「言語年代學」即ち「語彙統計學」の方法について

要旨

The author introduces Morris Swadesh's method of lexical statistics or glotnchronology to the linguistic circle of Japan, applying it to the comparative study of Old Japanese and modern dialects.<BR>He discusses its significance as a comparative method of related languages, and points out the following two major advancements. While the comparative method so far concerns the phonology and grammar rather than the vocabulary, Swadesh deals with the latter. Swadesh's method is statistical and accordingly more objective than the usual comparative method.<BR>Although it is possible to comment critically on the method at several points, its effectiveness in general should be acknowledged. For instance, there are no“concepts and experiences common to all human groups”(Salish Internal Relationships, 157), because the dispositions of the speakers of different languages are often different even to “the same things”, that is, the “sememes”(as the author calls them) of synonymous words of any two languages are often not identical. Thus, Japanese /me/«eye» denotes the eye which opens and closes rather than the eye-ball, while (Chakhar) Mongol/nüdä/ which is the only word for “eye” denotes the latter rather than the former. Nevertheless we can find words <I>which refer to things and events common to all human groups</I>, and thus we can generally fill Swadesh's questionnaire.

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