Mapping Humboldt’s Research On Ancient Chinese

Wilhelm von Humboldt(1767-1835)was an outstanding Prussian politician,educator,and linguist.During his lifetime,he initiated comparative studies of approximately 100 languages,such as ancient Chinese,Sanskrit,and Mexican languages,which empirically underpinned the construction of his ideological and theoretical systems of linguistics.Against the backdrop of Chinese studies at the end of the 18 th century,Humboldt,under the guidance of Kant‘s anthropological and aesthetic thoughts and in the exploration of the organic and mechanical nature of language by historical-comparative linguistics,blazed the trail for us to comprehend the world,individuals,and nations through language by analyzing language forms and seeking for the interaction between language and human‘s spiritual development.Therefore,Humboldt‘s thought on language tends to be empirical rather than transcendentalist.Humboldt explored different forms of languages and their relationships in an attempt to identify the kinship there into all his life.Humboldt‘s analysis of the grammatical forms of Ancient Chinese was accurate and penetrating.Ancient Chinese exhibits the distinguishable national spirit of Chinese from Indo-European with unique grammatical features.Nevertheless,the differences between grammars are not absolute,because the homogeneity of the human spirit determines that there is no inherently insurmountable gap between languages.Thus,Humboldt argued that each language contained both ―explicit‖ and ―implicit‖ elements of grammar.Indo-European languages mark grammar with explicit phonetic symbols,expressing logical relations of concepts,while the grammatical relations of concepts in ancient Chinese are mostly unmarked implicit forms,that is,grammatical forms are concealed in semantics and context in a form of creative thinking.It also goes some way to explaining why people who speak the same language,or who speak different languages,can understand each other,but not fully understand each other.With his attainment in ancient Chinese,Humboldt infused his understanding into language,individual,and nation.The particularity of ancient Chinese broadened Humboldt‘s understanding and cognition of language and played an indispensable role in constructing his linguistic thought and theory.Consequently,this study aims to explore the basic concepts and development of Humboldt‘s thought of language construction through diachronic analysis,combing and summarizing his comprehensive comments on Chinese language from 1821 to1835.Foucault‘s ―principle of cohesion‖ is adopted in the selection of texts in order to achieve the unity of research perspectives.In interpretation of texts and the construction of Humboldt‘s thoughts,Gadamer‘s philosophical hermeneutics were used,and the ―anticipation of completeness‖ and ―reconstruction of history‖ were selected.The analysis and description of linguistic phenomena were based on Humboldt‘s research methods of Language comparison.Chapter 1 describes the status quo of research in China and abroad,the research ideas,methods,and the overall framework of the paper.At present,research on Humboldt in terms of ancient Chinese mainly focuses on his evaluation of Chinese grammar.In the historical background of Humboldt‘s study of Chinese,this paper will analyze and expound the process of Humboldt‘s discussion of the grammatical phenomena of ancient Chinese,his conclusions,and the significance of language thought construction by him.The second chapter briefly discusses the research situations in the 18 th and the19 th centuries,and the evaluation of Chinese in the research of historical-comparative linguistics.Then is pointed out that Humboldt‘s research on ancient Chinese is not a supposition but a scientific analysis based on Philology research methods.Chapter 3 illustrates the empirical research and analysis stage.By analyzing the articulatory phonetics,morphology,and syntax of ancient Chinese,comparing with Indo-European,this study tries to explain the source of the ―explicit‖ grammatical form of Indo-European and the ―implicit‖ grammatical form of ancient Chinese.Through the analysis of the differences between alphabetic writing and Chinese characters in the way of dealing with the relationship between sound,graphic and characters,the inherent differences of the spirit of national language can be identified.Chapter 4 is the construction stage of language thought based on empirical research,and it is also the continuation and development of some concepts in empirical research,which reproduces the contents and corresponds to the concepts of the previous three chapters to some extent.Chapter 5 is the conclusion.The main points of this study are summarized and Humboldt‘s important thoughts of language,such as ―dynamic‖ and ―static‖ of language,are discussed.At the same time,shortcomings,prospects,and innovations in this study are also discussed.To sum up,the main conclusions of this study are as follows:1.Humboldt‘s research content and evaluation of grammatical features of ancient Chinese have gradually changed over time.2.By summarizing and exploring the grammatical structure and characters of ancient Chinese,Humboldt gradually clarified and expanded the definition of grammatical category.Humboldt‘s seemingly ―contradictory‖ viewpoint is actually dialectical and unified.In the aspects of formation and comprehension of language,both the explicit grammar of Indo-European and the implicit grammar of ancient Chinese show that language is not only a ―tool‖ of thinking,but also an ―organ‖ of thought construction.Both of them are characteristics of language.3.Humboldt‘s study of Chinese characters began with its structure,and he gradually realized its relationship with sound,and developed his philosophical thinking on Chinese characters.Humboldt believed that the form of a Chinese character would affect the thought produced by the sound in the mind.But his periodic studies suggest that he is not constrained by this view.There is a corresponding relationship between the sound,form and meaning of Chinese characters which is different from that of Indo-European languages.4.From his study of ancient Chinese,Humboldt gradually realized a more accurate reflection on the characteristics of language.The birth and development of phonetic forms depend on the innate gift of language on the one hand and language consciousness on the other hand.They dominate the creativity of the imagination.These form the differences in language and the way people observe the world,thus deepening the differences in people‘s understanding of each other and of everything in the world.