言语和写作是语言交流的两种主要媒介。现代语言学认为口语是人类语言的自然媒介或主要媒介。现代语言学给予口语优先地位，原因很明显：\n(1)就语言发展而言，语言先于写作。任何语言的书写形式通常都是由其用户“发明”来记录语音的。同样在当今世界，许多语言只能说，而不能书写。\n(2)在日常交流方面，说话比散文的作用更大。在日常生活中，人们使用的口头语言远远多于书面语言。\n(3)任何以母语为母语的人都是通过语言获得母语的，而写作则是在上学后学习和教授的。\n(4)根据当代语言学家的说法，口语显示了人类语言的许多真实特征，而书面语言只是一种“修订”的语言记录。因此，他们的调查和研究的大部分数据来源于日常讲话。\n\nSpeech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language. Modern linguistics gives the spoken language priority for some obvious reasons:\n(1) In terms of linguistic development, speech comes before writing. The writing form of any language is often “invented” by its users to record speech. Also in today\u0027s world, many languages can only be spoken, not written.\n(2) In terms of daily communication, speaking plays a larger part than prose. In everyday life, people use oral language much more than written language.\n(3) Any native speaker acquires his or her mother tongue by speech, while writing is acquired and taught later, while he or she attends school.\n(4) According to contemporary linguists, spoken language shows many true features of human speech, while written language is just a “revised” record of speech. As a result, the majority of their data for inquiry and study is derived from daily speech.For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?