LBT271-273凡鈞

LBT271-273凡鈞

Ⅰ.The problem

In an earlier chapter ____ have discussed language development with respect to age and onset. Now we must search for regularities within stages of development as well as regularities in the strategy of language acquisition regardless of the age at which this happens.

在前幾章討論discussed language development with respect to age and onset關於語言發展的年齡與起始,現在我們we must search for探討regularities within stages of development發展的規律與語言習得的規律階段, as well as regularities in the strategy of language acquisition regardless of the age at which this happens而非發生的年齡

Our language is such an intimate aspect of our thoughts and behavior that it is difficult for us to obtain an objective appreciation of its mechanisms. The common description of its structure is a woeful oversimplification.

我們的語言是such an intimate aspect of our thoughts and behavior that一個提示我們想法與行為的觀點,這讓我們很難獲得an objective appreciation of its mechanisms客觀的結構評價。一般結構的描述過餘簡化是令人遺憾的。

“Language consists of elemental units, that is, speech-sounds ; these are joined together into morphemes or words ; and words are put together into sentences. Speech-sounds have no meaning, but words do. They acquire meanings by an associative process in which the visual image of an object is linked to the sound of a word,”

語言由最小單位組成,即是,語音, these are joined together into這包含了morphemes or words音素或字,而字的組成又形成句子,語音並沒有意義,但是words do字有。他們的意義是藉由by an associative process客觀的連結視覺影像is linked to與字的聲音所產生。

The attractive simplicity of statements such as these has prevented many students of human behavior from recognizing the deep problems posed by the true structure of language and by the infant’s amazing ability to acquire these skills within two years time. A few examples may help to show some of the hidden problems.

The attractive simplicity of statements such as these這簡單的說has prevented…A...from就像是預防A= students of human behavior被認為有語言結構嚴重問題的學生recognizing the deep problems posed by B1+B2 (B1 = true structure of language)以及B2 = infant’s amazing ability to acquire these skills within two years time嬰兒在2歲內獲得語言令人吃驚的能力, A few examples may help在一些例子可以幫助to show some of the hidden problems.隱藏的問題。

Let us look first at phonological aspects. Suppose we build a typewriter that could print out (for instance, in international phonetic alphabet) anything that is spoken into it, hopefully in any language. What are the tasks of this machine ? In order for it to be successful it would have to be capable of a highly peculiar form of pattern recognition. For instance, it is not enough that it can recognize isolated examples of English speech sounds. The acoustic peculiarities of a given phoneme are never twice the same, and there are instances in which two acoustically very different sounds represent the same phoneme. Interpretation of a sound as one or another phoneme often depends on the acoustic context. Furthermore , phonemes are not simply linked as in a chain during production, but they affect each other , and the influence may work both ways : a later phoneme may be influenced by an earlier one or, because of anticipation, an earlier phoneme may be influenced by a later by later one. Acoustic analysis also show that speech sounds, instead of neatly following one another, may actually overlap either partly or wholly; by giving a vowel /o/ an/R/ coloring, or nasalizing it, or palatalizing it, an R-, η-, or y-quality is produced together with the vowel, but it may be interpreted, under certain conditions, as if it were following it. In addition, every speaker influences his utterances by idiosyncrasies due to the peculiar shape of his vocal tract and the peculiarities of his own motor-skills; this means that every utterance he produces undergoes acoustic transformations.

第一讓我們來看看語音學的方面,假如我們打造一台打字機可以印出所輸入的任何語言(例如,國際音標)。然而這台機器的任務是什麼呢?為了有效辨別很特殊語言樣本的能力,這不夠辨別隔離英語的語音範本,這聲學的特異性從不會重複兩次,而且有個例子,在兩個不同聽覺上的聲音呈現一樣的音素。說明一個聲音當有一個或其他的音素時通常根據聽覺連結。此外音素不單單是連結在產生期間的鏈上,他們之間彼此影響,影響的方式有二,一個是後面的音素會影響前面的音素或因為競爭,較早的音素可能被影響藉由後面的幾個音素。聲學分析也顯示說話聲音,而完全不是跟著其他,可能實際上重疊(或著同時發生)其他的音素全部或部分,藉由給一個母音/o/ /R/特色音或鼻音化,或顎音化,如,R-,η-,或y-音質隨著母音產生.但這可能說明,在一些特定情況下,它像是跟隨著。此外,每個說話者影響他的發音藉由個人風格(氣質)由於獨特的聲帶形狀和獨特的運動技巧,這表示任何人發出的所有語音根據聲學轉換。

A machine that prints a graphic symbol for every acoustic feature heard in the sounds of any language would produce very unreadable records. Speech-recognition of a natural language involves focusing attention on specific types of phonetic relations or contrasts, and on ignoring many other acoustic phenomena as irrelevant for transmission of information in a particular language. Every natural language selects its own set of contrasts, and recognition of the sound patterns of one language is governed by its own peculiar set of rules. (Although all such sets of rules have common formal properties; see Chapter 9 and Chomsky’s Appendix A.) In order to be useful, the typewriter would have to be able to select the right set of rules for every input, in other words, it would have to be able to recognize one of several natural languages and then behave in accordance with this selection. Clearly, pattern-recognition of an acoustically operated typewriter is dependent upon rules which must take into consideration many factor and which must operate on much longer sound configurations than single or short speech sound segments. The relational patterns, even on the level of speech sounds, are very intricate. The reason why the many attempts to build such a typewriter have not been successful(except for very limited input) is probably not entirely due to technical limitations; it may be because of our ignorance of the proper rules that regulate speech perception.

此機器印出所聽到任何難辨認的語言聲音錄音的聲學特徵的圖表符號,語音辨別於一個自然語言著重於特殊型語音關聯或著對照,且忽略其他很多聽覺現象當不恰當的轉換資訊在特殊語言。每個自然語言選擇一特定對照,並且辨別聲音特定的組合規則形式。(儘管全部特定規則有一般形式屬性,看第九章和Chomsky’s Appendix A.)為了使之有用,打字機應該選擇一套對的規則對於每個輸入的語音,換句話說,它可以辨別眾多語言之一,然後行為符合所選擇的。清楚的聲學操作打字機的形式辨別是依賴規則,此規則考慮許多因素和操作很長的聲音結構比起單一或短的說話音節。相關形式,甚至是語音的程級,是非常錯綜複雜。這就是為什麼企圖建造一打字機尚未成功的理由,這不應歸因於科技的限制。(除了有限的語音輸入外),這可能因為我們忽略適當語言產生的規則。

Suppose we had solved all of these problems and had succeeded in constructing a typewriter that at least transcribes English. The device could not be considered a model of an infant who is developing speech. The problems to be solved by the infant whose task it is to “crack” the society’s communication code are much more complicated; he is biologically constituted to learn to recognize any type of natural language, and the acoustic input is usually not limited to one narrow topic.

假如我們已經解決了所有的問題,而且也成功的製造出一台至少能翻譯英文的打字機. 這種儀器並不能被認定是一種嬰兒發展語言的模型. 解決這些嬰兒問題的任務比破解這個社會的情報密碼要困難多了,他是生物學地組成去學習辨認任何類型的自然語言,而聽覺的輸入通常不是有限的單一主旨。

When the intricacies of patterns and relations in the structure of language are discussed abstractly, it is often interjected that the child’s task might be simplified because he does not learn an abstract or formal system but is learning meanings at the same time, and this might facilitate the situation. Let us look into this more closely.

當適當的樣式和相關在語言結構抽象地被談論, 它經常插入兒童的任務這也許被簡化,因為他學不會一個抽象或正式系統,但是卻是同時學會意思, 或許這也促進情況。讓我們看的更仔細點。

First, it is necessary to make a distinction between reference and meaning. Reference deals with the relationship between an individual word and some aspect or object of the physical environment. The problem of reference need not be considered here as they constituted the subject matter of Chapter 8. Meaning deals with the semantic interpretation of utterances (or written material), and these come invariably in the form of sentences in various states of completion or degrees of imperfection; this includes the special case of one-word sentences which we shall discuss presently. Because discourse is not encountered in anything but the essential form of sentences, and sentences can be interpreted only through grammatical analysis, meaning cannot be divorced form grammatical structure (Chomsky, 1957; Chomsky and Miller, 1963; Miller and Chomsky. 1963 )

首先,必須在涉及與意思間做出區別. 涉及處理在單字和一些觀點或者自然環境的對象之間的關係,參考的問題在這裡不需要被考慮因為他們構成的是第八章的主題, 意味應付言論上語義的闡明(或寫作題材),並且以不變的句子形式來完成各種不同的狀態或不完美的程度;包括了我們現在正在討論的一個詞句子的特殊情況, 因為演講並不與任何形式上基本的句子衝突,而且句子只能經由語法的分析

來說明,意味不能分開文法的形式語法架構(瓊姆斯基,1957;瓊姆斯基與米勒,1963;米勒與瓊姆斯基,1963)

Grammatical structure an not be understood as a phenomenon of transitional probability of specific lexical items or parts of speech. Something more intricate must be involved as may be seen from the following examples, suggested mostly by Chomsky. Consider the following strings of words:

(1)colorless green ideas sleep furiously

(2)furiously sleep ideas green colorless

語法結構不被瞭解作為具體辭條或詞性的過渡可能性現象。更加複雜事必須被介入和可以從以下例子被看見, 主要由Chomsky 建議。考慮以下strings of words串詞:

無特色的綠色想法猛烈地睡覺

猛烈睡覺的想法綠色無特色