Ideal Language Projects and Political Radicalism in Modern England: A Research in Cultural History

这个为期两年的研究项目主要涉及英国理想语言思想发展的两个主要历史时期。第一个时期，即早期，是十七世纪中期;第二个时期，即晚期，是十九世纪之交，也就是通常所说的浪漫主义时代。这两个时期都包括政治上的剧烈变化，其形式是国内革命，前者是英国内战和光荣革命，后者是美国革命和法国革命。在这个特定的历史背景下，这个项目深入到政治领域，试图构建理想的语言。在17世纪中期，现有的语言系统不足以代表世界的共同意识引起了各种“通用语言”项目。其中，本研究主要集中在弗朗西斯戈德温的理想语言和约翰威尔金斯的更实质性的“哲学语言”项目。通过对这些理论的分析，尤其是对后者的分析，本研究揭示了17世纪英国人在单一语言体系下理解整个宇宙的愿望及其与斯图亚特王朝保守政治的转换意识形态联系。在浪漫主义时代，人们为恢复现有语言的原始意义的清晰性进行了各种尝试。这一时期的语言理论的特点是，它们与当时的激进政治运动有着一种隐蔽而又强烈的意识形态联系。本研究通过将纯粹的语言现象与法国大革命后兴起的激进意识形态联系起来，从语言和政治的角度分析了各个不同历史时期的独特性，从而对浪漫主义语言思想的这一方面有了新的认识。

This two-year research project deals chiefly with two major historical periods in the development of the ideas of ideal language in England. The first, earlier period is the mid seventeenth century; the second, later period is the years around the turn of the nineteenth century, what is commonly called the Romantic era. Both periods included drastic changes in politics in the forms of civil revolutions, the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution for the former, the American Revolution and the French Revolution for the latter. With this specific historical background in mind this project has delved into the apparently unrelated areas of politics and attempts construct to ideal languages.In the mid seventeenth century, the shared sense of inadequacy of the existing linguistic system to represent the world gave rise to various "universal language" projects. Among others, this research focused on the ideal language of Francis Godwin and the more substantial "philosophical language" project of John Wilkins. Analyzing these theories, especially the latter, this research has demonstrated the existence of a seventeenth century desire to comprehend the whole universe under a single linguistic system and its convert ideological link with the conservative politics of the Stuart Dynasty.In the Romantic era, varied attempts were made to regain the original clarity of signification to the existing language. It is the characteristic of the language theories of this period that they had a disguised but strong ideological link with the contemporary radical political movements. This research has shed a new light on this aspect of the Romantic linguistic thinking by relating purely linguistic phenomena to the radical ideology rising in the wake of the French Revolution.The unique character of each of these different historical periods have thus been analyzed in relation with language and politics.