Myths, Idols, Chimeras (an 18th century pasigraphic project)

Abstract

The article examines the origin and further development of a pasigraphy, a universal written language project, its place and its functional role in the history of linguistics. The article reveals the similarity of approaches to pasigraphy in Europe and Russia, as well as a stimulating role of Chinese characters for projects of this kind. A project by H. G. Murr, unknown, in fact, to the wide public, is considered in the article. G. W. Leibniz’ supporter and advocate, H. G. Murr following on Leibniz’ interest to China and his linguistic studies of the Chinese attempted to employ the Chinese characters and Carl Linnaeus’s systematics to create pasigraphy, a project of an interdisciplinary nature. Murr’s Chinese project did not go down as a serious one in the history of linguistics but it did not render Murr’s linguistic activity entirely useless, either, since the author managed to demonstrate a general linguistic paradigm, some useful information on language and culture in China, as well as made an essential contribution to popularizing Leibniz’s ideas. It was J.S.Vater who offered a full and systematic critical analysis of pasigraphic systems to reveal the ways they are constrained by language structure; long before Humboldt he had demonstrated that the aposteriori pasigraphy is just not possible due to differences in the structure of the significatum.