论语言学在亚洲文明研究中的作用  

Asian Civilization Research from the Perspective of the Linguistics

作　　者：程工[1,2] 刘家琪 Cheng Gong;Liu Jiaqi(School of International Studies,Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310058,China;The Institute of Asian Civilizations,Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310058,China)

机构地区：[1]浙江大学外国语言文化与国际交流学院,浙江杭州310058 [2]浙江大学亚洲文明研究院,浙江杭州310058

出　　处：《浙江大学学报（人文社会科学版）》2022年第2期87-99,共13页Journal of Zhejiang University:Humanities and Social Sciences

基　　金：浙江省哲学社会科学优势学科重大资助课题(19YSXK01ZD)。

摘　　要：在亚洲文明研究中,语言学能在语系、语言接触和文字谱系三个方面提供丰富的证据,具有不可替代的重要作用。首先,语系与文明关系密切,研究语系的形成和扩散,有助于还原亚洲文明的起源与扩散以及亚洲民族的形成与迁徙;其次,亚洲语言之间经常发生接触,从而引发演变,研究语言接触,有助于洞察亚洲文明的交流与互动;最后,文字承载了不同时期的文明,对文字谱系进行研究,可以跨越时空限制探知亚洲文明的传播和互鉴。因此,语言学应该与考古学和遗传学等学科一道成为亚洲文明研究的主要手段,与它们形成新的综合,共同为深化对亚洲文明的认识做出应有贡献。This paper explores the possible ways that linguistics,broadly construed as the study of both the spoken and written forms of human language,can contribute to the understanding of Asian civilizations.It is argued that insights may be gained by investigating the following fields of research.The first one concerns the genesis and disposal of language families.One striking fact about Asia is that it was the homeland of some of the most important phyla of languages,as 7 out of the world’s top 10 language families originated from two regions at the two extremities of this continent.One is the Futile Crescent,with Afro-Asiatic,Indo-European,Caucasian,and,possibly,Dravidian(which m ay be traced back to the now extinct Elam ite) fam ilies;and the other is the Yangtze-Yellow River Basin,with Sino-Tibetan,Tai-Kadai,Austro-Asiatic,Austronesian,and the Miao-Yao(Hmong-Mien) families.These families together command 5.3 billion speakers,accounting for about 74% of the world’s population today.Moreover,the top 10 languages with the largest number of speakers all belong to these families.This prominence in language can be profitably employed in the studies of Asian civilizations,especially if we take the well-known Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis as a guideline,according to which early civilizations were brought about by the advent of agriculture,which offered better substance economy than hunting-gathering,leading to a dramatic increase in population,sedentary villages and towns,and the essential social and productive foundations of the first civilizations.The second area that linguistics may shed lights on the study of Asian civilizations is language contacts,by which speakers of different languages(or different dialects) interact with one another,leading to a transfer of linguistic features in various degrees.Such contacts offer a glimpse into the intimacy and the frequency of the interactions between and among different population groups,and more importantly,the nature of loanwords and other features into the contac

关 键 词：亚洲文明 语言学 语系 语言接触 文字谱系 

分 类 号：H0-05[语言文字—语言学]