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  3. Few disciplines axe so strongly associated with a single figure: Einstein in physics and Freud in psychology, perhaps. But Noam

Few disciplines axe so strongly associated with a single figure: Einstein in physics and Freud in psychology, perhaps. But Noam

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问题    Few disciplines axe so strongly associated with a single figure: Einstein in physics and Freud in psychology, perhaps. But Noam Chomsky is the man who revolutionised linguistics. Over the past 60 years, Mr. Chomsky has repeatedly stripped down his theory. He has focused ever more narrowly on the features of language that he reckons are unique to humans. All this has led to a remarkable little book, which claims to explain the evolution of human language.
   Other biologists, linguists and psychologists have probed the same question and have reached little consensus. 【F1】But there is even less consensus around the world’s most eminent linguist’s idea: that a single genetic mutation created an ability called "Merge", in a single human whom Mr. Chomsky has called "Prometheus". That mutation was so advantageous that it survived and thrived, producing today’s 7,000 languages. But the vast differences among the world’s languages, Mr. Chomsky argues, are mere differences in "externalisation". The key is Merge.
   But what is it? 【F2】Merge simply says that two mental objects can be merged into a bigger one, and mental operations can be performed on that as if it were a single one. 【F3】The can be merged with cat to give a noun phrase, which other grammar rules can operate on as if it were a bare noun like water. So can the and hat. Once there, you can further merge, making the cat in the hat. And so on.
   Why would this be of any use? Whom did Prometheus talk to? Nobody, at least not using Merge. But Merge-enabled language, according to Mr. Chomsky, did not evolve for talking at all. Rather, it let Prometheus take simple concepts and combine them in sentence-like ways in his own head. The resulting complex thoughts gave him a survival advantage. Only later, as Merge came to work with the vocal and hearing organs, did human language emerge.
   Many scholars find this to be somewhere between insufficient, improbable and absurd. The emergence of a single mutation that gives such a big advantage is belittled by biologists as a "hopeful monster" theory; most evolution is gradual, operating on many genes, not one. 【F4】Some ability like Merge may exist, but this does not explain why some words may merge and others don’t, much less why the world’s languages merge so differently.
   Mr. Chomsky is unlikely to end up like Freud, whose lasting influence has been on the humanities. 【F5】His career is more likely to end up like Einstein’s—at least in the sense that his best and most influential work came early on.
【F4】
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答案一些类似“合并”的能力可能确实存在，但这不能解释为何一些词汇可以合并而其他词汇不能，更不能解释为何世界上的语言的合并方式如此不同。
解析 ①本句为并列复合句。②分句1为简单的主谓结构，主语Some ability后的like Merge是对ability的举例说明，表示“类似‘合并’的能力”；分句2由but引出，表明前后两个分句为转折关系。③分句2中的this指代分句1所述内容，即“一些类似‘合并’的能力可能确实存在”这一情况；explain后接两个由why引导的宾语从句，中间由比较结构much less连接；第一个宾语从句中的others don’t为省略表达，可还原为other words don’t merge。
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