Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 96 Universal Grammar

After receiving the thesis, Lao Liu took Xiang Shan to walk around the semi-finished office area, constantly greeting some scholars he knew in the past and exchanging new contact information.Xiang Shan was forced to wrap his arms around a thing weighing several kilograms, and communicated with colleagues from all over the world when he was close to heat stroke.

Thanks to this, Xiang Shan got the contact information of twenty or thirty famous scholars and outstanding young scholars.

Lao Liu said happily that these are all contacts in the future.

Xiang Shan complained about this.Now bathing is a collective bathhouse, and it takes a long time to line up.There is not much help in sweating out there.What's more, the scholars here may not have any contact with each other after finishing this project.

But Lao Liu taught Xiang Shan that the so-called "relationship" is like this.Whenever he needs to start a cooperative project, he will notice the convenience of this "connection".

When Xiang Shan left, David Klein shouted behind him, asking him to continue to come in the afternoon, because the engineering research department hopes to set up a shelf in these few days-it is best to divide several group or something.In addition, that afternoon is also the deadline for accepting applications for experimental equipment. If you have any special requirements for the laboratory environment, it is best to raise them now.

Xiang Shan didn't pay much attention to this.Now everyone doesn't know what they want to study, and they can't open any projects or topics.This division of groups does not necessarily make sense.As for the laboratory equipment, Lao Liu would naturally mention it.Lao Liu basically understands the fields he is involved in, and Lao Liu must also need the equipment he needs.

Xiang Shan spent the whole noon in the cafeteria.When he came to the cafeteria, the first thing he did was to take a disposable cup, shovel half a cup of ice cubes for himself, then fill up a glass of soda, drink it all in one gulp, and bring another glass to the seat.

Before lunch, Xiang Shan planned to look through those papers first.He took the papers out of the paper bag.David gave him dozens of papers, and of course he didn't have the time to read them all.Every paper is like a novella, and it's also very brain-burning.

Xiang Shan took out a paper, read the abstract first, then the conclusion, and then put it aside.In addition, the summaries of other papers are also listed separately and put together.Occasionally, when you encounter a direction that you may be interested in, just fold the corner of the cover to remind yourself to take a look when you have time.

There are several other people in the cafeteria who are doing similar things.

"Hey, are you reading the paper too?" Jing Hongtu sat opposite Xiang Shan with the dinner plate in his hand, "Isn't Professor Liu with you?"

"He should still be in the research center—what a coincidence, Professor Jing." Xiang Shan greeted, his eyes still fixed on a paper: "Wait a while, I'll finish scanning this—ah!"

Xiang Shan just reached out to get his soda, but his arm accidentally touched another person.There was actually a person sitting next to him silently just now!

A woman blinked her eyes and said innocently to Xiang Shan, "Hi~!"

This woman was about the same age as Xiang Shan, also 23 or [-] years old.She is just like the "European" in the stereotype of East Asians, with blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin-here, here is a special mention, her skin is whiter than the average European, and with her long pale golden hair, she is quite Divided into "Xianqi".

The woman was quite innocent: "I came here with Professor Jing. I really didn't expect to scare you. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm too focused... wait..." Xiang Shan looked at the woman in front of him suspiciously.

Xiang Shan's English ability is at the normal level in the academic world, and there is no problem in understanding English.But what this woman just said seems to be... very standard, without an accent...

"Are you more accustomed to speaking Cantonese? Are you living in the Cantonese-speaking area?" The woman changed her dialect naturally.

This time, Xiang Shan was completely dumbfounded: "No, I can't understand it like this... Ma'am, your Chinese is really good."

Woman rolls pasta on plate with fork: "Thanks."

"This is Miss Ingrid Granat. Miss Granat and I chatted very speculatively, so we stopped by to have lunch together, and then I saw you from a distance, so I wanted to say hello. "Jing Hongtu said: "Miss Granat is an associate researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway. She is a very powerful person. She has a natural understanding of language and has learned many languages ​​very early. Now she is doing second language acquisition. Research."

"Second language acquisition", which is the abbreviation of "second language acquisition", is a research direction of linguistics.Its research directions include: how learners build a new language and system after limited exposure to a second language; why most second language learners cannot have the same knowledge as native speakers; why most people second language The level of language learning is not up to the level of the native language, etc., is a complex and three-dimensional field.

"To be precise, I know more than one language in every traditional language family - plus Japanese that cannot be classified." Ingrid smiled, quite complacent.

Xiang Shan thought for a while before he understood what this meant, and he was immediately in awe.

Language family and language family are concepts in historical comparative linguistics.It is like species taxonomy, classifying every language in the world according to the distance of kinship.For example, "Chinese" belongs to "Sino-Tibetan Language Family-Chinese Language Family-Chinese Branch-Chinese". In the "Indo-European-Romanic languages-Italian-Western Romance languages", the difficulty is not at the same level as "how many languages ​​are known in each language family".

"Well, I want to ask... how long does it take you to learn a language?" Xiang Shan thought for a moment and asked the question he was most concerned about.

"Well...it's actually hard to say. Accumulating vocabulary or something, it still takes a certain amount of time to improve...I have only reached the level of elementary school students in several languages, and basically have no dyslexia, but occasionally need to consult a dictionary." Engel Lide thought for a while, and said: "But if you only need to 'learn', it's not particularly difficult. A month or so is enough."

Xiang Shan was at a loss: "Ma'am, I would like to ask, are you sure you know the meaning of the Chinese slang term 'Ge Ba Yue'?"

"A few, a few, one or two." Ingrid nodded: "I still know this."

Jing Hongtu smiled.There is no shortage of "young geniuses" in the academic world.You took a teaching position in your twenties, and I graduated from a bachelor’s degree in my teens.There are not a few who stand out and become famous in the academic world during their undergraduate years.

In contrast, "late bloomers" researchers are even rarer - but there are still some examples.

"Learning a language is actually not as difficult as I imagined—well, I may be special in a certain sense? But it's not impossible to copy." Ingrid took a sip of pasta, then pointed at Xiang Shan with a fork: "Xiang Shan , do you believe in 'Universal Grammar'?"

"what?"

"A term in the theory of language by the linguist Chomsky of the United States. According to Mr. Chomsky, language is created and grammar is generated. Children are born with a Universal Grammar. Universal Grammar is essentially a The brain has a specific state related to language knowledge, a physical mechanism and a corresponding psychological mechanism that enable a human individual to learn any human language." Ingrid said: "Perhaps there is some kind of language in the baby's brain. Physical structure. During the growth of the baby's brain, this physical structure will be affected by the external cultural environment and develop into a "language function" - and the "characteristics" displayed by that original structure may be "universal grammar'."

Xiang Shan scratched his head: "It's like saying that my newborn nephew has all human languages ​​in his head-I think this is more like a myth than science."

"Know the male, keep the female, it is the stream of the world. It is the stream of the world, Changde is inseparable, and it returns to the baby." Ingrid said seriously: "There is indeed a similar statement in your ancient philosophy. But it doesn't have to be It comes down to 'myth'. All I can say is... I personally feel that there should be a universal grammar beyond 'language'. I hope that through my research, I can dig it out of my head."

Xiang Shan nodded: "Well, it sounds like a great research..."

"Miss Granat has a wide range of reading and a very unique understanding of anthropology." Jing Hongtu laughed.

"Maybe they called me here because they think I have the hope of learning the language of aliens." Ingrid is very helpless: "But dead language and living language are completely different concepts. And from a biological point of view It is said that the 'Universal Grammar' of aliens may be quite different from that of Earthlings."

After chatting for a few words, Xiang Shan basically went through the thesis.He put the papers back in the paper bag and went to pick up his meal.When he came back, several fire engines drove past the window.

Xiang Shan dug a spoonful of mashed potatoes and put it in his mouth: "What is this for? There is no fire here, right?"

"This should be a fire engine mobilized locally." Jing Hongtu said: "I heard that the 'Tent' is trying to change the preservation environment of 'Ogun'... They don't plan to divide 'Ogun', and it is very It was difficult to carry such a huge metal object away, so they had to drain the surrounding seawater. They also planned to fill the 'tent' with a more stable gas because they were worried that the oxygen would destroy the contents of the 'Ogun'. Those fire trucks should transport the seawater away, right?"

Xiang Shan was very surprised: "Is it okay to discharge the seawater directly into the sea?"

"Maybe it's because of biological pollution. Don't discharge indiscriminately."

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(End of this chapter)