问答题

From what has been said, it must be clear that no one can make very positive statements about how language originated. There is no material in any language today and in the earliest (S1) _________ records of ancient languages shows us language in a new and (S2) _________ emerging state. It is often said, of course, that the language (S3) _________ originated in cries of anger, fear, pain and pleasure, and the necessary (S4) _________ evidence is entirely lacking: there are no remote tribes, no ancient records, providing evidence of a language with a large proportion of (S5) _________ such cries than we find in English. It is true that the absence of such evidence does not disprove the theory, but in other grounds (S6) _________ too the theory is not very attractive. People of all races and languages make rather similar noises in return to pain or pleasure. The fact that (S7) _________ such noises are similar on the lips of Frenchmen and Malaysians, whose languages are utterly different, serves to emphasize on the (S8) _________ fundamental difference between these noises and language proper. We may say that the cries of pain or chortles of amusement are largely reflex actions, instinctive to large extent, whereas language proper (S9) _________ does not consist of signs but of these that have to be learnt and (S10) _________ that are wholly conventional.