摘要
语言的系统性质需要通过元语言来反思。数理逻辑虽能反思任何语句的真值关系,但因语义域狭窄而无法成为思想所有值域的元语言;维特根斯坦的“语言游戏”是一种将语义转换为用法集合的元语言,优势是为语义提供了确定可查询的外部参照,但只反思了规则的性质,没有能力反思语言的思想性;人工智能的大语言模型开发了一种另类元语言,以相关性(标识之间在概率上的最优链接)和演化性(以贝叶斯方法持续微调相关性的可信度)发展出一种经验主义的标识语法。虽然大语言模型能够处理一切关系,但标识系统与语言之间的一一对应映射仍然不能表达事物的整体性,缺乏对事物及世界的理解。思想的本质是去“选择”某种“未来”,据此本文设想了另一种思想语法和元语言,以“否定词”与“动词”作为反思和解释任何语义的根据,以否定词来保证“选择”功能,由动词来建构“未来”,因此有望将映射升级为理解整体性的“态射”,或可能是可用于实现新一代人工智能的“世界模型”的一个方法论,其思想能力的优势在于既敞开无穷可能性也能够解释因果性,而且可在自然语言内部实现对任何语言的反思,因此是一种更优的元语言。
Abstract
This article argues that the systematic character of language can be adequately examined only through a metalanguage capable of reflecting on language from a higher-order standpoint. It first considers formal (mathematical) logic as a candidate metalanguage: although it can capture truth relations among propositions, its restricted semantic range prevents it from serving as a metalanguage for the full spectrum of thought. It then revisits Wittgenstein’s notion of language games as an alternative metalanguage that translates meaning into a set of socially rule-governed uses. While this approach offers an external and publicly inspectable point of reference for semantics, it remains limited to reflecting on the nature of rules and does not account for language’s thought-laden dimension. The paper next turns to large language models (LLM) as a contemporary, non-traditional metalanguage. LLM operationalize a grammar of signs grounded in correlational relevance—probabilistically optimized linkages among tokens—and evolutionary updating, whereby empirical Bayesian adjustment continuously recalibrates the credibility of these correlations. On this view, LLM can process relations at scale, yet the resulting sign system remains a mapping that fails to represent the wholeness of objects and the world; it therefore lacks genuine understanding. The essence of thought lies in “selecting” a particular “possible world”. At its core, thinking is an act of “choice”: it selects and commits to a certain possible world among alternatives. Against this background, the article proposes a speculative “grammar of thought” and associated metalanguage built on negation and verbs. Negation secures the essential function of thought as selection—the capacity to choose among possible worlds—while verbs provide the generative structure through which possible worlds are constructed. The author suggests that this framework could upgrade mere mapping into a morphism oriented toward holistic intelligibility, offering a methodological route toward a next-generation of AI “world model”. Its putative advantage lies in simultaneously opening unlimited possibilities, supporting causal explanation, and enabling reflexive analysis of any language from within natural language itself, thus obtaining a better metalanguage.
关键词
元语言 /
思想语法 /
动词思维 /
否定词 /
大语言模型
Key words
metalanguage /
grammar of thought /
verb-centered thinking /
negation /
large language models
赵汀阳.
元语言、思想语法及大语言模型语法的哲学评论[J]. 语言战略研究. 2026, 11(1): 5-15 https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260101
Zhao Tingyang.
A Philosophical Review on Metalanguage, the Grammar of Thought, and the “Grammar” of Large Language Models#br#[J]. Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(1): 5-15 https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260101
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