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.