论英国学者的语义学简史研究

On the Semantics Brief History Research of British Scholars

20世纪50-70年代,英国的多位学者发展了语义学理论。乌尔曼在《语义学:意义科学导论》(1962)中勾勒出西方语义学简史,然而这一"以史为鉴"的学风却未能延续,其后的英国语义学家或不置一词,或偶有提及却错误丛生,由此导致中国语言学界迄今仍有以讹传讹的现象。有鉴于此,作为英国学界20世纪90年代之前回溯语义学史的唯一的一份文献——乌尔曼书中的"语义学简史"这部分值得述评,更有必要澄清帕尔默(1976)、莱昂斯(1977)等人的讹说和误导,以促进对西方语义学史的研究。

From the 1950 s to 1970 s,some British scholars developed semantic theories.Ullmann sketched a brief history of Western semantics in Semantics:An Introduction to the Science of Meaning(1962),but the style of"taking history as a mirror"has not been inherited.The subsequent British semanticists did not deal with it at all,or did it wrongly,resulting in the fact that some Chinese linguists have a wrong understanding.In view of this,Ullmann’s"Short Semantics History"is worthy of reviewing as the only literature on the history of semantics before the 1990 s in British academic circles.Meanwhile,it is necessary to clarify Pal-mer(1976),Lyons(1977)and others’misunderstanding so as to promote the study of Western semantic history.