外星人来了，谁当翻译？

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1、外星人来了，谁当翻译？　　Manyscientistsbelievethataliencivilisationsexist.　　Solet’simaginethatwesuddenlystandface-to-facewithmembersofanalienspecies.Whatwouldwedofirst？　　Surelycommunicatingthatwecomeinpeacewouldbeapriority.Butwouldweeverbeabletounderstandeachother？

2、　　Theonethingwecanbeconfidentaboutexchangingwithaliensisscientificinformation.　　Ifthelawsoftheuniversearethesameeverywhere，thendifferentdescriptionsoftheselawsshould，inprinciple，beequivalent.　　Mattersaremorecomplicatedwhenitcomestolanguage，whichisthesin

3、glemostimportantfactorinhumancooperation.　　Canweexpecttolearnsuchanalienlanguage？　　Existingviewpointsinthepsychologyoflanguagegivetwoverydifferentanswers.　　Thegenerativistsapproach，whichholdsthatthestructureoflanguageishardwiredintothebrain，suggeststhis

4、wouldn’tbepossible.　　Itarguesthathumanscomewithaninbuiltuniversalgrammar2thathasaspecificnumberofsettings―eachcorrespondingtotheacceptableorderinwhichwordsandpartsofwordscanbearrangedinagivenlanguagesystem.　　Thoughtherulesofhumanlanguagescananddovary，pr

5、oponentsofthegenerativistmodelarguetheycanonlydosowithinstrictparameters.　　Forgenerativists，itisextremelyunlikelythatanalienspecieswouldhappentohavethesameparametersashumanbeings.　　Thecognitiveview，ontheotherhand，seessemantics（structuresofmeaning）asbein

6、gmoreimportantthansyntax（structuresofgrammar）.Forthisreason，proponentsofthecognitiveviewarguethatgrammaraloneisnotenoughtounderstandlanguage.Ifanalienspeciesusesobjects，interactswithitspeersandcombinesconcepts，thecognitiveapproachthereforepredictstherem

7、ightbeenoughmentalarchitectureincommontomakeitslanguageaccessibletohumans.　　Thoughtheseresultsarefarfromconclusive（forinstance，theycan’texplainwhyhumansaloneseemtohavelanguage），theevidenceleanstowardsthecognitiveaccount.　　So，itmightbereasonabletoassumet

8、hathumanscouldlearnalienlanguages.2