惠特尼和叶斯柏森的语言经济思想——兼谈语言经济原则的产生及其发展

The Language Economy Thoughts Shaped in Whitney and Jespersen's Works: With Special Reference to Birth of the Principle of Economy and its Development

一般认为,马丁内或齐普夫最早正式提出语言的经济原则。事实上,在马丁内和齐普夫之前,已经有很多学者提出了类似的思想,其中惠特尼即已正式提出语言的经济原则。马丁内的语言经济原则来源于叶斯柏森的简易原则,而叶斯柏森的简易原则又受到了惠特尼简易倾向思想的影响。惠特尼和叶斯柏森详细论证了简易倾向或简易原则是语言变化的动因。语言经济思想有其独特的贡献和影响,但也有不足之处。

It is universally claimed that Martinet or Zipf first set the principle of economy in language. In fact, before them there had been similar ideas shaped by quite a few scholars and Whitney had coined the term ＇ the principle of economy＇. It can be said that the principle of economy formulated by Martinet originated in Jespersen＇s ease theory, which was influenced on by Whitney＇s idea of tendency toward ease. Both Whitney and Jespersen had proved that ease theory or tendency toward ease is the cause of language growth. In spite of some shortcomings, the language economy thoughts have their u- nique contributions and impacts.