经济学人下载:约翰逊语言专栏--哪种语言最好?(3)

In short, languages are governed by trade-offs. One that avoids making certain information mandatory may be easy to speak, but leaves the listener to fill in the gaps. It may be simple to learn but less expressive. Some languages have lots of redundant elements: in los tres gatos negros están mojados (“the three black cats are wet” in Spanish), all six words indicate a plural. Marking the plural just once (as Chinese does) would be enough. But redundancy has a virtue: emphatic communication is more likely to survive a noisy environment.
简而言之，语言是由权衡决定的。一个避免强制要求某些信息的人可能很容易开口，但让听众来填补空白。学习起来可能很简单，但是表达能力却不强。有些语言有很多多余的元素:在los tres gatos negros estan mojados(西班牙语中的“三只黑猫湿了”)中，所有六个单词都表示复数。仅仅标记一次复数（如汉语）就足够了。但是冗余也有一个优点：强调的交流更有可能在嘈杂的环境中存活下来。

Languages, Mr Dixon says, are like a Western-style house. There are a few rooms you must have (kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom), and some discretionary options (office, guest room). On a fixed budget, you can’t have all the extras. He does not crown a “best” language. In the end, he says, readers should make their own list of desirable features, and then closely examine a few languages to decide whether one has more of them than another. But the list of advantages, he concedes, is itself a matter of judgment. For all his scientific criteria, in the end the verdict is in the ear of the beholder.
迪克森说，语言就像一座西式的房子。有几个房间你必须有(厨房，卧室，客厅，浴室)和一些自由选择(办公室，客房)。在固定的预算下，你不可能拥有所有额外的东西。他没有为“最佳”语言加冕。最后，他说，读者应该列出自己想要的特性列表，然后仔细研究几种语言，以确定其中一种语言的特性是否多于另一种。但他承认，优势清单本身就是一个判断问题。尽管他提出了所有的科学标准，但最终的结论还是见仁见智。