章太炎“语根说”的西学渊源

A Western Source for Zhang Taiyan’s Idea on “Linguistic Root”

“语根说”是章太炎语言文字学的一个核心创见。它的缘起和发展受19世纪西方历史比较语言学启发。章太炎的“语根说”虽然与缪勒的“论语根”思路相近,但并非源于缪勒的《言语学讲义》。翻译斯宾塞的《论进境之理》和《论礼仪》是章太炎接触西方语根学说的一个契机。《论进境之理》“数字之义,祖祢一字”的思路和《论礼仪》的词源追溯启发了章太炎的“语根说”,尤其体现在《订文》《与吴君遂书》《论语言文字之学》和《东京留学生欢迎会演说辞》对斯宾塞著作的创造性借鉴中。

Zhang Taiyan’s idea on “linguistic root” is a key innovation in his linguistic philology. Its origin and growth was inspired by philology in the West in the 19th century.Although it has remarkable similarities with Max Müller’s “on the powers of roots,” it does not derive from Müller’s Lectures on the Science of Language. Zhang Taiyan’s idea on “root” has its germ in his translating Herbert Spencer’s “Progress: Its Law and Cause” and “On Manners and Fashion”. Explanation of how a primitive root evolves into various words of allied meanings in the former one inspires Zhang Taiyan, so does etymological analysis in “On Manners and Fashion”. Inspirations from these two articles can be traced in Zhang Taiyan’s works, especially in his “Rectification of Words”,“On Language Studies”,“A Letter to Mr. Wu Junsui”, and “Address to Chinese Students in Tokyo”.