LANGUAGE  語言

METHOD USING SOUND USING which HUMANS MUTUALLY COMMUNICATE AND EXPRESS MEANING.
TONGUEMOTHER TONGUENATIVE TONGUEDIALECTPATOISSLANGIDIOMJARGONARGOTCANTINFORMAL LINGO
Hypernym
  • METHODSYSTEM of ACTS USING which one is ABLE to SUCCEED IN a TASK. 
    • SYSTEMTRANSPARENTLY OR EXPLICITLY ORDERED COMPLEX WHOLE.
      • WHOLEPERFECT so as to LACK NONE OF ITS PARTS.
        • PERFECTCOMPLETELY AND INTENSELY EXCELLENT....
Hyponym
Old Chinese Criteria
1. The most abstract philosophical and general term for language is yán 言.

2. Yǔ 語 refers to speech as part of a dialogue, but very often also generally to a language of one kind or another.

3. Yīn 音 refers to language as primarily manifested in special forms of oral articulation, but the word also often refers to a specific language in general.

4. Wén 文 refers to language as primarily manifested in specific ways of writing it down, but the word also often refers to a specific language in general. Gāosēngzhuàn p. 329 that someone 手執梵文口宣晉語。 "In his hand he held the Sanskrit text and with his mouth pronounced Jìn language."

5. Huà 話 refers to language as concrete utterance, typically as part of dialogue, and the word which is so common in modern Chinese is quite rare in classical Chinese.

6. Fāng yán 方言 (Míng dynasty occasional variant: 方語 ) refers to a local language or dialect, as spoken in a given place.

7. Yányǔ 言語 and the somewhat rarer yǔyán 語言 refer to language and linguistic articulatory activity in a general abstract way.

8. Yǔyīn 語音 and yányīn 言音 refer to oral articulatory aspects of language in a general and abstract way.

9. Yīn yì 音義 is a rare expression referring abstractly to a local variety of linguistic conventions linking sound and meaning.

10. Wén zì 文字 refers to the written language.

T49n2038_p0910c26(05)║ 所以善吐番音。兼解諸國文字。

Modern Chinese Criteria
語言 is the general word for language.

言語 is a more literary way of referring to what in French is parole "language use, speech".

語文



rough draft to BEGIN TO identify synonym group members for analysis, based on CL etc. 18.11.2003. CH /

Old Chinese Contrasts
The abstract notion of "language" versus "speech" is often unclear. The standard way of saying Dialect X has the word N is to say "in X they say/it is called N".

Thus the notion of a language/dialect does not enter the formulation.

Dictionaries of the Chinese language, even dialect dictionaries, do not identify the Chinese language. Thus we have the Dictionary Fāngyán 方言 "Local words/speech" which is a dicitionary of the languages/dialects in China, and we do not have anything like a Zhōngguó Fāngyán 中國方言 "Chinese Dialects" from ancient China.

The syononym dictionary Ěryǎ 爾雅 as well as the Shuōwén Jiězì 說文解字 (henceforth SW) are concerned with language or vocabulary as such rather than the mere explanation of texts. The intellectual consequences of this need to be explored.

In pre-Buddhist texts like the Shuōwén we have 魯語,宋魯語,齊語,秦語, and in cases like these it is plausible to take 語 to mean "way of speaking>language, linguistic practice" of the area concerned.

The expression Fāngyǔ 方語 in SW refers to local speech or dialect in general.

In XIANYUJING we regularly have Jìnyǔ 晉語 "Jìn language", and in Tang texts we have Tángyǔ 唐語 as well as Tángyán 唐言. All these appear to be ways of referring to some kind of standard Chinese. Thus in these connections 語 would seem to have the meaning "way of speaking> language".

Note qīnyán 禽言 "language of the beasts" and 鳥語 "language of the birds" in which it would seem that an abstract notion like that of language, even more abstract than that of human language in general, is operative.

When we read in bears witness to the existence of bilingualism.

  • A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages ( BUCK 1988) p. 18.24

  • A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages ( BUCK 1988) p. 18.25

  • Vocabulaire européen des philosophies. Dictionnaire des intraduisibles ( CASSIN 2004) p. 675

  • De Rerum Humanarum Emendatione ( COMENIUS 1665) p. 571

    LINGUA

    Cum pro Sermone sumitur, est Verborum Res significantium, et Menti praesentantium, certa ratione contextorum et contexendorum apparatus. In qva tria concurrunt 1. Res significandae. 2 Mentes mutuo sibi aliqvid significantes. 3. Verba articulatione distincta distincte aliqvid significare apta.

  • Lateinische Synonyme und Etymologien ( DOEDERLEIN 1840) p.

    LANGUAGE

    lingua refers to speech of any, even the most uncultivated barbarian people, in as far as they pssess proper words to express their notions. Like the tongue, lingua is something one is taken to have, naturally, and the owrd refers to t mere gift of speech.

    sermo refers to the speech of a cultivated people, insofar as it is adapted for the expression of complex civilised thought. Sermo is more elaorate and refers to a voluntary activity involving rules of grammar as well as of style.

  • Traite elementaire des synonymes grecques ( DUFOUR 1910) p. 108

  • Anthologia sive Florilegium rerum et materiarum selectarum ( LANGIUS 1631) p.

    LINGUA

  • Woerterbuch der Philosophie. Neue Beitraege zu einer Kritik der Sprache ( MAUTHNER WP 1924) p. III.316

    UNIVERSALSPRACHE

  • Dictionnaire culturel en langue francaise ( REY 2005) p. 2.2333

  • Historisches Woerterbuch der Philosophie ( RITTER 1971-2007) p. 9.1437

    SPRACHE

  • "Sachwoerterbuch zum Alten China" ( UNGER SACH) p.

    DIALEKT

    FACHSPRACHEN

  • Histoire des moeurs ( POIRIER 1991) p. 2.7-75

  • The Encyclopedia of Philosophy ( BORCHERT 2005) p. 1.342

  • The Encyclopedia of Philosophy ( BORCHERT 2005) p.

    LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT

  • Encyclopedia of Religion ( JONES 2005) p.

  • Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology ( BARNARD AND SPENCER 2002) p.

  • Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Second Edition ( BROWN 2005) p.

  • Ästhetische Grundbegriffe ( BARCK 2010) p. 5.619

  • Quiddities. An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary ( QUINE 1987) p. 8

    ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGES

  • Quiddities. An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary ( QUINE 1987) p. 111

  • SYNONYMES FRANÇOIS, LEURS DIFFÉRENTES SIGNIFICATIONS, ET LE CHOIX QU'IL EN FAUT FAIRE Pour parler avec justesse ( GIRARD 1769) p. 2.246:169

    LANGAGE.LANGUE.IDIOME.DIALECTE.PATOIS.JARGON

  • Bibliographisches Handbuch zur Sprachinhaltsforschung. Teil II. Systematischer Teil. B. Ordnung nach Sinnbezirken (mit einem alphabetischen Begriffsschluessel): Der Mensch und seine Welt im Spiegel der Sprachforschung ( FRANKE 1989) p. 75A

Attributions by syntactic funtion

  • NPab : 14
  • nab : 7
  • nab.post-N{PLACE}.+N{PRED} : 5
  • VPtoS : 1
  • nab.post-N : 1
  • nadN : 1

Attributions by text

  • 賢愚經 : 5
  • 祖堂集 : 4
  • 方言 : 4
  • 禮記 : 3
  • 春秋左傳 : 2
  • 呂氏春秋 : 2
  • 莊子 : 2
  • 淮南子 : 1
  • 春秋穀梁傳 : 1
  • 百喻經 : 1
  • 荀子 : 1
  • 史記 : 1
  • 妙法蓮華經 : 1
  • 新論-漢-桓譚 : 1

Words

  yán OC: ŋan MC: ŋi̯ɐn 11 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • nab.post-Nlanguage of a place
  • nab.post-N{PLACE}.+N{PRED}in the language of Npl be called N
  • nabactlanguage, speech [We need to find out when this word came to be used abstractly, as in 禽言]
言語  yán yǔ OC: ŋan ŋaʔ MC: ŋi̯ɐn ŋi̯ɤ 9 AttributionsWD

    Syntactic words
  • NPabpsychlanguage
語言  yǔ yán OC: ŋaʔ ŋan MC: ŋi̯ɤ ŋi̯ɐn 2 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPabpsychlanguage
  • VPtoSsay: "S"
  fàn OC: bloms MC: bi̯ɐm 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • nadNbuddhist(BUDDH:) of the Brahman language > in Sanskrit/Indian language
  • nbuddhist(BUDDH:) the Brahma language > Sanskrit; more generally: Indian language
  huà OC: ɡroods MC: ɦɣɛi 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • nabtextutterance; language
  yǔ OC: ŋaʔ MC: ŋi̯ɤ 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • nab.post-Nlanguage of N
  • nabnon-humanlanguage of birds (thus this corresponds to French langage and not to French langue, which is limited to human language, like Chinese 言)
  • nabpsychlanguage (see 梵語 "Sanskrit")
凡通語  fán tōng yǔ MC: bjaem thuwng ngjoX OC: blom kh-looŋ ŋaʔCH 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPabcommon language; expression understood by everyoneCH
通語  tōng yù MC: thuwng ngjoH OC: kh-looŋ ŋasCH 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPabcommon language; current expression (understood by everyone)CH
楚通語  chǔ tōng yù MC: tsrhjoX thuwng ngjoH OC: skhraʔ kh-looŋ ŋasCH 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPablanguage current in ChuCH
凡語  fán yǔ MC: bjaem ngjoX OC: blom ŋaʔCH 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPabcommon language; common expressionCH
  yīn OC: qrɯm MC: ʔim 0 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • nab.post-Nlanguage of the N 劉知幾 《史通‧言語》:"...必諱彼夷音,變成華語 See also 蕃音,梵音,漢音 etc.
方言  fāng yán OC: paŋ ŋan MC: pi̯ɐŋ ŋi̯ɐn 0 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • nabactlocal speech, local linguistic practice 楊雄:《方言》 DC: 晉 葛洪 《抱樸子‧鈞世》:"古書之多隱,未必昔人故欲難曉,或世異語變,或方言不同。" 唐 皇甫冉 《同諸公有懷絕句》:"移家南渡久,童稚解方言。"
胡語  hú yǔ OC: ɡaa ŋaʔ MC: ɦuo̝ ŋi̯ɤ 0 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPabactBarbarian language; Turkish
言音  yán yīn OC: ŋan qrɯm MC: ŋi̯ɐn ʔim 0 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPabactBuddhist: language 東夏西天言音
語音  yǔ yīn OC: ŋaʔ qrɯm MC: ŋi̯ɤ ʔim 0 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPabactlanguage
音義  yīn yì OC: qrɯm ŋrals MC: ʔim ŋiɛ 0 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • nabactlanguage

Existing SW for

Here are Syntactic Words already defined in the database:

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