Have you ever wondered how we go from babbling babies to eloquent speakers of complex languages? That’s where linguistics steps in. As the scientific study of language, linguistics explores the structure, usage, and evolution of human language. From sound patterns and word formation to meaning and context, linguists ask big questions about how language works—and how we come to know it.
你有沒有想過我們是如何從牙牙學語的嬰兒進化成能夠流利地使用複雜語言的？語言學正是為此而生。作為一門研究語言的科學，語言學探索人類語言的結構、用法和演化。從語音模式和構詞法到意義和語境，語言學家不斷探討語言的運作方式，以及我們是如何認識語言的。
你有沒有想過我們是如何從牙牙學語的嬰兒進化成能夠流利地使用複雜語言的？語言學正是為此而生。作為一門研究語言的科學，語言學探索人類語言的結構、用法和演化。從語音模式和構詞法到意義和語境，語言學家不斷探討語言的運作方式，以及我們是如何認識語言的。
One particularly fascinating puzzle is how we acquire language in the first place. Enter Noam Chomsky’s concept of Universal Grammar (UG).
一個尤其引人入勝的謎題是我們最初是如何習得語言的。諾姆·喬姆斯基提出了普遍語法（UG）的概念。
UG is the theoretical blueprint of grammar that Chomsky proposed that is hardwired into the human brain. According to this idea, all human languages share a common structural basis. This built-in grammar system explains how children are able to learn their native language so quickly and effortlessly, often with little explicit instruction. Even with limited input, they seem to know what “sounds right”—suggesting that they’re not learning language from scratch, but unfolding something already within them.
普遍語法是喬姆斯基提出的語法的理論藍圖，它根植於人類大腦。根據這個理念，所有人類語言都擁有共同的結構基礎。這種內在的語法系統解釋了為什麼孩子們能夠如此快速、輕鬆地學習母語，而且通常不需要太多的明確指導。即使所輸入的有限，他們似乎也知道什麼「聽起來正確」——這表明他們並非從零開始學習語言，而是在展現自身已有的某些特質。
UG doesn’t stop at First Language (L1) Acquisition. It also plays a role in second language (L2) acquisition, and also Second Language Learning (SLA) in the aspect of education. While the UG framework clearly powers our first plunge into language, researchers still explore whether it remains fully accessible later in life. Some theories argue that older learners can still draw on UG principles, while others suggest that second language learning relies more on conscious effort and general cognitive strategies.
普遍語法不限於母語（L1）習得。它在教育領域也對第二語言（L2）習得和第二語言學習（SLA）發揮作用。雖然普遍語法框架顯然為我們初次接觸語言提供了動力，但研究人員仍在探索它是否在以後的生活中仍然完全可行。有些理論認為，年長的學習者仍然可以藉鏡普遍語法的原則，而有些理論則認為，第二語言學習更依賴有意識的努力和一般的認知策略。
This blueprint seems irrelevant to personal daily life! However, we can learn different languages for communication, relying on the rules of pronunciation, meaning, grammar, etc., that have been found by linguists through their studies on the relationship between the languages and the culture in the area. Of course, the process of their study involved theories such as UG.
這張藍圖似乎與個人日常生活毫不相關！然而，我們可以學習不同的語言進行交流，這依賴語言學家透過研究語言與當地文化之間的關係而發現的發音、語義、語法等規則。當然，他們的研究過程涉及諸如普遍語法（UG）之類的理論。
When this abstract philosophy has been borrowed from linguistics and brings out branches of linguistics such as Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and Psycholinguistics, on the other hand, the new technologies also have the shadow of UG, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) which is on the developing in the AI community, and Speech Pathology in the rehabilitation community.
這種抽象的哲學被借用自語言學，並衍生出應用語言學、社會語言學和心理語言學等語言學分支學科時，新興技術方面也帶有普遍語法的影子，例如在人工智能領域正在發展的自然語言處理（NLP）和康復領域的言語病理學。
This abstract theory made me twice retake the subject of Introduce To Linguistics when I was in my bachelor's degree in translating, but it's worth it. Besides showing a powerful lens through which to understand the universality and diversity of languages across the globe, and why humans, uniquely, are born to speak, it also broadens my mind.
這個抽象的理論讓我在讀翻譯本科時兩次重修了「語言學導論」這門課，但這一切都是值得的。它不僅提供了一個強大的視角，讓我能夠理解全球語言的普遍性和多樣性，以及為什麼人類天生就會說話，同時也開闊了我的視野。
