||1:Taken with previous studies, the new research offers a two-part answer to why grammar rules are built—and lost.||2:As groups grow, the need for systematic rules becomes greater; unlearnable in-group-speak with random variation won’t do.||3:But languages develop more rules than they need; as they are learned by foreign speakers joining the group, some of these get stripped away.||4:This can explain why pairs of closely related languages—Tajik and Persian, Icelandic and Swedish, Frisian and English—differ in grammatical complexity.||5:In each couple, the former language is both smaller and more isolated.||6:Systematicity is required for growth.||7:Lost complexity is the cost of foreigners learning your language.||8:It is the price of success.

||1:根据之前的研究，这项新研究提供了一个由两部分组成的答案，解释为什么语法规则会被建立和丢失。||2:随着群体的增长，对系统性规则的需求也越来越大；无法学习的随机变化的群内语言是行不通的。||3:但是语言发展出的规则比所需要的更多；当加入这个团体的外国人学习这些语言时，其中一些规则就会丢失。||4:这可以解释为什么紧密相关的语言——塔吉克语和波斯语、冰岛语和瑞典语、弗里西亚语和英语——在语法复杂性上存在差异。||5:在每对语言中，前一种语言都更小，也更孤立。||6:语言的发展需要系统性。||7:失去的复杂性是让外国人学习这门语言的代价。||8:这就是成功的代价。

||1:The issue is not comedy, of which Germany has plenty.||2:The late Vicco von Bülow, alias Loriot, delighted the elite with his mockery of German pretension and stiffness.||3:Rhenish, Swabian and other regional flavours thrive—Gerhard Polt, a Bavarian curmudgeon, now 72, is a Shakespeare among them.||4:There is lowbrow talent too, including Otto Waalkes, a Frisian buffoon.||5:Most of this, however, is as foreigners always suspected: more embarrassing than funny.

||1:这个议题并非是个喜剧，德国的此类例子很丰富。||2:已故的 Vicco von Bülow, 别名Loriot,曾就以讽刺德国人的自负和固执娱乐精英。||3:莱茵河人，斯瓦比亚人和其他地区的精英们层出不穷——Gerhard Polt是个巴伐利亚人，脾气很怪，现年72岁，就是其中的一个莎士比亚。||4:也有一些比较肤浅的人物，比如弗里斯兰小丑Otto Waalkes。||5:然而大多数情况下，外国人的怀疑：往往是尴尬大于有趣。