Tham khảo tài liệu 'an encyclopaedia of language_09', ngoại ngữ, nhật - pháp - hoa- others phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF LANGUAGE 445 of mankind at a correspondingly primitive stage of development. From these beginnings language typology emerged. The problem of the origin of language itself suffered an interesting fate the prize offered by the Berlin Academy in 1771 for an essay on this subject attracted some 31 entries and despite Herder s winning contribution Abhandlung uber den Ursprung der Sprache continued to prompt lively discussion to the end of the century and beyond. That the Société de Linguistique de Paris found it necessary to proscribe contributions on this subject as late as 1866 shows as clearly that popular interest in the subject was still very much alive as that the academic mainstream despaired of ever finding a solution. But in the meantime an unexpected new element was introduced the Sanskrit language. The question of language origin was first briefly diverted into the assumption that Sanskrit was the parent language and then forgotten as energy went into the detailed formal comparison of Sanskrit and cognate languages. A few scholars took advantage of the breadth of perspective afforded by the discovery of Sanskrit and still more exotic languages to formulate far-reaching hypotheses about the nature and role of language. Wilhelm von Humboldt brother of the scientist and explorer Alexander and a friend of Goethe s viewed language as the organ of inner existence the way to understanding or manifesting thoughts and feelings Uber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechts 1836 . The human spirit manifests itself in different forms of civilisation and culture among different peoples and also in different languages. Each is an attempt an approximation a contribution to the universal need to develop a people s intellectual and spiritual powers and to unfold their own mode of relating to the world. Far from representing phenomena directly each language articulates that .
