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身體姿態與語言表達
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Body Gesture and Language Expression
—
On Wundt’s Gestural Theory of Language
Origins and His Idea of Folkpsychology
Yuan-Tse Lin
Department of Philosophy, National Chengchi University
No. 64, Sec. 2, ZhiNan Rd., Taipei 11605, Taiwan
E-mail:
ytlinphi@nccu.edu.twAbstract
Based on the gestural theory of language origins that Wundt of-
fered in his
Folkpsychology
, this paper aims to justify the notion that
the foundation of the meaning of words lies in bodily gestures, such as
facial and pantomimic expression. Since Wundt’s body gesture theory
of meaning derives from the tradition of philosophy of language in
the nineteenth century, this paper would also retrace to the psycho-
logical turn within historical comparative linguistics in that century,
and explain how Steinthal’s psychological exposition of Humboldt’s
inner language form carried weight with Wundt’s insight that the ac-
cessibility of the meaning of language should be established upon ex-
pressive movements of affection and the body. These explanations
will, at last, reveal Wundt’s concept of folkpsychology as a linguistic
foundation of cultural science.
Key Words
:
the gestural theory of language origins, the theory of
meaning, body gesture, folkpsychology, Wilhelm
Wundt