| 释义 |
ˈproto-language Linguistics.
[f. proto- + language n.]
A hypothetical parent language from which actual languages or dialects have been derived.
1948W. F. Twaddell in Language XXIV. 139 Our reconstruction of a proto-language is theoretical and partial. 1950H. M. Hoenigswald in Ibid. XXVI. 357 We may refer to Meillet's rule that in reconstructing the vocabulary of a proto-language we need the testimony of three, rather than two, independent witnesses. 1955Orbis IV. 428 Many distinguished linguists have expressly declared that the assumption of a uniform proto-language conflicts with all we know about languages actually observed. 1964Word XX. 376 The reconstructed proto-language is a formula, a statement on relationships, albeit in a diachronic rather than synchronic direction, and does not therefore represent, at least not necessarily, a genuine speech form that ever existed. 1977R. Williams Marxism & Lit. i. ii. 25 In one area this movement was ‘evolutionary’ in a particular sense: in its postulate of a proto-language (proto-Indo-European) from which the major ‘family’ had developed. |