PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
It is generally assumed that verbal communication can articulate concepts like \'fact\' and \'truth\' accurately. However, language is fundamentally inaccurate and ambiguous and it is not possible to express exact propositions accurately in an ambiguous medium. Whether truth exists or not, language cannot express it in any exact way. A major problem for verbal communication is that words are fundamentally differently interpreted by the sender and the receiver. In addition, intrapersonal verbal communication - the voice in our head - is a useless extension to the thought process and results in misunderstanding our own thoughts. The evolvement of language has had a profound impact on human life. Most consequential has been that it allowed people to question the old human rules of behavior - the pre-language way of living. As language could not accurately express the old rules, they lost their authority and disappeared. A long period without any rules of how to live together must have followed, probably accompanied by complete chaos. Later, new rules were devised in language, but the new rules were also questioned and had to be enforced by punishment. Language changed the peaceful human way of living under the old rules into violent and aggressive forms of living under punitive control. Religion then tried to incorporate the old rules into the harsh verbal world. The rules were expressed in language through parables: imaginary beings - the gods - who possessed the power of the old rules, but who could be related to through their human appearance and behavior.
摘要：
一般认为，口头交流可以准确地表达“事实”和“真理”等概念。然而,语言从根本上是不准确和模糊的，不可能在模糊的媒介中准确表达确切的命题。无论真理是否存在，语言不能用任何确切的方式来表达它。口头交流的一个主要问题是，发送者和接收者对单词的解释根本不同。此外,内心的言语交流——我们头脑中的声音——是思维过程的无用延伸，导致我们自己的想法被误解。语言的演变对人类的生活产生了深远的影响。最重要的是，它允许人们质疑古老的人类行为规则-语言前的生活方式。由于语言不能准确表达旧规则，他们失去了权威，消失了。很长一段时间没有任何关于如何共同生活的规则，可能伴随着彻底的混乱。稍后，用语言设计了新的规则，但是新规则也受到质疑，必须受到惩罚。语言改变了人类在旧规则下的和平生活方式，转变为在惩罚性控制下的暴力和侵略性生活形式。然后，宗教试图将旧规则纳入严酷的语言世界。规则是通过寓言用语言表达的：想象中的人-神-拥有旧规则的力量，而是通过他们的外表和行为与他们有关。
