哲学轨道上的语言研究需要的是哲学的智慧与方法。钱冠连的语言研究在哲学轨道上进行,走出了一条由语言现象研究通往开启智慧之门的道路。在这条道路上,钱冠连化智慧为理论、化理论为方法,展现了苏格拉底式的审查法、柏拉图式的构想法和亚里士多德式的范畴法。钱冠连在审查中形成研究问题,在构想中推出新的概念和理论,而在明定范畴时,则是在语言经验事实的研究中做到“明类、知故、晓理”。钱冠连在《美学语言学》中提出的哲学问题,在《语言全息论》和《语言:人类最后的家园》中得到了回答。钱冠连的哲学思想是对古希腊宇宙观的发问与解答。古希腊哲学家虽然认识到了“宇宙的秩序”同“人类思想的秩序”类似,但似乎未找到这两种秩序的联系方法。钱冠连找到了捆绑这两种秩序的方法。语言全息关系就是用来捆绑宇宙、人和语言的绳子。“钱冠连的绳子”还用来串起语词与世界的道理,把人的存在维系在程式性语言行为中。“钱冠连的绳子”是一项不容忽视的哲学贡献。

Language studies should be kept on the track of pursuing philosophical wisdom and methodology. Qian Guanlian has been committed to the cause of building a philosophical road out of the jungles of daily language use, by means of transforming wisdom into theories and methodologies. His commitment is a fruitful combination of Socratic examination, Platonic formulation, and Aristotelian categorization, during which his philosophical questions have been raised, new concepts and theories proposed, and empirical studies of language use conducted through a series of categorizing, reasoning and generalizing. A remarkable philosophical question, raised in his Aesthetic Linguistics, has been answered in his works such as The Theory of Language Holography and the book entitled Language: The Last Homestead of Human Beings. His theory of language holography is metaphorically a rope which is used to integrate the order of cosmos with language in tune with the order of human mind. Thus, on the one hand, Qian Guanlian’s rope has helped ancient Greek philosophers to figure out a way of harnessing the relation of cosmos to human mind. On the other hand, Qian Guanlian has built up a way from words to metaphysics, with which human beings have to discipline themselves to behaviors-fixed speech events. Qian Guanlian’s rope is an unforgettable contribution to metaphysics.