After getting the paper, Lao Liu took Xiang Shan around the half-finished office area, constantly greeting some scholars he had known in the past and exchanging new contact information. Xiang Shan was forced to wrap his arms around several kilograms of gadgets and communicate with his counterparts from all over the world while he was close to suffering from heat stroke.

Thanks to this, Xiang Shan asked for the contact information of twenty or thirty famous scholars and outstanding young scholars.

Lao Liu happily said that these are future connections.

Xiang Shan complained about this. Now the baths are all collective bathhouses, and there are long queues. Squeezing out a stinky sweat there is not much arm help. Moreover, the scholars here may not have crossed paths after completing this project.

But Lao Liu educated Xiangshan, and the so-called "relationship" is like this. Whenever he needs to start a collaborative project, he will perceive the convenience of this "connection".

As he left, David Klein shouted behind him that it would be better for him to continue his trip in the afternoon, because the engineering research department wanted to set up a shelf in the next few days—preferably to divide into several groups or something. In addition, the afternoon is also the deadline for accepting applications for laboratory equipment, and if there are any special requirements for the laboratory environment, it is best to submit them now.

Xiang Shan didn't pay much attention to this. Now no one knows what they're going to work on, and they can't start any projects or topics. Such a division of groups may not be meaningful. As for the laboratory equipment, Lao Liu will naturally mention it. Lao Liu basically understands the field he is involved in, and Lao Liu must also need the equipment he needs.

The whole noon, Xiang Shan spent the whole time in the cafeteria. When he arrived at the cafeteria, the first thing he did was to grab a disposable cup, scoop himself up with half a cup of ice, then fill up a glass of soda, drink it all, and bring another one to his seat.

Before lunch, Xiang Shan planned to flip through the papers. He took the papers out of the paper bag. David gave him dozens of papers, and of course he didn't have the time to read them one by one. Each essay is like a novel, and it's a particularly brain-burning kind.

Xiang Shan took out a paper, looked at the abstract at the front, then at the conclusion, and then put it aside. In addition, the reviews of other papers are also listed separately and put together. Occasionally, when you come across a direction that you might be interested in, fold the corners of the cover to remind yourself that you have time to take a look.

There were several other people in the cafeteria who were doing similar things.

"Yo, you're looking at the paper too?" Jing Hongtu took the dinner plate and sat opposite Xiangshan: "Isn't Professor Liu with you?" ”

"He's supposed to be in the research center—what a coincidence, Professor Jing." Xiang Shan said hello, his eyes still on a paper: "Wait a minute, I'm finishing this-ah!" ”

Xiang Shan reached for his soda just now, but his arm accidentally touched another person. Just now, there was actually a person sitting next to him silently!

A woman blinked her eyes and said to Xiang Shan quite innocently: "Hi~! ”

This woman is about the same age as Xiang Shan, and she is also twenty-three or four years old. She is almost like the stereotype of "European" in East Asians, blonde hair and blue eyes, fair skin - here is a special mention, her skin is whiter than the average European, with long pale blonde hair, quite a bit of "fairy".

The woman was quite innocent: "I came with Professor Jing, I really didn't expect to scare you, I'm sorry." ”

"No, I'm too focused...... Wait......" Xiang Shan looked at the woman in front of him suspiciously.

Xiang Shan's English ability is at the normal level of the academic world, and there is no problem in understanding English. But what this woman just said seems to be ...... Very standard, unaccented ......

"Are you used to speaking Cantonese? Do you live in the Cantonese-speaking area? The woman's expression naturally changed to a dialect.

This time, Xiang Shan was completely confused: "No, I don't understand this way...... Madam, you speak Chinese so well. ”

The woman rolled the pasta in the plate with a fork: "Thank you." ”

"This is Miss Ingrid Granat. I had a very speculative conversation with Miss Granat, so I stopped by for lunch, and then I saw you from afar, and thought of saying hello. Jing Hongtu said: "Miss Granat is an associate researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway, and she is a very powerful person. She has an innate understanding of languages and learns many languages at an early age. I am currently doing research on second language acquisition. ”

"Second language acquisition", also known as "second language acquisition", is a research direction in linguistics. Its research interests include: how learners can build a new language and system after limited exposure to a second language; why most second language learners do not have the same knowledge as native speakers; Why most people do not learn a second language at the level of their own language, etc., is a complex and three-dimensional field.

"To be precise, I know more than one language in every traditional language family – plus Japanese, which can't be classified." Ingrid smiled, quite smug.

Xiang Shan thought about it for a moment before he understood what it meant, and immediately stood in awe.

Language families and language families are concepts in historical comparative linguistics. It's like taxonomy, classifying every language in the world according to its kinship. For example, "Chinese" belongs to the "Sino-Tibetan language family-Chinese language family-Chinese branch-Chinese", some Europeans know four or five languages, but in fact, they can be included in the "Indo-European language family-Germanic language family-western language branch" and "Indo-European language family-Romance language family-Italian-West Romance language branch", and the difficulty is not at the same level as "how many languages each language family knows".

"Well, I'd like to ask...... How long does it take you to learn a language? Xiang Shan pondered for a moment and asked the question he was most concerned about.

"Hmm...... It's hard to say. It still takes a certain amount of time to improve your vocabulary or something...... There are several languages in which I am only a primary school student, and I have no dyslexia, but I occasionally need to consult a dictionary. Ingrid thought for a moment and said, "But if you only ask for 'learn', it's not particularly difficult. A few months is enough. ”

Xiang Shan was a little dazed: "Madam, take the liberty of asking, are you sure you know the meaning of the Chinese slang term '個區月'?" ”

"A handful, a few, one or two." Ingrid nodded: "I still know this." ”

Jing Hongtu smiled. The most important thing in the academic world is "young geniuses". You got a teaching position in your twenties, and I graduated as a junior in my teens. There are not a few who stood out in the academic world when they were undergraduates.

In contrast, "late bloomers" are rarer – but there are still a few examples.

"Learning a language isn't as difficult as you think – well, in a sense I might be special? But it's not irreproducible. Ingrid took a sip of pasta, then pointed at Xiang Shan with her fork: "Xiang, do you believe in 'universal grammar'?" ”

"What?"

A term in the theory of language of the United Chinese linguist Chomsky. Mr. Chomsky argues that language is created and grammar is generated. Children are born with a universal grammar. Universal grammar is essentially a specific state of the brain in relation to linguistic knowledge, a physical mechanism that enables an individual human being to learn any human language and the corresponding psychological mechanism. Ingrid said, "Maybe there's some kind of physical structure in a baby's brain. As the baby's brain grows, this physical structure is influenced by the external cultural environment and develops into 'linguistic function'—and the 'characteristic' of that primitive structure may be 'universal grammar'. ”

Xiang Shan scratched his head: "It's like saying that my newborn nephew has all the human language in his head - I think it's more of a myth than a science." ”

"Knowing its male, guarding its female, is the world's stream. For the world stream, Changde does not leave, and returns to the baby. Ingrid said earnestly: "There is indeed a similar discourse in your ancient philosophy. But it doesn't have to come down to 'myth'. All I can say is ...... Personally, I feel that there should be a universal grammar that goes beyond 'language'. I hope that through my research, it can be dug out of my head. ”

Xiang Shan nodded: "Well, that sounds like a great research......"

"Miss Granatt is a well-read reader and has a unique understanding of anthropology." Jing Hongtu said with a smile.

"Maybe they called me because they thought I had the hope of learning the language of aliens." Ingrid was helpless: "But dead language and living language are completely different concepts. And from the perspective of biology, the 'universal grammar' of aliens may be very different from that of earthlings. ”

After chatting a few words, Xiang Shan basically went through the paper. He put the paper back in the paper bag and went to pick up his meal. When the lighthouse returned, several fire trucks drove past the window.

Xiang Shan dug a spoonful of mashed potatoes and put it in his mouth: "What is this for?" There's no fire here, right? ”

"This is supposed to be a fire truck mobilized locally." Jing Hongtu said: "I heard that the 'tent' is trying to find a way to change the preservation environment of 'Ogon'...... They didn't plan to divide the 'Ogon', and it was difficult to move the entire metal object away, so they had to drain the surrounding seawater. Fearing that oxygen would destroy the contents of the 'Ogung', they also planned to fill the 'tent' with more stable gas. Those fire trucks are supposed to be transporting the seawater, right? ”

Xiang Shan was very strange: "It's okay if the seawater is discharged directly into the sea, right?" ”

"Maybe it's because I'm worried about biological contamination. It cannot be discharged indiscriminately. ”

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