A Contrast of Cultural Connotations between English and Chinese Color Terms

Color is perception of people to the objective world.In human language,there are great numbers of color terms recording color of the world.These color terms are often used in human language.Gradually,they are endowed with rich emotional elements and cultural connotations.In cross-cultural communication,different nations with different cultural backgrounds or people of the same nations with the same backgrounds but belonging to different social classes have different perceptions of various colors.The different perceptions of colors result in a series of associative meaning of color terms.This thesis intends to discuss color terms from the following five aspects.Firstly,it deals with the relationship between language and culture.Language and culture are connected with each other.So the understanding of a culture requires the understanding of the corresponding language and vice versa.Secondly,it aims at the contrast of cultural connotations of basic color terms in English and Chinese.Thirdly,it is devoted to a discussion of the possible reasons for the diversity of cultural connotations in the two languages.Fourthly,it focuses on the influences on the cross-cultural communication.     

感悟外语学习对语言研究的开拓

随着中国经济贸易国际化，国人眼下正在掀起一波学习外语潮。笔者仅从开拓语言研究的角度，感悟学习外语对其有着很好的帮助。尽管中国文化有着五千年历史的深厚底蕴，然而人类语方的开发仅局限于此是不够的。为此，笔者在学习外语时发现其对现代汉语中词源、字源及了解古今中外语言对语言研究很有借鉴和帮助，对探讨模糊语言学很有启示，对研究语言、词汇在世界上的分布情况能为词源研究提供有力佐证。概言之。学习外语对于拓宽本民族语言研究有着非常积极的作用。     

从语言的同一性与特殊性看可译性与不可译性

洪堡特与萨丕尔、沃尔夫等人均对人类语言与思维的关系做了详尽的阐释,但其对语言本质的理解却不尽相同,进而引发对两种理论框架下翻译领域内的可译性与不可译性问题的不同解释。根据洪堡特的辩证语言哲学观,人类精神力量的统一性与独特性造就了不同语言间的本质统一和表征的多元性,因此语言的可译性潜在于语言的本质层面,而不可译性则存在于其表征层面。相反,萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说关注于社会文化影响下言语间的不可调和性及其对思维的独特组构,不可译性得到了合理的解释,可译性因而被忽略。     

论英语语法模糊性的哲学根源

语法是人类对纷繁复杂语言现象的抽象化和模块化,即范畴化。然而,由于客观事物的连续性、多样性和多变性,人类的思维在认识世界和借助语言对世界进行范畴化的过程中都发挥着积极主动的作用,语法范畴与概念范畴间必然存在差异性,因而导致了语法范畴的模糊性。     

Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals

Languages vary widely but not without limit. The central goal of linguistics is to describe the diversity of human languages and explain the constraints on that diversity. Generative linguists following Chomsky have claimed that linguistic diversity must be constrained by innate parameters that are set as a child learns a language. In contrast, other linguists following Greenberg have claimed that there are statistical tendencies for co-occurrence of traits reflecting universal systems biases, rather than absolute constraints or parametric variation. Here we use computational phylogenetic methods to address the nature of constraints on linguistic diversity in an evolutionary framework. First, contrary to the generative account of parameter setting, we show that the evolution of only a few word-order features of languages are strongly correlated. Second, contrary to the Greenbergian generalizations, we show that most observed functional dependencies between traits are lineage-specific rather than universal tendencies. These findings support the view that-at least with respect to word order-cultural evolution is the primary factor that determines linguistic structure, with the current state of a linguistic system shaping and constraining future states.     

Parallel extinction risk and global distribution of languages and species

There are global threats to biodiversity with current extinction rates well above background levels. Although less well publicized, numerous human languages have also become extinct, and others are threatened with extinction. However, estimates of the number of threatened languages vary considerably owing to the wide range of criteria used. For example, languages have been classified as threatened if the number of speakers is less than 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000, 20,000 or 100,000 (ref. 3). Here I show, by applying internationally agreed criteria for classifying species extinction risk, that languages are more threatened than birds or mammals. Rare languages are more likely to show evidence of decline than commoner ones. Areas with high language diversity also have high bird and mammal diversity and all three show similar relationships to area, latitude, area of forest and, for languages and birds, maximum altitude. The time of human settlement has little effect on current language diversity. Although similar factors explain the diversity of languages and biodiversity, the factors explaining extinction risk for birds and mammals (high altitude, high human densities and insularity) do not explain the numbers of endangered languages.     

汉英多义形容词“老”和“old”的词义生成与演变

多义词几乎存在于人类所有的语言中，现代汉语和现代英语也不例外。文章尝试探究汉英多义形容词“老”和“old”的词义生成与演变，并描绘出其词义演变轨迹图。研究发现：（1）其产生一词多义的原因是受隐喻作用和语言经济性原则的影响；（2）其词义演变轨迹符合“仙人掌发展模型”，但是其产生的隐喻意义种类却不尽相同．因此它们缔造出各自特有的词义演变的仙人掌模型。     

Language trees support the express-train sequence of Austronesian expansion

Languages, like molecules, document evolutionary history. Darwin observed that evolutionary change in languages greatly resembled the processes of biological evolution: inheritance from a common ancestor and convergent evolution operate in both. Despite many suggestions, few attempts have been made to apply the phylogenetic methods used in biology to linguistic data. Here we report a parsimony analysis of a large language data set. We use this analysis to test competing hypotheses--the "express-train" and the "entangled-bank" models--for the colonization of the Pacific by Austronesian-speaking peoples. The parsimony analysis of a matrix of 77 Austronesian languages with 5,185 lexical items produced a single most-parsimonious tree. The express-train model was converted into an ordered geographical character and mapped onto the language tree. We found that the topology of the language tree was highly compatible with the express-train model.     

英语全球化的利弊与全球英语运用的策略

目前英语已经发展为具有特殊作用并得到每个国家承认而真正获得全球性地位的语言,这种现象称为英语的全球化。全球化了的英语一方面很大程度上为世界各国或各民族间的交流与对话消除了语言上的障碍,给人们带来了方便,成为众多民族或国家获得发展的重要条件之一,并且节约了一定的翻译开支;另一方面却导致了小语种濒临灭绝,甚至灭绝。趋利避害是对待英语全球化的策略。面对全球化浪潮的冲击,中国将坚持自己民族优秀传统文化,以开阔的胸襟,兼收并蓄世界各文化之长,以自己的声音融入全球化。     

Frequency of word-use predicts rates of lexical evolution throughout Indo-European history

Greek speakers say "omicronupsilonrho", Germans "schwanz" and the French "queue" to describe what English speakers call a 'tail', but all of these languages use a related form of 'two' to describe the number after one. Among more than 100 Indo-European languages and dialects, the words for some meanings (such as 'tail') evolve rapidly, being expressed across languages by dozens of unrelated words, while others evolve much more slowly--such as the number 'two', for which all Indo-European language speakers use the same related word-form. No general linguistic mechanism has been advanced to explain this striking variation in rates of lexical replacement among meanings. Here we use four large and divergent language corpora (English, Spanish, Russian and Greek) and a comparative database of 200 fundamental vocabulary meanings in 87 Indo-European languages to show that the frequency with which these words are used in modern language predicts their rate of replacement over thousands of years of Indo-European language evolution. Across all 200 meanings, frequently used words evolve at slower rates and infrequently used words evolve more rapidly. This relationship holds separately and identically across parts of speech for each of the four language corpora, and accounts for approximately 50% of the variation in historical rates of lexical replacement. We propose that the frequency with which specific words are used in everyday language exerts a general and law-like influence on their rates of evolution. Our findings are consistent with social models of word change that emphasize the role of selection, and suggest that owing to the ways that humans use language, some words will evolve slowly and others rapidly across all languages.     

The evolution of syntactic communication

Animal communication is typically non-syntactic, which means that signals refer to whole situations. Human language is syntactic, and signals consist of discrete components that have their own meanings. Syntax is a prerequisite for taking advantage of combinatorics, that is, "making infinite use of finite means. The vast expressive power of human language would be impossible without syntax, and the transition from non-syntactic to syntactic communication was an essential step in the evolution of human language. We aim to understand the evolutionary dynamics of this transition and to analyse how natural selection can guide it. Here we present a model for the population dynamics of language evolution, define the basic reproductive ratio of words and calculate the maximum size of a lexicon. Syntax allows larger repertoires and the possibility to formulate messages that have not been learned beforehand. Nevertheless, according to our model natural selection can only favour the emergence of syntax if the number of required signals exceeds a threshold value. This result might explain why only humans evolved syntactic communication and hence complex language.     

程序设计语言的抽象与语言族模型

程序设计语言的模型对于研究语言的性质具有重要作用。基于语言的抽象这一概念,在建立的语言之代数模型下,给出了程序设计语言间的３种关系：继承、扩充、屏蔽的语义,并提出了在这3种关系下构成的语言族模型,作为研究语言间的关系和面向模型的变换型软件开发方法的一种理论基础。     

正则表达式匹配IP地址的实践与研究

正则表达式语言是世界上最流行的字符串匹配语言，它被许多编程语言或工具所支持。运用正则表达式匹配IP地址，比较了一些模式的写法，分析了某些模式在不同正则表达式引擎下的差异，得出了一个精确、通用的模式。     

全球化语境下的世界语言生态危机

全球化助推下的英语强势蔓延,大大加剧了世界范围内语言濒危和灭绝的程度和速度。语言生态隐喻为语言濒危研究提供了主流范式。以联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）为首的国际社会为拯救濒危语言不懈努力,步履维艰。非强势语言民族国家应理性接受语言生态演化,在合理利用强势语言价值和保护民族文化财产两者间需求平衡点。     

从认知语义视角解析一词多义现象

一词多义现象是人类语言的一大特色,但语义学家对一词多义的研究并未形成一致的看法。传统语义学在解释多义词多项意义之间的联系时,虽然作出了自己的贡献,但其研究局限于语言的内部结构,忽略了其底层的认知机制。认知语义学家认为多义现象的产生和理解是通过人类的认知手段,如范畴化、隐喻和转喻机制、概念合成机制等实现的。本文从认知语言学的角度出发,对一词多义现象进行剖析,试图揭示这种语言现象的本质。     

汉﹑英动物隐喻文化对比

隐喻是认知语言学中的一个重要的研究内容,它是人类认知世界的一种思维方式,隐喻是各种语言的一个共同特征,探究其原因在于人们的生活环境的相似性,动物词语的意义是复杂的,它不仅有字面上的意义(denotation),往往还有内涵义(connotation),即词语所隐含的附加的联想义,比喻意义或带有感情色彩的褒贬义。本文探究了动物词的隐喻用法。     

文化多样性发展的危机及出路

文化多样性作为人类各群体和社会借以表现其文化的多种不同形式,本来是人类社会的一种基本表征,但在全球化条件下却遭遇了"匀质化"、单一化发展的危机。具体表现为大众文化的泛滥、文化特质的丧失、民族语言的濒危和消失等,文化危机出现的背后是文化和资本双重逻辑作用的结果。尊重和保护文化多样性有赖于人们充分体认文化多样性发展对人类生存发展的重要意义以及各民族文化主体立足自身、放眼人类的真正的文化自觉意识。     

音译意译均相宜——谈谈汉语吸收外来词语

汉语在吸收外族语词方面是积极的，成果是可观的。除了对一些日语词汇原形照搬之外，汉语借用、吸收外来词语——亦即外族语词——的途径是翻译，主要是音译和意译。音译0和意译，各有千秋，使用得当的话，二者都是行之有效的。认为意译外来词语是排斥外族语词进入本族语的表现，只有音译外族语词才有助于词语国际化、有助于汉语同国际接轨、有利于我们同世界进行直接交流的观点是不正确的。     

浅谈网络语言在词汇层面上的变异

随着网络在中国的迅猛发展,一种新的社会方言———网络语言兴起并蓬勃发展。互联网的出现对我们的生活产生了巨大影响。网络语言是广泛应用于虚拟世界的信息符号。网络语言与现实语言相比,它受现实语言的制约,同时又反作用于现实语言。本文试图从词汇层面对网络语言进行浅析。