The Quandary Of Architectural Language And Meta-Language

Focusing on the research topic of architectural language, this dissertation attempts to theoretically differentiate and clarify quandaries that touch upon the relations between architecture and language. Beginning with the disputed question of "whether architecture is a kind of language", the dissertation categorizes and compares with three typical conceptual modes: analogy, affirmation, and negation. Through in-depth investigation of characters of image and sign, this dissertation brings forward the fourth mode: architectural language contains both image element and sign element that based on meta-language in a deeper level together. The dissertation not only discusses language phenomenon in architectural field, but also retrospects to current theories of linguistics and semiology. The difficulties caused by the application of linguistics and semiology in the architectural field, represent self-deficiency of these theories. The negative influences caused by relativism in architecture cannot be eliminated if the fundamental problems of language were not reflected and criticized. Based on theories of Kant's transcendentalism philosophy, Husser's transcendental phenomenology, Wittgenstein's Picture Theory of Language, meta-language theory of analytical philosophy, and synchronic theory of structuralism, this dissertation interprets the concept of meta-language in a new approach, and argues that meta-language is the essential intuition of phenomenology that embody two most fundamental ways of intention with "be spoken" and "be shown" as well as the interplay between language time and language space. This dissertation thus sets up meta-category theory and language temporal-spatial theory in a sense of phenomenology. Furthermore, this dissertation answers the related questions in philosophy and other areas, mainly involved the explications of characters of meta-language, mathematical language and art language, the connection of sign theory systems between Saussure and Peirce, and the explanation of Peirce's semiology systeme and Kant's transcendental category diagram. Based on above analysis, this dissertation further puts forward a model of an integrated tree of language. By discussing the dialectic relationships between language and freedom, meta-language and language, this dissertation explains Cassirer's cultural philosophyin a more restricted way, and reconstructs Kant's transcendental philosophy in a sense of linguistics.In addition, with connection to the significance of language conversion toward modern philosophy, this dissertation discloses the weakness of architectural language study that lack criticism and reflection in half century, and points out that the resulted relativism would finally make the architecture as a major lose its significance. As the result of language reflection, the dissertation suggests differentiating language of architecture and language of architectonics: the former represents the content level, i.e. the concrete architectural styles and architectural works (corresponding to diction), while the latter represents the formal level, i.e. the general formula system similar to the functional language (corresponding to language). And the connections between these two levels also require another logical meta-language. Based on above study, this dissertation describes the characters of architectural meta-language qualitatively, and brings forward own conception of possible forms of meta-language.