英语一翻译2012-1 Translation

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2012-1Translation

1-SincethedaysofAristotle,asearchforuniversalprincipleshascharacterizedthescientificenterprise.

Insomeways,thisquestforcommonalitiesdefinesscience.

Newton'slawsofmotionandDarwinianevolutioneachbindahostofdifferentphenomenaintoasingle

explicatoryframework.

2-(46)Inphysics,oneapproachtakesthisimpulseforunificationtoitsextreme,andseeksatheoryof

everything—asinglegenerativeequationforallwesee.

Itisbecominglessclear,however,thatsuchatheorywouldbeasimplification,giventheproliferationof

dimensionsanduniversesthatitmightentail.

Nonetheless,unificationofsortsremainsamajorgoal.

3-Thistendencyinthenaturalscienceshaslongbeenevidentinthesocialsciencestoo.(47)Here,Darwinismseemstoofferjustification,forifallhumanssharecommonorigins,itseems

reasonabletosupposethatculturaldiversitycouldalsobetracedtomoreconstrainedbeginnings.

Justasthebewilderingvarietyofhumancourtshipritualsmightallbeconsideredtobeformsofsexual

selection,perhapstheworld’slanguages,music,socialandreligiouscustomsandevenhistoryaregoverned

byuniversalfeatures.

(48)Tofilteroutwhatisuniquefromwhatissharedmightenableustounderstandhowcomplexcultural

behaviouraroseandwhatguidesitinevolutionaryorcognitiveterms.

4-That,atleast,isthehope.

Butacomparativestudyoflinguistictraitspublishedonlinetodaysuppliesarealitycheck.

RussellGrayattheUniversityofAucklandandhiscolleaguesconsidertheevolutionofgrammarsinthe

lightoftwopreviousattemptstofinduniversalityinlanguage.

5-ThemostfamousoftheseeffortswasinitiatedbyNoamChomsky,whopostulatedthathumansareborn

withaninnatelanguage-acquisitioncapacitythatdictatesauniversalgrammar.Afewgenerativerulesarethensufficienttounfoldtheentirefundamentalstructureofalanguage,whichis

whychildrencanlearnitsoquickly.

6-(49)Thesecond,byJoshuaGreenberg,takesamoreempiricalapproachtouniversality,identifyingtraits

(particularlyinwordorder)sharedbymanylanguages,whichareconsideredtorepresentbiasesthatresult

fromcognitiveconstraints.

7-Grayandhiscolleagueshaveputthemtothetestbyexaminingfourfamilytreesthatbetweenthem

representmorethan2,000languages.

(50)Chomsky’sgrammarshouldshowpatternsoflanguagechangethatareindependentofthefamilytree

orthepathwaytrackedthroughit,whereasGreenbergianuniversalitypredictsstrongco-dependencies

betweenparticulartypesofword-orderrelations.

Neitherofthesepatternsisborneoutbytheanalysis,suggestingthatthestructuresofthelanguagesare

lineage-specificandnotgovernedbyuniversals.