Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

Speaker: Dr. Lutz Marten (President, The Philological Society; Professor of General and African Linguistics, SOAS)

Topic: Philology and Multilingualism: Rethinking Language, Communities and Change

Moderator: Ku-Ming (Kevin) Chang (Associate Research Fellow, IHP, Academia Sinica)

Time: March. 9th (Monday), 15:30-17:30

Venue: Room 701, 7th Floor, IHP Research Hall

Organizer: Research Center of Cultural and Intellectual History, IHP, Accademia Sinica

Contact: Research Center of Cultural and Intellectual History, cihasihp@gmail.com

Abstract:

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.

(This lecture will be given in English, and no prior registration is required.)