Treatise on the Origin of Language
The treatise on the origin of language is an attempt written by Johann Gottfried Herder to understand the origins of human language. He submitted it in 1769 when the Berlin Academy of Sciences asked for a prize and thus participated in a contemporary discussion.
Emergence
The background to the creation of the font is the price question of the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1769 , according to which the applicants should answer what the origin of the language was. Together with Herder, 31 authors submitted a treatise on the question in 1770. Herder's text was awarded first place and finally published in 1772.
In the German as well as in the entire European-speaking area, before, during and after Herder, other attempts, some in agreement with him, in some cases contradicting him, were made to find the origin of the language.
Herder paid special attention to the contributions of Johann Peter Süßmilch , who had previously argued that human language was given to him by God and not of natural origin. Herder had already rejected this thesis in his fragments published in 1768 on modern German literature, and rejected it there: "There is no way of judging divine productions". The first sentence of the treatise “Even as an animal man has language” is an objection to be understood as a contradiction to this thesis, since here the fundamental qualitative distinction between man and animal, which is implied by sweet milk and traced back to creation, is rejected .
content
First part. Have people, left to their natural abilities, been able to invent language for themselves?
The first section begins with the sentence Man already has language as an animal , with which Herder does not, as might initially be assumed, anticipate the theory of evolution and human descent from animals, but that his concept of language is already based on the sounds of animals begins and not with formulated words and sentences from and through people.
According to Herder, however, this original type of language is only expressed in civilized cultures in the moments when feelings are conveyed through sounds. In the primitive languages or the languages of primitive cultures, these are found much more frequently. He explicitly praises these not yet civilized and therefore original languages and emphasizes their advantage over the European ones.
In contrast to his contemporaries, he does not see a divine origin behind the emergence of language, but rather suspects an evolutionary process, at the end of which there are different national languages that are separated from each other, also and especially in contrast to the hypothesis of the origin of language by Johann Peter Süßmilch .
On the other hand, Herder also differs from the view that human language has its origin in animal sounds, i.e., decidedly against any consideration, human beings themselves or human culture could have its origin in animals, as in his opinion, for example Étienne Bonnot de Condillac was represented. While animals only instinctively use the langage d'action mentioned by him and others before him , man is able to speak arbitrarily and intentionally. Herder sees such a great difference between these two levels or types of language that a transition from one to the other is impossible.
He elaborates on this difference between man and animal and comes to the insight, "That man is far behind animals in strength and security of instinct", which for him is the center of his anthropology in this work. As such, humans do not have their own area to which they are perfectly adapted, so that they are correspondingly disadvantaged compared to the animal, which is offset by the culture that they create.
Second part. What was the most abundant way in which man could and must invent language?
The second part of the treatise deals with the development of man. Herder sees the individual as shaped by history and describes him from the point of view of the individual, as part of a family, a society, a nation and humanity as a whole. Starting from this, Herder tries to trace the emergence of the language, which he believes he has previously only proven to originate from humans, under the concrete historical conditions.
Here he introduces the word prudence, which determines the position of man in the world, thus assigns him a special quality that distinguishes him from animals. So prudence arises from the freedom that people have in using their senses and imagination and which they can use in a self-reflective manner. These self-reflective activities together, i.e. in synthesis , ultimately result for him in the quality of prudence that is proper to humans and animals neither have nor cannot have.
This enables him to use his ears to create a first "dictionary" from the sounds of nature, which assigns the sound he has made to every thing as a name, but at the same time also reflects these sounds inwardly through prudence and thus a language to develop in the real sense.
reception
Arnold Gehlen takes up anthropology and comes to the concept of deficiencies .
Web links
literature
- Cordula Neis, Anthropology in Language Thought of the 18th Century: The Berlin Prize Question, Berlin 2012.
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Gottfried Herder, Works in 10 Volumes, Deutscher Klassiker-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Volume 1, p. 608.
- ↑ Cordula Neis, Anthropology in Language Thought of the 18th Century: Die Berliner Preisfrage, p. 564.
- ↑ Cordula Neis, Anthropology in Language Thought of the 18th Century: Die Berliner Preisfrage, p. 567.
- ↑ Cordula Neis, Anthropology in Language Thought of the 18th Century: Die Berliner Preisfrage, p. 573.
- ↑ Cordula Neis, Anthropology in Language Thought of the 18th Century: Die Berliner Preisfrage, p. 575.
- ↑ Cordula Neis, Anthropology in Language Thought of the 18th Century: Die Berliner Preisfrage, p. 579.