20170610 今天的长难句，会让你疯掉 / 开普饭

#四六级# 准备的如何了？

目前既要准备期末考试还要应付四六级，

表示时间不够的请捏捏自己的小脸
很久以前，有个骚年提醒大家

四六级要提前准备，不要拖到最后的时候，

既要准备期末考试还要准备四六级，

会把自己搞的焦头烂额。
同理，考研英语也要趁早复习，

越到最后要背诵的东西越多，

都拖到最后必然精尽人亡！

墙裂推荐阅读

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学习分析长难句动笔抄写效果更佳

四六级考研复习中的困惑

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【前文回顾】

Since the days of Aristotle, a search for universal principles has characterized the scientific enterprise. In some ways, this quest for commonalities defines science. Newton’s laws of motion and Darwinian evolution each bind a host of different phenomena into a single explicatory frame work.

自亚里士多德的时代起，对普遍原理的探求就一直是科学事业的主要特征。在某些方面，寻找事物的共性也正是科学的定义/内涵。牛顿的运动定律和达尔文的进化论都是把很多不同现象纳入到一个单独框架来解释。

In physics, one approach takes this impulse for unification to its extreme, and seeks a theory of everything—a single generative equation for all we see. It is becoming less clear, however, that such a theory would be a simplification, given the dimensions and universes that it might entail, nonetheless, unification of sorts remains a major goal. This tendency in the natural sciences has long been evident in the social sciences too.

在物理学上，有一种方法是将这种追求统一的冲动发挥到极点，它寻找一种万能的理论，即一种单一的能够解释我们所能看到的一切的通用公式。然而，考虑到/鉴于这样的一种理论所涉及的维度和范畴，它是否还算是一种简化就变得越来越说不清楚了。尽管如此，寻找万物的统一性仍然是一个主要目标。很久以来，在自然科学这种趋势在社会科学中也很明显。

Here, Darwinism seems to offer justification, for if all humans share common origins, it seems reasonable to suppose that cultural diversity could also be traced to more constrained beginnings. Just as the bewildering variety of human courtship rituals might all be considered forms of sexual selection, perhaps the world’s languages, music, social and religious customs and even history are governed by universal features. To filter out what is unique from what is shared might enable us to understand how complex cultural behavior arose and what guides it in evolutionary or cognitive terms.

在这里，达尔文主义似乎提供了一个正当理由：如果所有的人类都有共同的起源，那么文化差异能够追寻到更有限的开端，这一假设好像也是合理的。正如人类令人眼花缭乱的多种求偶仪式都能被认为是性别选择的某种模式一样，世界上的语言、音乐、社会习惯和宗教习俗甚至历史都可能由某些统一的特点所驾驭。从共有特征中滤出独有特性，这可能使我们能够理解复杂的文化行为是如何出现的，并从进化或认知角度理解什么引导了它的走向。

That, at least, is the hope. But a comparative study of linguistic traits published online today supplies a reality check. Russell Gray at the University of Auckland and his colleagues consider the evolution of grammars in the light of two previous attempts to find universality in language.

至少，这是希望所在。但是今天网上发布的一篇语言特征的对比研究（为这一想法）提供了现实上的检验。在这之前的两个寻找语言共性的尝试的基础上，奥克兰大学的Russell Gray以及他的同事们对语法的演变进行了思考。

The most famous of these efforts was initiated by Noam Chomsky, who suggested that humans are born with an innate language-acquisition capacity that dictates a universal grammar. A few generative rules are then sufficient to unfold the entire fundamental structure of a language, which is why children can learn it so quickly.

这些艰辛的尝试中最著名的一个是由Noam Chomsky所提出的，他认为人类有一种与生俱来的语言习得能力，这种能力支配通用语法。一些语言生成规则就足以揭开某种语言的全部基础结构，这就是儿童学习语言如此之快的原因。

【今日长难句】

The second, by Joshua Greenberg, takes a more empirical approach to universality, identifying traits (particularly in word order) shared by many languages, which are considered to represent biases that result from cognitive constraints.

【结构解析】

1. 该句较长，其主干为主谓宾结构，即：the second/ takes / a more empirical approach to universality.

2. by Joshua Greenberg 为插入语，修饰主语the second; identifying traits 为结果状语；（particularly in word order）为插入语修饰traits; shared by many langauges 为后置定语，修饰traits; which are considered to represent biases 为定语从句，修饰traits; that result from cognitive constraints为定语从句，修饰biases.

【词的处理】

empirical / imˈpirikl / adj. 经验主义的

approach / əˈprəutʃ; NAmE əˈproutʃ / n. 方式，方法

identify / aiˈdentifai / vt. 认出，发现

trait / treit / 特征，特点

represent / ˌrepriˈzent / vt. 代表

bias / ˈbaiəs / n. 偏见

result from 由于

cognitive / ˈkɔɡnətiv; NAmE ˈkɑ:ɡ- / adj. 认知的

constraint / kənˈstreint / n. 限制

【参考译文】

其次是Joshua Greenberg的（尝试），他采用了更经验主义的方法去研究语言中的普遍性，鉴别出许多语言所共有的特征（尤其是在语序方面），而这些特征被认为代表了认知约束所产生的偏好。