中央研究院歷史語言研究所

講    者：Lutz Marten 博士（英國語言學學會主席；倫敦大學亞非學院語言、文化與語言學學院暨語言學系教授）

講    題：Philology and Multilingualism: Rethinking Language, Communities and Change

主持人：張谷銘 博士（本所副研究員）

時    間：2026年3月9日（一）15:30−17:30

地    點：本所研究大樓七樓701會議室

主辦單位：本所文化思想史研究室

演講摘要：

The concepts of uniformity (of sound change) and inheritance (of linguistic systems through time) have been at the heart of much philological work over the last two centuries: The guiding idea of language reconstruction is that languages diverge and over time form daughter languages, which can be analysed like a genetic tree. However, recently doubt has been cast over the (universal) applicability of this methodological stance. Much as the concepts help to illuminate some aspects of language history, they risk obscuring other, equally significant, aspects – in particular effects of multilingualism and language contact. In this talk I survey some of this discussion and place it in a wider context of the history of (Western) science. I will explore some consequences of this multilingual critique, if taken seriously, for our understanding of language and language change, speech communities through time, and the wider intellectual enterprise of European enlightenment.

（本演講以英文進行，無須事先報名）