TED2007
Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language
Мъри Гел-Ман за прародителят на езика
Filmed:
Readability: 3.6
944,446 views
След изказването си в TED2007 за елегантността във физиката, невероятният Мъри Гел-Ман прави бърз преглед на друга своя интересна страст: намирането на общите прадеди на нашите модерни езици.
Murray Gell-Mann - Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe. Full bio
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
Well, I'm involved in other things, besides physics.
0
1000
4000
Занимавам се и с други неща освен с физика.
00:17
In fact, mostly now in other things.
1
5000
2000
Всъщност предимно с други неща в момента.
00:19
One thing is distant relationships among human languages.
2
7000
4000
Едно от тях е далечените връзки между човешките езици.
00:24
And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.
3
12000
4000
Професионалните, исторически лингвисти в САЩ
00:28
and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away
4
16000
3000
и Западна Европа предимно се опитват да странят
00:31
from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,
5
19000
4000
от всякакви отдалечени връзки; големи групирания,
00:35
groupings that go back a long time,
6
23000
3000
групирания, които отиват доста назад във времето
00:38
longer than the familiar families.
7
26000
3000
по-дълго от познатите семейства.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.
8
29000
4000
Те не харесват това, мислят, че е лудост. Аз не мисля, че е лудост.
00:45
And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,
9
33000
3000
Има някои брилянтни лингвисти, предимно руснаци,
00:48
who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,
10
36000
4000
които работят над това в института в Санта Фе и в Москва,
00:52
and I would love to see where that leads.
11
40000
4000
и аз ще се радвам да видя накъде води това.
00:56
Does it really lead to a single ancestor
12
44000
3000
Наистина ли води до един-единствен прародител
00:59
some 20, 25,000 years ago?
13
47000
3000
преди около 20, 25 000 години?
01:02
And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,
14
50000
3000
И какво, ако ние се върнем назад преди този единствен прародител,
01:05
when there was presumably a competition among many languages?
15
53000
4000
когато вероятно е имало съревнование между много езици?
01:09
How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?
16
57000
3000
Колко далече назад е това във времето? Колко далече назад отива модерният език?
01:13
How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
17
61000
3000
Колко десетки хиляди години назад е това?
01:16
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
18
64000
3000
Крис Андерсън: Имате ли подозрение или надежда какъв може да е отговорът на това?
01:19
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older
19
67000
3000
Мъри Гел-Ман: Бих предположил, че модерният език трябва да е по-стар
01:22
than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures
20
70000
4000
от пещерните рисунки и пещерните гравюри и пещерните скулптури
01:26
and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,
21
74000
5000
и танцовиите стъпки в меката глина в пещерите на Западна Европа
01:31
in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.
22
79000
6000
през Оринякският Период преди около 35 000 години, или по-рано.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.
23
85000
3000
Не мога да повярвам, че са направили всички тези неща и не се имали също модерен език.
01:40
So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
24
88000
5000
Така, бих предположил, че истинският произход датира от тогава или още по-назад.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most
25
93000
3000
Но това не означава, че всички, или много, или повечето
01:48
of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps
26
96000
4000
от днешните тествани езици не биха могли да произхождат вероятно
01:52
from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,
27
100000
4000
от някой, който е много по-млад от това, като например 20 000 години,
01:56
or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
28
104000
3000
или нещо от този сорт. Това се нарича ограничаващ фактор.
02:00
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.
29
108000
1000
КА: Хм, Филип Андерсън може би е прав.
02:01
You may just know more about everything than anyone.
30
109000
3000
Може би знаете повече за всичко от всеки.
02:04
So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.
31
112000
2000
Беше чест за нас. Благодаря Мъри Гел-Ман.
02:06
(Applause)
32
114000
4000
(Аплодисменти)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Murray Gell-Mann - PhysicistMurray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe.
Why you should listen
He's been called "the man with five brains" -- and Murray Gell-Mann has the resume to prove it. In addition to being a Nobel laureate, he is an accomplished physicist who's earned numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees for his work with subatomic particles, including the groundbreaking theory that the nucleus of an atom comprises 100 or so fundamental building blocks called quarks.
Gell-Mann's influence extends well beyond his field: He's a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves on the board of the Wildlife Conservation Society and is a director of Encyclopedia Britannica. Gell-Mann, a professor emeritus of Caltech, now heads the evolution of human languages program at the Santa Fe Institute, which he cofounded in 1984.
A prolific writer -- he's penned scores of academic papers and several books, including The Quark and the Jaguar -- Gell-Mann is also the subject of the popular science biography Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics.
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com