Unit 7 Learning about English
Changing Voices
All languages change over time, and vary from place to place. They may change as a
result of social or political pressures, such as invasion, colonisation and immigration.
New vocabulary is required for the latest inventions, such as transport, domestic
appliances and industrial equipment, or for sporting, entertainment and leisure
pursuits. But a language can also change by less obvious means.
Influenced by others
Language also changes very subtly whenever speakers come into contact with each
other. No two individuals speak identically: people from different geographical places
clearly speak differently, but even within the same small community there are
variations according to a speaker’s age, gender, ethnicity(种族地位) and social and
educational background. Through our interactions with these different speakers, we
encounter new words, expressions and pronunciations and integrate them into our
own speech. Even if your family has lived in the same area for generations, you can
probably identify a number of differences between the language you use and the way
your grandparents speak. Every successive generation makes its own small
contribution to language change and when sufficient time has elapsed(流逝) the
impact of these changes becomes more obvious.
Attitudes to language change
1) Some method should be thought on for ascertaining and fixing our language for
ever (...) it is better a language should not be wholly perfect, than that it should be
perpetually changing
Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, wrote these words in 1712. They express
a sentiment we still hear today — the idea that language should be fixed forever,
frozen in time, and protected from the ravages(破坏) of fashion and social trends.
Language change is almost always perceived as a negative thing. During the
eighteenth century, Swift and many other influential figures felt the English language
was in a state of serious decline and that a national institution, such as existed in
France and Italy, should be created to establish rules and prevent further decay. Even
today we hear people complaining about a supposed lack of ‘standards’ in spoken and
written English. New words and expressions, innovative pronunciations and changes
in grammar are derided(嘲笑), and are often considered inferior. 2)Yet because of its
adaptability and durability, English has evolved into an incredibly versatile and
modern language, retaining a recognisable link to its past.
Change can be a good thing
Most contemporary linguistic commentators accept that change in language, like
change in society, is an unavoidable process — occasionally regrettable, but more
often a means of refreshing and reinvigorating a language, providing alternatives that
allow extremely subtle differences of expression. Certainly the academies established
in France and Italy have had little success in preventing change in French or Italian,
and perhaps the gradual shift in opinion of our most famous lexicographer, Dr
Johnson, is instructive. A contemporary of Swift, Dr Johnson, wrote in 1747 of his
desire to produce a dictionary by which the pronunciation of our language may be
fixed and its purity preserved, but on completing the project ten years later he
acknowledges in his introduction that:
3) Those who have been persuaded to think well of my design, require that it should
fix our language and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have
hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition. With this consequence I will
confess that I flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged
expectation which neither reason nor experience can justify.
Johnson clearly realised that any attempt to fix the language was futile. Like it or not,
language is always changing and English will continue to do so in many creative and
— to some perhaps — frustrating ways.
Translate the underlined sentences.
1. 应该想些办法来永久地确保和固定我们的语言…一门语言可能不尽完美，但
比它永远身处变化之中要好得多。
2. 然而因其可适应性和持久性，英语已演化成令人难以置信的多功能的和现代
的语言，而且仍可看出其和过去的联系。
3. 那些受劝看好我的规划的人, 要求固定我们的语言和终止对语言的更改, 时
间和机遇不加反对地做了这些更改并为此深受其害。看到这样的结果我坦承一段
时间里我沾沾自喜; 但现在我开始害怕理智和经验都不足以证明我的这种期望
之正确。
Chinese Symbols vs. English Characters
Finding the beginnings of a language is a complicated process. The problem is that
historical records only date back so far. We can only guess at how they were spoken in
the beginning years by looking at the written symbols, characters, and drawings.
Another problem with learning about the written and spoken word is that language is
continually evolving. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary adds and deletes
words frequently. A term that is considered to be slang today may appear as a real
word within a few short years. Certain words go out of favour, are no longer used, but
may come back again later on. It can become quite confusing.
The origin and history of Chinese symbols used in writing dates back thousands of
years. The first use of Chinese characters is thought to be about 1500 BC. Scholars
claim that classical Chinese evolved from Old Chinese and has been modified even
more as modern Chinese. Before the twentieth century, Classical Chinese was always
used to write formal correspondence. Other nations using it were Japan, Korea, and
Viet Nam. Spoken Chinese evolved into different vernaculars(本地话) and dialects,
but for two thousand years Classical Chinese was always used in writing. Today Japan
and Korea still use some of the same characters, but there are enough variations that
one country has trouble translating the symbols of another.
Linguists tend to believe that the origin and history of Chinese symbols were based on
the Aramaic(阿拉姆语的) alphabet. Language history thousands of years ago is quite
sketchy( 粗 略 的 ). At some point this alphabet came to China via Christian
missionaries. In any event Chinese symbols are known as logograms(语标), meaning
that each character stands for one word, or to be exact, a morpheme( 语 素 ).
Logographic systems are considered more difficult than alphabetic systems due to the
vast number of characters and meanings that must be memorized. To make matters
even more complicated, one part of the symbol refers to the meaning of a word, while
another refers to pronunciation.
Written English uses the Latin alphabet and is considered a Germanic language.
Tracing the origin and history of English characters is as confusing as finding the
roots of most languages. We do know that the first English writings, similar to today’s,
aren’t dated before the 9th century. Those found in the 7th and 8th centuries were
“Old English”. Alfred the Great was the first person to use the word English to
describe what the modern version evolved from. English really started to change into
its present form around 1400. What is clear from researchers is that the origin and
history of English characters is what led to any standards in the language. In other
words English speakers write in the same way, but in the spoken form it doesn’t
always sound the same.
An alphabet is a system of characters used to write a language. As previously
mentioned symbols or characters consist of a meaning and pronunciation. In the
alphabet used by most English speakers there are 26 letters. Chinese symbols,
depending on the era, can number as many as 80,000. One way of thinking about the
difference between English characters and Chinese symbols, is that characters appear
to be simple lines and curves and the symbols look more like pictures. Also, there are
fewer English characters than Chinese symbols.
Questions
1. What makes Chinese more difficult to learn than English?
2. How old are Chinese and English respectively?
3. Do you agree with linguists’ assumption that the origin and history of Chinese
symbols were based on the Aramaic alphabet?
KEY:
1. Chinese is a logographic system which has as many as 80,000 symbols to
memorize. What’s more, one part of the symbol refers to the meaning of a word while
another refers to pronunciation. English is an alphabetic system which has 26 letters.
There are fewer English characters than Chinese symbols.
2. The first use of Chinese characters is thought to be about 1500 BC. The first
English writings aren’t dated before the 9th century. English really started to change
into its present form around 1400.
3. Open-ended.