Second,there is no such thing as a primitive language.There are many people whose
cultures are undeveloped,who are,as we say,uncivilized。but the languages they speak are not primitive.In all known 1anguages we can see complexities that must have been tens of thousands of years in developing.
This has not always been well understood;indeed, the direct contrary has often been stated. Popular ideas of the 1anguage of the American Indians will illustrate.Many people have supposed that the Indians communicated in a very primitive system of noises.Study has proved this to be nonsense.There are,or were,hundreds of American Indian languages,and a11 of them rum out to be very complicated and very old. They are certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with,but they are no more primitive than English and GREek.
A third thing we know about language is that all languages are perfectly adequate.That is.each one is a perfect means of expressing the culture of the people who speak the language.
Finally, we know that language changes.It is natural and normal for language to change; the only languages which do not change are the dead ones.This is easy to understand if we look backward in time.Change goes on in all aspects of language.Grammatical features change as do speech sounds,and changes in vocabulary are sometimes very extensive and may occur very rapidly.Vocabulary is the least stable part of any language.
练习:
1.In the second paragraph the author thinks that
A)some backward race doesn’t have a language of its own.
B)some race in history didn’t possess a language of its own.
C)any human race,whether backward or not,has a language.
D)some races on earth call communicate without language.
2.According to the author, people of undev