1、 Language is a gift of God to mankind imitative, cries of nature, the grunts of men working together the result of physical and psychological development第1頁/共15頁第一頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。1 The Divine-Origin Theory And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the ai

2、r; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them, and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. 第2頁/共15頁第二頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。 圣經舊約創世紀中上帝創造亞當，亞當給萬物取名的描述； 古埃及人認為語言的

3、創造者是透特神； 中國古代傳說女媧摶土造人的故事； 印度人認為語言是宇宙創造者梵天之妻，學習女神沙拉斯瓦提賦予人類的 這些都反映了“語言神授”的原始觀念。第3頁/共15頁第三頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。2 The Invention TheoryThe “bow-wow” theoryThe “pooh-pooh” theoryThe “yo-he-ho” theory第4頁/共15頁第四頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。2 The Invention Theory第5頁/共15頁第五頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。 In primitive times people imita

4、ted the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that. Onomatopoeic words seem to be a convenient evidence for this theory. But they are very different in the degree of resemblance they express with the natural sounds. This theory lacks supportive evide

5、nce. The “bow-wow” Theory 摹聲說第6頁/共15頁第六頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。 Apes gibber Bears growl Bulls bellow Cats mew (purr) Eagles scream Frogs croak Goats bleatvAsses brayvBeetles dronevCamels gruntvDucks quackvFlies buzzvGeese cackle (gabble)vHorses nay (snort)Primary Onomatopoeia第7頁/共15頁第七頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。Pr

6、imary Onomatopoeia Hens cluck Lions roar Mice squeak Pigeons coo Puppies yelp Snakes hiss Turkeys gobblevLarks warblevMagpies chattervOwls hoot (screech)vPigs squeal (grunt)vRavens(烏鴉)croakvThrushes(畫眉)whistlevWolves howl第8頁/共15頁第八頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。 In the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they

7、utter instinctive sounds of pain, anger and joy. As for evidence, we can only cite the universal use of sounds as interjections. What makes the theory problematic is that there is only a limited number of interjections in almost all languages. Besides, interjections such as Oh, Ah, Oops bear little

8、relationship with the sound system of a language and therefore are not good evidence.The “Pooh-pooh” Theory 感嘆說第9頁/共15頁第九頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。 As primitive people worked together, they produced some rhythmic grunts which gradually developed into chants and then into language. We do have prosodic use of

9、 rhythms in languages, but rhythmic grunts are far different from language in its present sense. The theory is again at most a speculation. The “Yo-he-ho” Theory 吆嘿嗬說第10頁/共15頁第十頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。The Evolutionary Theory第11頁/共15頁第十一頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。3 The Evolutionary Theory There is certain relations

10、hip between the development of language and the evolutionary development of the human species. 1. Children are born with both thought and language. 2. The development of the physical apparatus for speech. 3. It is labor that created the necessity for language.第12頁/共15頁第十二頁，編輯于星期六：十一點 二十七分。 The by-now fruitless search for the origin of languages reflects peoples concern with the origin of humanity and may come up with enlightening findings in future. One thing we can say for certain is that language evol