評(píng)論
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And in fact, if I want to speak correctly, Chinese forces me to constantly think about it.
事實(shí)上，如果要我不弄錯(cuò)的話，我就要不斷的去想這之間的關(guān)系。
Now, that fascinated me endlessly as a child,
這是小時(shí)候讓我很好奇的事情，
but what fascinates me even more today as an economist
而現(xiàn)在我作為一個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家更加好奇的是
is that some of these same differences carry through to how languages speak about time.
不同的語言在如何表示時(shí)間上的差異。
So for example, if I'm speaking in English, I have to speak grammatically differently
例如，在英語中需要用明確的語法變化來表示不同的時(shí)態(tài)，
if I'm talking about past rain, "It rained yesterday," current rain, "It is raining now," or future rain, "It will rain tomorrow."
如果我說過去下過雨：“It rained yesterday”，正在下雨：“It is raining now”，將要下雨：It will rain tomorrow.”
Notice that English requires a lot more information with respect to the timing of events.
注意英語中需要很多的元素來表示事件發(fā)生的時(shí)間。
Why? Because I have to consider that and I have to modify what I'm saying to say, "It will rain," or "It's going to rain."
因?yàn)槲倚枰鶕?jù)我要說的事件的時(shí)間來調(diào)整自己要說的話，“It will rain”或“It's going to rain.”
It's simply not permissible in English to say, "It rain tomorrow."
英語語法禁止你說成“It rain tomorrow”。
In contrast to that, that's almost exactly what you would say in Chinese.
中文的表達(dá)方式跟英文恰恰相反。
A Chinese speaker can basically say something that sounds very strange to an English speaker's ears.
一個(gè)說中文的人說出來的話會(huì)讓一個(gè)說英文的人聽起來怪怪的。
They can say, "Yesterday it rain," "Now it rain," "Tomorrow it rain."
他們會(huì)說，“昨天下雨”、“現(xiàn)在下雨”、“明天下雨”。
In some deep sense, Chinese doesn't divide up the time spectrum
從更深的角度來看，中文并沒有將時(shí)間進(jìn)行嚴(yán)格的分割，
in the same way that English forces us to constantly do in order to speak correctly.
而英文則將此作為語言正確與否的準(zhǔn)則之一。
Is this difference in languages only between very, very distantly related languages, like English and Chinese?
這種差異是不是只有在中文和英文差異這么大的語言之間才會(huì)有？
Actually, no. So many of you know, in this room, that English is a Germanic language.
實(shí)際上，不是。你們當(dāng)中的很多人都知道英語屬于日爾曼語系。
What you may not have realized is that English is actually an outlier.
你們可能沒有意識(shí)到英語算是這個(gè)語系的一個(gè)異類。
It is the only Germanic language that requires this.
英語是日爾曼語系中唯一需要這些的。
