您现在的位置: Language Tips> Easy English  
 





 
动物能明白人类的语言吗?
[ 2007-08-10 09:49 ]

在童话故事中,人和动物总是能交流的。那么,动物真的能够明白人类的语言吗?一些科学研究证实,至少一些动物能分辨人类的语言。

Rats can use the rhythm of human language to tell the difference between Dutch and Japanese, researchers in Spain reported.

Their study suggests that animals, especially mammals, evolved some of the skills underlying the use and development of language long before language itself ever evolved, the researchers said.

It is the first time an animal other than a human or monkey has been shown to have this skill.

For their study neuroscientists Juan Toro and colleagues at Barcelona's Scientific Park tested 64 adult male rats.

They used Dutch and Japanese because these languages were used in earlier, similar tests, and because they are very different from one another in use of words, rhythm and structure.

The rats were trained to respond to either Dutch or Japanese using food as a reward.

Then they were separated into four groups -- one that heard each language spoken by a native, one that heard synthesized speech, one that heard sentences read in either language by different speakers and a fourth that heard the languages played backwards.

Rats rewarded for responding to Japanese did not respond to Dutch and rats trained to recognize Dutch did not respond the spoken Japanese.

The rats could not tell apart Japanese or Dutch played backwards.

"Results showed that rats could discriminate natural sentences when uttered by a single speaker and not when uttered by different ones, nor could they distinguish the languages when spoken by different people," the researchers wrote.

Human newborns have the same problem, although tamarins can easily tell languages apart even when spoken by different people, the researchers said.

The study shows "which abilities that humans use for language are shared with other animals, and which are uniquely human. It also suggests what sort of evolutionary precursor's language might have.

(来源:国际在线 英语点津 Annabel 编辑)

我想了解更多趣味百科知识

 
 
相关文章 Related Stories
 
 
 

本频道最新推荐

     
  为什么下雪时天气暖
  You are the smartest fish I've ever seen!
  Dog burger
  为什么老了脾气好
  飞蛾为什么扑火

论坛热贴

     
  开个题目大家扯:hotel & restaurant
  追求某人
  请教工商年检如何翻译
  How to translate “中国老字号”into English?
  "港股直通车"怎么翻译?
  两免一补怎么说?