2021年下半年大学英语四级美文:Is There a Backward Language

2021-08-24 08:18:00来源:网络

  2021年下半年大学英语四级美文100篇汇总

  英语四级美文:Is There a Backward Language

  Culture is the sum total of all the traditions, customs, beliefs,and ways of life of a given group of human beings.In this sense, every group has a culture,however savage, underdeveloped, or uncivilized it may seem to us.To the professional anthropologist,there is no intrinsic superiority of one culture over another,just as to the professional linguist there is no intrinsic rank among languages.

  People once thought of the languages of backward groups as savage,underdeveloped forms of speech,consisting largely of grunts and groans.While it is possible that language in general began as a series of grunts and groans,it is a fact established,by the study of “backward” languages that no spoken tongue answers that description today.Most languages of uncivilized groups are,by our most severe standards, extremely complex, delicate,and ingenious pieces of machinery for the transfer of ideas.

  They fall behind our Western languages not in their sound patterns or grammatical structures,which usually are fully adequate for all language needs,but only in their vocabularies,which reflect the objects and activities known to their speakers.Even in this department,however, two things are to be noted:All languages seem to possess the machinery for vocabulary expansion either by putting together words already in existence or by borrowing them from other languages and adapting them to their own system.

  The objects and activities requiring names and distinctions in “backward” languages,while different from ours, are often surprisingly numerous and complicated.A Western language is distinguishes merely between two degrees of remoteness (“this” and “that”);some languages of the American Indians distinguish between what is close to the speaker,or to the person addressed, or removed from both,or out of sight, or in the past, or in the future.This study of language, in turn,casts a new light upon the claim of the anthropologists that all cultures are to be viewed independently,and without ideas of rank.

  2021年下半年大学英语四级美文100篇汇总


英语四级无忧计划立减1000元

扫码即刻查分 四六级最新答案

四六级好课 海量资料定期更新

更多资料
更多>>
更多内容
更多>>
更多公开课>>
更多>>
更多资料