地平线系列：我们为何讲话（2009）

It is probably the most amazing thing you do
这也许是你所做的最神奇之事
and it defines you as being human.
它将你界定为人类
And you do it with ease,
这件事你做起来很轻松
so much so you barely notice you're doing it.
以至于你都意识不到它的存在
Apple! Yeah, apple!
苹果 对 苹果
Your ability to talk.
你说话的能力
Or more precisely, the way you use language.
更准确地说 你使用语言的方式
Language.
语言
Hi, baby!
你好 宝宝
From the moment we're born,
从出生的那一刻起
we have language in our lives.
语言就存在于我们的生活中
Hi, baby!
你好 宝宝
A unique ability that defines us as human.
这种独特的能力将我们界定为人类
I can walk up to someone I don't know
我可以走到一位陌生人面前
and I can make a sequence of noises that I've never
让气流通过口腔 从而发出一系列
made before by pushing air through my mouth.
我从未发出过的声音
I will take a thought in my head and make it go into their head,
我可以让别人感知到我的思想
and that's an incredible trick.
这真是种不可思议的把戏
Other animals may use sounds to communicate
其它动物也可以通过声音来交流
but we're the only ones on the planet who can talk.
但我们是这个星球上唯一可以讲话的生物
Speech and language distinguishes us from all other species.
说话和语言将我们与其它物种区分开来
We are not only using words to be able to express ourselves
我们说话不仅仅是为了表达自己
but we are really expressing
而是为了表达
our thought processes that are unique to ourselves.
我们每个人独一无二的思想过程
For most of us it just happens.
对于大多数人 说话是自然而然的事
It's such a sophisticated skill
这是一项精妙复杂的技能
and yet children learn it so easily with minimal effort at all.
而孩子们却能够轻而易举地掌握
That's Mummy.
那是妈妈
And when you start thinking about it,
当我们仔细回味时就觉得
it is quite miraculous how the brain does it.
大脑做到这一切的方式多么不可思议
But despite decades of research,
尽管经过了数十年的研究
how we learn to talk remains a mystery.
我们如何学会讲话依旧是个未解之谜
How did this ability evolve?
这种能力是如何进化的
Why is it uniquely human?
为什么这是人类所特有的
And is it something we are born with
它是我们与生俱来的
or something that we learn?
还是后天习得的
It strikes me it's surprising and odd that
这让我觉得很惊奇
we know an enormous amount about, for example,
我们知道很多东西 比如说
the first fractions of a second in the history of the universe,
宇宙历史开始时那零点几秒的故事
but we really know very little at all
但对于什么东西使我们成之为人类
about what makes us human and where language comes from.
以及语言来自何处 我们几乎一无所知
The wonder of language may not yet be fully understood.
也许人们尚未完全领会语言的奇妙之处
But how we start to talk is now being observed
不过现在 我们开始讲话的过程
minute by minute for the first time.
首次被分分秒秒地观测着
Cognitive scientist Deb Roy
认知科学家戴布·罗伊
realised that to discover how a child learns to speak...
意识到要研究孩子习得讲话的过程
He'd have to be able to see and hear them 24 hours a day.
就需要一天二十四小时监视他们
His solution was to take the extraordinary step
他的解决办法不同寻常
of turning his own home into a language laboratory,
他把自己的家变成了语言实验室
and his guinea pig was his own son.
实验对象则是他自己的儿子
My wife and I were expecting our first child
我和妻子一直在期待第一个孩子降生
and we had many conversations around, you know, would this be possible,
我们经常讨论这种方法的可行性
could we set up our home as an observation space
能否把自己的家作为观测站
and actually capture this kind of rich longitudinal record
从而获得我们孩子从出生那一刻起的
of our own child's development from birth?
长♥期♥丰富的成长记录
And that's what we set out to do.
那就是我们正做的事
And so was born the Speech Home Project,
家庭语言实验计划就这样诞生了
The most ambitious language observation experiment ever seen.
这是我所见过最有野心的语言观测试验
Cameras and microphones recorded
摄像机和麦克风不分昼夜地
every second of Deb's son's life
记录着戴布儿子的生活
from the moment he was born until he was three-years-old.
从他出生的那一刻起直到三岁为止
Capturing in precise detail the process of how we learn to talk.
捕捉下了学习讲话过程中的每个微小细节
Blue ball. Blue ball.
蓝球 蓝球
Blue ball, yeah.
对 就是蓝球
From the earliest unintelligible babble
从最初并无实际意义的牙牙学语
to the emergence of a very first word.
直到第一个完整单词的出现
Apple. Apple.
苹果 苹果
Yeah, apple.
对啦 苹果
My interest going in was really to understand
我的兴趣在于了解
the earliest stages of language formation,
语言形成的最初阶段
and the typical development stages in language,
以及语言发展的几个典型阶段
a child will go from babbling to using single words
从孩子牙牙学语到使用单个的词语
usually as a complete request and descriptions, and then
通常是一个简单的请求或描述
from that they will start what's called the two-word stage
接下来就会进入所谓的"双词阶段"
where they'll put two words together like "more milk"
两个词语一起使用 比如"更多牛奶"
and from that, very quickly more complex grammatical structures emerge.
之后更复杂的语法结构就会快速形成
My focus and my aim was to capture the phase
我的研究重点以及目标在于
up to the two-word utterance
捕捉逐渐形成"双词"的过程
and that could happen anywhere
这一过程可能出现在
between second and third birthday.
两周岁到三周岁之间的任何时间
It turned out my son was an early talker
事实证明我儿子属于学说话很早的孩子
so by the time his second birthday arrived
所以到他两岁生日的时候
we had the main data set we wanted.
就已获取到了我们所需的主要数据
By the time recording was complete,
录制过程结束的时候
more than 240,000 hours of information
他们收集了超过二十四万小时的信息
and 16 million words had been collected.
以及一千六百万个单词
It's a lot of data but in its raw form it's useless
数据很多 可原始数据没什么用
and so the challenges this now sets up for us is
因此现阶段我们面临的挑战是
how do you start extracting the right kind of metadata,
如何着手提取出有用的元数据
transcripts of who said what,
谁说过哪些话的文字记录
annotations of where those people were,
那些人身处何方的注解
annotations of how they're moving
他们如何移♥动♥的注解
and the relationships that they were in as they were speaking.
还有讲话人处于怎样的关系之中
And these are the, the tools
这些都是我们正在制♥作♥的
that we are now building to analyse the raw data,
用来分♥析♥原始数据的工具
and from that, we're starting to see some, some
之后我们就可以开始观察
early insights into the patterns of language development.
语言发展的早期模式了
Despite the mountains of video footage,
尽管影像记录堆积如山
Deb Roy is already uncovering the intricate effect
戴布·罗伊已经发现了日常生活
daily life has on language development.
对语言发展的复杂作用
It seems cooing to your baby is not just instinct,
对自己的宝宝轻声低语不仅是种本能
it's essential.
也是必要的事
In the months leading up to their son's first words,
在引导儿子说出第一个词的日子里
he and his wife unconsciously simplified their speech.
他和妻子不知不觉中简化了自己的言语
Then as their son's own speech develops,
当他们的儿子开始自己讲话时
they began to use longer sentences again,
他们又重新开始使用较长的句子
mirroring the child's own development.
这反映出孩子自身的成长
What's that over there? Over there, that ball?
那边那个是什么 那边的 那个球
Green ball.
绿球
For the very first time, the analysis has also enabled Deb
分♥析♥结果也破天荒地让戴布
to piece together the precise emergence of individual words,
拼凑出了单个词语出现的详细过程
charting how a new word is born.
描绘出新词诞生的图景
OK, water, water.
好了 水 水
So my son, around his first birthday,
我的儿子在一岁生日前后
started using the sound "gaga" to indicate water,
开始使用"嘎嘎"的发音来指代水
and then over the next several months
在接下来的几个月里
learned to slowly approximate the proper speech form.
经过学习逐渐向正确的表达方式靠拢
Water.
水
Just like time lapse video lets you capture a flower blossoming,
正如延时摄影可以让你捕捉花开的瞬间
what we're going to hear is the blossoming of a speech form.
我们将要听到的就是讲话形成的瞬间
OK, water?
水
Water.
水
Water? Water?
水 水
Water.
水
That's water.
那是水
It will take years for Deb Roy and his team
戴布·罗伊和他的小组要分♥析♥所有数据
to analyse all of the data,
得花费多年时间
but buried within this footage
而这些胶片中埋藏着
are the secrets of how we learn language.
我们如何学会讲话的秘密
If the patterns can be unlocked,
一旦其中的模式被解开