笔记（共44篇）

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• Tracy-

  “but in the lap of a society that is certain, reasonably...” 全部笔记（1） 去书内

  语言和走路不同，走路是生物上的，自然而然发生的过程，而语言事被社会影响的

  2022-10-02 喜欢(1) 回复(0)

• 薏米yi.

  “The way is now cleared for a serviceable definition of...” 全部笔记（1） 去书内

  The way is now cleared for a serviceable definition of language. Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. These symbols are, in the first instance, auditory and they are produced by the so-called “organs of speech.” There is no discernible instinctive basis in human speech as such, however much instinctive expressions and the natural environment may serve as a stimulus for the development of certain elements of speech, however much instinctive tendencies, motor and other, may give a predetermined range or mold to linguistic expression. Such human or animal communication, if “communication” it may be called, as is brought about by involuntary, instinctive cries is not, in our sense, language at all.

  2026-06-25 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 薏米yi.

  “Interjections are among the least important of speech...” 全部笔记（1） 去书内

  Interjections are among the least important of speech elements. Their discussion is valuable mainly because it can be shown that even they, avowedly the nearest of all language sounds to instinctive utterance, are only superficially of an instinctive nature. Were it therefore possible to demonstrate that the whole of language is traceable, in its ultimate historical and psychological foundations, to the interjections, it would still not follow that language is an instinctive activity. But, as a matter of fact, all attempts so to explain the origin of speech have been fruitless. There is no tangible evidence, historical or otherwise, tending to show that the mass of speech elements and speech processes has evolved out of the interjections.

  2026-06-25 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 薏米yi.

  “Not so language. It is of course true that in a certain sense...” 全部笔记（1） 去书内

  Not so language. It is of course true that in a certain sense the individual is predestined to talk, but that is due entirely to the circumstance that he is born not merely in nature, but in the lap of a society that is certain, reasonably certain, to lead him to its traditions. Eliminate society and there is every reason to believe that he will learn to walk, if, indeed, he survives at all. But it is just as certain that he will never learn to talk, that is, to communicate ideas according to the traditional system of a particular society. Or, again, remove the new-born individual from the social environment into which he has come and transplant him to an utterly alien one. He will develop the art of walking in his new environment very much as he would have developed it in the old. But his speech will be completely at variance with the speech of his native environment.

  2026-06-25 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 薏米yi.

  “I have avoided most of the technical terms and all of the...” 全部笔记（1） 去书内

  I have avoided most of the technical terms and all of the technical symbols of the linguistic academy. There is not a single diacritical mark in the book. Where possible, the discussion is based on English material. It was necessary, however, for the scheme of the book, which includes a consideration of the protean forms in which human thought has found expression, to quote some exotic instances. For these no apology seems necessary. Owing to limitations of space I have had to leave out many ideas or principles that I should have liked to touch upon. Other points have had to be barely hinted at in a sentence or flying phrase.

  2026-06-25 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 用户872342

  “In English, for instance, it may make little grammatical...” 全部笔记（1） 去书内

  In English, for instance, it may make little grammatical difference whether I say yesterday the man saw the dog or the man saw the dog yesterday, but it is not a matter of indifference whether I say yesterday the man saw the dog or yesterday the dog saw the man or whether I say he is here or is he here? In the one case, of the latter group of examples, the vital distinction of subject and object depends entirely on the placing of certain words of the sentence, in the latter a slight difference of sequence makes all the difference between statement and question. It goes without saying that in these cases the English principle of word order is as potent a means of expression as is the Latin use of case suffixes or of an interrogative particle. There is here no question of functional poverty, but of formal economy

  2026-06-15 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 用户872342

  “There are, then, an indefinitely large number of articulated...” 全部笔记（2） 去书内

  There are, then, an indefinitely large number of articulated sounds available for the mechanics of speech; any given language makes use of an explicit, rigidly economical selection of these rich resources; and each of the many possible sounds of speech is conditioned by a number of independent muscular adjustments that work together simultaneously towards its production. A full account of the activity of each of the organs of speech—in so far as its activity has a bearing on language—is impossible here, nor can we concern ourselves in a systematic way with the classification of sounds on the basis of their mechanics

  2026-06-15 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 用户872342

  “Most people, asked if they can think without speech, would...” 全部笔记（1） 去书内

  Most people, asked if they can think without speech, would probably answer, “Yes, but it is not easy for me to do so. Still I know it can be done.” Language is but a garment! But what if language is not so much a garment as a prepared road or groove? It is, indeed, in the highest degree likely that language is an instrument originally put to uses lower than the conceptual plane and that thought arises as a refined interpretation of its content. The product grows, in other words, with the instrument, and thought may be no more conceivable, in its genesis and daily practice, without speech than is mathematical reasoning practicable without the lever of an appropriate mathematical symbolism. No one believes that even the most difficult mathematical proposition is inherently dependent on an arbitrary set of symbols, but it is impossible to suppose that the human mind is capable of arriving at or holding such a proposition without the symbolism. The writer, for one, is strongly of the opinion that the feeling entertained by so many that they can think, or even reason, without language is an illusion. The illusion seems to be due to a number of factors. The simplest of these is the failure to distinguish between imagery and thought. As a matter of fact, no sooner do we try to put an image into conscious relation with another than we find ourselves slipping into a silent flow of words. Thought may be a natural domain apart from the ar

  2026-06-15 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 用户872342

  “Speech is so familiar a feature of daily life that we rarely...” 全部笔记（2） 去书内

  Speech is so familiar a feature of daily that we rarely pause to define it.It seems as natural to man as walking,and only less so than breathing.Yet it needs but a moment's reflection to convince us that this naturalness of speech is but an illusory feeling.The process of a acquiring speech is,in sober fact,an utterly different sort of thing from the process of learning to walk.In the case of the latter function,culture,in other words,the traditionally body of social usage,is not seriously brought into play.The child is individually equipped,by the complex set of factors that we term biological heredity,to make all the needed muscular and nervous adjustments that result in walking.Indeed,the very conformation of these muscles and of the appropriate parts of the nervous system may be said to be primarily adapted to the movements made in walking and in similar activities.In a very real sense the normal human being is predestined to walk,not because his elders will assist him to learn the art,but because his organism is prepared from birth,or even from the moment of conception,to take on all those expenditures of nervous energy and all those muscular adaptions that result in walking.To put it concisely,walking is an inherent,biological function of man

  2026-06-15 喜欢(0) 回复(0)

• 用户872342

  “This little book aims to give a certain perspective on the...” 全部笔记（2） 去书内

  The little book aims to give a certain perspective on the subject of language rather than to assemble facts about it.It has a little to say of the ultimate psychological basis of speech and gives only enough of the actual descriptive or historical facts of particular languages to illustrate principles.Its main purpose is to show what I conceive language to be,what is variability in place and time,and what are its relations to other fundamental human interests-the problem of thought,the nature of the historical process,race,culture,art

  2026-06-15 喜欢(0) 回复(0)