洪堡特语言思想对乔姆斯基“转换生成语法”的影响

Humboldt's Linguistic Thoughts and Its Impacts on the Formation of Chomsky's "Transformational-Generative Grammar"

洪堡特是19世纪德国最负盛名的语言学家之一,他虽处历史比较方法在语言研究中占据主导地位的时代,却没有受到历史的局限,而是提出了很多深刻的、独特的语言观点,这些观点影响了后来的语言学家。文章主要从两方面来阐述洪堡特的语言学思想:语言世界观和语言的创造性特征;同时,探讨了洪堡特的这两个重要的语言学思想对乔姆斯基的"转换生成语法"所产生的巨大影响。

Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt was one of the most prominent German linguists. Although he lived in the nineteenth century when the historical comparative linguistics took a dominant position in linguistic study, Humboldt had not been fettered by the historical limita- tions; on the contrary,he put forward many profound and original linguistic thoughts, which deeply influenced the following linguists. This essay will discuss Humboldt＇ s linguistic thoughts mainly from two perspectives：linguistic world outlook and the creativity of language. Furthermcre, this essay will probe into the great impacts of Humboldt＇ s two linguistic thoughts on the formation of Chomsky＇ s ＂Transformational-Generative Grammar＂.