“语言共性”与“家族相似性”——维特根斯坦和乔姆斯基语言哲学思想比较研究之一

Linguistic Universals and Family Resemblance——A comparative study between Chomsky's and Wittgenstein's philosophical view of language

人类诸多自然语言之间的相同或相似是维特根斯坦意义上的"家族成员之间的相似",还是乔姆斯基的那种"人类共有的、先于经验而存在于个人之中的、无差别的绝对共性"?各家族成员虽然有这样或那样的相似,但其中并没有贯一的共性。我们可以假定有先天的语言器官,但这并不意味着我们能对其进行清晰的描述,我们所有的语言理论只不过是一种对相关语言现象的解释而已。一条绳子不是因为其中有一条贯一的线,而是线的相互纠结和交织。

Are the sameness or similarities between human natural languages a kind of Wittgenstein＇s ＂language family resemblance＂ or a kind of Chomsky＇s ＂absolute linguistic universals＂？ ＂Absolute linguistic universals＂ are prior to human language experiences and exclusively exist in all human mind.According to Wittgenstein,though all the family members have this or that similarity,we could not find in them a universal characteristic.We can suppose a ＂language faculty＂,but it doesn＇t necessarily mean we can define it.All of our linguistic theories are only a kind of explanations for some specific language phenomena.It is not a throughout thread but the entanglement of all the threads that makes a rope.