内容简介

《语言的简史》（A Little Book of Language）是David Crystal于2010年出版的一本语言学著作，由于其文笔深入浅出、通俗易懂而深受各国读者喜爱。本书可以分为三个部分，共40章。

第一部分包括第1——9章，写了儿语的习得过程。从喊叫到话语，再到理解语言的形成，然后发出声音，再进一步理解语言，最后学会读写，记住读写。

第二部分包括第10——31章。由浅入深的介绍了语内、语际和历时、共时语言现象。分别写了语言的拼写规则、语法规则，介绍了世界上的语言，口语和书面语的来源、现代的语言，语言的种类、灭亡的语言、语言的改变、不同种类的语言等等。

第三部分包括第32——40章。写了语言的运用和研究。

    本课题翻译文章的第二部分的18到21章，即为手语、语言的对比，灭亡的语言和语言的改变。这四章用简单的语言介绍了复杂的语言学，手语也是语言的一部分，然后简要的对比了各类语言，并做了大致的分类，阐述了语言变化的大的趋势。另外小论文会从翻译过程中遇到的困难、学习到的新的知识和解决困难的方法和过程去叙述。

INTRODUCTION

- A Little Book of Language, it is a Book of linguistics published by David Crystal in 2010. It is very popular among the readers of various countries because of its writing style and easy to understand. This book can be divided into three parts, including 40 chapters. The first part includes chapter 1 to 9, it talks about language acquisition process. The second part includes chapter 10 to 31, which tells the phenomenon of language, interlingual, diachronic and synchronic language. And the third part includes chapter 32 to 40 ,it mainly talks about the use and research of language.

     I choose the second part,chapter18 to 21 to translate. This part mainly talks about the contrast of sign language and language, the extinct language and the changes of language. The four chapters introduce complex linguistics in simple language. Sign language is also part of language. Then, a brief comparison of all kinds of languages is done, and a general classification is made, explaining the great trend of language change.

     In addition, the small papers will be described from the difficulties encountered in the translation process, the new knowledge to be learned and the methods and processes to solve the difficulties.