語言與思想—對三位美籍漢學家陳漢生、安樂哲和吳光明之中國哲學研究所作的考察

The relation of language and thought has been a major research topic in Western sinology, not only because of the linguistic analysis tradition in Western philosophy, but also because of the language barrier that Western sinologists have to deal with when they read Chinese texts. This research project is a survey of three prominent sinologists, including Chad Hansen, Roger T. Ames, and Kuang-ming Wu, focusing on their different perspectives and approaches to the issue of language and thought. The project looks into Hansen's “Mass Noun Hypothesis;” Ames's theories of “the language of deference,” “the language of focus and field,” and the method of “ars contextualis;” Wu's studies of Zhuangzi's language of parable and analogy. Through the investigation of the three masters’ works, the project discloses the sources of their ideas, and compares the commonalities and differences between their discourses, so to reveal the evolution of research trends, methods, and topics, as well as future development of Western sinology.