科学英语翻译(科学英语翻译小故事)快来看

2023-09-06Aix XinLe

——本文内容未经授权不得转载或引用，违者必究【前言】　　“科学种子科技英语”为上海青少年科学社特色周刊板块，

——本文内容未经授权不得转载或引用，违者必究【前言】　　“科学种子科技英语”为上海青少年科学社特色周刊板块，旨在通过双语形式翻译国内外最新科学技术科普文章，带领青少年读者们了解全球最前沿的科研成果概况，普及科学知识、传播科学思维、领悟科学奥秘。

2021年该板块重新推出，特邀上海青少年科学社优秀学生会员组成科普翻译团，通过同学们自己的视角，解读科学背后的故事，带领更多的小伙伴学科学、爱科学，共读最前沿、最有趣的科普资讯科普翻译团第5期——— “

语言温度计”可以揭示史前人类创新的步伐

Multi-disciplinary researchers at The University of Manchester have helped develop a powerful physics-based tool to map the pace of language development and human innovation over thousands of years -- even stretching into pre-history before records were kept.

曼彻斯特大学的多学科研究人员帮助开发了一种强大的基于物理学的工具，可以描绘出数千年来语言发展和人类创新的步伐——甚至可以追溯到有记录之前的史前时期Tobias Galla, a professor in theoretical physics, and Dr Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, a specialist in historical linguistics, from The University of Manchester, have come together as part of an international team to share their diverse expertise to develop the new model, revealed in a paper entitled Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic feature authored by Henri Kauhanen, Deepthi Gopal, Tobias Galla and Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, and published by the journal Science Advances.。

来自曼彻斯特大学的理论物理学教授Tobias Galla和历史语言学专家Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero博士同为一支国际研究团队的成员，运用他们不同的专业所长共同来开发这一新的模型工具这项模型已在由Henri Kauhanen, Deepthi Gopal, Tobias Galla和 Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero所撰写的论文《地理空间分布反映语言特征的温度》有所揭示，并在《科学进展》期刊上发表。

Professor Galla has applied statistical physics -- usually used to map atoms or nanoparticles -- to help build a mathematically-based model that responds to the evolutionary dynamics of language. Essentially, the forces that drive language change can operate across thousands of years and leave a measurable "geospatial signature," determining how languages of different types are distributed over the surface of the Earth.

Galla教授运用了统计物理学（通常用于获取原子或纳米粒子的信息），来建立一个数学模型，可以对语言演化的动态做出响应本质上，推动语言变化的力量可以持续数千年，并留下可测量的“地理空间记号”，从而决定着不同类型的语言如何分布在世界各地。

Dr Bermúdez-Otero explained: "In our model each language has a collection of properties or features and some of those features are what we describe as hot or cold.

Bermúdez-Otero博士解释说:“在我们的模型中，每种语言都有一系列的属性或特征，其中一些特征就是我们所说的‘热’或‘冷’"So, if a language puts the object before the verb, then it is relatively likely to get stuck with that order for a long period of time -- so thats a cold feature. In contrast, markers like the English article the come and go a lot faster: they may be here in one historical period, and be gone in the next. In that sense, definite articles are hot features.。

“因此，如果一种语言把宾语放在动词之前，然后它的语序很可能在很长一段时间内不会改变，这就是一个‘冷’特征相比之下，像英语冠词‘the’这样的标记语变化速度要快得多：它们可能在一个历史时期存在，在下一个历史时期就消失了。

从这个意义上说，定冠词是‘热’特征”"The striking thing is that languages with cold properties tend to form big clumps, whereas languages with hot properties tend to be more scattered geographically."

“令人称奇的是，‘冷’属性的语言往往会大规模聚集，然而‘热’属性的语言往往在地理上更分散”This method therefore works like a thermometer, enabling researchers to retrospectively tell whether one linguistic property is more prone to change in historical time than another. This modelling could also provide a similar benchmark for the pace of change in other social behaviours or practices over time and space.。

因此，这种方法就像温度计一样工作，使研究人员能够回溯判断一种语言特性是否比另一种在一定历史时期更容易发生变化这个模型还可以用来衡量其他社会行为或实践在时间和空间上的变化速度"For example, suppose that you have a map showing the spatial distribution of some variable cultural practice for which you dont have any historical records -- this could be be anything, like different rules on marriage or on the inheritance of possessions," added Dr Bermúdez-Otero.。

“例如，假设你有一张地图，显示了一些你没有任何历史记录但可变的文化习俗的空间分布，这可以是任何东西，比如关于婚姻或财产继承的不同习俗等” Bermúdez -Otero博士补充道"Our method could, in principle, be used to ascertain whether one practice changes in the course of historical time faster than another, ie whether people are more innovative in one area than in another, just by looking at how the present-day variation is distributed in space."。

“从理论上说，我们的方法可以只通过观察现有变量在空间上的分布，就可以确定一种实践的历史演变是否比另一种要快，即在某一地区的人是否比另一地区更有创新性”The source data for the linguistic modelling comes from present-day languages and the team relied on The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS). This records information of 2,676 contemporary languages.。

语言建模的原始数据来自现代语言该团队借鉴了《世界语言结构图册》，其中收录了2676种当代语言的信息Professor Galla explained: "We were interested in emergent phenomena, such as how large-scale effects, for example patterns in the distribution of language features arise from relatively simple interactions. This is a common theme in complex systems research.。

Galla教授解释说：“我们对诸如大规模效应之类的涌现现象十分关注，例如语言特征分布中的模式是如何从相对简单交互中产生的这是复杂系统研究中的一个常见主题”"I was able to help with my expertise in the mathematical tools we used to analyse the language model and in simulation techniques. I also contributed to setting up the model in the first place, and by asking questions that a linguist would perhaps not ask in the same way."。

“我能够在我们用来分析语言模型的数学工具和仿真技术方面提供帮助我还首先提出了建立模型的方法，并提出了一些语言学家可能不会以相同方式提出的问题”Story Source:Materials provided by University of Manchester. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.。