Plot Summary:The Grammar Of Happiness follows the story of Daniel Everett among the extraordinary 'nonconvertible' Amazonian Pirah tribe, a group of indigenous hunter- gatherers whose culture and outlook on life has taken the world of linguistics by storm. As a young ambitious missionary three decades ago, Dan, a red-bearded towering American, decamped to the Amazon rain forest to save indigenous souls. His assignment was to translate the book of Mark into the tongue of the Pirah, a people whose puzzling speech seemed unrelated to any other on Earth. What he learned during his time with the Pirah led him to question the very foundations of his own deep beliefs. As a 'born again' atheist, Dan divorced his devout Christian wife and became estranged from his children. Having lost faith and family, his new life is dominated by the desire to leave behind his legacy. Everett's most controversial claim is that the Pirah language lacks 'recursion' - the ability to build an infinite number of sentences ...
在展现piraha生活的同时,提出了两个命题。其一是任何群落和部族都有选择自己生活方式的权力。其二是科学作为破除信仰的体现,到今天,科学权威竟然变成一种新的信仰,变成不能够被质疑的存在,这是很可悲的东西。
人称视角旁白 all that make people feel like he was trying to shape an academic debate into a personal and emotional biography to gain more support ;) 但还是很震惊他乐意花这么多年时间去了解融入piraha文化..
很多评论似乎都觉得这部纪录片最后的分析是个定论,我并不这么觉得,乔姆斯基最后不是无缘无故强调”无递归不代表反对生成语法“的,老头已经预见到了这种从愤懑(Nietzschean ressentiment)出发的二元对立的观点。 Gettier of our age. But still I think Chomskites will get the last laugh. It has been a good example for what Deleuze always says: ”theories can't explain anything, they are what need to be explained.“ Piraha人对自己语言的自豪感也是一个很好的大他者投影的例子。
结果剧透:根据MIT搜集到的有限的语言数据的分析,亚马逊土著piraha人的语言的确没有递归性recursion(←乔姆斯基普遍语法universal grammar的一个重要基石)。 除了结果,片中关于土著发展的部分也很有趣,发人深思。
还有之前纽约客上的一个文章
我看着万物皆数的同时看完了它 每个人对同一件事情的理解是不同的 或许不干涉才最幸福吧
MIT的数据库分析好6啊…… https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTEwMTg5MTk2.html
youtube
神奇,所以我们不能区别于动物的语言,不能区别于动物
We can be so familiar yet we can be so different. 最后泪目 语言是最最美好和值得珍惜的东西 而学术是应该被怀疑和挑战的 佩服Dan
做科学的态度就是要允许质疑和讨论。
Well-made documentary. The attitude of the mainstream researchers, at least in the show's perspective, is concerning, or even disturbing. Science is about open discussion and analysis on evidence. Unfortunately I don't have enough background to chase for more details. Sigh.
丹尼尔·埃弗雷特的书还没看,先把纪录片看了。
丹尼尔·埃弗雷特,作为一个语言学家,他将挑战的是诺姆·乔姆斯基的普遍语法理论。埃弗里特最具争议性的观点是,“皮拉语”缺乏“递归”——即构建无限数量句子的能力。
张延飞老师的课上看的。 I'm ready to die for my faith and ready to do anything that my faith requires of me.
最触动的地方可能就是Dan为了convert Piraha people最后却为他们放弃了自己的信仰。一切皆在情理之中。学术界也不过是腕腕相护。
看到最后挺感动的.‘i'm ready to die for my faith and ready to do anything that my faith requires of me.’ Notes: 1) no numbers and colours; 2) without recursive; 3) live in the present = no past and future tense; 4) whistle; 5) know every species; 6) culture -> L or not
看完去查了下乔姆斯基的照片才发现中间那个说话的老头就是他。。。我。。递归的规则设置很计算机。是否存在和文化等无关的univeral grammar好象是个很深刻的议题。。感觉和终极理论一样。。不过看了维基好像社科理论的争议更多一点。Syntactic这个单词好像听到好多遍才反应上来是什么意思。。
语言学人类学真是好基友。不让Dan回 Pirah也就意味着语言材料得不到补充这真的好遗憾。老乔这么傲娇,后面说得跟废话一样=_=#
情谊和学术都特别让人感动