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
考研
Partly due to a historical development marked by worldwide colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, in the course of this c
Partly due to a historical development marked by worldwide colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, in the course of this c
admin
2017-04-13
31
问题
Partly due to a historical development marked by worldwide colonialism, urbanization, and globalization, in the course of this century humankind is likely to experience its most extreme cultural loss. As K. David Harrison notes in When Languages Die, "The last speakers of probably half of the world’s languages are alive today." Their children or grandchildren are pressured to speak only the dominant language of their community or country. Under one estimate, more than 50% of the 6,900 or so languages identified nowadays are expected to become extinct in a matter of a few decades.
The precise criteria for what counts as a distinct language are controversial—especially those regarding closely related linguistic systems, which are often inaccurately referred to as dialects of the same language. The problem is complicated by the insufficiency of studies about the grammar of many of the world’s endangered languages. In addition, from a cognitive standpoint any two groups of individuals whose languages are mutually intelligible may in fact have distinct mental grammars.
As a cognitive system, a language shows dynamic properties that cannot exist independently of its speakers. This is the sense in which the Anatolian languages and Dalmatian are extinct. Therefore, language preservation depends on the maintenance of the native-speaking human groups. Unfortunately, the most accelerated loss of distinct languages takes place where economic development is rapid, worsening the breakdown of minority communities that speak different languages. In this perspective, a language often begins to die long before the passing of the last speaker: New generations may start using it only for limited purposes, increasingly shifting to the community’s dominant language. In this process, knowledge of the dying language erodes both at the individual level and at the community level.
Linguistic diversity itself may be the worst loss at stake, because it may be the most promising and precise source of evidence for the range of variation allowed in the organization of the human cognitive system. For instance, Harrison discusses many strategies for manipulating quantities across languages, often endangered ones. The rapid loss of linguistic diversity substantially hinders comparative investigation about the multiple ways in which a single cognitive domain can be organized.
Linguists are well aware that their efforts alone cannot prevent this loss. Community involvement, especially with government support, has proven essential in slowing or even reversing language loss in different cases(e.g., Basque and Irish). Crucially, endangered languages must be acquired by new generations of speakers. Here the biological metaphor adopted by Harrison applies appropriately — documentation of dead languages is akin to a fossil record, providing only partial clues about complex cognitive systems.
One of the difficulties in differentiating one language from another is that
选项
A、one language may have many dialects.
B、grammar study on some languages is not enough.
C、they are dialects of the same languages.
D、grammars reflected by languages are different.
答案
B
解析
事实细节题。根据differentiating one language定位到第二段。此段说到这个问题(区分语言)变得复杂,是由于对世界濒危语言的文法所做的研究不够,故B项为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/y8r7FFFM
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
TheFoodandDrugAdministrationsaidWednesdaythatitistryingtotrackdownasmanyas386pigletsthatmayhavebeengeneti
[A]Analyzingyourowntaste[B]Beingcautiouswhenexperimenting[C]Findingamodeltofollow[D]Gettingthefinallookabsolute
Olderpeoplemustbegivenmorechancestolearniftheyaretocontributetosocietyratherthanbeafinancialburden,accordi
Bankershavebeenblamingthemselvesfortheirtroublesinpublic.Behindthescenes,theyhavebeentakingaimatsomeoneelse;
[A]Analyzingyourowntaste[B]Beingcautiouswhenexperimenting[C]Findingamodeltofollow[D]Gettingthefinallookabsolute
Cripplinghealthcarebills,longemergency-roomwaitsandtheinabilitytofindaprimarycarephysicianjustscratchthesurfa
Theproblemwithhuman-resourcemanagersisthattheyarehuman.Theyhavebiases;theymakemistakes.Butwithbettertools,th
Forthepastfewmonths,artificialintelligence(AI)hasbeenamuchtalkedabouttopicintheworldsofbothpopcultureandsci
Moreevidenceisinthatso-callede-cigarettesdoletsmokersstopsmoking.Suchcigarettes【C1】______totheuseranoralnicoti
Twenty-sevenyearsago,EgyptreviseditssecularconstitutiontoenshrineMuslimshariaas"theprincipalsourceoflegislation
随机试题
轿车车身磨损的原因和部件有哪些?
能较早反映肾小球滤过功能受损的指标是
实验设计的对照原则是为了
根据《公路工程竣(交)工验收办法实施细则》(交公路发[2010]65号),对隧道主体结构质量外观抽查的分部工程包括()。
根据个人所得税的有关规定,下列外籍专家取得的工资、薪金所得,可免征个人所得税的有()。
在汇率风险中,经济风险直接关系到企业海外投资和经营的效益。经济风险的特征主要有()。
某税务代理中介机构为其客户(增值税一般纳税人)进行增值税的代理中,可以从事的税务代理业务有()。
程序的实质是对所要进行的活动规定时间顺序,因此,程序也是一种()。
手机垃圾短信息有“骚扰型”,多为恶作剧、“黄段子”、小道消息;有“陷阱型”,多是骗取用户钱财;有广告短信。短信业务的确给运营商们带来了丰厚的利润,但有些短信正成为一种“信息公害”,让人不堪其扰。一些急于开发新客户的新企业群发不少短信广告,绝大多数的垃圾短信
祖父现在年龄是孙子的6倍,过几年之后,祖父的年龄是孙子的5倍,再过几年,祖父的年龄是孙子的4倍,问孙子今年几岁?
最新回复
(
0
)