Philology

Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of literary texts and oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics.

branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism

academic discipline

In philology and linguistics, decipherment is the discovery of the meaning of the symbols found in extinct languages and/or alphabets. Decipherment is possible with respect to languages and scripts. One can also study or try to decipher how spoken languages that no longer exist were once pronounced, or how living languages used to be pronounced in prior eras.

close explication of a text, focusing on language

French learned society involved in classical studies

Kaozheng (), alternatively called kaoju xue () was a Chinese school of thought emphasizing philology that was active during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) from to 1850. It was most prominent during the reigns of the Qianlong Emperor and Jiaqing Emperor; because of this, it is often also referred to as the Qian–Jia school (). Their approach corresponds to that of modern textual criticism, and was also associated with empiricism as regards scientific topics.

science that studies written ans oral texts as the product of human mental processes

award given by the Institute of France