原味人文风情：You're telling a friend an amazing story, and you just get to the best part when suddenly, he interrupts, "'The alien and I,'not 'Me and the alien.'" Most of us would probably be annoyed, but aside from the rude interruption, does your friend have a point? Was your sentence actually grammatically incorrect? And if he still understood it, why does it even matter?
你正在和朋友说一个很精彩的故事，当故事正要到最高潮时，他突然打断你说“外星人和我(I)，不是我(Me)和外星人。”大部分人可能会感到不开心，但除了没礼貌地插话外，你的朋友说的是否有点道理呢？你说的句子真的有文法错误吗？如果他能听得懂，那文法不对又有什么关系？
From the point of view of linguistics, grammar is a set of patterns for how words are put together to form phrases or clauses, whether spoken or in writing. Different languages have different patterns. In English, the subject normally comes first, followed by the verb, and then the object, while in Japanese and many other languages, the order is subject-object-verb.
站在语言学的观点，文法是一套让单字构成词组或从句的模式，无论是在口语或是写作上。不同语言有不同模式。英文中，主语通常摆第一，后面跟着动词，接着是宾语，而在日文和其它许多语言中，顺序则是主语、宾语，然后动词。
Some scholars have tried to identify patterns common to all languages, but apart from some basic features, like having nouns or verbs, few of these so-called linguistic universals have been found. And while any language needs consistent patterns to function, the study of these patterns opens up an ongoing debate between two positions known as "prescriptivism" and "descriptivism."Grossly simplified, prescriptivists think a given language should follow consistent rules, while descriptivists see variation and adaptation as a natural and necessary part of language.
有些学者尝试找出所有语言共通的模式，但除了一些基本特性，比如都有名词或动词以外，很少有这些所谓的语言共通性存在。虽然任何语言都需要有固定模式才能好好运作，研究这些模式却开启了一场持续不断的争辩，被称作“规范论”和“描述论”的两派间的对抗。简单来说，规范论者认为一个语言应该遵守一致的规则，而描述论者则将多样性和适应性视为语言中正常且必要的一部份。
For much of history, the vast majority of language was spoken. But as people became more interconnected and writing gained importance, written language was standardized to allow broader communication and ensure that people in different parts of a realm could understand each other.
历史上，语言的主体大多是口语。但随着人们互动越来越密切以及文字的重要性提升，书写语言被建立标准，好让交流的范围可以扩大，并确保不同地区的人们可以互相理解。
In many languages, this standard form came to be considered the only proper one despite being derived from just one of many spoken varieties, usually that of the people in power. Language purists worked to establish and propagate this standard by detailing a set of rules that reflected the established grammar of their times. And rules for written grammar were applied to spoken language as well. Speech patterns that deviated from the written rules were considered corruptions or signs of low social status, and many people who had grown up speaking in these ways were forced to adopt the standardized form.
在许多语言中，这种标准形式被当成唯一正确的一种，尽管它只是从许多口语种类中选出的一种，而那通常是上位者的语言。讲究文法规范的人致力建立并宣传这种标准，凭借详列出的一套规则，反映当时已确立的文法。而书写的文法规则也被套用在口语上。不符书写文法的说话方式被认为是讹用或社会地位低下的象征，许多从小就这样说话的人被迫接受标准形式。
More recently, however, linguists have understood that speech is a separate phenomenon from writing with its own regularities and patterns. Most of us learn to speak at such an early age that we don't even remember it. We form our spoken repertoire through unconscious habits, not memorized rules. And because speech also uses mood and intonation for meaning, its structure is often more flexible, adapting to the needs of speakers and listeners. This could mean avoiding complex clauses that are hard to parse in real time, making changes to avoid awkward pronunciation, or removing sounds to make speech faster. The linguistic approach that tries to understand and map such differences without dictating correct ones is known as descriptivism. Rather than deciding how language should be used, it describes how people actually use it and tracks the innovations they come up with in the process.
然而，近年来，语言学家了解到口语和写作是不同的现象，它自有其规律和模式。多数人在还很小甚至没有记忆时就学会说话了。透过无意间形成的习惯，而非背下来的文法规则，我们塑造出自己的口语能力。而因为说话时还会运用情绪及语调来传达意涵，它的结构常更为弹性，会随说话和聆听者的需求而改变。这可能代表说话时避免使用很难立刻理解的复杂子句、调整内容来避开难发出的音，或是省略一些音来让说话速度更快。试图理解并标出这些差异性，但却没有规定哪些是正确文法的语言学取向，被叫作“描述论”。描述论不会决定语言应该如何被使用，它描述人们真实使用语言的情况，并记录过程中人们发明的新用法。
But while the debate between prescriptivism and descriptivism continues, the two are not mutually exclusive. At its best, prescriptivism is useful for informing people about the most common established patterns at a given point in time. This is important not only for formal contexts, but it also makes communication easier between non-native speakers from different backgrounds. Descriptivism, on the other hand, gives us insight into how our minds work and the instinctive ways in which we structure our view of the world.
不过，尽管规范论和描述论之间的争论仍持续上演着，这两种学说并非互不兼容。规范论的优点就是有助让人理解某时期间最普遍接受的文法规则。这不仅在正式场合上很重要，也能使来自不同背景的非母语人士沟通起来更轻松。而另一方面，描述论则让我们一窥大脑思考的方式，以及我们本能看世界的方式。
Ultimately, grammar is best thought of as a set of linguistic habits that are constantly being negotiated and reinvented by the entire group of language users. Like language itself, it's a wonderful and complex fabric woven through the contributions of speakers and listeners, writers and readers, prescriptivists and descriptivists from both near and far.
终归一句，文法被视为一套语言习惯，由所有语言使用者不断商量并改造而建立。正如语言本身，它是一匹瑰丽且繁复的布料，通过讲者和听者、作者和读者、规范论者和描述论者以及来自各地的人的贡献。
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