语言学概论翻译

CHAPTER IV

第四章

Linguistic Value

语言价值

I. The language as thought organised in

sound

第一节

.

以思想组织的语言

In order to realise that the language

itself

can

be

nothing

other

thana

system

of pure values, one need only consider

the two elementswhich are involved in

the way it functions: ideas and sounds

为了意识 到语言它本身无外乎就是一个

纯粹的价值系统，

我们只需要考虑 到关于语

言发挥它作用的方式的两种元素：

声音和思

Psychologically, setting aside its

expression

in

words,

our

thoughtis

simplya

vague,

shapeless

mass.

Philosophers

and

linguists

havealways

agreed that were it not for signs, we

should

be

incapable

ofdifferentiating

any

two

ideas

in

a

clear

and

constant

way.

In

itself,thought

is

like

a

swirling

cloud, where no shape is intrinsically

deter-minate. No ideas are established

in

advance,

and

nothing

is

distinct,before

the

introduction

oflinguistic structure.

心理学上，

不理会它语言表面上的表达 ，

我们的思想就是简单的一个模糊不清的，

不

< br>成样子的，没有形状的团块。哲学家和语言

学家一直认同要不是由于符号标志，< /p>

我们将

会没有能力用一种清楚明了和始终如一的

< br>方法区别任何两种思想。思想，它本身，就

像一个乌云密布的漩涡，在那里，没有 成形

之物本质上是确切的。

在语言构造学引用之

前，没有概念是提前固定好，没有事物是清

楚明显的。

But

do

sounds,

which

lie

outside

this

nebulous

world

of

thought,

inthemselves

constitute

entities

established

in

advance?

No

more

thanideas do. The substance of sound is

no

more

fixed

or

rigid

than

that

ofthought.

It

does

not

offer

a

ready-made

mould,

with

shapes

thatthought

must

inevitably

conform

to.

It is a malleable material whichcan be

fashioned into separate parts in order

to supply the signalswhich thought has

need

of.

So

we

can

envisage

the

linguistic phenomenon in its entirety

一

the

language,

that

is

一

as

a

series

of

adjoining

subdivisions

simultaneously

imprinted

both

on

the

plane

of

vague,amorphous

thought

(A),

and

on

the

equally featureless plane of sound(H).

This

can

be

represented

very

approximately

as

in

the

followingsketch

(top of p. 111

。

)

但是，

< br>位于模糊的思想世界之外的声音，

它本身会构成预先成立的实体吗？只不过

是想法这样。

声音的实质不再是思想的固定

或 僵化。它不提供现成的模具，思想必须不

可避免地符合。这是一种可锻材料，为了提

供思想所需要的信号可以制成不同的零件。

我们可以设想语言本身即 为一系列相邻分

支同时印迹对模糊语言的平面，

无定型的思

想（

A

）和声音一样的平面（

B

）

。这可以非

常接近下面 的示意图表示。

（

111

页的顶端）< /p>

The

characteristic

role

of

a

language in relation to thought is not

tosupply

the

material

phonetic

means

by

which

ideas

may

be

expressed

.

it

is

to

act

as

intermediary

between

thought

and

sound,

in

such

a

waythat

the

combination

of

both

necessarily

produces

a

mutually

complementary

delimitation

of

units.

Thought,

chaotic

by

nature,

is