TED演讲:动物有语言吗(1)

 　　All animals communicate. 所有动物都会相互交流。

　　Crabs¹ wave their claws at each other to signal that they're healthy and ready to mate. 螃蟹相互挥舞钳子表明它们健康并准备交配。

　　Cuttlefish² use pigmented skin cells called chromatophores to create patterns on their skin 乌贼使用叫做色素体的皮肤色素细胞在皮肤上创造图案形成伪装，

　　that act as camouflage³ or warnings to rivals. 用来迷惑或警示敌人。

　　Honeybees perform complex dances to let other bees know the location and quality of a food source. 蜜蜂通过表演复杂的舞蹈来让其他蜜蜂知道食物源的位置和质量。

　　All of these animals have impressive communication systems, but do they have language? 所有动物都有一流的交流系统，但它们有语言吗？

　　To answer that question, we can look at four specific qualities that are often associated with language: 为了回答这个问题，我们来看一下跟语言相关的4个特质：

　　discreteness⁴, grammar, productivity, and displacement⁵. 分离性、语法性、创造性和时空性。

　　Discreteness means that there is a set of individual units, such as sounds or words, 分离性是指一组独立单元比如声音或者词语，

　　that can be combined to communicate new ideas, 能够被组合在一起传达新的想法。

　　like a set of refrigerator poetry magnets you can rearrange to create different phrases. 就像贴在冰箱门上的诗词磁条可以通过重组来创建不同的词汇。

　　Grammar provides a system of rules that tells you how to combine those individual units. 语法性提供了一套规则，让你知道如何组合那些独立单元。

　　Productivity is the ability to use language to create an infinite number of messages. 创造性是运用语言来创造无限量信息的能力。

　　And displacement is the ability to talk about things that aren't right in front of you, 时空性是谈论那些不在眼前的事物，

　　such as past, future, or fictional⁶ events. 比如过去，未来或者虚构事件。

　　So, does animal communication exhibit any of these qualities? 那么，动物交流时会展现出其中的任何特质吗？

　　For crabs and cuttlefish, the answer is no. 就螃蟹和乌贼而言，答案是不会。

　　They don't combine their signals in creative ways. 它们不会以创新的方式来衔接这些信号。

　　Those signals also don't have to be in a grammatical order, 那些信号没有必要按照语法的顺序排列，

　　and they only communicate current conditions, like, "I am healthy," or "I am poisonous." 它们只交流现状，比如，“我很健康”，或者“我有毒”。

　　But some animals actually do display some of these properties. 但有一些动物们会展现出这些特性。

　　Bees use the moves, angle, duration, and intensity⁷ of their waggle dance 蜜蜂们在舞蹈中通过摇摆舞的位置变动、角度、时长和强度

　　to describe the location and richness of a food source. 来描述食物源的位置和丰富程度。

　　That source is outside the hive, so they exhibit the property of displacement. 食物源位于蜂巢之外，所以它们展现出了时空性。

　　They share that language trait with prairie dogs, 它们分享了跟土拨鼠一样的语言特征，

　　which live in towns of thousands, and are hunted by coyotes, hawks⁸, badgers⁹, snakes, and humans. 土拨鼠住在数千个城镇中，是土狼、老鹰、獾、蛇和人类的猎物。

1 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 cuttlefish   

n.乌贼，墨鱼

参考例句：

• I have no idea about how to prepare those cuttlefish and lobsters.我对如何烹调那些乌贼和龙虾毫无概念。
• The cuttlefish spurts out dark ink when it is in danger.乌鲗遇到危险的时候会喷出黑色液体。

3 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

4 discreteness   

组件

参考例句：

• Based on flow-control's discreteness, configure, affair and concurrency transacting, one application is organized perfectly. " 这样一个基于流程控制的组件、配置、事务、并发处理，组织出一个完整的应用。
• Discreteness of eigenvalue spectra for a class of eigenvalue problems is proved through integral equation representation. 将一类本征值问题化成等价的积分形式，利用积分形式证明了这类本征值问题的本征值谱的离散性。

5 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

6 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

7 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

8 hawks   

鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物

参考例句：

• Two hawks were hover ing overhead. 两只鹰在头顶盘旋。
• Both hawks and doves have expanded their conditions for ending the war. 鹰派和鸽派都充分阐明了各自的停战条件。

9 badgers   

n.獾( badger的名词复数 )；獾皮；（大写）獾州人（美国威斯康星州人的别称）；毛鼻袋熊

参考例句：

• Badgers had undermined the foundations of the church. 獾在这座教堂的地基处打了洞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• And rams ' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood. 5染红的公羊皮，海狗皮，皂荚木。 来自互联网