This Marvellous Invention
Of all mankind's mainfold creations,language must take pride of place.Other inventions - the wheel,agriculture,slice bread - may have transformed our material existence,but the advent of language is what made us human.Compared to language,all other inventions pale in signficance,since everything we have ever achieved depends on language and originates from it.Without language,we could never have embarked on our ascent to unparalleled power over all other animals,and even over nature itself.
But language is foremost not just because it came first.In its own right it is a tool of extraordinary sophistication,yet besed on an idea of ingenious simplicity:'this marvellous invention of composing out of twenty-five or thirty sounds that infinite variety of expressions which,whilst having in themseleves no likeness to what is in our mind,allow us to disclose to others its whole secret,and to make know to those who cannot penetrate it all that we imagine,and all the various strrings of our soul'.This was how,in 1660,the renowned French grammarians of the Port-Royal abbey near Versailles distilled the essence of language,and no one since has celebrated more eloquently the magnitude of its achievement.Even so,there is just one flaw in all these hymns of praise,for the homage to languages's unique accomplishment conceals a simple yet critical incongruity.Language is mankind's greatest invention - except,of course,that it was never invented.This apparent paradox is at the core of our fascination with language,and it holds many of its secrets.
翻译：
这个了不起的发明
在所有人类各种发明中，语言肯定具有最重要的地位。其他的发明，诸如：轮子，农业，切片面包，这些可能改变了我们的物质的生活方式，但是语言的出现让我们成为了人类这一个物种。相比于语言，其他的所有发明都相形见绌，因为所有我们曾经已经实现的发明都是基于语言去产生的。没有语言，我们就不可能去着手拥有我们凌驾于其他别的物种的力量，以及超越自然本身
但是语言首要地位的原因并不是因为他是第一个产生的。就它本身而言，它是一种非常复杂的工具，基于一个独创的简单概念：“它基于二十五到三十个发音组合的无穷的表达，虽然他们无法精确的进行我们本身思想的表达，但是它是的我们披露他人的秘密，以及使得他人了解我们想象的一切，以及我们灵魂中的激动人心的东西”。1660年，在凡尔赛宫附近的皇家港修道院，知名的法国的语言学家提炼出了语言的本质，这项成果是如此的伟大以至于从此之后再也没有人弄够弄出这样精妙雄辩的成就。但是，在所有的赞美的诗歌中，因为对语言独特成就的赞美中蕴含着一种简单但是关键的不协调。语言是人类最伟大的发明之一，只是它从未被发明。这个明显的悖论正是我们对语言着迷的核心所在，它包含着许多秘密
