新奇事件簿 說英語會讓你更貧窮

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An economics professor has said English speakers may be poorer because of English grammar. Dr Keith Chen of Yale University suggested that differences in the tenses of the world's languages may explain why people in some countries save more money than people in other countries. He told people at a presentation that the future tense in English could actually make people believe the future is not important now. He said English speakers might think the future is separate from the present, and that this may make people not think about their future. He explained this could stop people saving money for their retirement. He also suggested future tenses may make people smoke more and exercise less.

一位經(jīng)濟學教授表示，由于英語語法問題，說英語的人可能會更窮。耶魯大學的Keith Chen博士認為，世界各地語言時態(tài)的不同或許能夠解釋為什么有些國家的人比其他國家的人更有錢。他在一次報告中告訴人們，英語中的將來時會讓人們相信將來對現(xiàn)在來說并不重要。他表示，說英語的人或許會認為將來和現(xiàn)在是分開的，這可能會讓人們不考慮將來。他解釋說，這會讓人們不為將來退休而儲蓄。他還說，將來時可能會讓人們抽煙更多，鍛煉更少。

Professor Chen divided the grammar of countries into two – those with a "strong future-time reference" and those with a weak reference. He explained: "If I wanted to explain to an English-speaking colleague why I can't attend a meeting later today, I could not say 'I go to a seminar'. English grammar would [require] me to say 'I will go, am going, or have to go to a seminar'". He contrasted this with "weak future-time reference" languages" that can express the same meaning without future words like "will". Chen says speakers of these languages are those who save more money. He believes this could be because they do not separate the present time and future in their grammar or in real life.

Chen教授將各個國家的語言分為兩種——“著重提及將來的時間”以及不怎么提及將來。他解釋說：“假如我要向一位說英語的同事解釋為何我不能參加今天晚些時候的一個會議，我不會說我去參加一個研討會。英語語法要求我說，我將要，我不得不去參加一個研討會。”他把這一點與“提及將來時間比較弱化”的語言做對比，這種語言表達同樣的意思時不會使用表示將來時態(tài)的詞語“將要”。Chen表示，說這類語言的人更容易存錢。他相信這一點是因為在他們的語法和現(xiàn)實生活中都不把現(xiàn)在和將來分開。