首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
We are profoundly ignorant about the origins of language and have to content ourselves with more or less plausible speculations.
We are profoundly ignorant about the origins of language and have to content ourselves with more or less plausible speculations.
admin
2010-04-24
40
问题
We are profoundly ignorant about the origins of language and have to content ourselves with more or less plausible speculations. We do not even know for certain when language arose, but it seems likely that it goes back to the earliest history of man, perhaps haft a million years ago. We have no direct evidence, but it seems probable that it took the earliest forms of human cooperation. In the Ice Ages of the Pleistocene(更新世) period, our earliest human ancestors established the Old Stone Age culture; they made stone tools and, later, tools of bone, ivory, and antler; they made fire and cooked their food; they hunted big game, often by methods that called for considerable cooperation and coordination. As their material culture gradually developed, they became artists and drew pebbles as well as wonderful paintings of animals on the walls of caves. It is difficult to believe that the makers of these Paleolithic(旧石器时代的) cultures lacked the power of speech. It is a long step, admittedly, from other earliest flint weapons to the splendid spear of the late Stone Age: the first crude flints date back perhaps to 500,000 B.C., while the finest achievements of Old Stone Age man are later than 100,000 B. C.; and in this period we can envisage a corresponding development of language, from the most primitive and limited language of the earliest human groups to a fully developed language in the flowering time of Old .Stone Age culture.
How did language arise in the first place? There are many theories about this, based on various types of indirect evidence, such as the language of children, the language of primitive societies, the kinds of changes
that have taken place in language in the course of recorded history, the behavior of higher animals like chimpanzees, and the behavior of people suffering from speech defects. These types of evidence may provide us with pointers, but they all suffer from limitations.
When we consider the language of children, we haw to remember that their situations are quite different from those of our earliest human ancestors because the child, growing up in an environment where there is al- ready a fully developed language, is surrounded by adults who use that language and are teaching it to him. For example, it has been shown that the earliest words used by children are mainly the names of things and people ("doll," "spoon," "Mummy"), but this fact does not prove that the earliest words of primitive man were also the names of things and people. When the child learns the name of an object, he may then use it to express his wishes or demands.
"Doll!" often means,. "Give me my doll!" or "I’ve dropped my doll. Pick it up for me!" The child is us- ing language to get things done, and it is almost an accident of adult teaching that the words used to formulate the child’s demands are mainly nouns instead of words like "Bring!" "Pick Up!" and so on.
Theories of the origin of language include all of the following EXCEPT______.
选项
A、communication among primitive men
B、the need to communicate
C、the language of children
D、the first man’s extensive vocabulary
答案
D
解析
细节理解题。A, C对应第二段:...such as the language of children, the language of primitive societies .... B 对应第一段:... but it seems probable that it took the earliest forms of human cooperation. D 与第一段中的the most primitive and limited language of the earliest human groups不符,所以答案 D。 primitive adj.原始的;远古的;早期的
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/gK9K777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Memorizationwhichdoesnotincludethinkingandunderstanding______studentsbeingunabletousewhathasbeenlearnt.
Thereisadirectflightat20:00intheafternoonoraflightat9:30inthemorningthat______inChicago.
Accordingtothepassage,whoisababymostlikelytobecomfortablewith?
Accordingtothispassage,whatisexactlyGDP?
OldChinesearenotusedtobuythingson______andarelikelytosaveasmuchmoneyaspossible.
Mymothercan’tget__________becauseshehasrheumatism(风湿病).
Thespeakertellsthestudentsthattheyarenotlikelytosucceedifthey
Theword"Canada"means"village,smallhouseorshanty".In1435,theFrenchexplorerKatiearrivedinthelandandaskedtheI
Cynicismisoftenthoughttobea(n)______ofreporter.
Atthecarpark______aboyandhisparentswhoaregoingtotheshoppingmall.
随机试题
锥体束损害时不应出现的体征是
各种抗生素在分类上属于
甲与乙、丙成立一合伙企业,并被推举为合伙事务执行人,乙、丙授权甲在3万元以内的开支及30万元内的业务可以自行决定。甲在任职期间内实施的下列行为哪些是法律禁止或无效的行为?
下列选项中,属于风险转移中的非保险转移方式的有()。
因当事人一方的违约行为,侵害对方人身、财产权益的,受侵害方()。
借款人还款能力的主要标志是()
“六三三学制”又称为()学制。
John__________almostallofhisrecordstohisfriends,buthestillhadaveryfewleft.
教学的首要任务是()。
MoneyinAmericaMoneyisusedtobuygoodsorservicesand【1】______debts. 【1】_________InAmerica,moneysupplycon
最新回复
(
0
)