著名的哲学家维特根斯坦说：“语言的边界，就是思想的边界。”我们日常所使用的语言来自于特定的生产、生活方式，但事实上，语言也会反过来影响我们的行动和思维方式，乃至于对意识形态和文化景观产生反向的塑造。换言之，语言会塑造人和文化。对此，我们看看斯坦福大学的语言学家怎么说。
语言学家认为：语言是一种文化、社会和心理现象。
Speaking, writing and reading are integral to everyday life, where language is the primary tool for expression and communication. Studying how people use language – what words and phrases they unconsciously choose and combine – can help us better understand ourselves and why we behave the way we do.
说、写、读在日常生活中是不可或缺的，语言是表达和交流的主要工具。研究人们如何使用语言——他们无意识地选择和组合哪些单词和短语——可以帮助我们更好地了解自己，以及我们为什么会有这样的行为。
Linguistics scholars seek to determine what is unique and universal about the language we use, how it is acquired and the ways it changes over time. They consider language as a cultural, social and psychological phenomenon.
语言学学者试图确定我们使用的语言的独特和普遍之处是什么，它是如何习得的，以及它随时间的变化方式。他们认为，语言是一种文化、社会和心理现象。
“Understanding why and how languages differ tells about the range of what is human,” said Dan Jurafsky, the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor in Humanities and chair of the Department of Linguistics in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford. “Discovering what’s universal about languages can help us understand the core of our humanity.”
“了解语言差异的原因和方式，可以弄清人类的边界所在，”杰克逊·伊莱·雷诺兹人文学科教授、斯坦福人文与科学学院语言学系主任丹·朱拉夫斯基(Dan Jurafsky)说道。“发现语言的共性可以帮助我们理解人性的核心。”
The stories below represent some of the ways linguists have investigated many aspects of language, including its semantics and syntax, phonetics and phonology, and its social, psychological and computational aspects.
下面的故事代表了语言学家研究语言的许多方面的一些方法，包括它的语义和句法，语音和音系学，以及它的社会，心理和计算方面。
Understanding stereotypes
理解的刻板印象
Stanford linguists and psychologists study how language is interpreted by people. Even the slightest differences in language use can correspond with biased beliefs of the speakers, according to research.
斯坦福大学的语言学家和心理学家研究人们如何解读语言。研究表明，即使是语言使用上最细微的差异，也可能与说话者的偏见相对应。
One study showed that a relatively harmless sentence, such as “girls are as good as boys at math,” can subtly perpetuate sexist stereotypes. Because of the statement’s grammatical structure, it implies that being good at math is more common or natural for boys than girls, the researchers said.
一项研究表明，一个相对无害的句子，如“女孩的数学和男孩一样好”，可以潜移默化地延续性别歧视的刻板印象。研究人员说，由于这句话的语法结构，它意味着擅长数学的男孩比女孩更普遍或更自然。
Language can play a big role in how we and others perceive the world, and linguists work to discover what words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly.
语言在我们和其他人如何感知世界方面发挥着重要作用，语言学家的工作，则是致力于发现哪些词汇和短语会在不知不觉中影响我们。
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