布龙菲尔德的语言观、意义观和语法理论

On Bloomfield’s Theoretical Approaches to Language,Meaning and Grammar:A Critical Reading of Language

本文通过《语言论》解读了布龙菲尔德的语言观、意义观及其语法理论。《语言论》影响最深远之处,在于它集中体现了布龙菲尔德语言学理论的贡献和精髓,如行为主义语言观、机械的意义观以及语法理论方面许多独到而新颖的见解(如形式、离心和向心构造)。当然,布的语言学理论也存在一些天然的缺陷:行为主义语言观在一定程度上忽略了人类大脑中的思维和意识作用;机械的意义观否认了意义研究的可操作性;语法体系中许多理论和概念界定具有不合理乃至矛盾性。

This paper critically reviews Bloomfield’s theoretical approaches to language,meaning and grammar based on his masterpiece Language.Language,by and large,is a delicate encapsulation of Bloomfield’s enormous contributions to linguistic theories.In this monograph,Bloomfield proposed his mechanistic approach to language and meaning,and elaborated on some distinctive and novel concepts for grammatical studies(e.g.,form,endocentric/exocentric constructors).Meanwhile,there are undoubtedly some inherent deficiencies concerning his linguistic theories.First,the behaviorist approach to language overlooks the function of human being’s thoughts that emerge in the mind.Second,the mechanistic approach to meaning repudiates the feasibility of the study of meaning.Last but not the least,some weaknesses or even contradictions exist in the demarcation and illustration of several grammatical notions.