評論
打印
【改錯】
From what has been said, it must be clear that no one can make very positive statements about how language originated. There is no material in any language today and in the earliest____1
records of ancient languages show us language in a new and ____2
emerging state. It is often said, of course, that the language ____3
originated in cries of anger, fear, pain and pleasure, and the____4
necessary evidence is entirely lacking: there are no remote tribes, no ancient records, providing evidence of a language with a large proportion of such cries ___5
than we find in English. it is true that the absenceof such evidence does not disprove the theory, but in____6
other grounds too the theory is not very attractive. People of all races and languages make rather similar noises in return to pain or pleasure. The fact that____7
such noises are similar on the lips of Frenchmen and Malaysians whose languages are utterly different, serves to emphasize on the fundamental difference____8
between these noises and language proper. We maysay that the cries of pain or chortles of amusement are largely reflex actions, instinctive to large extent, ___9
whereas language proper does not consist of signsbut of these that have to be learnt and that are____10
