语言不完备性:明达语言与语言自救——语言哲学系列研究(二)

Imperfection of Language: Metalanguage and Self-rescue by Language Itself

本文探讨语言的不完备性,批判性地回顾部分哲学家对语言不完备性的拯救方法。在此基础上,根据黑格尔的辩证法思想提出语言自救的观点认为语言的不完备性因由语言自身的明达语言维度得以拯救。语言的不完备性和明达语言维度是一对矛盾,正是这一矛盾的辩证发展促使语言不断发展、丰富和完善,使语言成为如其所是的语言。由此,我们认为,语言的不完备性是语言自身不可分割的本质属性。如果像分析哲学家们那样将之用理想语言取代和其他分析方法治疗,就会抽掉语言的本真特质,语言也就不存在了。

This paper first discusses the imperfection of language and reviews some philosophers＇ approaches to remedy it. Then we put forward the view that language, owing to its metalanguage （ML, hence） dimension, rescues itself from the imperfection, the process of which follows a Hegelian dialectics ： The ML dimension of language and language＇ s imperfection form a contradictory pair of thesis and antithesis. It is this pair＇ s dialectical development that drives language to get developed and enriched into the state as it is （ i. e. , synthesis in Hegelian terminology）. Thus we argue that the imperfection of language is an inseparable property of language and any attempt at removing it or curing it will take away the true nature of language as well as the language itself.