系统演变的功能主义解释

Toward a functional explanation of the evolution of language system

自萨丕尔把语言系统的演变看作一个结构平衡的破坏与重建的自组织过程以来,现代语言学对结构失衡的原因作出了种种解释。结构主义者认为,系统的演变是一个以紊乱或协合为其动因与目的的过程。功能主义者超越了语言系统的逻辑封闭,认为系统演变的目的即在人的需要和结构完善之间保持必要的张力。人的言语活动遵循经济原则,系统永远处在“效率”和“省力”的矛盾运动中,追求着具有“最大区别”的高效而简洁的经济构造。这就是功能主义对系统演变的科学解释。

In 1921 Edward Sapir suggested the evolution of language system as a self-organized processwith structural balance always maintained. Since then modern linguistics has searched for reasonsof structural balance, with the structuralists differing from the functionalists. The author cites anexplanation given by thc functionalists, which says that man's speech activity tends to follow the'Economy Principle' of seeking an economical structure with 'maximum distinction'.