TED演讲之说什么 谈语言和思想(7)
Just to give you a few examples: “ending a pregnancy” versus “killing a fetus;”
这里是一些例子：是“终止怀孕”还是“杀死胚胎”
“a ball of cells” versus “an unborn child;”
“一个细胞聚合的小球”还是“一个尚未出生的孩子”
“invading Iraq” versus “liberating Iraq;”
“侵略伊拉克”或是“解放伊拉克”
“redistributing wealth” versus “confiscating earnings.”
“收入重新分配”抑或“没收财产”
And I think the biggest picture of all would take seriously the fact
而整个图景中最显著的一部分是要看到一点：
that so much of our verbiage about abstract events is based on a concrete metaphor
就是我们对抽象事件的描述，大多都是基于实体的隐喻
and see human intelligence itself as consisting of a repertoire of concepts
这反映出人类智能本身是由一整套概念组成
such as objects, space, time, causation and intention
比如物体、空间、时间，因果关系与意图
which are useful in a social, knowledge-intensive species,
对我们这种群居的、知识密集型的种群非常有用
whose evolution you can well imagine, and a process of metaphorical abstraction
我们能想象人类的进化和语言的隐喻抽象化过程齐轨并行
that allows us to bleach these concepts of their original conceptual content
慢慢地这些概念里原先的实际内容就淡化了
space, time and force — and apply them to new abstract domains,
空间、时间和力–而它们却被用在全新的抽象领域里
therefore allowing a species that evolved to deal with rocks and tools and animals,
如此就使得我们这个原本是进化出来，和石头、工具与动物打交道的种群
to conceptualize mathematics, physics, law and other abstract domains.
能够形成数学、物理、法律等等概念，涉足其他抽象的领域
Well, I said I’d talk about two windows on human nature
我曾说过我要谈谈人性的两扇窗户
the cognitive machinery with which we conceptualize the world,
我们用来概念化世界的知性机能
and now I’m going to say a few words about the relationship types
现在我要说说几种人际关系
that govern human social interaction, again, as reflected in language.
它们支配着人类的社交活动，同样，这些都体现在语言里
And I’ll start out with a puzzle, the puzzle of indirect speech acts.
我要从间接话语行为这个谜题开始。
演讲简介：
在他所著《思想的实质》的独家新书介绍会上，史蒂芬·平克探讨了语言如何表达内心的思想–以及我们的遣词用句中透露出多少鲜为人知的信息。