关键词方法的意涵和局限——雷蒙·威廉斯《关键词：文化与社会的词汇》重估

The Meaning and Limitations of the Keyword Approach——Reevaluating Raymond Williams’ Keywords:A Vocabulary of Culture and Society

雷蒙·威廉斯的《关键词:文化与社会的词汇》,属于历史语义学范畴。威廉斯试图通过梳理、考辨和叙写一些词汇的历史发展及其意义,寻找有效研究社会和文化的独特方法。《关键词》的学术贡献是毋庸置疑的,它也是一种研究方法兴起的重要标识。该书曾产生很大影响,但也遭到不少非议,剑桥学派领军人物斯金纳对《关键词》的质疑尤为严厉。不少中国学人对《关键词》的方法论缺陷以及不足之处缺乏足够认识。德国“概念史”是历史语义学的标志性范式之一,把德式《历史基本概念》同与之有着不少相通之处的《关键词》作比较,很能见出二者的异同和得失,也有助于对相关问题的深入认识。

Raymond Williams’Keywords:A Vocabulary of Culture and Society falls into the category of historical semantics.Williams seeks to find a distinctive means of effectively researching society and culture by reviewing and providing textual analysis and description of the historical development of some words and their significance.Keywords’academic contribution is beyond doubt,and it is also an important indicator of the rise of a research methodology.It had considerable influence at the time,but also received a lot of criticism;Quentin Skinner,a leading figure of the Cambridge school,is particularly harsh about the Keywords,but not a few Chinese scholars are quite unaware of its methodological flaws and deficiencies.German Begriffsgeschichte(conceptual history)is one of the landmark paradigms of historical semantics.A comparison of the German-style Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe(Basic Concepts in History)with the Keywords,despite their many common areas,will readily reveal their differences and relative merits,and will be conducive to a deeper understanding of related issues.