我们壮丽的杂种语言
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
John McWhorter · 初版 2009 年
5人推荐
6位读者提及
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为什么我们会说“I am reading a catalog”而不是“I read a catalog”？为什么我们非要用“do”？我们的说话方式是否反映了文化价值观？深入探讨这些引人深思的话题，Our Magnificent Bastard Language 将数百年妙趣横生的知识浓缩为一段生动的历史。在这本短小精悍的语言学史著作中，备受尊崇的学者 John McWhorter 聚焦于那些对英语特异发展鲜被重视的影响：例如，许多英语中奇特的语法习惯都可以追溯到 Celtic 和 Welsh 渊源，考虑到这一点就完全说得通了……
Hacker News 上怎么说
正在加载完整评论……
我强烈推荐麦克沃特（McWhorter）的《我们混搭的语言》（Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue）。
I highly recommend McWhorter's Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue.
……说某种语言的人越少，它的自然复杂度退化的概率就越低。入侵和其他跨语言接触会导致语言简化，最明显的就是皮钦语（pidgin）和克里奥尔语（creole）。去看看伊恩·麦克沃特的《我们混搭的语言》，书里展示了英语是如何经历这一过程的。我们今天说的话就是古英语和诺曼法语搞出的搞笑大杂烩，而它们本身也是东拼西凑出来的。我很好奇最终胜出的会是：……
…the fewer people speak a language, the less chance its natural complexity will degrade. Invasions and other interlinguistic contact create simplifications, most visibly pidgins and creoles. Check out Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by Ian McWhorter, which shows how English underwent this very process. What we speak today is a hilarious pidgin of Old English and Norman French, which are themselves mashups. I wonder what will win:…
感谢提醒，我去查了查这本书的负评，以后不会再推荐了。如果你恰好看到这条回复，麦克沃特的《我们混搭的语言：鲜为人知的英语史》（Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English）会是更好的英语通俗科普选择吗？r/Linguistics 社区对他的评价似乎还不错。
Thanks for the heads up, I looked into criticism of this book and I won’t recommend it in the future. If you happen to see this reply, would ‘Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English’ by McWhorter be a better choice for a pop-sci history of English? r/Linguistics seems to be fine with him.
……通过把两组问题并排展示给每个受试者，问他们是否觉得每一对问题问的完全是同一件事。我一直在读约翰·麦克沃特的《我们混搭的语言》（强烈推荐），就在昨天我还读到了这段话：“在德语中，[潜入所有语言中的细微复杂性]的一个例子是一堆用来传达微妙语气的微小词汇……
…by showing each of the experiment's subjects the two sets of questions side-by-side, and ask them whether they feel each pair is asking exactly the same question. I have been reading John McWhorter's 'Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue' (strongly recommended), and only yesterday I read this passage: "In German, one example [of the little complexities that creep into all languages] is a passel of little words that convey nuances of…
我最近读了他的书《我们混搭的语言》，虽然稍微有点失衡（他在某些点上纠缠得太久了），但我读得很开心。
I recently read his book, "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue", and while it was a little bit unbalanced (he spends far too long dwelling on certain points), I really enjoyed it.
还有各种书，比如《我们混搭的语言》（Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue）
and books, e.g. "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue"