Abstract：Inspired by an assertion of the contemporary humanism philosophy that “philosophers build a palace of ideal, but live in a hut”, this paper raises the question: We speak in our huts, but why should we build a palace of ideal for language? Modern linguists are enthusiastic in advancing various theories to account for practical use of language, which virtually amounts to “build a palace of ideal, but live in a hut”. Such enchantment behaviors are attributed to two beliefs, that is, the principle of Compositionality and Syntax-Semantics Isomorphism. A number of hypotheses or assumptions and their corresponding theoretical solutions, such as empty categories, light verbs, shell structures and DP structure, have been proposed just to address the two beliefs. However, the relation between form (structure) and meaning (function) holding in sign languages shows that human language is a symbolic system with metonymic nature. In other words, we can find that human language is essentially a metonymic symbol system, and its form and meaning do not necessarily have complete correspondence and reducibility. Therefore, the author believes that it is perhaps unnecessary to propose so many theoretical syntactic constructs as mentioned above. In short, taking a critical stand, this paper aims to disenchant the over-enchanted theoretical endeavours of language study in the hope of returning to the simple aspects of language nature in linguistic studies.
袁毓林. 为什么要给语言建造一座宫殿？——从符号系统的转喻本质看语言学的过度附魅[J]. 语言战略研究, 2019, 4(4): 60-73.
Yuan Yulin. Why Build a Palace for Language: On the Over-enchanted Linguistics from the Perspective of the Metonymic Nature of the Symbolic System. , 2019, 4(4): 60-73.
