| 释义 |
psittacism|ˈsɪtəsɪz(ə)m|
[ad. F. psittacisme (Leibnitz Nouveaux Essais sur l'entendement humain (1765) ii. 145) or G. psittazismus, f. Gr. ψιττακός parrot: see -ism.]
The mechanical repetition of previously received ideas or images that reflects neither true reasoning nor feeling; repetition of words or phrases parrot-fashion, without reflection, automatically. Hence ˈpsittacist; psittaˈcistically adv.
1896A. G. Langley tr. Leibnitz' New Ess. conc. Hum. Und. ii. xxi. 196 All that they do think about it [sc. the future life] is but a psittacism, or gross and vain images after the Mahometan fashion, in which they themselves see little likelihood. 1901J. Wilson in N. & Q. 9th Ser. VIII. 183/1 The words in nomine Domini nostri J.C. being, I fear, too often repeated psittacistically. 1902Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. VII. 751 Leibnitz characterized human progress as a psittacism. 1904Amer. Jrnl. Religious Psychol. & Educ. May 107 Then followed monographs on psittacism and symbolic thought, heredity, and laughter. 1923Ogden & Richards Meaning of Meaning vi. 230 There will be some to whom a word is merely a stimulus to the utterance of other words without the occurrence of any reference—the psittacists, that is to say, who respond to words much as they might respond to the first notes of a tune which they proceed almost automatically to complete. Ibid. x. 349 Psittacism is the use of words without reference. 1936Amer. Speech XI. 173/2 This procedure would reduce a science to the level of a fastidious psittacism—a blind alley leading to the dead end of a circumscribed habit. 1938S. Chase Tyranny of Words iv. 35 Speaking without knowing is called ‘psittacism’, but is a practice not confined to parrots. 1975Jrnl. Roman Stud. LXV. 187 Military matters are also the subjects of contributions from two younger British scholars, which are remarkable not least for being unencumbered by the needlessly repetitive anthologies of modern literature, a healthy immunity from that pernicious psittacism too widespread in this volume. |