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WHAT IS PHILOLOGY

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WHAT IS PHILOLOGY?
Philology, derived from the Greek term philos meaning “love, dear, friend” and logos –
“word, articulation, reason” is a branch of the human sciences dealing with language and
literature. In modern usage the term “philology” is most accurately defined as an affinity toward
the learning of the backgrounds as well as current usages of spoken or written methods of human
communication. Since philology considers both form and meaning in linguistic expression, it
combines linguistics and literary studies.
A wide sense of the term “philology” describes the study of a language together with its
literature and the historical and cultural contexts that are indispensable for an understanding of
the literary works and other culturally significant texts.
In its more restricted sense of “historical linguistics”, philology was one of the 19th
century’s first scientific approaches to human language but gave way to the modern science of
linguistics in the early 20th century due to the influence of Ferdinand de Saussure, who insisted
on the importance of the synchronic analysis and the later emergence of post-structuralism and
Chomskian linguistics with its heavy emphasis on spoken language (performance) and syntax.
The term “philology” itself enters the English language in the 16th century from Middle
French philologe, in the sense of “love of literature”.
The Latin term philologia could mean “love of learning” like the original Greek term,
which described love of learning, of literature as well as of argument and reasoning. The
adjective meant “fond of discussion or argument, talkative”, in Hellenistic Greek also implying
an excessive (“sophistic”) preference of argument over the love of true wisdom.
The meaning “love of learning and literature” was narrowed to “the study of the historical
development of languages” (historical linguistics) in the 19th century usage of the term due to
the rapid progresses made in understanding sound laws and language change.
In British English usage, and in British academia, “philology” remains largely
synonymous with “historical linguistics”, while in US English, and US academia the wider
meaning of “study of a language’s grammar, history and literary tradition” remains more
widespread.
Philology and Classical Philology are kindred but not the same. Philology in the general
sense derives from the historical development of Classical Philology. Classical Philology is the
science which concerns itself with everything that has been transmitted from antiquity in the
Greek or Latin languages. The object of this science is thus the Greco-Roman, or Classical,
world to the extent that it has left behind monuments in a linguistic form. Greek and Latin
literature and civilization have traditionally been considered foundations of Western Culture.
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