1993年,美国黑人女作家Toni Morrison获得诺贝尔文学奖,颁奖仪式上她发表了一段有关语言的演讲。从她的演讲中我领悟到语言可以是死的也可以是活的。也就是说语言掌握在每个人的手中,如果你能充分的利用语言那么语言就会活起来,如果你滥用语言,那么语言在某种程度上就会死亡。本文作者将从历史、语言发展以及语言学的角度来阐述这一观点。 In 1993, the African-American writer Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature, at which she delivered a speech on the language. From her speech, I realized that language can be dead or alive. In other words, the language is in the hands of everybody. If you can make full use of the language, the language will live up. If you abuse the language, the language will die to some extent. The author of this article will expound this view from the angle of history, language development and linguistics.