TED英文演讲：你觉得语言表达仅仅沟通交流专用工具

TED英文演讲：你觉得语言表达仅仅沟通交流专用工
具
会第二种语言表达，就好像拥有第二个生命”，这恰好是大家学外语的缘故之一。

每一种语言表达都含有自身的思维模式，有的语言表达中每一个专有名词都是有特定的性別;而有的语言表达中沒有前后左右仅有东西南北。

世界上7000多语种，每一种都是有自身与众不同的风采。

下边是我为大伙儿搜集有关TED 英文演讲：你觉得语言表达仅仅沟通交流专用工具，热烈欢迎参考参照。

中英文演讲稿
So, I'll 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 I'm doing right now is, I'm making sounds with my mouth as I'm exhaling.
大家根据语言表达沟通交流，由于我能讲话。

它是大家人们有着的一种奇妙工作能力，我们可以相互之间传送比较复杂的观念。

现在我已经做的是，一边呼吸，一边我用的嘴唇发出声响。

I'm making tones and hisses and puffs, and those are creating air vibrations in the air. Those air vibrations are traveling to you, they're hitting your eardrums, and then your brain takes those vibrations from your eardrums and transforms them into thoughts. I hope.
我还在传出各种各样语气、嘶嘶声、呼吸，而这种造成附近的气体震动。

这种气体震动传入你那里，他们抵达你的耳鼓，随后你的人的大脑会将你耳鼓接受到的震动转换成观念。

最少希望是那样的。

I hope that's happening. So because of this ability, we humans are able to transmit our ideas across vast reaches of space and time. We're able to transmit knowledge across minds. I can put a bizarre new idea in your mind right now. I could say, "Imagine a jellyfish waltzing in a library while thinking about quantum mechanics."
我希望如此。

恰好是由于这类工作能力，人们可以将大家的观念超越时间和空间，传送下来大家可以将专业知识相互之间传送。

例如，现在我就可以让你传送一个怪异的念头。

我能说，“想像一只水母在一个公共图书馆里一边跳着华尔兹，一边思索着物理学。

”
Now, if everything has gone relatively well in your life so far, you probably haven't had that thought before.
自然假如大伙儿的日常生活到迄今为止都还比较顺利得话，你以前应当沒有那样想过。

But now I've just made you think it, through language.
而现在我让大家拥有这一念头，恰好是根据语言表达保证的。

Now of course, there isn't just one language in the world, there are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world. And all the languages
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.
自然，全世界并不是仅有一种语言表达，全世界有大概7000种语言表达。

这种语言表达拥有各种各样的差别。

有一些语言表达有不一样的音标发音，不一样的语汇，还有不同的构造——不一样的构造很重要。

That begs the question: 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 other hand, Shakespeare has Juliet say, "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Well, that suggests that maybe language doesn't craft reality.
因此，大家会问：大家说的语言表达是不是营造了大家的思维模式?这实际上是个很历史悠久的难题。

大家一直以来都是在思索这个问题。

崇高古罗马帝国的查理曼大帝曾说，“学会了第二种语言表达就有着了第二个生命”——它是坚信语言表达会造就实际。

但另一方面，沙士比亚金庸小说的茱丽叶又说，“名称原本没有意义，一朵玫瑰花换一个名称也仍然清香。

”这就指或许语言表达不可以造就实际。

These arguments have gone back and forth for thousands of years. But until recently, there hasn't been any data to help us decide either way. Recently, in my lab and other labs around the world, we've started doing research, and now we have actual scientific data to weigh in on this question.
这种争执早已不断了数千年。

但一直以来，也没有一切数据信息可以协助大家明确谁是谁非。

近期，在我的试验室和全世界其他一些试验室，大家逐渐做科学研究，如今大家有真正的科学研究数据信息，能够协助回应这个问题。

So let me tell you about some of my favorite examples. I'll start with an example from an Aboriginal community in Australia that I had the chance to work with. These are the Kuuk Thaayorre people. They live in Pormpuraaw at the very west edge of Cape York. What's coolabout Kuuk Thaayorre is, in Kuuk Thaayorre, they don't use words like"left" and "right," and instead, everything is in cardinal directions: north, south, east and west.
要我给大伙儿举一些我很喜欢的事例。

先从加拿大的一个原住民社群营销逐渐，是我机遇跟她们触碰过。

她们是KuukThaayorre人，她们住在约克角城最西面的Pormpuraaw。

KuukThaayorre人有趣的一点是，在这个原住民文化艺术里边，她们沒有“左”和“右”那样的词，全部的物品全是根据基本上方位来表述的：东西南北。

And when I say everything, I really mean everything. You would say something like, "Oh, there's 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" 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“全部的物品”。

例如，你能说：“哦，你东南方的哪条腿
上有一只蚂蚁”，或是“将你的水杯往东北偏北边移一下。

”实际上，她们问好的方法也是：“你往哪儿去?”而回应会是：“远方东北偏北处，你嘞?”
So imagine as you're walking around your day, every person you greet, you have to report your heading direction.
想像一下，你在路上，你遇上每一个人都需要汇报一下你朝哪些方面前行。

But that would actually get you oriented pretty fast, right? Because you literally couldn't get past "hello," if you didn't know which way you were going. In fact, people who speak languages like this stay oriented really well. They stay oriented better than we used to think humans could.
但这会使你迅速得到方位感，不是吗?由于假如你永远不知道你向前的方位得话，你连问好都无法开展。

实际上，说这种语言表达的人她们的方位感很好，远比大家认为人们能够保证的好些。

We used to think that humans were worse than other creatures because of some biological excuse: "Oh, we don't have magnets in our beaks or in our scales." No; if 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.
我们曾经认为人们的方位感要比别的微生物差，而大家也找了微生物缘故层面的托词：“哦，大家沒有能够传感电磁场的鸟嘴或鱼鳞片”。

客观事实并不是这样。

假如你的语言表达及文化给了你这些方面的训炼，你是能够保证的。

全世界有的人的方位感就很好。

And just to get us in agreement about how different this is from the way we do it, I want you all to close your eyes fora second and point southeast.
为了更好地保证大家大家都愿意在这一点上大家的思维模式有多大差别，请大伙儿闭上眼，随后偏向东南方向。

Keep your eyes closed. Point. OK, so you can open your eyes. I see you guys pointing there, there, there, there, there... I don't know which way it is myself --You have not been a lot of help.
先不必睁开眼，请偏向东南方向。

如今，大家能够睁开眼了。

我看到大家有偏向那里、那里、那里、那里的……自己也不知道哪儿是东南方向，大家也没能帮上我。

So let's 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 --doesn't know which way is which, but in another group, I could ask a five-year-old and they would know.
姑且便说，这里的大伙儿在这个问题上的精确度并不是很高。

这就是不一样语言表达中间的思维能力的极大差别，一群像在座的各位一样十分成功的人分不清楚哪儿是哪里，而假如换做另一群人，一个五岁的小孩也了解回答。

There are also really big differences in how people think about time. So here I have pictures of my grandfather 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.
大家思索時间的方法也十分不一样。

这儿是多张我的爷爷在不一样年龄层的相片。

假如让一个英语使用人将他们按時间开展排序，她们能够会那样排，从左往右。

这跟写毛笔字的方位相关。

假如你觉得的是希伯来语或阿语，你则很有可能会以反过来的方位排序，从左往右。

But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre, this Aboriginal group I just told you about, do it? They don't use words like"left" and "right." Let me give you hint. When we sat people facing south, they organized time from left 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——我刚才提及的原住民民会如何排呢?她们沒有“左”和“右”的定义。

我提醒一下大伙儿。

在我们让她们脸朝南方地区的情况下，她们将先后顺序从从左往右排;当众朝北方地区的情况下，她们将先后顺序从左往右排;当她们脸朝中国东方的情况下，她们将時间由远到近排。

What's the pattern? East to west, right? So for them, time doesn't actually get locked on the body at all, it gets locked on the landscape. So for me, if I'm facing this way, then time goes this way, and if I'm facing this way, then time goes this way. I'm facing this way, time goes this way -- very egocentric of me to have the direction of time chase me around every time I turn my body. For the Kuuk Thaayorre, time is locked on the landscape. It's a dramatically different way of thinking about time.
发觉规律性了么?从东到西，对不对?因而对她们而言，時间跟人体的方位不相干，只是跟自然地理相关。

对于我而言，假如朝向这里，時间就这样走的;假如朝向这里，時间就这样走的;假如朝向这里，時间就这样走的——彻底以我来为管理中心，我每一次一转过身，時间还要跟着转换方向。

对KuukThaayorre 人而言，时间跟自然地理相关的。

它是一种思索時间的迥然不同的方法。

Here's another really smart human trick. Suppose I ask you how many penguins are there. Well, I bet I know how you'd solve that problem if you solved it. You went, "One, two, three, four,five, six, seven, eight." You counted them. You named each one with a number, and the last number you said was the number of penguins. This is a little trick that you're taught to use as kids. You learn the number list and you learn how to apply it. A little linguistic trick.
再给大伙说一个人们的聪慧之处。

假定请你告诉我，这儿有多少只小企鹅，我敢说因为你会怎么解决这个问题。

你能“一二三四五六七八”地数过去。

你让每一只企鹅相匹配一个数据，你叫出的最后一个数据便是小企鹅的数量。

这是你儿时就学会了的方法，你学会了数一数，你也学会了如何使用它。

它是一种应用语言学的方法。

Well, some languages don't do this, because some languages don't have exact number words. They're languages that don't have a word like "seven" or a word like"eight." In fact, people who speak these languages don't count, and they have trouble keeping track of exact quantities. So, for example, 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 don't have that linguistic trick can't do that.
但有一些语言表达不是这样的，由于有一些语言表达沒有精准的数据语汇。

有一些语言表达是沒有例如“七”或是“八”这类的数据的。

实际上，对这些应用沒有数据的语言表达的人而言，她们不容易数一数，测算精准的总数对她们而言是难以的。

例如，假如让你将这么多的小企鹅跟同一总数的家鸭配对起來，你数一下就可以保证了。

但对这些沒有这一语言表达特点的人而言却没法保证。

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 example, in English, there's a word for blue that covers all of the colors that you can see on the screen, but in Russian, there isn't a single word.
语言表达的差别还反映在大家怎样辨别色调，这些视觉效果的物品。

有一些语言表达有很多的色调语汇，有的则非常少，就仅有“浅色系”和“深棕色”。

这种语言表达差别反映在不一样色调中间的界线在哪儿。

例如，在英语里边，大家有深蓝色这个词，它包括了你一直在显示屏上见到的所有颜色。

可是在德语里边，却沒有那样的一个词。

In stead, Russian speakers have to differentiate between light blue, "goluboy,"and dark blue, "siniy." So Russians have this lifetime of experience of, in language, distinguishing these two colors. When we test people's ability to perceptually discriminate these colors, what we find is that Russian speakers are faster across this linguistic boundary. They're faster to be able to tell the difference between a light and dark blue.
反过来，德语使用人要把淡蓝色“goluboy”和暗蓝色“siniy”差别起来。

因此德语使用人一生都是会在语言表达上差别这二种色调。

在我们检测大家鉴别这种色调的工作能力的情况下，大家发觉德语使用人可以迅速地开展这类定义转换，她们可以迅速地辨别淡蓝色和暗蓝色。

And when you look at people's brains as they're looking at colors -- say you have 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 example, that don't make this categorical distinction, don't give that surprise, because nothing is categorically changing.
如果你观查大家在看这种色调的人的大脑时，假定你给他看从淡蓝色到暗蓝色的渐变色，这些用不一样词描述“浅蓝色”和“深蓝色”的人脑会在色调从浅到深的变换时主要表现出诧异，好像“哦，一些事儿发生了压根的转变”，而不做这类辨别的英文使用人的人的大脑则不容易主要表现出诧异，由于没产生哪些压根的转变。

Languages have all kinds of structural quirks. This is one of my 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 example, the sun is feminine in German but masculine in Spanish, and the moon, the reverse. Could this actually have any consequence for how people think?
语言表达也有各式各样的结构类型。

这个是我最喜欢的。

许多语言表达都是有英语的语法上的词性，每一个专有名词都是有一个特定的词性，一般是呈阳性或呈阴性。

这种词性在不一样语言表达中各有不同。

例如，太阳光在法语中是呈阴性的，在西语中则是呈阳性的，月亮则反过来。

那这是否会危害大家的思索方法呢?
Do German speakers think of the sun as some how more female-like, and the moon somehow more male-like? Actually, it turns out that's the case. So if you 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," "elegant"and stereotypically feminine words. Whereas Spanish speakers will be more likely to say they're "strong" or "long," these masculine words.
法语使用人会感觉太阳光更男性化，而月亮更男性特征吗?客观事实确实如此。

假如你让法语使用人和西语使用人叙述一座桥，如同这一座，“桥”在法语中是呈阴性的，在西语中则是呈阳性的。

法语使用人更趋向于说桥“漂亮”或“雅致”及其别的很男性化的词，而西语使用人则趋向于说桥“健壮”或“悠长”，这些更男性特征的词。

Languages also differ in how they describe events, right? You take an event like this, an accident. In English, it's 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 it's an accident, you wouldn't say that someone did it.
语言表达的差别还反映在他们对事情的叙述上。

以这件事情为例子，一个出现意外。

在英语里边，你能说“他粉碎了大花瓶”。

在西语里边，你更很有可能要说“花瓶碎了”，或是“大花瓶自身碎了”。

假如这是一个出现意外，你肯定不会说到底是谁粉碎的。

In English, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, "I broke my arm." Now, in lots of languages, you couldn't 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 different construction.
在英语里边，很令人费解的是，大家乃至要说，”我伤到了我的胳膊“。

在许多语言表达里边，你彻底不容易那样说，除非是你是一个神经病，你尝试伤到自身的胳膊，并且还成功了。

假如它是一场意外，你能应用不一样的语言表达构造。

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 same 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 it's an accident, but they're more likely to remember that it was an accident. They're more likely to remember the intention.
这会导致不一样的結果。

应用不一样语言表达的人关心的点会不一样，这在于她们的语言表达是怎么规定的。

如果我们让英语使用人和西语使用人看一样的意外事故，英文使用人会还记得这件事情到底是谁干的，因为英文必须你觉得“是他做的，他粉碎了大花瓶”;而西语使用人则不大可能会还记得到底是谁干的——假如这是一个意外事故得话，她们更很有可能会还记得这是一个出现意外，她们更很有可能还记得用意。

So, two people watch the same event, witness the same crime, but end up remembering 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 though 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.
因此两人看一样的事情，亲眼看到一样的罪刑，但还记得的却不一定一样。

在亲眼目睹证言层面，它是非常值得思索的，这对责怪和处罚也是有危害。

假如给英语使用人看一个人一不小心粉碎大花瓶，随后我讲“他粉碎了大花瓶”，而不是说“花瓶碎了”，即便你自己亲眼看见了事情的历经，你看看了那一段视頻，你能见到大花瓶的“罪刑”，可是你却会更趋向于处罚、责怪那人——只是由于我讲“他粉碎了大花瓶”，而不是“花瓶碎了”。

语言表达会正确引导大家对事情的认知能力。

Now, I've given you a few examples of how language can profoundly shape the way we think, and it does so in a variety of ways. So language can have big effects, like we saw with space and time, where people can lay out space and time in completely different coordinate frames from each other.
那么我给了大伙儿好多个语言表达怎样危害大家思索的事例，它关键根据好多个方法。

语言表达能够导致大的危害，大家举了时间和空间的事例，大家对时间和空间的排序能够相去甚远。

Language can also have really deep effects -- that's what we saw with the case of number. Having count words in your language, having number words, opens up the whole world of mathematics. Of course, if you don't count, you can't do algebra, you can't 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 gives you a stepping stone into a whole cognitive realm.
语言表达还能够有很深的危害，大家举了数据的事例。

假如你的语言表达里有数量词，有数据，这会打开一个全新升级的数学世界。

假如你不可以数一数，你当然也不会组合数学，你将不可以做一切必须数学课的事儿，像建一个那样的演说厅，或开展直播，是吧?小小数据给大家给予了踏入一全部认知能力行业的
踏脚石。

Language can also have really early effects, what we saw in the case of color. These are really simple, basic, perceptual 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, grammatical gender applies to all nouns. That means language can shape how you're thinking about anything that can be named by a noun. That's a lot of stuff.
语言表达的危害还很有可能很早已产生，大家举了色调的事例。

它是比较简单、基本上、认知型的决策，大家无时无刻不在做那样的决策，而语言表达就在那里危害着大家做的这种小小决策。

语言表达能够有很宽阔的危害，大家举了英语的语法上的词性的事例看起来无足轻重，但它却适用全部专有名词。

这代表着语言表达能够危害你如何思考全部可用专有名词表述的物品。

那但是很多东西。

And finally, I gave you an example 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，我举了一个语言表达能够怎样危害跟大家亲身有关的事情的事例，如责怪、处罚和亲眼目睹证言。

这种是大家的日常日常生活十分关键的层面。

Now, the beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is. Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000 -- there are 7,000 languages spoken around the world. And we can create many more --languages, of course, are living things, things that we can hone and change to suit our needs. The tragic thing is that we're losing so much of this linguistic diversity all the time. We're losing about one language a week, and by some estimates, half of the world's languages will be gone in the next hundred years.
语言表达多元性的漂亮取决于它向大家揭露了人们的人的大脑是多么的恰当和灵便。

人类大脑造就的并不是一个认知能力管理体系，只是7000个，世界上7000种语言表达。

而大家还能够造就大量。

语言表达是有性命的，是我们可以打磨抛光和更改以达到大家要求的物品。

悲剧的是，这类语言表达多元性已经持续缺失。

大约均值每一个礼拜就有一种语言表达消退，据统计，在下面的120xx 年来全世界一半的语言表达可能消退。

And the even worse news is that right now, almost everything we know about the human mind and human brain is based on studies of usually American English-speaking undergraduates at universities. That excludes almost all humans. Right? So what we know about the human mind is actually incredibly narrow and biased, and our science has to do better.
更槽糕的是，如今基本上大家所了解的全部有关人类大脑和逻辑思维的物品全是根据高校上说美式英语的学员的科学研究。

这就基本上清除了全部人们，不是吗?因此实际上大家对人们逻辑思维的掌握是十分狭小和具备成见的，而大家的科学研究应当做得更强。

I want to leave you with this final thought. I've told you about how speakers of different languages think differently, but of course, that's
not about how people elsewhere think. It's about how you think. It's how the language that you speak shapes the way that you think. And that gives you the opportunity to ask, "Why do I think the way that I do?" "How could I think differently?" And also," What thoughts do I wish to create?"
最终，我觉得再让大伙儿思索一个难题。

我已经讲了不一样语言表达的使用人思索的不一样方法，自然，这不是是有关别的地区的人如何思索，只是有关你怎么思索，有关你觉得的语言表达怎样危害了你的思维模式。

大伙儿能够问一问自身：“我为什么是那样独立思考的?”“我可以换个方法思索吗?”也有，“我觉得造就哪些的念头?”
Thank you very much.(Applause)
特别感谢。

(欢呼)。