Passage 5

Questions 21 to 25 are based on thefollowing passage.

Constructed languages, alsoknown as artificial, planned or invented languages, are usually designed for aspecific purpose. There are several types of constructed languages, dependingon the use. People have created artificial languages to improve communicationbetween speakers, for creative purposes as in writing and films about fantasyworlds, to revive dead languages, and to talk to and instruct computers.

Constructed languages differfrom others because their entire structure, including grammar, vocabulary, andphonology (sound system) have been planned deliberately. Constructed languagescan be built by existing languages, or based on entirely new principles.

Constructed languages thatare created with entirely new elements, such as sound symbols or numbers, andthen given meanings, are known as " priori" languages. Examples of"a priori" languages are fictional languages like Sindarin or Elvish,created by JRR Tolkien, or the languages spoken in the TV series Game ofThrones directed by Alan Taylor and three others.

Because the purposes behindthe creation of constructed languages are so varied, they are very differentfrom each other. Here are some familiar examples of constructec languages.

Esperanto was created in thelate 19th century with the purpose of improving communications between peopleof different nationalities. It is an artificial language. made by combiningfeatures of several European languages. An estimated two million people speakEsperanto today, and it is recognized as an auxiliary(辅助的) language by theUnited Nations.

Sindarin or Elvish is one ofthe fictional languages created by fantasy writer JRR Tolkien for some of thepeoples who inhabited Middle Earth. Tolkien was a specialist in Old Norseliterature as well as an enthusiastic linguist. He based the languages ofMiddle Earth on Celtic models and also on the medieval Icelandic of the Sagas(长篇故事).

Viewers of Game of Throneswill be familiar with Dothraki and Valyrian. These are based on a small numberof words in the books of George R.R. Martin, on which the series is based. Bothlanguages were developed by David Peterson from the Language Creation Society.

Computer languages are usedto communicate with computers and for computers to communicate with each other.They include programming languages, as well as languages used for machinelearning. Machine learning can be used to teach computers to use techniqueslike data mining and statistica(统计学的) pattern recognition for practicafunctions like speech recognition, web search and virtual assistants.

 
What can we learn about constructed languages?