Linguistic ideas of von Humboldt and J.Herder

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KAZAKH ABLAY KHAN UNIVERSITY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND WORLD LANGUAGES

Faculty of translation and philology

The department of simultaneous interpreting

Referat

Theme: Linguistic ideas of von Humboldt and J. Herder

Annotation

The claim of this work is to define the concept of the relationship between the language and thinking according to works of von Humboldt and J. Herder by learning w books ,theories , definitions and opinions about the language

The aim - of the work is to provide the reader with some material about works of the Great linguists, The Functions of Linguistic.

Mission - to get the information about origin of language.

1. Biography of von Humboldt and J. Herder

German Creator of General Linguistics and also diplomat, philosopher, and educational reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767- 1835) and German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 -1803) were the main scholars who tried to discover the etymology of language by connecting it with history and with spirit and character of nation. They thought that the individual character can be connected with others of certain nation, and thus the national character can be constructed. Humboldt investigated the language from a general point of view and Herder studied language as historic. The main contribution of these scientists is studying the language with thinking, with the nature, with history.

Johann Gottfried Herder was born in Mohrungen, East Prussia (now Morag, Poland), the son of a schoolteacher, Herder studied at the university of Kцnigsberg for two years, where he began a lifelong friendship and correspondence with Johann Georg Hamann (1730-1787) and heard lectures by Immanuel Kant(1724-1804), then a private lecturer, not yet famous or even a professor. In 1764 Herder began a career as a Lutheran pastor, first at Riga (1764-1769), then at the court of Schaumberg-Lippe in Bьckeburg (1771-1776), and finally at the court of Sachsen-Weimar in Weimar (1776-1803). Twice he nearly joined the theological faculty at the University of Gцttingen, but in 1776 when the Hanoverian court in London required that he submit to a test of religious orthodoxy, he opted to follow Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), whom he had met in Strasbourg in 1770, to Weimar. In 1789 the Weimar court promoted him as an inducement to decline Gцttingen's offer.

During his travels in France and western Germany between his positions at Riga and Bьckeburg, Herder learned of the annual essay competition sponsored by the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin on the topic of the origin of language. The Academy had been debating the question for nearly twenty-five years, and in December of 1770 as he convalesced from unsuccessful eye surgery in Strasbourg, Herder dashed off an entry in advance of a 1 January 1771 deadline. He won the competition, and the academy published the essay, which inaugurated a prolific literary career.

The great German humanist Herder in the “Study on the Origins of Language" (1770) enters polemic with the theories existing in the 18th century a language origin: the theological theory of a "divine" origin of the human speech, the theory of an origin of language by "the social contract" and the mechanical materialism bringing language out of animal shouts. Herder considers language as the integral property of human consciousness, but at the same time, approaches it from the point of view of the historian. Herder considers as the task a language origin explanation from "development of thinking as product of sincere abilities of the person". Despite mistakes with the level of historical knowledge the 18th eyelid, Herder is considered as the founder of the first historical theory of language. His doctrine about communication of development of language with the development of thinking caused eventually by development of human society formed the basis of philosophy of language von Humboldt, H. Steintal and A. A. Potebni.

Herder's thesis, that the difference between humans and animals was language and that language was the vehicle of cognition, was not distinctly original. Others had pointed out that, since the orangutan possessed speech organs similar to those of humans but could not freely manipulate abstract concepts in the mind apart from what they represented in space and time, the seat of language had to be not in the mouth, but in the soul. The difference, argued Herder in Abhandlung ьber den Ursprung der Sprache (Essay on the origin of language), was in the purposes of man. "The bee was a bee as soon as it built its first cell," he wrote, "but a person was not human until he had achieved completeness. People continued to grow as long as they lived. . . . We are always in process, unsettled, unsatiated. The essence of our life is never satisfaction, rather always progression, and we have never been human until we have lived to the end.

Unlike animals, children were uniquely vulnerable, but that weakness was by design. Children must learn to speak, and the family was the social unit charged with educating children in that most basic and essential of all human capacities--language. More than teaching a child language, the family also imparted the individual's sense of identity and made him or her part of a group. Herder took it as a natural law that "man is by destiny a creature of the herd, of society." Where Jean-Jacques Rousseau had said in Йmile that the child had more to say to the mother than the mother to the child, Herder countered that by teaching children language, the family's manner of thinking and set of values were developed and preserved. The education of the human race occurred in the bosom of the family. "Why does the mute child so weakly and unwittingly depend on his mother's breasts and his father's knee? So that he might be hungry for learning and learn language. He is weak so that his race may be strong." The treasury of the family heritage was preserved through the family language. As the clan expanded into a tribe, it celebrated the deeds of its forefathers. All heroic poetry--Germanic, Ossianic, Homeric--was tribal, that is, familial, in origin.

After Herder Humboldt became interested in problems of an origin and genealogy of language, comparative studying of languages and their classifications and a role of language in development of spirit. Herder in the article" About age of language" wrote: "Thanks to language the people gradually learned to think, and thanks to thinking they gradually learned to speak". About Herder's philosophy of A. V. Gulyga provides V. M. Zhirmunsky's statement in work: "... Herder is the founder of the first historical theory of language. Its doctrine about communication of development of language with the development of thinking caused eventually by development of human society formed the basis of philosophy of language of V. Humboldt, Shteyntal, Potebni".

Wilhelm von Humboldt was born in Potsdam on June 22, 1767. He studied law in Berlin at Frankfort-on-the -the-Oder and at Gottingen, and at the same time devoted equal attention to antiquities, esthetics and the philosophy of Kant. In 1789-90 he lived in Erfurt and Weimar, where a friendship commenced with Schiller continued without interruption till the poet's death. Brilliant education, origin and material security gave it the chance to communicate not only with monarchs and prominent politicians, but also with scientists, writers and poets including with Goethe and Schiller with whom it was in close friendship. A valuable memorial of his friendship with Schiller is the correspond ence between them. He was influential in developing the science of comparative philology.

In his essay Ь ber das Studium des Klassischen Altertums (1793) he summarized his program for educational reform, which was basically the program of German neohumanism. In Jena (1794-1797) he was a member of Friedrich von Schiller's circle.

After traveling through Spain and France, during which Humboldt became interested in philology, he was appointed Prussian resident minister in Rome (1802-1808).

Humboldt was influenced by the educational principles of Johann Pestalozzi. As Prussian minister of education (1809-1810), he sent teachers to Switzerland to study Pestalozzi's methods, and he founded the University of Berlin (1809). Humboldt's ideas profoundly influenced European and American elementary education.

He also carried out research on the Basque language and suggested that the Basque language is the longest and most important. His philological works on Kavi, the ancient language of Java, published posthumously (1836-1840), were landmarks in their field. According to Humboldt, World history is the result of a spiritual force that lies outside of learning, which can not be understood from a causal point of view.

Humanistic ideal of Humboldt - all-round and harmonious development as persons, and all human race; to this ideal it remained is true and in the practical activities. The Berlin university founded by it Gumboldtov nowadays bears a name of brothers. Its assessment as scientist and the citizen is given in the generalizing characteristic of the famous linguist of the XIX century Berthold Gustav Gottlieb Delbrьck: "His high and unconditional love to truth, his look directed always to the prime ideal targets, its aspiration not to miss because of details whole and because of whole the separate facts, his comprehensively educated mind and noble humanity - all these properties strongly affect to other scientific personality coming to contact with Wilhelm von Humboldt, and such influence of Humboldt, in my opinion, will keep still for a long time and will make even on those who to stop helplessly before his theories"

He investigated the language, not only in terms of philosophy and history, but also gave a precise definition in terms of linguistics by dividing the typological classifications - morphological and syntactic. Humboldt gave exact definition that Language has the triple purpose corresponding to intensity of its action:

Language is an intermediary in the course of understanding and demands therefore definiteness and clarity.

It gives to feeling expression, and itself causes feeling and therefore demands force, distinctness and flexibility.

It induces through the shape reported to thought to new thoughts and their combinations and therefore demands action of spirit which leaves the print in words.

Ideological influence of von Humboldt went in many directions in XIX century. He gave not only the new branch, but also quite independent branch of knowledge - ethno linguistics, structuralism, linguistics and modern logic generative linguistics, cognitive science and linguistics discourse. Humboldt was the first who laid the foundations of general linguistics, direction, which is rightly called the philosophy of language, and which "encompasses higher linguistic generalizations and far-reaching conclusions" and who expressed clearly that the language is the product of creation of people, but not a separate individual. The return action of language of subjects is more certain that through it all created by the people in the past influences the individual; identity of the person is similar to identity of language thanks to that a impact source on them same, whether but the first can hardly resist to the last.

He mentioned that languages and distinctions between them have to be considered in such way as force penetrating all history of mankind; if to leave them without attention or to distinguish their influence not in a pure or limited look, then there is incomplete an understanding of how the mankind reaches mastering of that spiritual weight - if it is possible to be expressed so, - which it took out from a thought kingdom in area clear and certain. In this case there will be no major as language enters action in the most direct way in that point where generation of objective thought and an eminence of subjective force come the friend from the friend at mutual increase. Research of influence which makes progress of the people in science and art, an also of interrelations of literatures won't be able to fill the specified shortcoming. All listed fields of activity support, on the one hand, that, on what influence of language doesn't extend, a with another - don't contain everything that enters language.

According to his book “Language and Culture ” Humboldt wrote that the person thinks, feels and lives only in language, but also the person feels and knows that language for it - only means that out of language there is an invisible world, to which the person seeks to accustom only with its help. The return action of language of subjects is more certain that through it all created by the people in the past influences the individual; identity of the person is similar to identity of language thanks to that a bozdeystviye source on them same, whether but the first can hardly resist to the last. Also, that language expresses feelings as objects, but it besides follows the movements of thought of thought and feelings and language despite all foreign influences, keeps the identity which is inherent also in its character.Here, this idea is similiar as Herder's.

Originality of ideas Humboldt to be seen in the philosophical understanding of the facts of linguistic diversity. Interpretation of Humboldt diversity of languages as a reflection of a single universal culture led him to reflect on the fact that in every language there are some universals promoting rapprochement of cultures. The mutually enriching dialogue of the "cultural worlds" which opened Humboldt makes a basis of their development, is confirmed by manifestation of tolerance to "foreign cultures" and aspiration of overcoming of an interlingual barrier at communication between representatives of different cultures, allows to realize originality of identity and at the same time to feel as part of a community of all mankind. Immersion of the personality to the world of language and culture promotes national and cultural identity and increases cross-cultural tolerance, the Person, plunging into the world of culture and acquiring it through language б more organically, more naturally and more structurally realizes itself in the ethnocultural environment. learning language he also paid attention to structure of many languages from all over the world as Asian and European languages, the Semitic and Arabic language, etc.

According to W. von Humboldt, languages pass essentially uniform way of development, but "a condition of stability" can to be reached at different stages. Here it developed existing and to it ideas about stages of development of the languages reflecting different levels of development of those or other people. Here the position of the scientist appears a little the inconsistent. On the one hand, he warns against establishment basic abyss between levels of development of languages "cultural" and "primitive" people: "Even so-called rough and barbarous dialects possess all necessary for the perfect use"; "Experience of transfer from various languages, and also use most primitive and undeveloped language at dedication in the most secret religious revelations show that, even if from the various accuracy, each thought can be expressed in any language". With another the parties, he definitely writes: "The highest perfection on the to system, undoubtedly, I reached Greek" (means Ancient Greek). In article "About emergence of grammatical forms and their influence on development of ideas", the last quote, V. a background from where is taken Humboldt seeks to reveal a scale on which it is possible to arrange languages, the reached "conditions of stability" at this or that level (it allows and possibility of that some languages still develop and "states stability" didn't reach and will reach only in the future).

In this point B. von Humboldt developed ideas, stated shortly before that by two other German thinkers, belonging besides to generation -- brothers Augustus and Friedrich Schlegel. They entered concepts amorphous (after the renamed in isolating), agglutinative and inflectional languages; these concepts, later become purely linguistic, communicated brothers of Friedrich Schlegel and then W. von Humboldt with stages of development of languages and the people.

W. von Humboldt allocates four steps (stages) of development of languages: "At the lowest step grammatical designation it is carried out by means of turns of speech, phrases and offers … On the second steps grammatical designation is carried out with the help steady word order and by means of words with the unstable material and formal value … At the third step grammatical designation it is carried out by means of analogs of forms … At the highest step grammatical designation is carried out by means of original forms, inflections and purely grammatical forms". It is easy to see that three the last steps correspond isolating, agglutinative and to inflectional system ("analogs of forms" separate from "original forms" that, that in the first "communication … components is still insufficiently strong, places are noticeable connections. The formed mix didn't become a single whole yet", that is it is obviously about agglutination). Stadial distinction directly communicates with extent of spiritual development: "The first, and the most essential, from this that the spirit demands from language -- it not mixture, but accurate differentiation things and forms, subject and relation … However such differentiation occurs only at formation of original grammatical forms in the way inflection or grammatical words … at consecutive designation grammatical forms. In each language having only analogs forms, in grammatical designation which has to be pure formal, is a material component".

In the theory von Humboldt and J. Herder managed to restore the necessary balance between language and thinking.

Conclusion

linguistics humboldt language

The linguistics along with sciences about thinking belongs to number of those branches of human knowledge which finds out the most close connections with philosophy throughout its development that is explained by the nature of the subject of linguistics. Language represents an indispensable condition of implementation of the abstract, generalized thinking and a rational step of human knowledge. These or those philosophical directions have impact on linguistic currents. Consciously or unconsciously, but any linguist proceeds in the researches of language from a certain philosophical; concepts about regularities of life and knowledge. von Humboldt and J. Herder are the founders of the theory of language. The main linguistic idea consists in that that language is closely connected with development of thinking individual and social, including in itself long history from an origin to nowadays existing languages. They proved their great work in published books and explained the origin of language.

References

1. http://geniusrevive.com/

2. А.Т. Хроленко, В.Д. Бондалетов Теория Языка: Учебное Пособие И.П. Сусов. История языкознания.

3. www.translate.ru

4. Johann Gottfried Herder “Study on the Origins of Language" (1770).

5. Wilhelm von Humboldt “Language and Culture”.

6. Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World.

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