Uniformitarian Principle

一致原则

The application in historical linguistics and sociolinguistics of a notion used in history and geology, as a guideline for reconstructing language in its social context. The principle advocates that the linguistic forces which cause variation today are similar to those which have operated in the past; it is therefore permissible to apply reasoning based on modern observations to the analysis of earlier states of a language.

历史语言学和社会语言学应用历史学和地质学的这一概念作为在社会语境中构拟语言的一条准则。按这条规则，当代引起变异的语言动力与过去历史上起作用的动力相似；因此可以用基于当代观察的推理分析语言的各个早期状态。