Stewart Ian
University College London.
Ber Wiss. 2023 Mar;46(1):76-91. doi: 10.1002/bewi.202200036. Epub 2023 Jan 31.
This article examines the English scholar James Cowles Prichard's attention to language and comparative philology within his wider project on the natural history of man. It reveals that linguistic evidence was among the most important elements for Prichard in his overarching scientific aim of investigating human physical diversity, and served as the evidential foundation for his ethnology. His work on Celtic comparative philology made him not only one of the earliest British adopters of German comparative grammar, but a comparative philologist of European stature in his own right. More generally, linguistic evidence helped Prichard to keep his magnum opus, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, as logically ordered as possible, and therefore to turn ethnology into a discipline with analytical aspirations on a global scale.
本文考察了英国学者詹姆斯·考尔斯·普里查德在其关于人类自然史的更广泛项目中对语言和比较语文学的关注。研究表明，在普里查德探究人类身体多样性的总体科学目标中，语言证据是最重要的元素之一，并为其民族学提供了证据基础。他在凯尔特比较语文学方面的工作不仅使他成为最早采用德国比较语法的英国学者之一，而且使他自身成为具有欧洲影响力的比较语文学家。更普遍地说，语言证据帮助普里查德使其巨著《人类自然史研究》尽可能保持逻辑有序，从而将民族学转变为一门在全球范围内具有分析抱负的学科。
