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日志
孩子 快抓紧妈妈的手
——为地震死去的孩子们而作
作者：无名氏
孩子快抓紧妈妈的手
去天堂的路太黑了
妈妈怕你碰了头
快抓紧妈妈的手
让妈妈陪你走
妈妈怕天堂的路太黑
我看不见你的手
自从倒塌的墙把阳光夺走
我再也看不见你柔情的眸
孩子你走吧
前面的路再也没有忧愁
没有读不完的课本
和爸爸的拳头
你要记住我和爸爸的摸样
来生还要一起走
妈妈别担忧
天堂的路有些挤
有很多同学朋友
我们说不哭
哪一个人的妈妈都是我们的妈妈
哪一个孩子都是妈妈的孩子
没有我的日子
你把爱给活的孩子吧
妈妈你别哭
泪光照亮不了我们的路
让我们自己慢慢的走
妈妈
我会记住你和爸爸的模样
记住我们的约定来生一起走
生死不离 词：王平久 曲：舒楠 生死不离，你的梦落在那里 想着生活继续 天空失去美丽，你却等待明天站起 无论你在那里，我都要找到你 血脉能创造奇迹 你的呼喊就刻在我的血液里 生死不离，我数秒等你消息 相信生命不息 我看不到你，你却牵挂在我心里 无论你在那里，我都要找到你 血脉能创造奇迹 搭起双手筑成你回家的路基 生死不离，全世界都被沉寂 痛苦也不哭泣 爱是你的传奇，彩虹在风雨后升起 无论你在那里，我都要找到你 血脉能创造奇迹 你一丝希望是我全部的动力
From
March 8, 2008
How our brain controls our accent
Ever wondered why Geordies speak with a lilt or Bristolians with a West Country burr? The answer may be all in the mind
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article3503558.ece
Why do some people hold on to their accents all their lives while others drop them overnight? Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist from University College London, has spent 16 years researching speech: how we formulate words, how we come by our accents and how we decode what is being said to us.
To help her understand how our brain negotiates the complex task of talking, Professor Scott has enlisted the help of the television impressionist Duncan Wisbey, a regular on Alistair McGowan’s Big Impression and the voice of Migo on the Fimbles spin-off, the Roly Mo Show. By scanning Wisbey’s brain she discovered that much more of the brain is involved in talking and learning speech than researchers previously thought. The results will be presented at a public event in
Professor Scott speaks in a soft southern accent, despite growing up in
But does Professor Scott think that different accents affect our brains in different ways? Possibly. Although the same brain areas would be activated whether we were speaking in a
Turning actions into words
Professor Scott’s brain scans of Duncan Wisbey (see panel below) revealed that a large part of developing a new accent comes from the areas of the brain that control our movements. She suggests that if someone wants to develop a new accent, they may want to imagine a person with that accent and then think themselves “into the skin” of that individual.
Neuroscientists are divided on the precise details of how the brain enables speech, but it is generally accepted that when we want to communicate, two processes occur in our brains. One part thinks about what we want to say and so formulates words, sentences and grammar. Another region then puts all of this into action, coordinating the many muscles and movements required to produce words and sounds.
While lying as still as possible in a brain scanner at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuro-science, Wisbey was asked to repeat easy-to-remember phrases such as “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall” in rapid five-second bursts. A monitor visible to him via a mirror inside the scanner give his prompts to say the phrase either in a regional or foreign accent, or as an impersonation of a celebrity, over an hour and a half.
While the scan took pictures of his brain activity, recording equipment noted the voice or accent he was using. The results showed clearly that four different parts of his brain were being activated. Only two of these were connected with speech and language, and Professor Scott was confused.
She then realised that the other two areas were connected with movement. These regions, responsible for visualising images and for body movement, were working overtime when the impressionist was forming his speech. Wisbey was literally thinking himself into someone’s skin when he was adopting a different accent.
Anyone who has ever watched an impressionist knows that the performers always act out the mannerisms of the person they are mimicking. But this finding is crucial because it shows that people who are forced to relearn speech, such as stroke victims, may find this process easier if they think of their voice as coming from their whole body, not just their voice box, says Professor Scott. “Only half of the activations in the brain were to do with the speech and language areas. The voice is not just coming from your lips. It’s coming from the whole body and you need to think about that when you’re trying to change aspects of it.”
As a result, Professor Scott began thinking that voice coaches for actors may hold the key to helping speech therapists develop exercises for people with communication problems.
Helping speech problems in stroke patients
One third of people who suffer a stroke experience language difficulties, including complete loss of speech. Other causes of communication difficulties can include dementia and head injury. Andrea Lane, a spokeswoman for the Stroke Association, says that waking up from a stroke, disorientated and unable to speak, is a horrific experience.
“The best way to describe it is having a word on the tip of the tongue that you just can’t find. It’s very frightening and frustrating to come to after a stroke and realise that you can’t tell the doctor and those around you how you’re feeling,” she says.
Lane says that speech and language therapy help. Group work is used, as is individual therapy and computer-based exercises, which provide a mental workout. This helps to build up the unharmed parts of the brain so they can take over from the damaged parts. Speech therapists can also teach people new ways of communicating, such as using gestures or writing. However, a poll this week by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists revealed that only half of those who survived strokes felt that they had received adequate speech therapy.
Professor Scott believes that her research into the brain and accents may prove useful in her work with stroke patients. As a result of suffering a small stroke, some patients develop a speech impediment known as foreign-accent syndrome, which can seem as if they are speaking with a foreign accent.
“To our ears they sound as if they’re not a native speaker of English,” she says. “It occurs all over the world, and the consensus is that it has a lot less to do with them developing a new accent and much more to do with us labelling what we hear. Interestingly, if I play a tape of an English person with the syndrome to someone who is not a native English speaker, they don’t hear someone with an accent, they hear someone with a speech impediment.”
Professor Scott says: “The patients hate the fact that they sound so different. If they really try, they can sound a bit like they used to, but it’s very difficult.”
Celebrity endorsement
Wisbey will continue to help Professor Scott with her work, and may have even lined up a famous impressionist to take part in her next study, although she won’t disclose who.
“It would be great that my ability to do ridiculous voices didn’t end up a silly thing I did at parties but actually helped someone with speech difficulties,” says Wisbey.
And Professor Scott knows never to underestimate the power and importance of a person’s voice: “Our identity is bound up with it.”
[博客评论]
一个人的口音所表征的，往往超出其物理属性本身，带有了身份认同和社会心态的色彩。Labov的研究已经向我们展示了社会因素引发的语言心态对口音变换所产生的直接影响，而这里Sophie Scott的研究显然应用价值更大一些。老问题的新应用，让人耳目一新！
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/eu-yri032108.php
Public release date: 23-Mar-2008
Contact: Emily Rios
erios@emory.edu
404-727-7732
Yerkes researchers identify language feature unique to human brain
The center's extensive imaging capabilities were critical to this evolutionary language finding
Researchers at the
To explore the evolution of human language, Yerkes researcher James Rilling, PhD, and his colleagues studied the arcuate fasciculus, a pathway that connects brain regions known to be involved in human language, such as Broca's area in the frontal lobe and Wernicke's area in the temporal lobe. Using DTI, researchers compared the size and trajectory of the arcuate fasciculus in humans, rhesus macaques and chimpanzees.
According to Rilling, "The human arcuate fasiculus differed from that of the rhesus macaques and chimpanzees in having a much larger and more widespread projection to areas in the middle temporal lobe, outside of the classical Wernicke's area. We know from previous functional imaging studies that the middle temporal lobe is involved with analyzing the meanings of words. In humans, it seems the brain not only evolved larger language regions but also a network of fibers to connect those regions, which supports humans' superior language capabilities."
"This is a landmark," said Yerkes researcher Todd Preuss, PhD, one of the study's coauthors. "Until DTI was developed, scientists lacked non-invasive methods to study brain connectivity directly. We couldn't study the connections of the human brain, nor determine how humans resemble or differ from other animals. DTI now makes it possible to understand how evolution changed the wiring of the human brain to enable us to think, act and speak like humans."
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For more than seven decades, the
Language And Color Perception Linked In Human Brain
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407201846.htm
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — Does the language people speak influence their perception of the world? Recent findings by a research team at the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) suggest that it may well. For the first time, the team has found patterns of brain activation that signal a positive relationship between language and colour perception.
The idea that language may affect thought and perception was first put forward by Benjamin Lee Whorf in a book entitled "Language, Thought, and Reality", published in 1956. Much research has been done on the "Whorfian Hypothesis" in the last fifty years, but so far little hard evidence is available either in support of or against the hypothesis.
For example, the Pirahãs, a small community of some 200 hunter-gatherers in the Amazon jungle, speak a language that has no words for numbers beyond two. Researchers have found their ability to conceptualize numbers to be limited, possibly by their language. This work is very suggestive, but it is not based on direct neuro-physiological evidence.
In a series of experiments, the HKU researchers investigated the relationship between language and colour perception, using new neuro-imaging techniques. "By using neural imaging, we have succeeded in showing that brain regions mediating language processes participate in neural networks activated by perceptual decision," explained Dr Luke.
In their experiments, seventeen subjects were asked during neuro-imaging sessions to decide whether two squares were of the same colour. Some of the squares were filled with easy-to-name colours (such as 'red' or 'blue'); others with hard-to-name colours. The result shows that the perception of both kinds of colours involved the same cortical regions which have long been known to be associated with colour vision. However, in comparison with the hard-to-name colours, perception of the easy-to-name colours evoked significantly stronger activation in two additional brain areas that have been found independently to be responsible for word searching suggesting that with colours that have names in a language, there is a close link between language processing and colour perception .
"These findings represent a major break-through on this research topic by providing neuro-physiological evidence in support of the Whorfian hypothesis," said Professor Tan Li-Hai, professor in linguistics of HKU and a member of the research team.
"This work also serves as a demonstration of a new method for the study of the age-old question of how people's experience might be shaped by their language," explained Dr Luke.
Thinkers since antiquity have pondered about the nature of the relationship between language and perception: to what extent are the mental categories that we use to classify objects and their qualities determined by our language? The new findings have opened up new opportunities for the study of the human mind, Dr Luke elaborated.
He said a deeper understanding of the universal basis of language on the one hand, and how different languages may vary in their conceptual bases, should be of direct relevance to language teaching. Further research on the relationship between language and perception may uncover principles that would enhance the effectiveness of people's learning of second and foreign languages.
The research was conducted with the new 3T GE MRI scanner at
The research was supported by grants from
Journal reference: "Language affects patterns of brain activation associated with perceptual decision", by Li Hai Tan, Alice H.D. Chan, Paul Kay, Pek-Lan Khong, Lawrence K.C. Yip, and Kang-kwong Luke. Proceedings of the
Adapted from materials provided by University of Hong Kong.
Universal 'babelfish' could translate alien tongues
15:30 18 April 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Michael Reilly,
If we ever make contact with intelligent aliens, we should be able to build a universal translator to communicate with them, according to a linguist and anthropologist in the
Such a "babelfish", which gets its name from the translating fish in Douglas Adams's book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, would require a much more advanced understanding of language than we currently have. But a first step would be recognising that all languages must have a universal structure, according to Terrence Deacon of the
How language develops is highly controversial. Some theories argue that the process has been built into the human brain through evolution, and that the sounds we use to communicate are arbitrary.
If that is true, there could be an infinite set of possibilities for expressing an idea through language. An alien race that developed through a completely different process of evolution would probably speak a language indecipherable to humans.
But Deacon argues that all languages arise from the common goal of describing the physical world. That limits the way a language could be constructed, he concludes.
Scented words
An alien race could use a strange medium like scents as their language, Deacon says, but the scents would still describe objects in their world. An odour that communicates "rock" or "tree" would be analogous to our words for the same objects. So there must be an underlying universal code that can be deciphered, as in mathematics.
"In Carl Sagan’s book Contact, aliens communicate to humans through prime numbers," says Deacon. "Why? Nature doesn't use prime numbers. But the numbers are intrinsic to the mathematical system, just as certain structures are intrinsic to language."
One of our most basic forms of communication is pointing, he says. Pointing directly references a physical object. When we invent a word for that object, that word is a symbol. Symbols can then convey meaning about objects even if they're not present in our immediate environment.
Abstract symbols
Deacon argues that no matter how abstract a symbol becomes, it is still grounded in physical reality because it refers to "indexical" words – words we use to point directly to objects in the real world. That limits the number of relationships it can have with other symbol words. In turn, this defines the grammatical structure that emerges from stringing words together.
If that is true, then in the distant future it might be possible to invent a gadget that uses complex software to decode alien languages on the spot, Deacon said. He presented his ideas on Thursday 17 April at the 2008 Astrobiology Science Conference in
Testing the theory might be tough because we would have to make contact with aliens advanced enough to engage in abstract thinking and the use of linguistic symbols. But Denise Herzing of
"Our work suggests that dolphins may be able to communicate using symbols," Herzing told New Scientist. "The word's not definitively in yet, but it’s totally possible that we might show universality by understanding dolphin language."
[博客评论]
很难想象外星人的“语言”会是什么样子的，就像是现代类型学开始以前，SVO语言的语言学家见到一种OVS语言那样，而这还仅仅是人类内部的变异。外星人的语言是靠声音、气味、体态？不知道。外星人的认知方式和认知程度与人类的相比，在多大程度上类同？不知道。
在还未获得外星人的言语样本之前，科学家们需要做好两件事：一是挖掘出人类语言的共性所在（认知上的，而非类型的）；二是先做一个人类和大猩猩/海豚的翻译系统吧。
Public release date: 4-Dec-2007
[ Print Article | E-mail Article | Close Window ]
Contact: Catherine West
cwest@psychologicalscience.org
202-783-2077
Association for Psychological Science
Defense to begin recruiting foreign language corps
While the project is being run within Defense, the concept holds benefits for the rest of government, McGinn said. "We looked at other agencies to determine what their needs might be," she said. "We're working to understand how [other agencies] can use this corps of people and bring them in when there are national needs."
Last Modified: March 4th, 2008 03:31 AM
Siberian, Native American Languages Linked -- A First
John Roach
for National Geographic News
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080326-language-link_2.html
March 26, 2008
A fast-dying language in remote central
The finding may allow linguists to weigh in on how the
Since at least 1923 researchers have suggested a connection exists between Asian and North American languages—but this is the first time a link has been demonstrated with established standards, said Vajda, who has studied the relationship for more than 15 years.
Previous researchers had provided lists of similar-sounding and look-alike words, but their methods were unscientific. Such similarities, Vajda noted, are likely to be dismissed as coincidence even if they represent genuine evidence.
So Vajda developed another method. "I'm providing a whole system of [similar] vocabulary and also of grammatical parallels—the way that verb prefixes are structured," he said.
Dying Tongue
His research links the Old World language family of Yeniseic in central Siberia with the Na-Dene family of languages in
The Yeniseic family includes the extinct languages Yugh, Kott, Assan, Arin, and Pumpokol. Ket is the only Yeniseic language spoken today. Less than 200 speakers remain and most are over 50, according to Vajda.
"Within a couple of generations, Ket will probably become extinct," he said.
The Na-Dene family includes languages spoken by the broad group of Athabaskan tribes in the
Vajda presented the findings in February at a meeting of linguists at the
Making the Connection
Vajda established the Yeniseic-Na-Dene link by looking for languages with a verb-prefix system similar to those in Yeniseic languages. Such prefixes are unlike any other language in
"Only Na-Dene languages have a system of verb prefixes that very closely resemble the Yeniseic," he said.
From there, Vajda found several dozen cognates—or words in different languages that sound alike and have the same meaning.
The results dovetail with earlier work by Merritt Ruhlen, an anthropologist at
Vajda also showed how these cognates have sound correspondences.
"I systematically connect these structures in Yeniseic with the structures in modern Na-Dene," Vajda said.
"My comparisons aren't just lists of some look-alike words … I show there is a system behind it."
Johanna Nichols is a linguist at the
With the exception of the Eskimo-Aleut family that straddles the Bering Strait and Aleutian Islands, this is "the first successful demonstration of any connection between a New World language and an
Mother Tongue
Vajda said his research puts linguistics on the same stage as archaeology, anthropology, and genetics when it comes to studying the history of humans in North Asia and
However, the research has not revealed which language came first. Neither modern Ket nor Na-Dene languages in
For example, some words in the Na-Dene family likely represent sounds of the mother tongue more closely than their Yeniseic cognates. Other words in Yeniseic, however, are probably more archaic.
Based on archaeological evidence of human migrations across the Bering land bridge, the language link may extend back at least 10,000 years.
If true, according to Vajda, this would be the oldest known demonstrated language link.
But more research is needed to determine when the languages originated and how they became a part of various cultures before such a claim will be accepted, according to UC Berkeley linguist Nichols.
"I don't think there is any reason to assume the connection is [10,000 years] old … this must surely be one late episode in a much longer and more complicated history of settlement," she said.
[博客评论]
通过语言来了解人类迁徙、繁衍的历史，以及不同地区人群之间的系属关系，彰显了语言对于历史考察的窗口作用（王士元2000，石锋译）。在如此远距离的两种语言之间建立起谱系关系，真是了不起的成就。在赞叹语言学家坚忍不拔的毅力时，我们也为Ket语的顽强而欢呼，同时也为类似Ket 语的处于濒危的语言而感到担忧。如果在本文的发现之前，仅存的会说Ket语的那些人去世了，那么人类历史演变的证明中就会失去很重要的一节证据。
Chimps May Have A 'Language-ready' Brain
ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — An area of the brain involved in the planning and production of spoken and signed language in humans plays a similar role in chimpanzee communication, researchers report.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228124415.htm
"Chimpanzee communicative behavior shares many characteristics with human language," said Jared Taglialatela of the
The results also suggest that the "neurobiological foundations" of human language may have been present in the common ancestor of modern humans and chimpanzees, he said.
Scientists had identified Broca's area, located in part of the human brain known as the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), as one of several critical regions that light up with activity when people plan to say something and when they actually talk or sign. Anatomically, Broca's area is most often larger on the left side of the brain, and imaging studies in humans had shown left-leaning patterns of brain activation during language-related tasks, the researchers said.
"We didn't know if or to what extent other primates, and particularly humans' closest ancestor, the chimpanzees, possess a comparable region involved in the production of their own communicative signals," Taglialatela said.
In the new study, the researchers non-invasively scanned the brains of three chimpanzees as they gestured and called to a person in request for food that was out of their reach. Those chimps showed activation in the brain region corresponding to Broca's area and in other areas involved in complex motor planning and action in humans, the researchers found.
The findings might be interpreted in one of two ways, Taglialatela said.
"One interpretation of our results is that chimpanzees have, in essence, a 'language-ready brain,' " he said. "By this, we are suggesting that apes are born with and use the brain areas identified here when producing signals that are part of their communicative repertoire.
"Alternatively, one might argue that, because our apes were captive-born and producing communicative signals not seen often in the wild, the specific learning and use of these signals 'induced' the pattern of brain activation we saw. This would suggest that there is tremendous plasticity in the chimpanzee brain, as there is in the human brain, and that the development of certain kinds of communicative signals might directly influence the structure and function of the brain."
This research is reported online on February 28th in the journal Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.
The researchers include Jared P. Taglialatela, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA, Department of Natu