Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.

旁白：听一段一个学生和教授的对话。

Student: Professor Martin?

学生：马丁教授?

Professor: Uh, hi, Lisa, what can I do for you?

教授：啊，嗨，丽莎，我能帮你点儿什么吗？

Student: Well, I’ve been thinking about, you know, what you were saying in class last week, about how we shouldn’t wait until the last minute to find an idea and get started working on our term paper.

学生：嗯，我一直在想您上周在课上说的那些话，我们应该怎么做才能避免在开始我们的学期论文前才去思考好的点子。

Professor: Good, good, and have you come up with anything?

教授：很好，很好，你有什么想法吗？

Student: Well, yeah, sort of.

学生：嗯，有点吧。

See, I’ve never had a linguistics class before, so I was sort of, I mean, I was looking over the course description and a lot of the stuff you described there.

是这样的，我以前从没有上过语言学的课，我有点，我是说，我仔细的看了这个课程描述还有您描述的很多东西。

I just don't know what it is talking about, you know, or what it means.

可我就是不懂在说些什么，不懂什么意思。

But there was one thing that really did jump out at me.

不过倒是有一个事真是一下子吸引住了我。

Professor: Yes?

教授：是吗？

Student: The section on dialects, cause... like, that's the kind of thing that's always sort of intrigued me, you know?

学生：方言的那个章节，因为方言之类的事儿总是能吸引我的兴趣。

Professor: Well, that's certainly an interesting topic.

教授：嗯，那的确是有意思的一个话题。

But you may not realize, I mean, the scope...

但你可能没注意到，我是指，它的范围……

Student: Well, especially now, cause I've got like one roommate who is from the south and another one from New York.

学生：嗯，特别是现在，因为我有一个南方的室友，还有一个纽约的室友。

And we all talk like totally different, you know.

您知道么，我们几个说话完全不一样。

Professor: Yes, I understand. But...

教授：是的，我能理解，但……

Student: But then I was noticing, like, we don't really get into this till the end of the semester, you know. So I...

学生：但是我注意到，直到学期末我们才真正习惯，您知道吧，所以我……

Professor: So, you want some pointers where to go for information on the subject?

教授：所以，你想得到些指示告诉你上哪儿找关于这个科目的相关信息？

Well, you could always start by reading the chapter in the book on sociolinguistics.

嗯，你可以从看社会语言学书里的方言这一章节开始着手。

That will give you a basic understanding of the key issues involved here.

这样你就能对有关的重点问题有一个基本了解。

Student: Yeah, that's what I thought.

学生：是啊，我也是这么想的。

So I started reading the chapter, you know, about how everyone speaks some dialect of the language.

所以我开始读这一章了，读关于每个人是怎样说着同一种语言的不同方言的。

And I'm wondering like, well, how do we even manage to understand each other at all?

并且我也在想，我们大家都是怎么设法听懂彼此的话的？

Professor: Ah, yes, an interesting question.

教授：啊，是啊，这个问题很有意思。

You see...

你看呐……

Student: So then I read the part about dialect accommodation.

学生：所以接着我看了书中关于方言顺应的部分。

You know, the idea that people tend to adapt their speaking to make it closer to the speech of whomever they're talking to, and I'm thinking, yeah, I do that when I talk with my roommates, and without even thinking about it or anything, you know.

您知道的，就是关于人们在聊天时，会刻意调节他们的口音，使得他们的口音更接近听话者。我在想，我的确在跟我室友聊天时是这样的，也没有多想。

Professor: OK, all right.

教授：嗯，好的。

Dialect accommodation is a more manageable sort of topic.

方言顺应是一个更容易控制的话题。

Student: So I was thinking like, I wonder just how much other people do the same thing.

学生：所以我在想啊，我想知道有多少人在做一样的事儿。

I mean, there are students here from all over the place.

我是说，这儿有很多来自各地的学生。

Does everyone change the way they talk to some degree depending on whom they are talking to?

是不是每个人都会在跟人聊天的时候都会不同程度的改变他们的说话方式？

Professor: You'd be surprised.

教授：你会有惊奇的发现的。

Student: So, anyway, my question is, do you think it'd be ok if I did a project like that for my term paper?

学生：嗯，我的问题是，您觉得如果我做一个这样的项目来作为我的学期报告怎么样？

You know, find students from different parts of the country, record them talking to each other in different combinations, report on how they accommodate their speech or not, that kind of thing?

找一些来自这个国家各个地方的学生，记录下他们说话的不同方式，写一个关于他们是如何根据不同的说话者调节自己口音的报告，这之类的事儿。

Professor: Tell you what, Lisa, write me up a short proposal for this project --how you're going to carry out the experiment and everything, a design plan.

教授：丽莎，这样吧，你写一个关于这个项目的简短方案给我，你打算怎么样实施这个实验等等，我要一个设计方案。

And I think this'll work out just fine.

我觉得这个会很好的实施的。