言語学の明治草創期におけるB.H.Chamberlain

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  • ゲンゴガク ノ メイジ ソウソウキ ニ オケル B H Chamberlain
  • A Note on B. H. Chamberlain at the Germinal Stage of Our Linguistic Study in the Meiji Era

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The history of our linguistic study after the Meiji Restoration is divided in this paper as follows: 1st Period From the Restoration to the 19th year of Meiji (1868-1886) 2nd Period From the 19th year of Meiji to the 28th year of Meiji (1886-1895) 3rd Period From the 28th year of Meiji to the end of World War II (1895-1945) 4th Period From the end of World War II to the 32nd year of Showa (1945-1957) 5th Period After the 32nd year of Showa (1957- ) In the Meiji Era there were two main linguistic schools in Japan: one is an old or classical school, and the other a scientific school. The former is to study Old Japanese of the 8th or the 9th century, such as is found in Ko-ji-ki, Nihon-shoki and Manyo-shu, and the latter is what we call philology or Sprachwissenschaft. With the opening of the country after its long isolation, the European outlook on language and the method of research in the 19th century were introduced to Japan, and the study of philology gradually developed in a scientific sense. This paper focuses on the 2 nd period mentioned above, from 1886 to 1895, and aims to examine what Basil Hall Chamberlain did in the field of linguistics during that period and to evaluate it in the light of our history of linguistic study. In 1886 the University of Tokyo offered the study of linguistics for the first time and appointed B. H. Chamberlain as its first instructor. 1895 was the year when he read the paper which proposed that Japanese and Loochuan Languages are sisters having the same parent language. His works in linguistics are divided into four fields: the study of Japanese grammar and of colloquial Japanese; the study of Aino language; the study of Loochuan language; and the study of Old Japanese. In each field he made unique and significant achievements. However, to me it seems that his intention was not to achieve them just for their own sake but to seek the parent language of Japanese. To obtain this, he studied Old Japanese as well as the folklore and the customs of the Japanese and of the people o

f the adjacent languages; then he compared and contrasted the languages very carefully and objectively. After these laborious studies he found an affinity between the Japanese and Loochuan languages and opened the road to the study of Proto-Japanese.

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