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.
