语言学流派

西方语言学流派漫谈

Schools of Linguistics: some random thoughts

北京外国语大学中国外语教育研究中心刘润清

为何要讲流派问题？

我主张，进入一个研究领域时，第一要宏观，第二要对思想（ideas) 感兴趣。

宏观：做研究，别一下扎到一个小领域、小题目里去，那样会见木不见林。

了解宏观背景，让你不失迷方向。

对思想、哲学理念感兴趣，比只对纯技术性的东西感兴趣，更有意义。技术是手段，提高认识是追求。

1. 区分流派与分支

1.1 流派多指思潮, 有代表人物, 代表著作, 主要观点, 研究方法, 盛行时代,有其影响, 往往有历史视角。（它未必对领域中的诸多问题都有论述。）

Schools refer to trends of thought, with their representative figures, works, unique ideas, methods and influence on later development; a diachronic perspective.

1.2 分支多指领域, 研究范围, 也有经典著作, 有影响的人物, 多用共时观点。可能多个流派都对它有过贡献。

(Branches refer to areas of study, with their classics, and influential figures; often a synchronic perspective.)

1.3 历史视角和共时视角一起可以画出一个十字, 像一个坐标.

The diachronic and synchronic perspectives will form a cross, which like a coordinate.

Distinction between Schools and Branches

1.2 语言学的分支: Branches:

从内部分:语音学, 音系(位)学, 词汇学, 形态学, 句法学, 语义学, 语用学(?) Distinction from within: phonetics, phonology, lexicology, morphology, syntax, semantic, pragmatics (?)

从外部分: 心理语言学, 社会语言学, 计算语言学, 神经语言学, 文化语言学, 人类语言学，语料库语言学等。

Distinction from without: psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, computation linguistics, neurolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, cultural linguistics, corpus linguistics, etc.

大分类: 理论语言学, 应用语言学Theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics.

1.3 语言学流派:

传统语法(600BC—18世纪)traditional grammar;

历史语言学(19世纪100年) historical linguistics;

现代语言学开端(索緖尔, 20世纪初) the beginning of modern linguistics;

欧洲功能主义(20世纪20-50)European functionalism

伦敦学派(1940—50)The London School;

系统功能语法(1960—现在) Halliday’s Systemic-functional grammar

美国结构主义语言学(1930—50) American structuralism

美国转换生成语法(1957—现) Chomsky’s Generative Grammar

认知语言学（today）Cognitive linguistics

2. 宏观区分流派

A More Macro Distinction

2.1 形式派

注重分析语言的形式, 结构, 成分和成分的分布, 对语言进行形式描写和描写的形式化, 考虑语言的心理性.

The formal school: emphasize the formal, structural aspects of L, and distribution of elements; formalize the description of L; a psychological perspective.

2.2 功能派

注重分析语言的功能, 分析不同层次上的成分的语义功能, 认为功能决定形式, 考虑语言的社会性. The functional school: emphasize the functional nature of L; analyze the semantic function of elements on all levels; function determines form; a sociolinguistic perspective.

2.3 两派的区别

1/形式主义者认为语言是心理现象;功能主义者说语言是社会现象.

The formal camp say language is a psychological fact; the functional camp say language is a social fact.

2. 形式主义者说语言普遍现象是人类生理遗传;功能主义者说是来自社会对语言的普遍运用. The formal camp say linguistic universals are men’s biological inheritance; the functional camp say language similarities come from the common use of language.

3.形式主义者说儿童习得语言是人类的内在能力;功能主义者说这是儿童交际的需要和能力的发展. The formal camp say that children are born with the ability to acquire language; the functional camp say that language learning comes from children’s needs and development.

4.形式主义者把语言当成独立系统研究；功能主义者把语言放在社会功能中研究。

The formalists regard language as an independent system; the formalists study language in the social context by referring to its social function.

2.4 韩礼德: 20世纪下半叶的基本对立阵营不是结构主义与生成语法。最根本的两大阵营是：以组合关系为取向的形式派（形式语法，源于逻辑和哲学），和以聚合关系为取向的功能派（功能语法，源于修辞和人种学）。形式派把语言看成一系列的结构，这些结构之间可以找出固定的关系（所以才有转换一说）；他们强调语言的普遍性，把语法（他们称之为句法）看成是语言的基础（所以语法是任意的），因此语法围绕着句子而展开。

Halliday: The basic opposition is not that between ‘structural’and ‘generative’grammars . The more fundamental opposition is between those that are primarily symtagmatic in orientation (by and large the formal grammars, with their roots in logic and philosophy)and those that are primarily paradigmatic (by and large the functional ones, with their roots in rhetoric and ethnography). The former interpret a language a list of structures, among which, regular relationships may be established (hence the introduction of transformation); they tend to emphasize universal features of language, to take grammar (which they call syntax) as the foundation of language (hence the grammar is arbitrary), and so to be organized around the sentence

功能派把语言看成是一个关系网，其基本关系借助于结构加以实现；他们强调语

言之间的不同点，把语义看做语言的基础（所以语法是自然的），因此语法是围绕着文本或语篇而展开的。两个阵营之间有许多交叉，也有互相借鉴，但从思潮上讲二者是很不同的，两大阵营开展对话也很困难。

The functionalists interpret language as a network of relations, with structures coming in as the realization of these relationships; they tend to emphasize variables among languages, to take semantics as the foundation (hence the grammar is natural), and so to be organized around the text, or discourse.

There are many cross-currents, with insights borrowed from one to the other; but they are ideologically fairly difficult and it is often difficulty to maintain a dialogue.

韩礼德还说：功能语法属于应用研究，形式语法属于纯理论研究；功能语法更近于修辞，形式语法更近于逻辑；功能语法研究实际语言能力，形式语法研究理想的语言能力；功能语法研究文本/语篇，形式语法研究句子。功能语法把文本分析看做行为方式，语言理论是成事之手段。

Halliday: In general the functional approach leans towards the applied rather than the pure, the rhetorical rather than the logical, the actual rather the ideal, the functional rather than the formal, the text rather than the sentence.

The emphasis is on text analysis as a mode of action, a theory of language as a means of getting things done.

研究流派更具理论价值: 从哲学上看, 如何看待世界就如何看待语言;从心理学上看, ―白板说‖ 和―内容说‖也区分两派;从方法论上看, 归纳法, 演绎法, 证实，证伪，还是二者结合等,也有不同。

It’s more theoretically significant to study schools; they involve philosophy, psychology (blank slate/content approach), and methodology (induction，deduction，verification, falsification, abduction).

3. 流派与分支的价值Significance of the Two

研究分支更具使用价值: 语言内部分支也有理论价值, 但有更多的使用价值;外部分支既有理论价值,又有应用价值.

It’s more significant in practice to study the various branches of linguistics, not without theoretical significance.

任何学科内, 不应该只注重应用研究, 基础理论研究十分重要。基础研究费时费力，见效慢；应用研究见效快。

In any discipline we should take seriously both basic, pure research and applied research. Both are useful and important.

4. 流派介绍：传统语法

4.1 传统语法: 从希腊语到拉丁语, 再从拉丁语到其他欧洲语言;注重语音和词汇, 句法很少, 以教学语法为主,多为规定性语法,不是描写性语法;影响很大,时间很长; 其贡献是创造了描写工具(其术语今天还在使用).

Traditional Grammar: focus on phonetics and words; school grammar, prescriptive; influential; its terms still in use today.\\

4.2 历史语言学: 语言比较,语言历史,语言谱系, 语音变化规律;其后期的新语法学派为避免20世纪培养了人才;历史语言学为避免20世纪现代语言学开端铺平道路。

Historical Linguistics: language comparison, family trees of languages; laws of sound change; Neogrammarians; paved the way for modern linguistics in the 20th century.

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6. 流派介绍：现代语言学开端

索绪尔: 现代语言学鼻祖;区分了语言和言语,历时语言学和共时语言学, 语言符号的任意性,所指和能指都是任意的; 语言是一个系统, 一个关系系统(在系统中的位置决定其意义); 语言是符号学中最典型的代表.其理论影响深远. Saussure: father of modern linguistics; language/speech; arbitrariness of language; synchronic/diachronic; signifier/signified; system of signs

德国哲学家Ernst Cassirer把索绪尔与伽利略相提并论: ―In the whole history of science there is perhaps no more fascinating a chapter than the rise of the new science of linguistics. In its importance it may very well be compared to the new science of Galileo, which in the 17th century, changed our whole concept of the physical world.”流派介绍：早期功能学派

4.4 欧洲功能学派: 布拉格学派,哥本哈根学派;贡献:音位学,已知信息和待传信息;主位和述位;主题和评述;影响大;功能主义鼻祖。

Functional schools in Europe: the Prague School ; the Copenhagen School: contribution to phonology; given/new information; theme/rheme; topic/comment;

influential around 1920-40

4.5 美国结构主义: 博厄斯, 萨裴尔,布龙菲尔德, 哈利斯,豪克特等; 萨裴尔-沃尔夫假说, 又称语言相对论;哲学上的实证主义和―百板说‖; 心理学上的行为主义; American structuralism: F. Boaz, E. Sapir, Leonard Bloomfield, Z. Hariss, C. Hockett, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, empiricism in philosophy, ‘blank slate’, behaviorism in psychology.

流派介绍：美国结构主义

严格的―发现程序‖,二分法,不问意义和功能,看结构分布; 重证据,不看主观印象;教学上的―听说法‖影响外语教学几十年.豪克特的确16个语言设计特征十分重要.

Rigid ‘procedure of discovery’, binary cutting, ignore meaning; distribution of

elements; emphasis on evidence than impression; audio-lingual method in teaching;

design features of language.

4.5 美国的乔姆斯基:生成语法

语言上的一场革命;其语言观, 哲学上的唯理主义,心理学上认知主义; 语言与生俱来,强调大脑的初始状态;目标是揭示语言本质和人类本质; Chomsky’s Generative grammar: a revolution; rationalism in philosophy; cognitive psychology; language is innate; initial state of mind; reveal nature of L to show nature of man.

莱茵斯评乔氏：―Chomky’s position is not only unique within linguistics at the present time, but is probably unprecedented in the whole history of the subject…Right or wrong, Chomsky’s theory of grammar is undoubtedly the most dynamic and influential, and no linguist who wishes to keep abreast of current developments in his subject can afford to ignore Chomsky’s theoretical pronouncements.”–John Lyons

Chomsky

―It seems plain that language acquisition is based on the child’s discovery of what from a formal point of view is a deep and abstract theory –a generative grammar of his language – many of the concepts and principles of which are only remotely related to experience by long and intricate chains of the unconscious quasi-inferential steps. A consideration of the character of the grammar that is acquired, thedegenerate quality and narrowly limited extent of the available data, the striking uniformity of the resulting grammar, and their independence of intelligence, motivation, and emotional state, over wide range of variation, leave little hope that much of the structure of the language can be learned by an organism initially uninformed as to its general character.(-- Chomsky 1965：Aspects of the theory of syntax)

―显然，语言习得基于儿童发现从形式角度看是一种深奥、抽象的理论—即母语的一种生成语法。这种语法的许多概念和原则必须经过漫长、复杂的无意识的亚推理过程，才与经验稍稍相连。稍微想一想儿童习得的语法性质，他接触到的语料质量之差和范围之小，儿童习得语言与智力、动机、情绪毫无关系，而且他们的环境因素千差万别，最后所得语法的却惊人地相似，让我们很难相信，一个对语法没有大致了解的有机体，能够学到这麽多语言结构知识。‖乔氏，1965 《句法理论面面观》语言描写力求形式化;句法独立,句法为核心;观察充分, 描写充分, 解释充分;其影响深远,令人耳目一新;乔氏理论对哲学,心理学,计算机语言,形式化等, 都有贡献. To formalize the description of L; independence of syntax; emphasis on explanatory power; contribution to philosophy, psychology, computer science; biology; bio-linguistics

Chomsky:语言天赋

In “The Architecture of Language”(2002:50) he wrote: “Lots of people reject the proposal that language is innate but nobody answers them. The reason why nobody answers is that their arguments would make no sense. There’s no way to answer them. To say that ‘language is not innate’is to say that there is no difference between my granddaughter, a rock and a rabbit. In other words, if you take a rock, a rabbit andmy granddaughter and put them in a community where people are talking English, they’ll all learn English. If people believe that, then they believe that language is not innate. If they believe that there is a difference between my granddaughter, a rabbit and a rock, then they believe that language is innate.‖

Chomsky:语言教学

Chomsky (1988)”…teaching should not be compared to filling a bottle with water but rather to helping a flower to grow in its own way. As any good teacher knows, the methods of instruction and range of material covered are of small important as compared with the success in arousing the natural curiosity of the students唤起学生的自然好奇心and stimulating their interest in

流派介绍：系统功能语言学

4.6伦敦语言学派: 英国有悠久语言研究传统，人造语言、速写、拼法改革等起于英国，著名语音学家丹尼尔·琼斯Daniel Jones 、亨利·斯威特Henry Sweet生于这里。伦敦学派后来成为系统功能语法学派。马林诺夫斯基, 佛斯, 韩礼德等.意义即使用. 语言环境决定意义；结构与系统；语言潜势和语言实际行为;组合关系和聚合关系；语言功能分类

The London School: Britain has a long tradition of language studies. The great phoneticians Henry Sweet，Daniel Jones。Malinovki, J.R. Firth, M.A.K. Halliday; meaning is use; context determines meaning; emphasis on both structure and system; linguistic potential and actual behavior; paradigmatic/ syntagmatic relations; types of functions of language

语言是许多小系统组成的大系统.语言的结构由社会功能所决定.语言的三大功能;儿童语言的七大功能. 在教学上和文体学上都有贡献. Language is a system of many sub-systems; three macro function of language (ideational, interpersonal, textual function); children’s seven functions; contribution to language teaching and stylistics; popular in China.

语言系统

The material process: action and event.

The transitivity system及物性系统: material process, mental process, relational process, verbal and behavioral process, existential process.

The action process: intention process and supervention process.

The mental process: internalized process and externalized process.

The internalized process: 1. perception, 2. reaction and 3. cognition processes. (p.322)

There are realization relationships between various levels. The choice of meaning is realized by the choice of form, which in turn is realized by the

choice of sounds. What can be done is realized by what can be meant, which is

realized by what can be said.

语言功能

Functions of Children’s Language:

1.The instrumental function: to meet his material needs and services;（工具）

2.The regulatory function: to control others’behavior;（调节）

3.The interactional function: to talk with others;（交际）

4.The personal function: to express his feelings;（个人表达）

5. The heuristic function: to know about his own surroundings;（探索）

6. The imaginative function: to create surroundings;（想象）

7. The informative function: to provide information for others.（告知）

The adult’s language has to serve many functions, these are gradually reduced to a set

of highly coded and abstract functions.

Functions of adult’s language: Ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function.概念功能、人际功能、语篇功能

The Ideational function（概念功能）：to convey new information unknown to the hearer. It is the meaning potential, used in all languages. It is to refer to categories of experience of the world.

2.The interpersonal function（人际功能）: it embodies all the uses of language to express social and personal relations; the ways the speaker enters into a speech situation and performs a speech act. It is realized by mood语气and modality情态. The Textual Function（语篇功能）: Language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living message different from a random list of sentences. “John saw a handbag in a field. John walked across a field and picked up a handbag.John took a handbag to the police station and John handed a handbag to a policeman.”

一个新学派：认知语言学

认知语言学: 是不是一个新流派? 还是一个分支? 始于20世纪70年代, 关心语言与心智和大脑的关系, 说语言是认知系统的一部分;认知系统是由感知, 情感,范畴化, 抽象化,和推理等能力组成. 目标不是描写语言行为,而是解释引起语言行为的心理结构和心理过程, 揭示语言背后内在的深层规律. 人物: 乔姆斯基, Talmy, Jackendoff, Langacker, Lakoff, Biewish, Hudson, Fillmore,Talor等.

莱科夫George Lakoff

"We are neural beings," states Berkeley cognitive scientist George Lakoff.

"Our brains take their input from the rest of our bodies. What our bodies are like and how they function in the world thus structures the very concepts we can use to think. We cannot think just anything - only what our embodied brains permit."

L. Talmy Ph.D.BerkerleyPioneering work In cognitivelinguistics

I am not if this is a new school or what. People say language and its use are

based on our bodily experience and the way to conceptualize it is called cognitive linguistics. It is a new approach to the study of language and mind.

Topics include structure of characterization (prototype, metaphor, mental imagery), conceptual interface between syntax and..

semantics, the experiential and pragmatic background of language-in-use, and the relationship between language and thought.

认知语言学的理论原则: 语义结构没有普遍性;语法不独立; 语法和词汇没有意义区别(符号连续体).

研究领域: 范畴化, 概念隐喻, 转喻, 多义性, 拟象性, 语法化等.

跨学科性: 与哲学, 心理学, 人类学, 计算机科学,神经语言学等有关.

有不同学派: 圣地亚哥派,伯克利学派

Principles: semantic structure has no universals; syntax is not independent;

syntax and vocabulary form a continuum of symbols, not distinguished in meaning.

Areas: characterization, metaphor, polysemy, iconicity, grammatization etc.

Highly cross-disciplinary: philosophy, psychology, computer science,

neurology, anthropology etc.\

塔尔密Talmy’s work

Cognitive semantics:

句中的视角：“There are some houses in the valley.”“There is a house every now and then through the valley.”

注意焦点：“The bike is near the house .”“The house is near the bike.”

动力学：“The ball rolled along the green.” “The ball kept rolling along the green.”事件的时间划分：The beacon flashed.

The beacon kept flashing.

The beacon flashed 5 times in a row.

The beacons kept flashing 5 times at a stretch.

The beacons kept flashing 5 times at a stretch for 3 hours.

Toward a Cognitive Semantics

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2000

Volume I

Concept Structuring Systems

Part 1: Foundations of Conceptual Structuring in Language

Ch. 1 The Relation of Grammar to Cognition

Part 2: Configurational Structure

Ch. 2 Fictive Motion in Language and "Ception"

Ch. 3 How Language Structures Space

Part 3: Attention

Ch. 4 The Windowing of Attention in Language

Ch. 5 Figure and Ground in Language

Ch. 6 Structures that Relate Events

Part 4: Force and Causation

Ch. 7 Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition

Ch. 8 The Semantics of Causation

References

Index

Volume II

Typology and Process in Concept Structuring

Part 1: Typological Patterns in the Representation of Event Structure Ch. 1 Lexicalization Patterns

Ch. 2 Surveying Lexicalization Patterns

Ch. 3 A Typology of Event Integration

Ch. 4 Borrowing Semantic Space: Diachronic Hybridization

Part 3: Other Cognitive Systems

Ch. 7 The Cognitive Culture System

Ch. 8 A Cognitive Framework for Narrative Structure

Part 2: Semantic Interaction

Ch. 5 Semantic Conflict and Resolution

Ch. 6 Communicative Goals and Means: Their Cognitive Interaction References

Index

莱科夫Lakoff’s work

They began to think of expressions like “It’s been a long bumpy road”, “The marriage is on the rock”, “It’s off the track”, “We’re spinning our wheels”, “We’re going in different directions”, “We are at a crossroads in the relationship”. Then they generalized: In every case, the love relationship is a vehicle. In every case, the common life goals of the lovers are destinations they want to get to together. And in every case the difficulties in the relationship are things that keep them from reaching the destination: spinning wheels, dead-end street, going in different directions, and so on. The travelers mapped the lovers, vehicles the mapped relationships. This is a kind of mathematical mapping. The reasoning that you do about travel is mapped onto the reasoning you do about love. “LOVE IS A JOURNEY is exactly in the mapping‖.

What is a concept in the brain? How do we get concept and how do we get complicated concepts like grasping, and how do we get abstract concept like grasping ideas or causation or something like that? So the idea is this: meaning is mental stimulation in the brain using your physical brain. Mental stimulation is imagining something. So if I give you a sentence like “John picked up the bottle”, in order to understand that sentence, you have to at least be able to imagine someone picking up the bottle. If you cannot even imagine it, then you cannot understand the sentence. So understanding requires imagining something as if you were doing it, seeing it. that requires the same part of the brain as doing it or seeing it.

How does that relate to the world?A concept is the minimal unit of linguistic meaning, the meaning of words are made up of concepts. There is a minimal unit of reasoning, which uses concepts.

The same part of the brain that moves your body also reasons about aspect. We call our theory simulation semantics because it says meaning is mental simulation using those parts of the brain that you use for the imagination of both seeing and acting. So concepts have an internal structure called neural parameters. And neural parameter is something as discovered in the neural system. For example, something like reaching for an object makes use of the parameter of direction