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1、WhenLanguagesDieTheExtinctionoftheWorld’sLanguagesandtheErosionofHumanKnowledgeK.DavidHarrison12007WorldswithinWords7“Doyoufinditeasytogetdrunkonwords?”“Soeasythat,totellyouthetruth,Iamseldomperfectlysober.Whichaccountsformytalkingsomuch.”—HarrietVaneandLordPeterWimseyinGaudyNight,byDorothySayers“
2、Studyingtheformofalinguisticexpressionwithoutstudyingthemeaningislikesippingafinewine,swishingitaroundinyourmouth,andspittingitout—itcanbefun,butnotintoxicating.”—RandallEggert,Linguistlllinguistsshareafascinationwithwords,andwearetrainedtoseekAoutanddescribeintricatepatternswithinhumanlanguages.A
3、slan-guagesrapidlyvanishintothevortexofculturalassimilation,linguistsjustifiablyfeartheywillneverseethefullrangeofcomplexityandstruc-tureshumanmindscanproduce.1WhenNoamChomskyproclaimedlanguage‘awindowonthemind’,anentireresearchprogramforthedisciplineoflinguisticswaslaunched.Inthefiftyyearssince,t
4、hisresearchhasalreadyyieldedmanyimportantinsightsintohumancognition.Withhisfamoussentence“Colorlessgreenideassleepfuriously,”Chomskydemonstratedhowlinguistscanexplorecomplexstructures(sounds,phrases,sentences,etc.)evenwhenthereisnomeaningfulcontentatall.Thelackofmeaningdoesnothinderlin-guistsinour
5、investigationofmentalstructures,whohavecometofocusmainlyonthestructuresthemselves,nottheirculturalmeanings.Thishasbeentheconventionalwisdominlinguisticsforatleastfourdecades.Butalthoughlanguagescertainlycontainabstractstructures,theyevolveandexisttoconveyinformationwithinaspecificculturalmatrix,an
6、dthatfunctionpermeatesandinfluenceseveryleveloflanguage.Toitscritics,includingthisauthor,theChomskyanprogramhasbeenunduly205206WhenLanguagesDienarrow,overlyfocusedonlarge,globallydominantlanguages,andpre-occupiedwithstructureattheexpenseofcontent.2Linguists’preoccupationwiththeseabstractstructures
7、(collectivelytermed‘grammar’)hasledtoamicroscopicapproachthattreatslanguageslikelaboratoryspecimens,utterlydivorcedfromtheirnaturalenviron-ments,thepeoplewhospeakthem,andthecontentofthosepeoples’thoughts.Aslingui
