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1、UnitNineTheEqualityofLanguagesByDavidCrystalQuestions1.Doyouthinklanguagesareequal?What’stheauthor’spointofview?Doyouagree?2.Asweallknowthehumanracehasevolvedfromprimitivetocivilizedstates,havelanguagesgonethroughthesamekindofevolution?3.Whatdoyouthinkof
2、the“naturalsuperiority”ofcertainlanguages?TextItcomesneartostatingtheobviousthatalllanguageshavedevelopedtoexpresstheneedsoftheirusers,andthatinasensealllanguagesareequal.Butthistenetofmodernlinguisticshasoftenbeendenied,andstillneedstobedefended.Partoft
3、heproblemisthattheword‘equal’needstobeusedverycarefully.Wedonotknowhowtoquantifylanguage,soastobeabletosaywhetheralllanguageshavethesame‘amounts’ofgrammar,phonology,orsemanticstructure.Theremayindeedbeimportantdifferencesinthestructuralcomplexityoflangua
4、ge,andthispossibilityneedstobeinvestigated.Butalllanguagesarearguablyequalinthesensethatthereisnothingintrinsicallylimiting,demeaning,orhandicappingaboutanyofthem.Alllanguagesmeetthesocialandpsychologicalneedsoftheirspeakers,areequallydeservingofscientif
5、icstudy,andcanprovideuswithvaluableinformationabouthumannatureandsociety.Primitive’LanguagesThereare,however,severalwidelyheldmisconceptionsaboutlanguageswhichstemfromafailuretorecognizethisview.Themostimportantoftheseistheideathattherearesuchthingsas‘pr
6、imitive’languages---withasimplegrammar,afewsounds,andavocabularyofonlyafewhundredwords,whosespeakershavetocompensatefortheirlanguage’sdeficienciesthroughgestures.Speakersof‘primitive’languageshaveoftenbeenthoughttoexist,andtherehasbeenagreatdealofspecula
7、tionaboutwheretheymightlive,andwhattheirproblemsmightbe.Iftheyreliedongestures,howwouldtheybeabletocommunicateatnight?Withoutabstractterms,howcouldtheypossiblydevelopmoralorreligiousbeliefs?Inthe19thcentury,suchquestionswerecommon,anditwaswidelythoughtth
8、atitwasonlyamatteroftimebeforeexplorerswoulddiscoveragenuinelyprimitivelanguage.fromstemtostern:Fromoneendtoanother.从头到尾stemfrom[outof]出自;来源于;发生于customsstemmingfromthepast;来自过去的习俗；Thefactofthematteristhateveryculturewhichh
