有聲英文閱讀-語言

Language

When we want to tell other people what we think, we can do it not only with the help of words, but also in many other ways.

An Englishman who could not speak Italian was once traveling in Italy. One day he entered a restaurant and sat down at a table. When the waiter come, the Englishman opened his mouth, put his fingers in it, took them out again and moved his lips. In this way he meant to say, "Bring me something to eat." The waiter soon brought him a cup of tea. The Englishman shook his head and the waiter understood that he didn't want tea, so he took it away and brought him some coffee. The Englishman, who was very hungry by this time and not at all thirsty, looked very sad. He shook his head each time the waiter brought him something to drink. The waiter brought him wine, then beer, then soda-water, but that wasn't food, of course. He was just going to leave the restaurant when another traveler came in. When this man saw the waiter, he put his hands on his stomach. That was enough: in a few minutes there was a large plate of macaroni and meat on the table before him.

As you see, the primitive language of signs is not always very clear. The language of words is much more exact.

Words consist of sounds, but there are many sounds which have a meaning and yet are not words. For example, we may say "Sh-sh-sh" when we mean "keep silent." When babies laugh, we know they are happy, and when they cry, we know they are ill or simply want something.

It is the same with animals. When a dog says "G-r-r" or a cat says "F-f-f" we know they are angry.

But these sounds are not language. Language consists of words which we put together into sentences. But animals can not do this: a dog can say "G-r-r" when he means "I am angry," but he cannot say first "I" and then "am" and they "angry." A parrot can talk like a man; it can repeat whole sentences and knows what they mean. We may say that a parrot talks, but cannot say that it really speaks, because it cannot from new sentences out of the words it knows. Only man has the power to do this.