這是讀報的第四篇文章。這個系列主要是想要把看到的一兩篇好文章做一個簡單的分享，可能是對一個熱門事件的后續(xù)討論、一個我自己沒有看過想過的小觀點，或者是一個實用的表達(dá)方式。

這幾個月《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》的主流聲音聊來聊去都繞不開新冠疫情引發(fā)的種種，粗略看看不覺得什么，精讀下來就非常審美疲勞。所以這一篇選了個相對比較冷門的文章：淺談?wù)Z言和音樂的異同。Johnson是“書籍與藝術(shù)”版塊里一個非常有品質(zhì)的小專欄，專門討論與語言相關(guān)的主題。它聊過譬如少數(shù)語種、人工智能翻譯、學(xué)習(xí)外語等等雅思托福經(jīng)常涉及的話題，尤其是對語言學(xué)感興趣的小伙伴們可以常去翻翻。

這篇文章有兩種顏色標(biāo)注，對應(yīng)不同的知識點解析。開始?—

原文：One of the?liveliest debates in linguistics is over whether all languages share fundamental properties.?If so, perhaps language is a universal feature of evolution. To find out, scholars have looked to other universal features, and one in particular: no society on Earth?lacks?music. The comparison illuminates what is special about both.

Music and language seem intimately linked, but how? Did language start with song, as Darwin believed? Or is music “auditory cheesecake” that developed from language and other useful faculties, as Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist, has said? Is music itself a language, as Stevie Wonder intoned? Might the two be fundamentally the same?

從有了人類文明開始，隔了千山萬水的地球上的各個族群慢慢發(fā)展出自己的語言和文字，它們貌似完全不同但又有著內(nèi)核接近的用途和發(fā)展路徑。和語言一樣扎根在不同文明里扮演著類似功能的另一個主體是，音樂。

文章一開始把它倆擺在一起，開始聊雞生蛋蛋生雞的問題?！对娊?jīng)》不是也大量收錄了各地民歌、王府奏樂和祭祀樂歌嘛~ 那么從頭算起，是為了記錄音樂才誕生了語言，還是語言的出現(xiàn)成全了音樂依附于它得以滋長傳播呢？

一個句式：“關(guān)于X最激烈的辯論之一是X”

-?原文：One of the liveliest debates in linguistics is over whether all languages share fundamental properties.

-?翻譯：語言學(xué)上最活躍的辯論之一是，是否所有語言的基本屬性是共通的。

議論文需要就某個話題展開辯論時，如何擺脫“一些人認(rèn)為X，另一些人認(rèn)為X” 這種劃水句型呢？上面這個句子里就可以提煉出一個好用的框架：One of the liveliest debates in A is over whether B. 如果你不確定A如何提煉也可以把in A兩個單詞刪除，注意B通常是一個完整的句子。例如：

One of the liveliest debates (in university education) is?over whether?theoretical subjects should be replaced by practical ones.?

一個小詞：Lack

它是一個非常好用的小詞，但是很多同學(xué)分不清什么時候它需要和of連用。簡單說就是lack當(dāng)動詞用時常作及物動詞，直接接賓語就好，不需要加of；而lack當(dāng)名詞用時，常用one’s lack of/a lack of這樣的搭配。比較兩個句子：

- There can be lots of barriers, whether it's?a?lack?of?budget, poor infrastructure, lack of support and training, or?a lack of?confidence.

- No society on Earth?lacks?music.

原文：Some similarities are obvious. Both can utilise the unique human vocal tract. Both have a kind of beat. Both can express emotion. Both can be either carefully composed or spontaneously improvised. And both are highly social. Although the origin of music is unclear, it seems likely to have involved celebration, communal worship or martial inspiration and co-ordination. At a structural level the parallels are striking, too. With a finite set of notes or words, and a finite set of rules, an inexhaustible variety of novel melodies or sentences can be created. This “discrete infinity” is often said to be the hallmark of human language. Animal communication, by contrast, is only able to convey a limited number of thoughts (the location of a source of food, for example, or the presence of a predator).

Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University has argued that music and language, rather than being essentially the same, rely on the same bit of the brain. In an experiment he presented his subjects with a sentence that contained a grammatical trick (“The scientist confirmed the hypothesis was being studied in his lab”), revealing one word at a time. The subjects were to press a button for each word at their own?pace. Many paused at the unexpected “was”. “The scientist confirmed the hypothesis” seemed a complete sentence.They also heard music?as?they performed this exercise. Some were treated to a new chord in a pleasing progression with every word that was revealed. Others heard a jarring chord at the moment they reached the trick word “was”. Both groups slowed down—but those given the discordant notes did so much more. Mr Patel hypothesises that this is because sentence structure, and the structure of the harmony, draw on shared, limited resources in the brain.

文章的第二部分談及了語言與音樂的幾個明顯的共性：發(fā)聲部位--聲道；創(chuàng)作方式--化簡為繁；目的--情感表達(dá)。至于為什么它們有諸多相似之處，文中提出了一種猜想：神經(jīng)學(xué)家Patel博士做的實驗表明，語言和音樂調(diào)動了大腦相同的部位及功能。文章篇幅受限，對這組實驗以及后續(xù)的研究沒有挖掘太深，對這個領(lǐng)域的知識感興趣的小伙伴可以看看這一本??

一個小詞：Pace

Pace“節(jié)奏”，給兩個非常百搭的使用場景：

“快節(jié)奏生活” fast pace of life/ fast-paced life(style)。例句：In our fast-paced lives, we're quickly scrolling through our social media feeds and people want to stand out, attract our attention and be noticed.

“以自己的節(jié)奏” at one’s own pace。例句：The subjects were to press a button for each word at their own pace.

一個小詞：As

它是一個非常非常容易被用錯的小詞，我見太多同學(xué)踩過雷，主要是因為沒有分清它的詞性。大家知道英文中許多單詞都有不同詞性，不同詞性下意思相同那就好辦一點比如increase作名詞動詞都表示“增加”。

As的坑在于它的幾個詞性意思區(qū)別蠻大的很容易傻傻分不清楚，比較這篇文章中出現(xiàn)的幾次as（按出現(xiàn)的先后順序）:

- Did language start with song, as Darwin believed?

- They also heard music as they performed this exercise.

-?As adults, they create striking and novel utterances every day.

- It may not instill wonder and joy, as music can.

在上面四個句子里只有第三句as接了一個名詞，另外幾句話as后面都是接句子，亂沒亂？大家只需要記住一點：當(dāng)as表示“作為（身份）”時，它是一個介詞prep.后接名詞性成分。而表示其他意思下比如“隨著、由于、依照”等，它是一個連詞conj.后面接句子。所以一定不能直接用as來替換with哦~

原文：For all the overlap, there are big differences. Both music and language can make you feel and?even think, but only language is truly propositional. A quip attributed to Bertrand Russell—“no matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest”—might be adapted for music. Language can express contingencies, pose counterfactuals and talk about the future. Music’s nuances are of a different order.?Another stark contrast lies in the range of human aptitude for each ability. Nearly all children produce complex sentences by the age of three and become fluent speakers just a few years after that. As adults, they create striking and novel utterances every day. Conversely, only?a?minority?of?adults are talented musicians; even?fewer?are skilled composers of new, hitherto unheard works.

Victor Wooten, a bass player and music teacher, has an explanation for that disparity. Children, he points out, learn to talk by being constantly surrounded by linguistic virtuosos—fluent older speakers who, in musical parlance, are “jamming” with the novices almost from birth. Their fumbling efforts are encouraged. On the other hand, students of music often keep company with other beginners, and are stopped every time they make a mistake. It is not that simple, reckons Jay Keyser, an emeritus professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a jazz trombonist. For him, music is not like spoken prose, which almost everyone can do proficiently, but instead resembles a specific, rhythmic form of language: poetry. And, he says, “most human beings are bad at poetry.” The number of grammatical sentences is vast. But the number that are fit for verse, in terms of both meaning and prosody, is much smaller. Finding those is hard—like composing music, or improvising jazz. On Mr Keyser’s plausible view, using ordinary language is a less rarefied talent than making music. But while it may not instill wonder and joy, as music can, it is still a miracle—just an everyday one.

文章的最后一個部分站到了對立面，比較語言與音樂的大不同，比如表意和掌握程度上的差異，這部分寫得很有意思大家可以詳細(xì)看看。至于為什么會有這樣的區(qū)別，也引用了兩組論據(jù)。

其中一組分析了二者的學(xué)習(xí)路徑。嬰兒學(xué)習(xí)語言有兩個優(yōu)勢：和他們?nèi)粘＝涣鲗υ挼模ǔ赡耆耍┮呀?jīng)掌握了足夠的語言技巧，且寶寶們說啥大人都覺得萌萌噠，簡單來說就是“專家鼓勵型”教育。但是，音樂學(xué)習(xí)一般是這樣噠：和你一起學(xué)的都是些渣渣，你拉跑調(diào)了隔壁小王同學(xué)比你跑更遠(yuǎn)，教室里充斥著老師的怒吼Again!! 可以總結(jié)為“鞭策弱雞型”教育。我小時候也學(xué)過幾樣樂器，小提琴啊吉他啥地，現(xiàn)在也就能彈出個響吧。大概就是因為遭受到這種精神迫害了。

一個句式：“兩者的鮮明對比在于X”

-?原文：Another stark contrast lies in the range of human aptitude for each ability.

-?翻譯：另一個鮮明的對比是，對兩種能力（語言和音樂）人類的天資不同。

摳一個萬能句式：A/Another stark contrast (between A and B) lies in C. 其中A/B如果想省事也可以刪掉，C必須是一個名詞性成分。如果你特別想要寫句子，可以把C部分展開為一個名詞性從句，比如：Another stark contrast lies in the range of human aptitude for each ability ?可以展開為? Another stark contrast between language and music lies in the fact that the range of human aptitude for each ability varies.

一個小詞：少

- 原文：Conversely, only a minority of adults are talented musicians; even fewer are skilled composers of new, hitherto unheard works.

- 翻譯：相反，只有少數(shù)成年人是才華橫溢的音樂家，能創(chuàng)作出迄今為止尚未問世的新作的天才型作曲家就更少了。

我們經(jīng)常需要表達(dá)“少”這個概念，文中提供了兩組素材：a minority of以及fewer?？瓷先ズ唵蔚谴蠹移綍r都不太會想起來用它們，尤其是fewer這個小詞特別被less張冠李戴，很多英語學(xué)習(xí)者都犯過less people/ less students類似這樣的錯誤。當(dāng)我們想表示“少/更少X”，如果X是一個可數(shù)名詞，則更適合用few/fewer來修飾，比如文中的fewer adults；只有當(dāng)X是不可數(shù)名詞時，才會用little/less吶~