イギリスの文献学 (フィロロジー) と文献学者 (フィロロジスト) : その3

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  • イギリス ノ ブンケンガク フィロロジー ト ブンケンガクシャ フィロロジスト ソノ 3
  • Philology and Philologists in Britain (3)

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What philology is and what philology should aim at have been variously discussed especially since the nineteenth century. Traditionally speaking, "die eigentliche Aufgabe der Philologie", as August Bockh states in his Encyclopadie und Methodologie der philologischen Wissenschaften (1886), is "das Erkennen des vom menschlichen Geist Produzierten" or "das Erkennen des Erkannten". Hermann Paul pursued this in his voluminous works Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (1891-1893) adopting the interdisciplinary approach. However, Ferdinand de Saussure criticized imperfection in philological studies saying that their objects were exclusively devoted to written or classical languages without paying any attention to living languages. The present linguists, who synchronically observe a language from a theoretical standpoint, denounce philology as having no clearly established methodology. Under these circumstances we need to reconfirm that philology is "love of learning and literature ; the study of literature, in a wide sense, including grammar, literary criticism and interpretation, the relation of literature and written records to history, etc." as defined in the OED. That is why the purpose of philology is to describe and interpret literary and linguistic facts seen in texts in the past, and to link the past and the present through the results attained on the basis of historical investigation. Therefore, literary and linguistic studies should not be separated from each other. Britain has produced many philologists who studied languages with much literary, historical and cultural interest, relating them closely to humanistic aspects. The first English philologists in Britain were "Æthelwold and his circle in Winhcester" (Gneuss, 1972) writing in the Old English period and the most important one was the prolific writer Ælfric, whose works dealing with extensive themes can be considered as philological. The period ranging from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century saw the appearance of the three greatest philological scholars who laid the basis for medieval studies : Lawrence Norwell, George Hickes, and Humphrey Wanley. They collected medieval English manuscripts, catalogued them making a detailed description of their contents, and offered future textual critics the opportunity to publish texts. Their scholarship including textual criticism shows comprehensiveness not limited only to the areas of language and literature. Thomas Warton, writing in the eighteenth century, brought out The History of English Poetry, in which he revealed what the nature of the change of the English language was producing diverse late Middle English and early Modern English poems as evidence. There are many other important philologists to be noted, but as representative ones maintaining traditional philological attitudes I took notice of the literary and linguistic accomplishments of two scholars : J.R.R. Tolkien and R.W. Chambers. Their stance on language and literature is embodied in the following statements : "The right and natural sense of Language includes Literature just as Literature includes the study of the language of literary works." (1959) and "in speaking of Philology at University College, I wish to use the word in the older, broader, and more correct sense, including the study of literature as well as the study of language." (1939) respectively. Nowadays the study of language tends to be divorced from the study of literature and academic sectionalism to prevail. It is required that we should return to the original meaning of "philology", and cast our eyes once more on the traditional British attitude toward philological studies.

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