[REBORN FROM THE ASHES][comment][02.03]

番茄斗斗UID: 2720914

嘿嘿，来补充点语言的背景知识吧～

Babelicious!Bigger languages are also simpler onesJan 25th 2010 | From The Economist online
WHY do some languages drip with verb endings, declensions that showhow a noun is used, and other grammatical bits and pieces, while othersrely on word order and context? The former category tends to includelanguages spoken by small groups in isolated settings like the Amazonor New Guinea. The latter include such languages as English andMandarin.
This fact has made scholars wonder if languages simplify as theyspread. Researchers have wondered if second-language learning of suchconquering languages as English have led them to shed grammaticalbaggage. Many features of grammar are, in linguistic terms,“overspecified”—meaning redundant. The “s” on the end of “the two boys”is overspecified, since “two” shows that more than one boy isconcerned. So, the theory goes, as adults learn languages, withabilities that have withered compared to children’s native acquisition,the dispensable bits are dispensed with. But some linguists have simplyassumed that all languages get simpler over time, or that few socialfactors correlate with complexity.
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As they describe in the Public Library of Science, GaryLupyan of the University of Pennsylvania and Rick Dale of theUniversity of Memphis set out to find some more solid evidence thatexpansion simplifies language. They took the 2,236 languages in theWorld Atlas of Language Structures and looked for correlations with thenumber of speakers of each language, the size of the area in which itis spoken, and the number of neighbouring languages. They looked forcorrelations with the languages’ inflectional morphology, meaning themostly obligatory prefixes, suffixes and other parts packed intoindividual words that carry specific meanings.
They found clear evidence that big, spreading languages have fewerof these features. They have fewer case-markings on nouns. Verbs areless likely to vary with person, place, time and so forth. Mandarin,for example, has no obligatory past tense at all; an extra word cancome after the verb to indicate it happened in the past, or this can beleft to context. By contrast, Yagua, spoken in Peru, has an obligatoryfive-way distinction. Past-tense verbs must show whether the eventhappened a few hours ago, a day before, a week to a month ago, and soon.
The number of speakers of each language correlated best withmorphological complexity, better than the area the language is spreadover or the number of neighbours. This makes sense because a languagewith a large population of speakers has probably already been learnedby many non-natives in the past. A language with many neighbours todaywould be, by this rationale, more likely to become simpler in thefuture, if the language spreads. Of course, languages in families sharecertain features, but Dr Lupyan and Dr Dale found that their resultswere significant even when language family and region were factoredout.
This leaves the question of why languages would become complex atall. Dr Lupyan and Dr Dale offer several hypotheses. One involves thedifferent needs of child and adult learners. Complex morphology isespecially hard for adults to learn, but it may help children, as theredundancy reduces the need for non-linguistic factors forunderstanding. (Las casas blancas tells a Spanish-speakingchild three times that there are multiple white houses.) An alternativehypothesis is that complex morphology improves economy and clarity ofexpression, something that is desirable so long as it is not toodifficult to learn. A final possibility is simply that smaller languagegroups more faithfully transmit the grammar to their children,overspecification and all, even if it has no use.
One thing is clear. Linguists have long known, despite theprejudices of those in rich societies, that “simple” people withprimitive technologies do not speak simple languages. By thedefinitions used here, the native languages of North America and SouthAmerica are the most complicated in the world, while Europe’s are thesimplest.


大海，你说这能做people can make things bigger and complex的反例了吧？
谁能告诉我怎样可以避免字粘一块额。。。囧‘’‘附上地址：
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15384310

tequilawineUID: 2702008

drip with
充满; 盖满

declension
[de·clen·sion || dɪ'klenʃn]

n.

词尾变化; 倾斜; 格变化

morphology

[mor·phol·o·gy || mɔr'fɑlədʒɪ /mɔː'fɒ-]

n.

形态学; 形态论; 词态学

suffix

[suf·fix || 'sʌfɪks]

n.

字尾; 添标; 下标

v.

加...作字尾

prefix

[pre·fix || ‚prɪ'fɪks]

n.

字首

v.

加...作为字首; 把...放在前头

rationale

[ra·tion·ale || ‚ræʃə'næl/-'nɑːl]

n.

基本原理

1 Many features ofgrammar are, in linguistic terms,“overspecified”—meaning redundant.
2 So, the theorygoes, as adults learn languages, with abilitiesthat have withered compared to children’s native acquisition, the dispensablebits are dispensed with.
3 This leaves the question of why languages wouldbecome complex atall. Dr Lupyan and Dr Dale offer several hypotheses. One involves
Analternative hypothesis is that
A finalpossibility is simply that 很好的列举方式。

The shortness essay impressedme deeply through pithy and poignant words it presents and well supported itoffered. Sprawling the straightforward opening debate on language, we acquirethat what we speak now also involve in evolving. Sound interesting, right? Yes,author intrigues us to follow his step into a world totally unfamiliar for usfilled with new ideas.

Language simply divided into two kinds, the formercategory that is drip with verb endings and declensions tends to include languagesspoken by small groups in isolated settings, whereas, that latter include suchlanguages as English and Mandarin.

So why does this happen? Our scholars continued toexplore the inner reason bringing us along with them. Here comes the firsthypothesis if languages simplify as they spread. To figure it out, let’s take alook at English as an example. So, the theory goes, as adults learn languages,with abilities that have withered compared to children’s native acquisition,the dispensable bits are dispensed with, that means, language gets easier asthey goes widespread.

While some divarication stills exist, since we haven’ttaken many other factors into account, such as social influence and simply selfevolving for simple. To proffer our clarification, revealing more solidevidence is requisite. Then we survey all the language still live nowadays, andcorrelations between them and all the possible aspects that may be efficient inaffecting utilizing of language, with the conclusion that big, spreadinglanguages have fewer of these features.

After finishing our illustration, we may reverseour direction and turn to the root question leaving for us why languages wouldbecome complex at all. Two potential reasons consist of it, one involves thedifferent needs of child and adult learner, another hypothesis is that complexmorphology improves economy and clarity of expression.

Dispensible
dispensable

prettywraithUID: 197049

Comments (2010-02-03):
In this passage, author tells us that bigger languages are also simpler ones. As the title of this passage, the key point is also obscure for me. Under the help of author's example, I catch the main idea of this passage. Author insists the language is bigger, the language is less redundant. And he also asserts all languages have become simpler over time. Then why languages would become complex at all? Author also gives the answers. Accurately, we should call them hypotheses: the first is the different needs of child and adult learners; the second is complex morphology improves economy and clarity of expression; the last one is smaller language groups more faithfully transmit the grammar to their children, redunancy and all, even if it has no use.

Wrong Spelling：
redundancy  redunancy

番茄斗斗UID: 2720914

WHY do some languages drip with（充满） verb endings
Researchers have wondered if second-language learning of suchconqueringlanguages as English have led them to shed grammatical baggage.
offer several hypotheses.

Comment:
This articles raised an interesting topic about the languages. Instead of telling us its cultural functions, the author reveals an amazing fact that simplified language spread in a broader way than the others. In asserting his ideas, he quoted a research report, which focuses on the number of the language-speaker, size of the area and the number of the neighbouring languages. By the standard of the complexity,which can be judged by whether the word is packed with prefix or surfix, the researchers found that simplier languages like English and Chinese enjoys a great native speaker. Thus, it determines a matter of fact that expansion simplies language.
Besides, the author further leave a hypothesis that even though language simlies, it cannot avoid to be complex due to the following reasons:  the differences between children and adult learners, or complex morphology improves economy and clarity ofexpression.

海王泪UID: 2673613

Materials
【Argument-Illustrating Alternative Explanation】
This leaves the question of why….at all and there might be several possibilities. One involves…. An alternative possibility is…. A final possibility is simply that….

------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Comment
This article mainly discuss about “Bigger languages are also simpler ones” as they spread. The idea and reason in this article seems self-evident.

More easy a language it is, more easy a language is accepted. With the development of transportation, communication tool, people are more and more active in intercultural exchange and generally speaking, they begin with neighboring languages first. Supposed that each entities are economically equal,
different groups, or tribes, or race in the process of regional integration a would naturally select the easiest one.

But considering different level of economic development, it is another case that simple languages may not be selected if it is owned by poor entities. In fact, a complex language would become simpler one while other entities initially learn it and thus are unwarily simplify the expression to help study in an economically way-less time, less energy and even less money.

No matter in which process, given enough time we would find bigger languages tend to be simpler ones. The author at last leaves a question of why some languages become complex at all. Three hypothesis are offered in this article, but I prone to believe that a bigger language needs to be simpler one in order to be widely and easily accepted and thereafter it is urged to be more complex when people are no longer satisfied with simple expressions but specified, various ones.

123runfordreamUID: 2697608

Comment：
I am not sure I can completely get this article, or I am trying to connect it with other issue but still not figure out yet. I remember the issue we have written before about the rescue of fewer spoken language. Seen from this article, the current condition is quite obvious that more and more language has been disappearing and, it seems that there is no need to save them. Why not? Language is a tool, which while we English majors are confused for our future, people try to remind us. Yeah, that’s true. Language is just created for communicating. If we have a better, more comfortable way to achieve our common goal, why should we have to get back? This is for its practical way. Discussing about the value of cultural aspect, it might be a necessary action to protect them in short term. In long term, I don’t think it will be a successful progress at all. That’s the trend of history; we lose something while we are creating new ones.
This is just some immediate reflection in my head. I will rethink about it. Gee, a complicated issue again.

dingyi0311UID: 2627919

My comment
The author in the article have carried a research on what kind of trait a wide spread language is necessary. The result indicate that all the language that share by large group is simpler. However, there is hardly no justified standard to judge whether a language is complex or not, the author thought that a language in which the verb have five different ways to show the event is happened hours, days, or weeks ago is complex, but English, thought by the author was simpler, use phrase “ hours ago”, “days ago”, “week ago” is also laborious and complex. When the complex of gramma decrease, the language need to add additional component to express the same amount of information.

plukaUID: 2721764

NOTE
【WHY do some languages drip with（充满） verb endings, declensions that showhow a noun is used, and other grammatical bits and pieces, while othersrely on word order and context? The former category tends to includelanguages spoken by small groups in isolated settings like the Amazonor New Guinea. The latter include such languages as English andMandarin. 】
【 drip with：If you say that something is dripping with a particular thing, you mean that it contains a lot of that thing. (LITERARY)】

【Mandarin,for example, has no obligatory past tense at all; an extra word cancome after the verb to indicate it happened in the past, or this can beleft to context. By contrast, Yagua, spoken in Peru, has an obligatory five-way distinction. Past-tense verbs must show whether the event happened a few hours ago, a day before, a week to a month ago, and soon.】

COMMENT

This article provided me with a tantalizing peer into the evolution of language. Descriptions on Mandrin, actually, reminded me of the ancient Chinese language, which was very complicated as well. Much for that reason, the knowledge of society was controlled largely by those literates, who were thought to be elite of the country. Ordinary people, not untill the ancient formal Chinese language was converted into an easier and more unformal folk tongue, had little access to books and learnings thereof. In this sense, it is the simplication of language that facilitate the spread of knowledge and accelerate the development of society thereby.

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

Comment：

I have never concerned about the complexity of languages could have influence on the social economic development. After all, no one would like to pay much attention to the morphology and grammatical baggage, especially for the foreign businessmen. Otherwise, it is said that smaller language groups show more enthusiasm and faithfulness on transmitting the specialized grammar to their children. It seems that this can also be regarded as a particular or even religious way to preserve their solidification through generations. That’s the reason why they fall over themselves for the resist against simplifying their traditional language. Factually, the rightness of conserving the endangered languages needs to be traced to the nature of language, while it is another topic out of this passage’s kernel which we have discussed before.