15页 Apes gibber Bears growl Bulls bellow Cats mew (purr) Eagles sc

5、ream Frogs croak Goats bleatvAsses brayvBeetles dronevCamels gruntvDucks quackvFlies buzzvGeese cackle (gabble)vHorses nay (snort)Primary Onomatopoeia第7页/共15页Primary Onomatopoeia Hens cluck Lions roar Mice squeak Pigeons coo Puppies yelp Snakes hiss Turkeys gobblevLarks warblevMagpies chattervOwls h

6、oot (screech)vPigs squeal (grunt)vRavens(乌鸦)croakvThrushes(画眉)whistlevWolves howl第8页/共15页 In the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they utter instinctive sounds of pain, anger and joy. As for evidence, we can only cite the universal use of sounds as interjections. What makes the theory problemat

7、ic is that there is only a limited number of interjections in almost all languages. Besides, interjections such as Oh, Ah, Oops bear little relationship with the sound system of a language and therefore are not good evidence.The “Pooh-pooh” Theory 感叹说第9页/共15页 As primitive people worked together, the

8、y produced some rhythmic grunts which gradually developed into chants and then into language. We do have prosodic use of rhythms in languages, but rhythmic grunts are far different from language in its present sense. The theory is again at most a speculation. The “Yo-he-ho” Theory 吆嘿嗬说第10页/共15页The E

9、volutionary Theory第11页/共15页3 The Evolutionary Theory There is certain relationship between the development of language and the evolutionary development of the human species. 1. Children are born with both thought and language. 2. The development of the physical apparatus for speech. 3. It is labor that created the necessity for language.第12页/共15页 The by-now fruitless search for the origin of languages reflects peoples concern with the origin of humanity and may come up with enlightening findings in future. One th