耶鲁大学心理学导论(第六课).doc

心理学导论第六课 今天我们要讲的是语言This class today is about language. 很大程度上来说 语言就是行为And language is, to a large extent, where the action is. 人类语言的研究The study of human language 是各种人性理论的重要领域has been the battleground over different theories of human nature. 因此 无论是哲学家 心理学家So, every philosopher or psychologist 人类学家 还是神经系统学家or humanist or neuroscientist 只要他们曾经研究过人类who has ever thought about people 便会就语言的特性及其功能提出某些理论has had to make some claim about the nature of language and how it works. 我所说的这些学者包括了I’m including here people like 亚里士多德 柏拉图 休莫Aristotle and Plato, Hume, 洛克 弗洛依德以及斯金纳Locke, Freud and Skinner. 而这些理论则包括了I’m also including modern-day approaches 计算理论 认知神经科学 进化论to computational theory, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary theory 以及文化心理学的诸多当代理论and cultural psychology. 如果你想要理解关于人类本质If you hope to make it with theory of what people are 及其行为模式的理论and how people work, 就必须得探讨并解释语言you have to explain and talk about language. 事实上 语言是非常有意思的In fact, language is sufficiently interesting that, 与本门课上探讨的其他主题不同unlike most other things I’ll talk about in this class, 对它的研究形成了一个完整的专业there is an entier field devoted to this study 即语言学专业the field of linguistics 这个专业致力于研究各种语言的that is entirely devoted to studying 细微差异及其结构the nuances and structures of different languages. 在详细讨论之前 我想首先下一个定义Now, I’ll first, before getting into details, make a definitional point. 当我谈到语言时When I’m talking about language 我指的是诸如英语 荷兰语I’m meaning systems like English and Dutch 沃皮利语 意大利语 土耳其语and Warlpiri and Italian and Turkish 乌尔都语这样的语言系统and Urdu 以及我们在正式上课之前的课堂演示中and what we’ve seen and heard right now in class in the demonstration 所看到和听到的语言系统that preceded the formal lecture. 现在 你可以应用另一种意义上的语言Now, you could use language in a different sense. 在此意义上 quot;语言quot;可以被用来描述You could use the term quot;Languagequot; to describe 狗儿在干什么what dogs do, 黑猩猩在干什么or what chimpanzees do, 或是鸟儿在干什么or birds. 也可用来描述音乐You could use language to describe music, 即音乐语言talk about the--a musical language 或是去描述艺术or art, 或任何的交流系统or any com