首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
In order to understand what a myth really is, must we choose between platitude and sophism? Some claim that human societies mere
In order to understand what a myth really is, must we choose between platitude and sophism? Some claim that human societies mere
admin
2013-03-27
44
问题
In order to understand what a myth really is, must we choose between platitude and sophism? Some claim that human societies merely express, through their mythology, fundamental feelings common to the whole of mankind, such as love, hate, or revenge or that they try to provide some kind of explanations for phenomena which they cannot otherwise understand—astronomical, meteorological, and the like. But why should these societies do it in such elaborate and devious ways, when all of them are also acquainted with empirical explanations? On the other hand, psychoanalysts and many anthropologists have shifted the problems away from the natural or cosmological toward the sociological and psychological fields. But then the interpretation becomes too easy: if a given mythology confers prominence on a certain figure, let us say an evil grandmother, it will be claimed that in such a society grandmothers are actually evil and that mythology reflects the social structure and the social relations; but should the actual data be conflicting, it would be as readily claimed that the purpose of mythology is to provide an outlet for repressed feelings. Whatever the situation, a clever dialectic will always find a way to pretend that a meaning has been found.
Mythology confronts the student with a situation which at first sight appears contradictory. On the one hand, it would seem that in the course of a myth anything is likely to happen. There is no logic, no continuity. Any characteristic can be attributed to any subject; every conceivable relation can be found. With myth, everything becomes possible. But on the other hand, this apparent arbitrariness is belied by the astounding similarity between myths collected in widely different regions. Therefore the problem: if the content of a myth is contingent, how are we going to explain the fact that myths throughout the world are so similar?
It is precisely this awareness of a basic antinomy pertaining to the nature of myth that may lead us toward its solution. For the contradiction which we face is very similar to that which in earlier times brought considerable worry to the first philosophers concerned with linguistic problems; linguistics could only begin to evolve as a science after this contradiction had been overcome. Ancient philosophers reasoned about language the way we do about mythology. On the one hand, they did notice that in a given language certain sequences of sounds were associated with definite meanings, and they earnestly aimed at discovering a reason for the linkage between those sounds and that meaning. Their attempt, however, was thwarted from the very beginning by the fact that the same sounds were equallypresent in other languages although the meaning they conveyed was entirely different. The contradiction was surmounted only by the discovery that it is the combination of sounds, not the sounds themselves, which provides the significant data.
To invite the mythologist to compare his precarious situation with that of the linguist in the pre-scientific stage is not enough. As a matter of fact we may thus be led only from one difficulty to another. There is a very good reason why myth cannot simply be treated as language if its specific problems are to be solved; myth is language; to be known, myth has to be told; it is a part of human speech. In order to preserve its specificity we must be able to show that it is both the same things as language. And also something different from it. Here, too, the past experience of linguists may help us. For language itself can be analyzed into things which are at the same time similar and yet different. This is precisely what is expressed in Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole, one being the structural side of language, the other the statistical aspect of it, langue belonging to a reversible time, parole being nonreversible. If those two levels already exist in language, then a third one can conceivably be isolated
How can the interpretation of myths best be described from a theoretical point of view?
选项
A、Dialectic.
B、Chaotic.
C、Cosmological.
D、Scientific.
答案
B
解析
推断题。根据第三段内容“Their attempt,however,was thwarted from thevery beginning by the fact that the same sounds were equally present in other languages although the meaning they conveyed was entirely different.The contradiction wassurmounted only by the discovery that it is the combination of sounds,not the soundsthemselves,which provides the significant data.”可知:他们从一开始就被这样的事实所阻挠,即尽管它们传达的意义完全不一样,但相同的语音也会出现在其他语言里。当发现它是语音的组合,而不是语音本身时,这种矛盾才会不攻自破。由此推知,从理论角度来解释神话,它是自相矛盾的,混乱的。所以正确答案是B选项。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/PxmO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Womenwhoapplyforjobsinmiddleorseniormanagementhaveahighersuccessratethanmen,accordingtoanemploymentsurvey.
HistorianstendtotellthesamejokewhentheyaredescribinghistoryeducationinAmerica.It’stheone【71】theteacherstandi
RogerRosenblatt’sbookBlackFiction,inattemptingtoapplyliteraryratherthansociopoliticalcriteriatoitssubject,succe
Manyinstructorsbelievethataninformal,relaxedclassroomenvironmentis【C1】______tolearningandinnovation.Itisnotuncom
Between1833and1837,thepublishersofa"pennypress"provedthatalow-pricedpaper,editedtointerestordinarypeople,cou
Ihavehadjustaboutenoughofbeingtreatedlikeasecond-classcitizen,simplybecauseIhappentobethatput-uponmemberof
Whereonestageofchilddevelopmenthasbeenleftout,ornotsufficientlyexperienced,thechildmayhavetogobackandcaptu
OnApril20,2000,inAccra,Ghana,theleadersofsixWestAfricancountriesdeclaredtheirintentiontoproceedtomonetaryun
Somecustomstravelwell.Often,however,behaviorthatisconsideredtheepitomeof______athomeisperceivedasimpossibily
Everysecond,【56】hectareoftheworld’srainforestisdestroyed.That’sonetotwofootballfields.This【57】rateofdestruct
随机试题
水中氟化物的测定可采用电极法和比色法,比色法适用于浑浊度、色度较高的水样。
细胞膜蛋白质的功能包括
能引起人和多种动物疾病的沙门氏菌是
围生期(围产期)国内采用的定义是指
关于地下工程后浇带的说法,正确的是()。
工程造价资料按照不同阶段进行划分,一般分为()等。
人际交流中最常见、最普遍的见面礼是()。
材料一:一日,王教授应邀到甲机关举办一场关于职业道德与行为规范关系的专题讲座。会场里时常响起手机声,会议中主持人不断地用手势提醒大家关闭手机,甚至打断学者讲座,让大家保持会场秩序。次日,王教授到乙机关举办同样的讲座,会场秩序井然,听讲座的每个人都自觉地关闭
(2015年真题)根据我国特别行政区基本法,下列表述正确的是()。
BluetoothWhenyouusecomputers,entertainmentsystemsortelephones,thevariouspiecesandpartsofthesystemsmakeupa
最新回复
(
0
)