英语的未来会怎样?专家众说纷纭
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英文: Experts debate future of English language
English is fast becoming the language of science around the world, but what is its future among everyday speakers? One expert points out that the percentage of native English speakers is declining globally while the languages of other rapidly growing regions are being spoken by increasing numbers of people. But English will continue to remain widespread and important.

Just 10 years ago, native English speakers were second only to Chinese in number. But British language scholar David Graddol says English will probably drop in dominance by the middle of this century to rank, after Chinese, about equally with Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu, a south-Asian tongue closely related to Hindi.

He points out that the decline will not be in total numbers of English speakers, but in relative terms. "The number of people speaking English as a first language continues to rise, but it isn't rising nearly as fast as the numbers of many other languages around the world simply because the main population group has been largely in the lesser1 developed countries where languages other than English have been spoken," he says.

In a recent article in the journal Science, Mr. Graddol noted2 that three languages not now near the top of the list of the most widely spoken might be there soon. These are Bengali, Tamil, and Malay, spoken in south and southeast Asia.

But another expert on the English language says Mr. Graddol underestimates the future of its dominance. David Crystal of the University of Wales, the author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia3 of the English Language, says about 1.5 billion of the world's six billion people speak it as a second tongue compared to the 400 million native speakers.

"Nobody quite knows what's going to happen because no language has been in this position before. But all the evidence suggests that the English language snowball is rolling down a hill and is getting faster and faster and faster and accreting4 new foreign language users unlike any language has ever done before," he said. "I don't myself see that process stopping in the immediate5 future. David Graddol thinks even that momentum6 will die in the near future, but personally I think there is no sign of this.

He also disagrees with the notion that English's growth as a second tongue means it will become the world language to the exclusion7 of all others. "We have grown up with the idea of dominance meaning that a language actually pushes out other languages and takes over the world. That's not actually what seems to be happening. Precisely8 because people are learning English as a second language, they are not actually giving up their first languages. They are becoming bilingual or multilingual. So the spread of English around the world is actually creating a greatly increased bilingualism and multilingualism," he says.

 

   中文:英语的未来会怎样? 专家众说纷纭
英语正迅速成为世界性的科技用语,但是作为日常使用的口语,它的未来会是怎样的呢?有专家指出:从全球范围来看,以英语为母语的人数比例正在不断下降,而越来越多的人在使用其他迅速发展地区的语言。但是,英语将会继续普及并保持其重要地位。

也就是在十年前,以英语为母语的人数仅次于以汉语为母语的人数,位居第二。但是英国语言学家戴维·格雷德尔认为到本世纪中叶英语的主导地位很可能有所下降,位居汉语之后,与阿拉伯语、北印度语和乌尔都语(一种与北印度语十分相近的南亚语言)的地位相差不多。

他指出英语使用者的总数不会下降,但其它方面就很难说了。他说:“把英语作为母语的人数会继续上升,但是其增长速度不如世界上许多其他语种快,那只是因为人口大都集中在以英语之外的其他语言为主的欠发达国家。”

格雷德尔先生在《科学》期刊最近发表的一篇文章中提到有三种语言目前并不是使用最广泛的语言,但有可能会很快后来居上。这三种语言是南亚和东南亚的孟加拉语、泰米尔语和马来语。

但是另一位英语语言专家认为格雷德尔低估了英语作为主导性语言的发展前景。英语剑桥百科全书的作者、威尔士大学的戴维·克里斯特尔认为世界上60亿人中大约有15亿人把英语作为第二语言,同时有4亿人把英语作为母语。

他说:“没有人能够确切知道英语的未来会是什么样?因为从来没有任何一种语言和英语现在的状况相同。但所有迹象都表明,和以前任何语言不同的是,英语就象从山上滚下来的雪球一样越滚越快,而且不断吸引新的母语非英语的使用者。我本人并没有看出英语的发展在不久的将来会停滞不前。戴维·克里斯特尔认为连英语不断发展的动力都会在不久的未来消失,但我个人认为还没有此种迹象。”

他也不赞同这样的说法:英语作为第二语言的发展意味着它将成为世界的唯一语言。他说:“我们习惯于认为如果一种语言占主导地位的话就意味着它排斥其他语言而席卷全球。事实上似乎并不会这样发展。正是因为人们把英语作为第二语言来学习,所以他们并未完全放弃自己的母语。他们正逐渐成为会讲两种或多种语言的人。因此,英语在全世界的普及确实极大地使更多的人能讲两种或多种语言。”



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1 lesser UpxzJL     
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地
参考例句:
  • Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
  • She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及,但程度较轻。
2 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
3 encyclopedia ZpgxD     
n.百科全书
参考例句:
  • The encyclopedia fell to the floor with a thud.那本百科全书砰的一声掉到地上。
  • Geoff is a walking encyclopedia.He knows about everything.杰夫是个活百科全书,他什么都懂。
4 accreting f86865665bd26596fdf1bff752bfc00a     
v.共生( accrete的现在分词 );合生;使依附;使连接
参考例句:
  • Accreting to statistic, 75 percent of students'school time is spent in the class. " 据统计,学生在学校的活动总量有75%的时间是在课堂上度过的。 来自互联网
5 immediate aapxh     
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的
参考例句:
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
6 momentum DjZy8     
n.动力,冲力,势头;动量
参考例句:
  • We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
  • The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。
7 exclusion 1hCzz     
n.拒绝,排除,排斥,远足,远途旅行
参考例句:
  • Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
  • He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球,其他运动一概不参加。
8 precisely zlWzUb     
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地
参考例句:
  • It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
  • The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。
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