【THE WEEK】你说的母语会影响你的未来

woikuraki

【原文标题】how the languageyou speak affects your future


【中文标题】你说的母语会影响你的未来

【登载媒体】伦敦周刊，THE WEEK


【来源地址】http://theweek.com/article/index/241552/how-the-language-you-speak-affects-your-future


【译  者】荼靡


【翻译方式】 人工


【声  明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载。

【译文】

In the Japanese language, the distinction between present and future tense is alittle blurry. English phrases like "will" or "be goingto," which indicate the future, do exist, but denoting the future is notalways necessary for sentence construction. Instead, the future is usuallyindicated by adding a specific time reference, such as the word 明日 ashita(tomorrow). Hence, phrases like "I go to school" and "I will goto school" can be written the same way.

日语中，现在时和将来时的区别比较模糊。在英语中表示将来，存在的词语，如“will”（将要）和“be going to”（打算）等，不必出现在句子结构中。取而代之，常常通过添加某些特定的时间代词，如“ashita”（明天）等，来表示将来。因此，像“我去上学”和“我将要去上学”等短句的写法相同。

That's partly what makes the following study so interesting. Keith Chen of YaleBusiness School wondered if this weaker distinction between the present and thefuture in languages like Japanese, Mandarin, and German somehow forced speakersto think differently, and whether that thought process had a tangible effect onhow they went about their lives. Some languages, like English, Russian, andKorean, require speakers to refer to the future explicitly. If the"idea" of the future in your language was somehow given lessemphasis, could that carry real weight in the way you plan out your life?Scientific American's Ozgun Atasoy explains:

以上也许就是让接下来的研究变的有趣的原因。耶鲁商学院学者吉斯·陈好奇，是否语言如日语，普通话和德语中现在时和将来时之间细微的区别在某种程度上迫使人们思考方式的不同，是否这种思维过程会对他们的生活方式产生实质性的影响。有些语言，如英语，俄语和韩语，要求说话者明确的指出将来时。Ozgun Atasoy在科学美国人（美国科普杂志）中提出，如果在一定程度上削弱强调语言中将来的“思想”，是否会对生活方式产生实质的影响？

Chen's recent findings suggest that an unlikely factor, language, stronglyaffects our future-oriented behavior. Some languages strongly distinguish thepresent and the future. Other languages only weakly distinguish the present andthe future. Chen's recent research suggests that people who speak languagesthat weakly distinguish the present and the future are better prepared for thefuture. They accumulate more wealth and they are better able to maintain theirhealth. The way these people conceptualize the future is similar to the waythey conceptualize the present. As a result, the future does not feel verydistant and it is easier for them to act in accordance with their futureinterests. [Scientific American]

陈的最近研究表明，一个不太可能的因素——语言，强烈的影响着我们未来的行为。一些语言中现在时和将来时泾渭分明，而另外一些语言中这种区别非常模糊。陈（Chen）最近的研究显示：使用不怎么区分现在时和将来时语言的人对未来的准备更加充分。他们积累了更多的财富，也更能保持自己的健康。这些人构思未来的方式和他们构想现在的方式是相同的。因此，他们觉得未来并不遥远。根据未来的兴趣来生活对他们来说是更加容易的事。（科学美国人）


In the study, Chen analyzed individual-level data from 76 developing anddeveloped countries, including how much money its people made last year, thelanguages they speak, cultural values, demographic information, and more. Healso took a look at how often a country's citizens exercised, how much theysaved for retirement, and the general health of the population as they aged.After stripping away various factors like income, education level, religiousaffiliations, and more, Chen noticed there were notable differences betweenlanguages that required future markers, like English, and those that didn't.

研究中，陈(Chen)分析了76个发展中国家和发达国家的个人层次信息，包括他们上一年的收入，使用的语言，文化价值观，人口统计信息等。他还分析了这些人的锻炼频率，积累的退休金和老年综合健康程度。在排除众多其他因素如收入，教育程度，宗教隶属等后，陈(Chen)注意到，语言——确标记未来时，如英语，和不要求标记的，影响非常巨大。


For starters, the data showed that future-oriented language speakers were 30percent less likely to save money for the future. On the other hand, countrieswithout a mandatory language marker in their languages typically had highernational savings rates, and their citizens usually had more retirement assets.

首先，数据表明，强制标记“未来”的语言的使用者有30%的可能不为未来储蓄。另一方面，使用不强制标记“未来”的语言的国家有更高的国家储蓄率。他们国民通常拥有更多的退休资金。


Then there was health: People who spoke languages without obligatory markers,like Mandarin and Japanese, smoked less, exercised more, were less likely to beobese, and tended to be healthier overall as they aged. The findings seem tosuggest that people speaking languages without a future-time reference wereless likely to see the future as something far away that they don't have toworry about at the moment.

其次，关于健康：使用不强制标记“未来”的语言，如普通话和日语，能使人们吸烟更少，锻炼更多，更不容易肥胖，年老时更健康。调查结果表明，使用不强制标记未来的语言的人们，更少把未来视为现在不需要担心的遥远的事。


You can read the whole study here [PDF]. Chen admits that there are holes hismodels don't cover (geography does matter, for instance). But it's afascinating read nonetheless.

从他的PDF中可以读取到整个研究。陈承认，尽管他的模型中还有许多漏洞没有覆盖到（如，有关的地理位置），但它仍不失为一篇引人入胜的读物。

why3

啥意思？