and it holds a lot of social value. It influences everything from how we get around to how long and healthy our lives are.

它包含了日常生活許多面向，從我們如何與他人相處，到我們能活到多大年紀，甚至能判定我們多健康

Even my being able to talk with you right now,

就連我現在能利用影音平台和你們講話，

through the marvel of online video? You can thank science for that. But wait,

也歸類在科學的範疇，不過，稍等一下

isn’t this a channel about linguistics? Well, you might never have thought of it this way,

這是關於語言的頻道吧 ? 其實，或許你們從來都不這麼認為，

but linguistics is a science too. I’m Moti Lieberman, and this is the Ling Space.

不過語言學也是科學的一種呢 ! 我是Moti Lieberman，這是我的語言異想世界

When you think about language and how people study it, science is probably not the first thing that comes to mind.

一提到語言，或是人們研究語言的方式，「科學」恐怕不是第一個浮現腦海的念頭

After all, you don’t really need to do science to it for it to be meaningful.

畢竟，我們真的不必去做科學實驗之類的東西去研究它

Language is beautiful and vital,

語言，不僅很美，甚至還很重要

it ties into our culture, in our literature, our poetry and our music.

它和我們的文化、文學緊緊相扣，和詩詞、音樂脣齒相依

Just as we can appreciate a spectacular night sky without worrying about astronomy,

就像我們能夠單純的欣賞星空而不用精通天文學，

or a butterfly without thinking about how its wings work, we don’t need linguistics to appreciate

或者觀察蝴蝶而不用知道他的生理機制，我們不需要從語言學的角度去思索人類怎麼溝通

the way that people use language. We can just enjoy the style of a writer’s individual voice,

我們可以單單欣賞每個作家不同的風格，

or the rhythmic flow of a well-turned set of syllables.

或者字句之間埋藏的優美韻律

But the thing is, whether or not you realize it, the science is always there inside language!

不過重點是，不管你有沒有體會到，科學一直都存在在語言之中 !

It’s part our biological heritage, and we find a ton of things in common across every language of the world.

它屬於生物遺產的一部分，我們能從世界所有語言之中找到數以千計的相似之處

And it’s a really key social and cultural institution, too,

而語言對於社交，文化交流來說是佔有一席之地的，

that can define communities and sell products and start wars.

因為人們可以利用它來劃分區域，買賣交易，甚至發起戰爭

But all the different parts of language work according to rules that we can describe,

儘管各語言有許多不同之處，但我們仍然能找出他運作的規則，

and if we want to do that, science is how we make it happen.

而如果我們想找出所謂的規律，就是要利用科學方法

We need the same tools of hypothesizing, experimenting, carefully judging,

同樣，我們需要提出假設，設計實驗，還要審慎評估

and reworking that make up the backbone of science the world over.

最後，要不斷的測試直到有一些明確的規律反覆出現

Now, the case for linguistics as a science is maybe at its strongest when you look at something like neurolinguistic testing.

最能讓你強烈感受到語言學也是一門科學的時刻或許就是：當你看到有人在做神經語言學的測試

If you’re sticking someone in an fMRI machine

如果你讓一個人去做核磁共振，

or an electrode cap, and you’re measuring their brain activity, that just screams “science is happening!”

或讓他戴上電極帽，接著去觀測他們的腦部活動，那時，科學便開始運作了!

And we’ve learned a ton about the human brain and how it does

我們學過很多關於人類腦袋如何運作的知識，

its crazy language thing by using those kinds of techniques.

也學過大腦如何分工使我們能有語言的能力

We can say the same thing about psycholinguistic research, too. There’s a lot we can observe

我們也可以討論一些心理語言學的研究，在日常生活中，

about people’s behaviour and how it interacts with language.

我們就可以觀察到人們的行為是會和語言互相影響的

We can measure how people look around a visual space when they listen to a sentence,

我們可以研究當人聽到一句話的時候，他們是如何聽覺與視覺拼湊在一起

or where their attention goes first when they hear something ambiguous.

或是，當他們聽到模糊句子的時候，會最先注意哪個部分

We can learn what kinds of sentences are easier or harder for people to construct

藉由他們理解一句話的速度，或是判別一句話的複雜程度

by looking at how quickly they interpret them, or by checking where in a complicated sentence they get hung up.

我們就能從結果得知哪樣的句子對我們是比較容易、或比較難去理解

We can see how people’s systems of sound work

透過放出和噪音混合的句子，

by playing them words that are mixed with background noise or static,

或是隨意地斷句，

or chopped up in different ways.

我們也能理解人類的聽覺是如何運作的

Some of the data from psycholinguistic research is pretty amazing.

有些心理語言學的的研究是很令人意想不到的

So like, one of my favourite discoveries is how people can just ignore

舉例來說，有一個我很喜歡的發現，

errors or missing data and make sense of what they’re hearing or reading anyway.

是關於我們怎麼能忽略錯誤的訊息，或是利用部完整的資訊就能理解我們正在聽，或正在讀的東西

The power of native speakers to overcome probems is so huge that even when we just cut out

這樣的能力對於母語人士更是如此，就算我們刻意將聲音全部剪下，

sounds from words completely, on purpose, they have no trouble filling in the blanks.

他們也能毫不猶豫的理解整段話的意思

A lot of the time, they don’t even realize that anything was missing!

甚至，他們根本不知道這些句子並不完整!

How many of you noticed that there wasn’t an /l/ when I said “problems” earlier?

有多少人注意到當我在討論「困難」時，我沒有使用到「l」這個字

Did it stop you from understanding the rest of the sentence? If you’re a native English speaker,

但是你有因此而不理解我想表達的內容嗎 ? 如果你是一個以英語為母語的使用者，

chances are that even if you were eagle-eared enough to hear it, you just skimmed right on by without thinking about it.

很有可能的是，就算你很刻意想去聽，你還是有可能只是大略聽到，不用刻意去做就能理解

And thanks to linguistic science, we have all the experimental data

也幸虧語言科學，我們有這麼多的實驗結果

we need to back this observation up.

我們必須要將這些觀察保存下來

So experiments actually underlie a lot of linguistics research. And our tools and techniques are pretty refined, too.

那麼這些實驗結果就能提供我的做語言學的研究，我們用的工具也是相當精緻的

We’ve studied how super tiny infants react to language,

我們已經研究過小嬰兒在他們學會講話之前，

before they can even speak. We’ve isolated the exact kind of sentences

會對語言做出怎麼樣的反應 我們也成功地研究出，

that people with aphasia have problems with, so we can figure out

失語症的人不能理解哪種結構的句子，因此，

precisely what language impairments are made of.

我們就能精確地釐清，語言障礙是怎麼發展出來的

We can even get unbiased judgments from people about language without them realizing what we’re trying to do.

我們也能不被發現，並從從事語言相關行業的人身上得到不偏頗的評論

The number of techniques and methods for examining language is pretty huge,

有各式各樣的方法能讓我們去研究語言，

and it keeps growing as we find new ways to

我們也不斷地再尋找更多的方式，

address the questions we’re interested in.

幫助我們釐清我們感興趣的問題

But linguistics isn’t all experiments, though. A lot of the work that gets done is theoretical,

但是語言學不是建構在實驗上的，很多研究是根據理論完成的，

with nary a lab in sight. The trees that we build in syntax or the rules that we describe in phonology

根本連實驗室都沒有 在語言學中，所有被建構的文法規則，

don’t really seem like science, right? Where’s the science when you’re just sitting there and thinking,

感覺起來都不像科學對吧 ? 當我們無所事事，坐著想事情的時候，科學真的存在嗎 ?

“Hmmm, this sentence is beautiful and perfect, and this other one is terrible garbage.

「呃，這個句子很優美，一點瑕疵都沒有，但是另一句真的不怎麼樣」

I’m going to explain why by proposing a rule to divide them!”

「我來解釋一下為什麼，並且告訴你斷句的方法」

Well, the theories we come up with about how language works inform all the experiments that we do.

其實，所有我們能想到有關語言運作的模式，都應證了我們所做的實驗

Compare it to something like physics. In both fields, phenomena happen all the time,

我們可以把語言跟物理做比較，在兩個領域裡面，不論我們是不是在研究他們

whether we’re studying it or not. Stuff speeds up when it falls,

無時無刻都有許多現象發生，東西往下掉都會有重力加速度，

and mouths move to make speech sounds. And when you research those phenomena,

我們要講話嘴巴就會動 而當你開始研究這些現象，

you get a body of data about how the world works – either physical movements and forces,

你會收集到許多有關世界如何運轉的資料--無論是物體的作用力和反作用力，

or the positions and vibrations of your articulators.

或是

Both physicists and linguists then apply the scientific method to that data:

物理學家和語言學家便會應用科學方法去檢視那些資料：

with the sum of their understanding, they’ll propose a hypothesis that explains what they’ve observed.

根據他們研究所得到的結論，他們會提出假設，並且解釋他們觀察到的現象

They’ll make predictions based on that proposal, and then see whether those predictions are met,

接著，他們就會利用自己的假說來預測一些事情，經過分析和實驗後，

based on further analysis and experimentation.

再檢測自己的預想是不是正確的

Let’s see how that works for something like syntax.

我們就來看看對文法的研究是怎麼進行的

A syntactician may like words and morphemes, but what they really care about are the abstract structures underneath,

一個語言學家可能遣辭用句很有興趣，但他們真正在意的是背後的文法規則、

the skeletons that the meanings are built from.

文辭結構、文句意義

We can’t see these trees that form the base for our sentences, any more than the naked eye can see an electron.

我們不能親眼看穿我們說的話是如何由文法建構而成的，就像沒有人能夠用肉眼就能看到電子

But we can see the effects that different

但是我們能夠看到世界不同的文法結構造成的影響

kinds of proposed structures have on the world. We can see what changes in meaning happen

我們可以目睹文義的轉換

when you build one kind of tree rather than another, or when swapping things around

當你採哪一種另類的結構，或進行交換

makes something bad.

可能不會是你要的結果

The mission of syntax is ultimately to come up with a system that describes

文法的終極目的是

the structure of every language in the world. All the variation, all the kinds of meanings,

想出一個能夠總結世上所有文法結構的系統

all the deep similarities, we need to capture all of that.

所有變化，不同意義，所有的相似處，我們想要能將他們一次統整

And so to verify a syntactic hypothesis, we need to test it against as many languages as we can find,

因此，在測試一個文法假說的時候，我們必須盡可能地用各種語言去檢驗，

and then adjust our thinking as we get more data. Science!

獲得新的資料後，接著調整內容，這就是科學啊 !

And just like other sciences, what we know about linguistics and how we think of it has changed over time.

當然，就像其他學科，我們對語言學的已知，或共識隨時都會有變動

Since Noam Chomsky kicked off the generative linguistic parade in the 1950s,

自從美國的Namo Chomsku在1950年代，揭開了語言學改造的序幕，

we’ve worked out and refined

我們就一直在研究，並且不斷的重新定義

explanations for all kinds of phenomena.

所有不同種類的現象

You want to know whether you should use a pronoun or not in Japanese or Italian,

你想知道在日文跟義大利文規則裡，應不應該使用代名詞來確切表達你想說的話呢?

to get the exact meaning you want? We’ve come up with a constraint for that.

我們已經想出了一個答案

You want an explanation for why you can’t say “The operating system said the woman should listen to itself”?

你希望能得到為什麼不能說「那個操作系統顯示女人們必須聽從它們本身」

We’ve worked that out, too.

我們也釐清了這件事

But let’s come back to that syntactician, just sitting around trying to figure out where to start.

那現在我們回到主題，文法結構，然後開始去想想應該從哪裡著手研究

Maybe you’re a native English speaker,

或許你是一個以英語為母語的人，

and you think, for me, “I’d like to know where who hid the cake” is just bad,

你覺得，對你自己來說，「我想知道誰把蛋糕藏在哪裡」，很不順口，

but “I’d like to know where who hid what” is better. And that’s the basis for where you start from,

但是「我想知道誰把什麼東西藏在哪裡」就比較好 而這個就是你應該著手的基礎，

to look at how we deal with questions. The data comes from intuitions you have

檢視我們是如何應對問題的 這些資料都是從你直覺性對於句子的反應所得的

about these sentences from inside your own head! Not everyone will agree right away about these judgments,

沒有人會馬上認同這些評論，

but that was originally the case for a lot of the sentences

不過那原本就是你從報紙或是文法書找出來的句子

you find in journals or syntax textbooks. So is that science?

那麼，這是科學嗎 ?

It might not seem like it at first, but the validity of that armchair linguist technique

起初，它可能看起來不會像是科學，不過因為這種方法的精確性，

has been the target of some pretty thorough analysis by a pair of linguists over the last few years.

在過去的幾年來，它已經被廣泛被語言學家使用於分析文法

They went through all the judgments

這個方法經過層層試驗，

from a commonly used syntax textbook, and built experiments out of them. That’s, like, hundreds of sentences!

不論是針對較棵樹，或是，大致上就是，好幾百句話 !

They found that in 98% of the cases, the data from the experiments matched

他們發現有98%的試驗，經由這個實驗得出的資料

the intuitions of the theoretical syntacticians.

完全符合理論的文法規則

Then they went back and did similar work for 10 years of syntactic judgments from a leading linguistic journal

接著，他們就反覆不斷的持續相同的工作，並在一個具指標性的語言學日報上發表

- and got a similar outcome. The judgments hold up really well to scientific testing,

都得到了相似的結果 這些測試都準確地回應的科學驗證，

and the results can be reproduced. And that’s because your image of the theoretical

做出的結果也能再受到檢驗

linguist going it alone in the dangerous world of sentence judgments isn’t entirely accurate.

的概念並非全然準確。

By the time that theories go to print, they’ve been vetted by a bunch of other linguists, colleagues

在這項理論被公諸於眾之前，他們都已經被許多語言學家、學者、及編輯檢測過，

and editors, so that they’re ready to take part in the wider scientific conversation.

因此他們就能和其他人討論更深入性的話題

It turns out that the whole field of linguistics - each part of it - is forging ahead, matching

最後，整個語言學的領域--每一個部分--，都會向前邁進一大步，

hypotheses and predictions with a growing body of data about how language works.

使假設和預想能夠和資料庫有關語言運作的資料吻合

We’re trying to understand the amazing capacity we have for communication,

我們仍然努力要了解我們溝通能力的奧妙，

and we’re learning more all the time.

而且我們不斷有新發現

And that’s why the science of language needs more love! When you think about scientific literacy, like,

這就是為什麼語言的科學需要大家更多的關愛! 當你想到

what people should know about the world around them, linguistics doesn’t usually come up.

大家應該知道什麼關於世界的事情，語言學通常並不會是答案

But linguistics is our portal to understanding

但是語言學是我們理解所有事物的第一步

this incredible thing that we do all the time. Fortunately, there’s a lot of great linguistics

一個我們無時無刻都在使用的驚人能力

outreach happening right now around the world, as more and more people realize just how awesome

幸運的是，越來越多人明白語言的重要性，並且想知道如何去研究它，

language is, and how to do science to it.

因此世界上的語言學家的數量也漸漸上升

And there’s a bunch you can do without fancy equipment or complicated techniques. Even

有很多不需要儀器，或是其他複雜的技巧，你就能做的觀察

a lot of the psycholinguistic testing software that's used by PhDs and professors is 100% free.

甚至有很多心理語言學的測試軟體是完全免費的

Linguistics gives kids and adults an easy way to engage with the nature and process

語言學讓成人和小孩能更容易去理解研究的過程

of research. It’s a great way to present the scientific method, and it lets you redo

常是現在最常使用的科學方式，或者以新的方式去做過去的實驗，

old experiments or design your own. Language is our constant companion, and the

都會是很好的經驗 語言是我們每個人都共同擁有的資產，

more you get your hands dirty with the science of what makes it tick, the more you realize

當你越深入地去體會什麼東西會使它運作，

that language is awesome. And that takes the cake.

你就更能理解語言有多麼令人讚嘆

So we’ve reached the end of the Ling Space for this week.

現在又來到語言異想世界的尾聲了

If you ran sufficient tests, you learned that linguistics is the science of language; that

如果你做的一些測驗，那麼你就了解語言學就是語言的科學

a lot of linguistic research uses experiments, and even when it doesn't, it usually yields

很多相關的研究會做許多實驗，就算沒有，它通常也會產生值得信賴的結果

reliable results; and that we can use linguistics as an inexpensive and accessible method for

我們可以視語言學為便宜，易得性高的方法，

teaching people about how science works.

來教學生科學研究運作的方式

The Ling Space is produced by me, Moti Lieberman. It’s directed by Adèle-Elise Prévost,

語言異想世界是由我製作，Moti Lieberman，由 Adèle-Elise Prévost監製，

and it’s written by both of us. Our editor is Georges Coulombe, our production

而是由我們共同創作，主編是Georges Coulombe，我們的製片助理是Stephan Hurubise，

assistant is Stephan Hurtubise, our music and sound design is by Shane Turner, and our

音效設計員是Shane Turner，圖表團隊是atelierMUSE

graphics team is atelierMUSE. We’re down in the comments below, or you can bring the

我們可以在下方留言區做討論，

discussion back over to our website, where we have some extra material on this topic.

或者，你可以到我們的網站來和我們討論一些相關素材

Check us out on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook, and if you want to keep expanding your own

定期在Tumblr, Twitter 和 Facebook 上追蹤我們，如果你對我們的頻道有興趣

personal Ling Space, please subscribe. And we’ll see you next Wednesday. Bis bald!

那就請按下訂閱鍵，我們下週三見，掰掰!