科学主义与索绪尔的语言学研究

Scientism and the Linguistic Study of Ferdinand de Saussure

索绪尔的语言学研究,从他对语言“自足的结构系统”这一定义来看,是自觉的科学主义研究。“同质化”的方法使得他的科学主义比之前的历史比较学派更加严谨。但是语言兼具自然和人文属性的特点使主流的“科学化”语言研究显示出不足之处。如果从这一点出发评价索绪尔,会发现他的另一点伟大之处是其系列“二分法”在无意中指明了语言研究“科学主义”和“人文主义”两条不同的道路。未来理想的语言研究状况应是两者的联盟。

Saussure's linguistic study is a typical scientistic study, for he defined language as 'a self-sufficient structural system'. The 'homogenizational movement' makes his scientism more precise than that of the previous historical comparative school. But since language has the dual nature of scientism and humanism, the main-streamed 'scientistic' study does have its insufficiency. If we judge Saussure from this point of view, we may find that his another greatness lies in the fact that his series of dichotomies have pointed out two different ways of linguistics. They are the scientistic method and the humanistic method. An ideal future of linguistic study should be the alliance of those two.