96: Chapter 16 Universal Grammar 96: Chapter 16 Universal Grammar After obtaining the paper, Liu walked to and fro with Xiang Shan in that half-finished office area, continuously greeting some scholars he knew from the past and exchanging new contact information.

Forced to hug a few kilograms of stuff with both arms, Xiang Shan nearly suffered from heatstroke while communicating with colleagues from around the world.

Thanks to this, Xiang Shan managed to get the contact information of twenty to thirty renowned scholars as well as outstanding young academics.

Liu happily stated, these were future connections.

Xiang Shan, however, complained quite a bit about it.

Now, everyone had to queue for a while in a communal bathhouse.

Squeezing out sweat in such a place really wasn’t much help.

Moreover, he wondered if there might be no further interactions with these scholars after this project ended.

But Liu taught Xiang Shan that such “relationships” were just like that.

When he someday needed to start a collaborative project, he would realize the convenience of these “contacts.”

When Xiang Shan was leaving, David Klein called out from behind him, asking him to come back in the afternoon if possible, as the engineering research department hoped to set up a framework in the next few days—preferably forming a few groups or something.

Also, that afternoon was the deadline for submitting equipment requests, so it was best to express any specific needs for the laboratory environment now.

Xiang Shan didn’t really care much about this.

Currently, no one knew what they were supposed to research, and they couldn’t start any projects or topics.

Such group divisions might not be meaningful.

As for laboratory equipment, Liu would naturally mention it.

Liu understood almost every field he was involved in, and he would certainly need the equipment Xiang Shan needed.

Xiang Shan spent the entire noon in the cafeteria.

After he arrived at the cafeteria, the first thing he did was grab a disposable cup, scoop half a cup of ice cubes, then fill the cup with soda and drink it all at once, before getting another cup to take to his table.

Before having lunch, Xiang Shan planned to skim through those papers.

He took them out of the paper bag.

David had given him dozens of papers, and naturally, he didn’t have time to read each one thoroughly.

Each paper was like a medium-length novel and particularly brain-draining.

Xiang Shan picked up a paper, first looked at the abstract at the beginning, then the conclusion at the end, before setting it aside.

He also separately outlined the reviews of other papers for summary.

Whenever he encountered a topic he might be interested in, he folded the corner of the cover page as a reminder to have a look when he had time.

Several other people in the cafeteria were also engaged in similar activities.

“Yo, you’re reading those papers too?” Jing Hongtu, carrying his tray, sat opposite Xiang Shan.

“Isn’t Professor Liu with you?”

“He should still be in the research center—quite a coincidence, Professor Jing,” Xiang Shan greeted, his eyes still fixed on a paper.

“Just a moment, let me finish this—ah!”

Xiang Shan had just reached out for his soda, but his arm accidentally bumped into someone else.

Someone had sat down next to him so silently just now!

A woman blinked innocently at Xiang Shan and said, “Hi~!”

The woman looked to be about twenty-three or twenty-four, roughly the same age as Xiang Shan.

She was exactly like the stereotype of a “European” in East Asian impressions: blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin—especially mentioning here, her skin was paler than that of typical Europeans, paired with light golden hair, she exuded somewhat of an ethereal aura.

The woman appeared innocent.

“I came with Professor Jing, I really didn’t mean to startle you, sorry sorry.”

“No, it’s just that I was too focused… wait…” Xiang Shan looked puzzled at the woman in front of him.

Xiang Shan’s English proficiency was at a normal academic level; he had no problem understanding English.

But the woman had just spoken in… a very standard, accent-free…

“Are you more comfortable speaking Cantonese?

Do you live in the Cantonese-speaking region?” The woman naturally switched to a different dialect.

This time Xiang Shan was completely baffled.

“No, that makes it even harder for me to understand… madam, you speak Chinese very well.”

The woman twirled some spaghetti on her fork.

“Thank you.”

“This is Ms.

Ingrid Granat.

I got along very well with Ms.

Granat, so we came to have lunch together, and then from afar we saw you, so I thought to say hello,” Jing Hongtu explained.

“Ms.

Granat is an associate researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway, a very impressive person.

She has a natural understanding of languages and learned many languages very early on.

Currently, she is researching second language acquisition.”

“Second language acquisition,” also known as L2 acquisition, is a research area in linguistics.

Its scope of research includes how learners establish a new linguistic system after limited exposure to a second language; why most second language learners cannot attain knowledge like native speakers; why most people never reach the native-level proficiency in a second language, and more—it is a complex and multidimensional field.

“To be precise, in every traditional language family, I understand more than one language — plus Japanese, which can’t be classified,” Ingrid said with a smile, quite proud of herself.

Xiang Shan thought for a moment before realizing what this meant and immediately reacted with great respect.

Language families and branches are concepts from historical comparative linguistics.

It’s like taxonomy in biology, classifying every language in the world according to the closeness of their kinship relations.

For example, “Chinese” belongs to “Sino-Tibetan language family – Chinese languages branch – Chinese,” whereas some Europeans know four to five languages, but they can all be included in “Indo-European language family – Germanic languages – Western branches” and “Indo-European language family – Romance languages – Italy – Western Romance branches,” which is not nearly as complex as “knowing several languages in every language family.”

“Um, I wanted to ask…

how long does it usually take for you to learn a language?” After pondering for a moment, Xiang Shan asked his most pressing question.

“Hmm…

that’s actually hard to say.

Building up vocabulary and such still requires some time to improve…

For several languages, I’ve only reached an elementary school level, where I generally don’t face reading difficulties, but occasionally need to consult a dictionary.” Ingrid thought for a while and said, “But if you’re just asking about ‘learning,’ then it’s not particularly hard.

A couple of months should be enough.”

Xiang Shan was somewhat puzzled, “Ma’am, if I may ask, are you sure you understand the meaning of the Chinese slang ‘a couple of months’?”

“A couple, a few, one or two.” Ingrid nodded, “I am aware of that.”

Jing Hongtu chuckled.

The academic world is never short of ‘child prodigies.’ You secure a teaching position in your twenties, I graduated from college in my teens.

There are quite a few who stood out during their undergraduate years and became famous throughout academia.

In contrast, ‘late bloomers’ in research are much rarer — but there are still some examples.

“Learning a language isn’t as difficult as imagined —mm, in a sense I might be a bit special?

But it’s not impossible to replicate.” Ingrid took a bite of her spaghetti and then pointed her fork at Xiang Shan, “Xiang, do you believe in ‘Universal Grammar’?”

“What?”

“It’s a term from Chomsky’s linguistic theory in the Federation.

Mr.

Chomsky believes that language is a creation, and grammar is generative.

Children are born with a Universal Grammar.

Universal Grammar is essentially a specific state related to linguistic knowledge in the brain, a physical and psychological mechanism that enables individuals to learn any human language,” Ingrid explained.

“Perhaps, there is a physical structure in the baby’s brain.

As the brain of a baby grows, this physical structure is influenced by the external cultural environment and develops into ‘language function’ — and the ‘characteristics’ displayed by that original structure might be ‘Universal Grammar.'”

Xiang Shan scratched his head, “This sounds like it’s saying that my newborn nephew already has all the languages of humanity in his brain — I think this sounds more like a myth than science.”

“Knowing its power, keeping its vulnerability, is the valley of the world.

Being the valley of the world, constant virtue does not depart, thus returning to the state of infancy,” Ingrid solemnly said, “Similar arguments indeed exist in your ancient philosophy.

But this doesn’t necessarily have to be relegated to ‘myth.’ I can only say…

I personally feel that Universal Grammar, transcending ‘language,’ probably does exist.

I hope through my research I can unearth it from my brain.”

Xiang Shan nodded, “Hmm, it sounds like a very impressive research…”

“Miss Granat has a considerably extensive range of readings and a quite unique understanding of anthropology,” Jing Hongtu commented with a smile.

“Perhaps they called me here because they think I have a chance to learn the language of the aliens,” Ingrid expressed helplessly, “but dead languages and living languages are completely different concepts.

Moreover, from a biological perspective, the ‘Universal Grammar’ of aliens might be entirely different from that of Earthlings.”

After chatting for a bit, Xiang Shan had basically gone through the thesis again.

He repacked the thesis into the paper bag, then went to get his meal.

By the time he returned, several fire engines were driving past the window.

Xiang Shan scooped some mashed potatoes into his mouth, “What’s going on?

There’s no fire here, right?”

“These should be locally assembled fire engines,” Jing Hongtu said, “I heard that ‘the tents’ are trying to change the preservation environment of ‘Argon’…

They don’t plan to dissect ‘Argon,’ and it’s hard to transport such a large metal object in its entirety, so they are probably draining the surrounding seawater.

Concerned that oxygen might damage the contents inside ‘Argon,’ they plan to fill the ‘tent’ with a more stable gas.

Those fire engines are probably there to transport the seawater away.”

Xiang Shan found it strange, “Wouldn’t it be okay to just discharge that seawater back into the sea?”

“Perhaps they are worried about biological contamination.

It can’t be discharged carelessly.”

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