从符号中拯救历史——对索绪尔及其《普通语言学教程》的一种读解

Rescuing History from Sign: A Review of Saussure and his Cours de Linguistique Generale

索绪尔在《普通语言学教程》中提出研究语言学的新方案,不仅强调语言学的研究对象是语言而不是言语,而且把语言学的研究范围严格地区分为内部语言学和外部语言学,并且参照政治经济学把内部语言学研究再分为共时语言学和历时语言学,这样一种把外部语言学完全排斥在外的内部语言学的研究方法,与结构主义只适用于封闭体系的做法完全不同。本文试图分析索绪尔对语言学的重新配置,指出"普通语言学"并非真的拒绝政治、民族等历史因素对语言的影响,而恰恰是充分意识到语言的政治性,并通过内部与外部的划分来处理民族与语言的问题。

Ferdinand de Saussure raises a new project in his book Cours de Linguistique Generale, which not only pointes out that the object of linguistics is langue rather than parol, but also strictly compartmentalizes linguistics into inner-linguistics and outer-linguistics, and furthermore compartmentalizes inner-linguistics into synchronic linguistics and diachronic linguistics according to political economics. This methodology of inner-linguistics which completely excludes outer-linguistics is totally different from that of structurism which is only applicable to close system. This thesis attempts to analyze the resetting which Saussure has done to linguistics, to emphasize that the general linguistics does not really exclude the impact from politics, nation and history. On the contrary, it has full awareness of political nature of language, while dealing with the problem of language and nation through the division of the inner and the outer.