先秦诸子和古希腊哲学家论语言

The Theories of Language of Ancient Chinese and Greek Philosophers

语言总是与哲学紧密相关。中国古代哲学家和古希腊哲学家给语言研究带来新的洞见:从语言涉入哲学,使哲学与语言学都深刻起来。通过比较两千多年前的先秦诸子和古希腊哲学家,说明在语言问题上,儒家思想具有道德行为实用主义倾向,道家表现出语用主义,墨家表现出经验主义,只有名家提出语言系统内部和有关语言的问题,因此具有分析理性特征。古希腊哲学家探索人类理性是如何通过不同的思维方式和不同的语言类型来表达和把握现实世界和存在的本质,并由此影响语言学和哲学的发展。

Language is closely related to philosophy. The ancient Chinese and Greek philosophers brought forth new insights into linguistic research. Approaching philosophy in linguistic research makes both linguistics and philosophy more profound. With the comparison of Greek philosophers with Chinese counterparts in pre-Qin period over two thousand years ago, the following conclusions have been reached： The Confucians demonstrated moral-behavioral pragmatism; the Taoists were pragmatic-oriented; the Mohists were empirical; the School of Names was the only one that raised questions in and of language and thus demonstrated analytical rationalism. Ancient Greek philosophers explored how humanity expressed and grasped the reality and the essence of being in different ways of thinking and different languages and thus influenced the development of linguistics and philosophy.