ABriefHistoryofLinguisticsbefore18thCentury

李亦松

Introduction

Linguistics can be simply defined as the scientific study of language.Therefore，a history of linguistics is closely related to the origin of human language.This paper，in a rough way，classifies history of linguistics into three periods：Linguistics in Ancient Times； Linguistics in the Middle Ages； and Linguistics in the Renaissance.The following section will discuss these periods in detail one by one.

1.Linguistics in Ancient Times

This part mainly discusses linguistics from the following three representative countries：China，India，and Greece.

Ancient Chinese linguistics enjoys a special fame on the origins of language.The earliest writing system，which was called Jiaguwen，appeared in the 14th century BC and Er Ya was the first work.In the Qin and Han dynasties，which mark a pioneer era in chinas language studies.During this period，the representative figures were Xu Shen，Yang Xiong，and Liu Xi etc.

As to Indian linguistics，it traced back to the study of Veda.Ancient Indians mainly studied Sanskrit grammar and their methods were primarily empirical and analytical .The Indian linguistic scholarship centered on three perspectives：phonetics and phonology，general linguistic theory and semantics，and grammatical description.In short，the achievements of ancient Indian linguistics are of great significance to world linguistics.

On Greek linguistics，as is known to all，ancient Greece，whose study on language started about the 5th century BC，is taken for the cradle of Western civilization.Ancient Greek linguistics，who studied language from philosophical point of view，were more interested in dealing with problems on the relationship between language and natural world，language and logical form，language and human thought etc..Socrates，Plato，and Aristotle，were famous philosophers in ancient Greece.Etymology，grammar and phonetics were three aspects of linguistic study among early Greek scholars.

2.Linguistics in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages refers to the period of European history starting from the fall of the Roman Empire in the year 476 and the beginning of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.Latin became a main subject of language，so Latin grammar to some extend represented the linguistic studies of the early Middle Ages.Aelfric and Hispanus were great figures in this period.Aelfric wrote Latin Grammar and Colloquium in Latin.Hispanus produced his Summulae Logicales.

During the Middle Ages，scholasticism is the collective of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian revelation in European thought.It strives for mitigating the conflict between reason and faith and between realism and nominalism.Nominalism refers to the doctrine that are no universal essences in reality and that abstract concepts are only names.Scholasticism tries to establish proof of the existence of God.

In addition to scholasticism，speculative grammar was also the product of the integration of the grammatical description of Latin，which was formulated by Priscian and Donatus，into system of scholastic philosophy.In other words，the descriptive basis hold a logically thought-out and internally coherent system of philosophical grammar.In addition，in accordance with the theory of speculative grammars，a great deal of new terminology emerged as well.

3.Linguistics in the Renaissance

The Renaissance refers to the birth of the modern world and the beginning of modern history.During this period，the study of Greek and Latin grammars proceeded.Rationalism and Empiricism were typical phenomenon of linguistics.

The rationalism grammars who were the successors of the medieval scholastic grammars tried to reveal the unity of grammar within the separate grammars of distinct languages.The Port-Royal grammarians reached instances from Latin，Greek，and other European languages in trying their best to write a general grammar，so as to seek to the underlying universal grammar or characteristics of language.

Empiricism was a vital contribution of British.The essence of empiricism is the thesis that all human knowledge is concluded externally from the sense in impressions and the operations of the mind upon them in abstraction and generalization.One aspect of English empiricism in linguistic studies was the beginning of systematic phonetic description of the sounds of the English language，and of the formal analysis of English grammar.

Conclusion

In a word，what is discussed above is mere a outline or a brief history of linguistics before 18th century，a better understanding of which will benefit to our study of linguistics.

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