PHILOLOGY (Greek philologia - “love of knowledge”) - a system of knowledge necessary for scientific work over written monuments, mainly in ancient, often dead, languages. Since the most important and first thing in the totality of this knowledge is the understanding of the language in which the monument was written, F. is closely connected with linguistics (see). It should be noted, however, that philosophy in its approach to the text attested in monuments differs significantly from linguistics; while the linguist examines all the changes that have occurred in the language, as indicators of its historical movement, the philologist proceeds from a certain norm - from the perfect state of the text, which he strives to restore through complex processing of surviving monuments that have more or less “distorted” this text (text criticism, recensio and emendatio - the main part of any philological work); The philologist also proceeds from the norm - the presumed single, accurate understanding of the text - in his second main work - in the interpretation of the text (interpretation, hermeneutics).
This normative ahistorical understanding of language is easily explained from the essentially applied nature of F. Indeed, philological work is carried out wherever the need arises for an accurate understanding of monuments in inaccessible languages; Thus, in the ancient world during the Hellenistic period, the commentary work of philologists unfolded around the texts of Homer and tragedians; V ancient india philological work arises from the need for an accurate understanding of the Vedas; among medieval Arabs and Jews it develops in connection with the interpretation of the Koran and the Bible. However, in all these cases we have the right to rather talk about the origins of physiology as a science.
Physics developed into a system of knowledge in European science during the Renaissance, when the study ancient world, and somewhat later, the interpretation of the Bible turns into a political weapon, into a weapon in the fight against the feudal worldview. XVI-XVIII centuries - the heyday of classical philosophy in European science (the largest figures were Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558) and his son Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609), Robert and Henri Etienne-Stefannos (Robert Estienne, 1503-1559, Henri Estienne, 1528-1598), Casaubon (Isaak Casaubon, 1559-1614), Melanchton (Philipp Melanchton, 1497-1560), Justus Lipsy and many other humanists); it coincides with the beginning of the development of eastern F. (at first, mainly Semitology - the largest figures Reuchlin (1455-1522), later Buxtorf (1564-1629, Johann Buxtorf, 1599-1664), Ludolf (Hiob Ludolf, 1624-1629) 1704) and many others). At the same time, growth national identity, associated with the formation of European nations during the period of primitive accumulation, causes - first of all in the most economically advanced countries of Europe: Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, England, much later in Germany, in the Slavic countries - on the one hand, philological processing national languages(the beginning of neophilology - the activity of P. Bembo (1470-1547), Fr. Fortunio (Gianfrancesco Fortunio, 16th century), Lodovico Dolce (1508-1568) - in Italy; J. Dubois (Jacques Dubois , 1478-1555) or Silvius, L. Meigret (Louis Meigret, 1510-1560), Pierre de la Ramee, or Ramee (1515-1572), Robert and Henri Etienne - in France; (Elio Antonio de Nebricha, 1444-1533) - in Spain; J. Dryden, 1631-1700) and Johnson (Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784) - in England; J. G. Schottelius, 1612-1676), Leibniz ( G. W. Leibniz, 1646-1716), Gottsched (J. C. Gottsched, 1700-1766) - in Germany; Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, Sumarokov - in Russia), on the other hand, the growth of interest in national antiquities and, in connection with this, the development of national f. - in in particular, German F. (the largest figures are F. Junius (Franciscus Junius, 1589-1677) - in the Netherlands and England; Lambert Hermans ten Kate, 1674-1731 - in the Netherlands; J. Hickes (George Hickes, 1642-1715) - in England, etc.) and Slavic F. (the activities of Vuk Karadzic, 1787-1864, Dobrovsky, 1753-1829, Vostokov, 1781-1864; The flourishing of the latter f., however, is already under the sign of comparative historical linguistics (the beginning of the 19th century - the activity of the Grimms).
Expanding like this. arr. almost endlessly the area of his study, F. XVI-XVIII centuries. due to the lack of differentiation during this period of most social sciences acts as a complex of all historical disciplines, including elements of history, ethnography, archeology, linguistics, and literary history - as an “aggregate of knowledge” devoid of unity of system and method (in Hegel’s words).
The development of the listed historical disciplines in independent sciences, especially the emergence at the beginning of the 19th century. comparative historical linguistics (see), naturally should have led to a narrowing and clear limitation of the field of philological research; however, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. there is a dispute about the scope and methods of F. itself (in the 18th century - between the school of Hermann (Gottfried Hermann, 1772-1848), which reduced F. to criticism of the text, and the “real direction”, which claimed encyclopedicism and was represented by the works of Wolff, and later - Bockh (August Bockh, 1785-1867)); but still F. gradually gives way to linguistic research itself - first in the field of new European languages, and later in the field of oriental and classical languages - see Linguistics.
In the middle and end of the 19th century. the term F. is applied to those areas of knowledge where a comprehensive method of work is necessary due to the specific nature of the monuments themselves (the study of ancient and medieval realities, myths, literatures and languages). This is how this term is used in Soviet science; dismissing as unscientific all claims of F. to become fundamental for historical sciences discipline, revealing the purely subjective and idealistic nature of the supposedly “specific” method of F. - hermeneutics, Soviet science continues to critically use the genuine achievements of philological technology - textual criticism, analyzing and interpreting the huge material of facts collected by F. based on special disciplines, working using the dialectical-materialist method.
On the contrary, in the West in the 20th century. and especially strong in post-war period The collapse of the bourgeois scientific worldview is marked by a number of attempts to revive the encyclopedism of F., to establish F. as a fundamental discipline for the historical sciences, to defend and expand the scope of application of idealistic hermeneutics (cf. the revival of Schleiermacher’s ideas in Dilthey (1833-1911) and his school, construction Simmel (Georg Simmel, 1858-1918), etc.). Bibliography:
History of classical philosophy: Sandys J. E., A History of classical scholarship..., 3 vls, Cambridge, 1903-1908; Gudeman A., Grundriss der Geschichte der klassischen Philologie, 2 Aufl., Lpz., 1909; Kroll W., Geschichte der klassischen Philologie (Sammlung Goschen, no. 367), 2 Aufl., B., 1919; Wilamowitz-Moellendorf U., v., Geschichte der Philologie (Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft, hrsg. v. A. Gercke u. E. Norden. Bd. I, H. I), Lpz., 1921; Wolf F. A., Vorlesungen uber Enzyklopadie der Altertumswissenschaft. Kleine Schriften in lateinischer u. deutscher Sprache, Bd. II, Halle, 1869; Boeckh A., Encyklopadie und Methodologie der philologischen Wissenschaften, 2 Aufl., Lpz., 1886 (in Russian, presentation by P. I. Alandsky in “University News”, Kyiv, 1878, No. 8-10, 12); Usener H., Philologie und Geschichtswissenschaft, Bonn, 1882 (also in his book Vortrage u. Aufsatze, Lpz., 1907); Gercke A., Methodik... (Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft, hrsg. v. A. Gercke u. E. Norden, Bd. I), Lpz., 1912; History of Germanic F.: Raumer R., v., Geschichte der germanischen Philologie, vorzugsweise in Deutschland, Munchen, 1870; Paul H., Geschichte der germanischen Philologie, in: Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, hrsg. v. H. Paul, Bd. 1, 2 Aufl., Strassburg, 1901 (detailed lit.); History of F. Romaneska - Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, hrsg. v. G. Grober, 2 Bde, Strassburg, 1888-1902; Earlier works: Korting G., Encyklopadie u. Methodologie der romanischen Philologie, T. 1-3, Heilbronn, 1884-1886, and his, Handbuch der romanischen Philologie, Lpz., 1896 (outdated). History of F. Slavic - Yagich I.V., History of Slavic philology, in the book. Encyclopedia of Slavic Philology, vol. I, St. Petersburg (1908); Bulich S.K., Essay on the history of linguistics in Russia, vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1904; extensive bibliographic reference book “Review of works on Slavic studies”, Edited by V. N. Beneshevich for 1908-1913, St. Petersburg - P., 1909-1918 (14 issues and 3 indexes of authors’ names).
also Linguistics.
Greek philologia - love of words), in modern humanities, a complex of sciences that study language, speech and various verbal texts. Philology is a general designation for two sciences: linguistics and literary criticism, connected by a single subject of study - the word. In other words, philology is a “commonwealth humanities– linguistic, literary, historical, etc., studying history and elucidating the essence of the spiritual culture of humanity through linguistic and stylistic analysis written texts. The text in the totality of its internal aspects and external relations– the original reality of philology” (S. S. Averintsev). In antiquity and the Renaissance, philology was understood as an auxiliary discipline, the purpose of which is the critical study, commentary and publication of classical texts that enjoy indisputable literary authority, therefore philological considerations were expressed in philosophical works. Philology as an independent discipline was formed in antiquity in the 3rd–1st centuries. BC e. (elements of philology are inherent in ancient Indian and ancient Chinese cultures). But in the Middle Ages, philology again became a part of philosophy. The revival of philology as an independent discipline occurred during the Renaissance in the works of humanist philologists, the Italian poet F. Petrarch (1304–74) and the Dutch thinker and writer Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469–1536). New period development of philology - 18th century. in Germany: philology is still understood as a commentary on ancient monuments of literature, but F. A. Wolf (1759–1824) calls philology the entire set of sciences about ancient times, including history, history of philosophy, history of art. In the 19th century in the works of German scientists G. Usener, E. Rohde, W. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff ancient history separated from philology and became an independent science. Under the influence of Romanticism in Germany, in addition to classical philology, which studied Greek and Latin language and monuments ancient literature, the so-called new philology, dedicated to the study of new national languages and literary monuments created in them: folk and medieval. These are German studies (brothers J. and V. Grimm), Slavic studies (A. Kh. Vostokov in Russia, V. Hanka in the Czech Republic), oriental studies.
Poll on the topic “What is philology?” high school students, students, people with higher education and members of philological departments shows a wide range of opinions and almost complete absence Some respondents had no coherent definition of the science of words.
“I know what it is until I am asked what it is” - these words of the Christian thinker of the Middle Ages Augustine the Blessed, which he said about the category of time, are quite applicable in thinking about philology.
On the one hand, this science is one of the most developed. She has a certain subject, precise methods of its study, a system of theoretical conclusions and accumulated knowledge, a wide scope of application to social practice [Volkov 2007: 23]. On the other hand, philology remains a science of unsolved problems, which are pointed out by everyone who comes into contact with it.
Let us turn to the history of philology and compare the understanding of the corresponding term among domestic representatives of philological knowledge, starting from the 18th century.
V.K. Trediakovsky, who rightfully proudly called himself a philologist, identified his science with eloquence.
His young contemporary M.V. Lomonosov was the first to national science formulated a definition of the term philologist. In the illustrative dialogue from the “Brief Guide to Eloquence” there is a line: “Philip. Truly, I will begin and try to become a philologist from Philip.” [Lomonosov 1952: 342].
In the “Dictionary of the Russian Academy” the words philology no, but there are three words with the same root - philologist, philological, philological. If philologist it is interpreted as “lovers” [SAR: 6: 488], then the potential word philology would mean “philosophy.”
One of the first definitions of the term philology was given by N. M. Yanovsky in his “New Interpreter of Words...” (1806): « PHILOLOGY, Gr. Love and learning languages and literature; a science that contains rules and notes that serve to the general knowledge of languages, their criticism, the meaning of both their own and the transferred ones of their words and sayings, and finally everything that has to do with the expression in different dialects of peoples, both ancient and modern. "..." Philology includes various industries human knowledge, except high sciences mathematical and physical" [Yanovsky 1806: III: 987–988].
V.I. Dal also did not ignore the science of words in his famous dictionary. “Philology, linguistics, science or the study of ancient, dead languages; studying living languages" [Dal 1980: 4: 534]. If V.I. Dal, extremely narrowing the understanding of philology, reduces it to linguistics, then most subsequent authors expand the understanding of philology, including the cultural aspect.
In the authoritative “Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary” by I. N. Berezin, the term philology Two articles are devoted: “Comparative Philology” and “Philology”. The first is interpreted by him in the spirit of comparative studies - the leading direction in science of those years, the second - lubriciousness– represents short essay the content of this concept from antiquity, where oratory reached the heights of verbal mastery, up to the second half of the 19th century century, when it was divided into two branches: “the science of the language and literature of the people” and the science of the people. In the first case, the focus remains on the problems of grammar, criticism and hermeneutics, and in the second - ethnology and cultural studies (see: [Berezin 1878: 215]). For that time, such an understanding of philology was a noticeable step forward.
IN " Encyclopedic Dictionary"Brockhaus and Efron, philology is conceived as part of a single historical and philological science and is defined as “a science that has as its content the study of the creations of the human spirit, that is, in their development” (see reprint: [Zelinsky 1993: 811]).
The “Encyclopedic Dictionary” of the Russian Bibliographic Institute Granat defines philology as follows: “love of the word, the study of word-thought” [Ritter 1926: 511]; “the side of historical and philological science facing monuments” [Ibid: 512].
S. S. Averintsev in his “Brief Literary Encyclopedia” defined philology as “a community of humanities that study history and clarify the essence of the spiritual culture of mankind through linguistic and stylistic analysis of written texts.” True, in this article below there is a remarkable phrase: “It is more correct to see in F. a broad, but internally unified and self-legitimate form of knowledge, which is determined not so much by the boundaries of its subject as by a specific approach to it” [Averintsev 1972: 974].
For E. D. Polivanov, philology is a set of disciplines of social sciences that study cultural phenomena reflected in the monuments of the word, i.e. in language and in literary sources, and also (since other arts, in turn, are closely related to literature) and in monuments of other arts [Polivanov 2010: 129–130].
R. A. Budagov called philology a set of sciences that study culture different nations, first of all, in the form in which it is expressed in language, in writing, in fiction[Budagov 1976: 14].
The results of the 1979 discussion “Philology: problems, methods, tasks” on the pages of the Literary Review magazine are indicative. Speeches by famous literary scholars, linguists and philosophers Y. Bilinkis, M. Gasparov, M. Girshman, V. Grigoriev, V. Kozhinov, D. Likhachev, Y. Lotman, A. Markov, V. Fedorov about different aspects philology did not lead to the emergence of a single concept basic principles this area of humanities.
Almost twenty years later, S. I. Gindin stated that there is no single definition of philology even in the works of G. O. Vinokur specifically devoted to this topic. The definition can be reconstructed thanks to the statements of G. O. Vinokur about the essence of philological work. For example, “a philologist is not a “literary reader” or a “grave digger,” but simply the best of readers: the best commentator and critic. The main duty of a philologist is precisely to understand absolutely everything (quoted from: [Gindin 1998: 5]). Note that G. O. Vinokur defined philology not directly, but through the structure of the text and reasoning like: “... there is no doubt that reading is an art that must be learned... a master of reading is the person we call a philologist. The art of reading itself, in the sense assumed here, will rightly be designated in this case by the word “philology”” [Vinokur 1981: 38–39]. If for G. O. Vinokur philology is the art of reading, then for S. S. Averintsev philology is research human world, organized around the text and seen through the text [Averintsev 1972: 975].
Yu. V. Rozhdestvensky considered philology “the mediastinum between the study of language and the study of literature.” In philology, he distinguished general philology, which studies the relationship in various ways and forms of language use in social and linguistic practice, accounting and description of spheres of communication and historical experience standardization of social and linguistic practice [Rozhdestvensky 1979: 3].
It is no coincidence that over the past three years, articles with exactly the same title “What is philology?” have been published in scientific periodicals. [Nikitin 2010; Khrolenko 2010; Annushkin 2012]. The publication by O. V. Nikitin is a republication of the forgotten article by F. F. Zelinsky “Philology” in the “Encyclopedic Dictionary” of Brockhaus and Efron [Nikitin 2010]. The other two contain the author's understanding of the nature of philology. We talk about it below.
Modern encyclopedias and dictionaries answer the question of what philology is.
« Philology- a science (hereinafter it is emphasized by us. - A. Kh.), studying the culture, language and literature of a particular people" [http://www.glossary.ru].
« Philology– the name of a group of disciplines (linguistics, literary criticism, textual criticism, etc.) that study human culture through text” [http://www.lan.krasu.ru].
« Philology..., a set of methods and techniques for studying written monuments from the point of view of language, style, historical and ethnic affiliation” [BE 2006: 54: 476–477].
So, in definitions, the status of philology is defined in different ways:
(2) the name of the discipline group;
(3) the field of humanities;
(4) a set of methods and techniques for studying written monuments.
In the absence of a generally accepted definition of the term, very unexpected definitions are possible. Thus, in the annotation to one of the monographs it is stated that the text is currently considered as the sphere of philology - a literary discipline that studies written works in order to establish their special organization(emphasis added by us. - A. Kh.) [Averyanov 2008].
The compilers of foreign encyclopedias were faced with the same scientific problem. French linguist J. Maruso term philology interprets as follows: “This word usually means the study of literature in general, but in a more specific way (with the exception of the historical disciplines proper - history, the science of antiquities) - the study of written monuments and the form of language with which they introduce us, and in an even more special sense – the study of texts and their transmission, with the exception of the study of language, which is the subject of linguistics” [Maruso 1960: 326].
The famous encyclopedia Britannica limited itself to a few lines: “ Philology, a term now rarely used but once applied to the study of language and literature. Nowadays a distinction is usually made between literary and linguistic scholarship, and the term philology? Where used, means the study of language – i.e.., linguistics ( q.v.). It survives in the titles of a few learned journals that date to the 19th century. Comparative philology was a former name for what is now called comparative linguistics ( q.v.). . It is clear from the dictionary entry that the term “philology” itself is rarely used and refers to the field of linguistic and literary studies. Most often it means the study of language, and therefore comparative philology is gradually becoming comparative linguistics. In the 19th century word philology, reports dictionary entry, was included in the titles of some educational journals. Thus, philology, in the interpretation of British lexicographers, appears as something escheat.
The fact of the absence of the concept and term itself is discouraging philology in reference books of a philological nature. So, in " Literary Encyclopedia terms and concepts" (M., 2001) the corresponding concept and term are missing, although it is indicated philological method.
Many people perceive philological sciences as something very vague and abstract. They know that this process associated with the study of languages, but more detailed information do not own. And only those who have graduated from the Faculty of Philology can accurately and fascinatingly reveal all aspects of verbal science.
Concept of science
Philology - which studies the spirituality of different peoples, analyzes their writing, comprehends in detail the features of a particular language, and then collects the acquired knowledge into a single whole.
It is known that written texts are one of the sources reflecting the history of a people. The first of them appeared in the form of comments to difficult words found in dictionaries, treatises and religious writings. Homer was the first whose notes were subjected to careful analysis.
Philology includes many subjects, and each of them deals with its own branch. Romano-Germanic philology, for example, is the most widespread in the world, as it deals with the analysis of Romance and Germanic languages.
At the same time Romance languages include:
- French;
- Italian;
- Spanish and others.
The German group is among many learning English and German languages, one of the most common today.
History of development
Philological sciences appeared a long time ago, back in Ancient Greece. First, their emergence occurred, then their development (during the Middle Ages), and already during the Renaissance, they flourished in full force. The very concept of “philology” began to take shape in the 18th century. At that time we were talking only about the classical branch, which was subsequently followed by the Slavic branch. The founder of the Slavic branch is the Czech scientist Yosef Dobrovsky.
It is not difficult to understand the reason why the development of philology began. Europeans began to take an interest in their national roots, sources, and development trends. This was facilitated by the formation of a romantic worldview during that period, as well as the beginning of the fight against the Turkish invaders.
As for other types of science: each of them studies in great depth a certain branch and peoples related to it. There are many in the world public organizations who are engaged in one common task, gather from time to time and exchange their achievements.
Complex of sciences
To fully understand what philology does, it is worth revealing which philological sciences are its components:
- Linguistics. The second name is linguistics, which studies the very essence of language, its function, structure.
- Literary studies. Examines the history of literature, its development and influence on the culture of the people.
- Folkloristics. Folk art, folklore, myths and legends are the main subjects of study.
- Textology. Its focus is on the works of various authors, the history of their appearance and their further fate.
- Paleography. This science studies ancient manuscripts, their forms, styles, time and place of creation.
As can be seen from this information, philological sciences study language from all possible sides.
Famous philologists
Who is a philologist? This is a scientist who studies linguistics. This figure studies in depth the specifics of a particular language and draws conclusions about the spiritual heritage of the people who speak it. Russian philologists made a huge contribution to the creation and development of the Russian language.
- Lomonosov M.V. was the founder of Russian grammar. He was one of the first to lay down the stylistics of the language. What we know now about parts of speech is the merit of Mikhail Vasilyevich. Being a skilled poet, he laid the foundation for different styles.
- Vostokov A.Kh. He studied grammar exclusively and wrote many books on this topic.
- Potebnya A.A. studied Russian and Ukrainian languages, great attention devoted to grammar.
- Shakhmatov A.A. studied the origins of language. Wrote several works on the topic of Russian language syntax.
- Peshkovsky A.M. highlighted intonation in speech as a grammatical tool that helps to correctly express thoughts.
- Shcherba L.V. was the discoverer of words in the state category and discussed the role of noun and verb in a sentence.
- Vinogradov V.V. studied the history of Russian linguistics. He has written many books about the styles of the Russian language used in their works by various writers. His contribution to lexicology and phraseology of language is especially valuable.
- Karamzin N.M. studied the Russian church language, significantly brought closer literary and conversational style communication.
- Ushakov D.N. studied spelling, lexicology, and dialectology. Wrote 4 volumes of an explanatory dictionary containing 90,000 dictionary entries. Work on this project lasted for 6 years.
- Dal V.I. known to everyone as the author of the Big Explanatory Dictionary, which in itself shows the depth of his research into the Russian language.
Philology of the Russian language
Russian philology is part of a huge Slavic section that studies the Russian people and their heritage. Back in the 17th century, the collection of data on ancient manuscripts began, which was carried out by Count Rumyantsev.
In the 18th century, Lomonosov wrote two famous books about language grammar and advantage church language, which continued the study of stylistics. Until now, Russian philologists have not stopped working, continuing to analyze various styles, dialects and phraseological units. Only now these are modern figures who not only write works, but also share their discoveries with university students. After all most philologists work in higher education institutions and research institutes.
Foreign philology
This is aimed at research foreign languages, their history and features. Study in detail literary heritage, works, done detailed analysis styles and dialects, knowledge of which greatly influences a person’s ability to speak and understand a native speaker of the language being studied. Translation practice plays a big role.
You can study the rules of spelling, grammar and phonetics for a long time, but without practical speech training you will not be able to speak and translate correctly.
How to become a philologist
You can become a philologist and devote yourself to the most interesting of sciences by enrolling in the Faculty of Philology. There are many educational institutions offering similar specialties. Some of them have departments dealing with different branches of linguistics: this could be Slavic, Indo-European, Romano-Germanic philology.
When choosing a direction, each student decides for himself which language and people interest him most and whose spirituality will be interesting to study. The best philological faculties on the territory of Russia such educational institutions, How:
- Moscow state university;
- Russian State University for the Humanities;
- Nizhny Novgorod State University named after Dobrolyubov;
- Southern Federal University;
- Irkutsk Linguistic State University;
This is a list of the most popular establishments among young people. But there are many more faculties in other universities where you can study your favorite field.
