Edward Sapir

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Edward Sapir around 1910

Edward Sapir [ səˈpɪər ], born Eduard Sapir , (born January 26, 1884 in Lauenburg in Pomerania , † February 4, 1939 in New Haven (Connecticut) ) was an American ethnologist , linguist and a representative of American structuralism .

Life

new York

Sapir is the son of Jews of Lithuanian origin who emigrated to the USA in 1889. From 1901 he studied German and Indo-European studies at Columbia University in New York and graduated with a master's degree . He dedicated his thesis to Johann Gottfried Herder's theory on the origin of language . During this time he met his future teacher, the anthropologist Franz Boas , who brought him into contact with the indigenous languages ​​of North America . The encounter resulted in numerous field research stays by Sapir, u. a. about the Chinook languages , Takelma and Chasta Costa .

Because Boas was mainly an anthropologist, it was possible for Sapir to closely link linguistic studies with observations about the culture and way of life of a language community.

California

As a result of his language studies he worked as an assistant in the anthropological institute of the University of California with the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber from 1907. In this project, the great cultural and linguistic diversity of California should be recorded. Sapir worked on three dialects of the Yana language , but while he wanted to describe the languages ​​in detail and create a grammar and dictionary for each, Kroeber was only interested in a superficial description.

Pennsylvania

In 1908 Sapir received a Harrison Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania , where he taught anthropology and linguistics. At this time he was also doing field research and working on Catawba , Ute and the Hopi language . In 1909 Sapir completed his doctorate with a thesis on the grammar of Takelma. In 1910 he analyzed the Southern Paiute with the help of native speaker Tony Tillohash. Its intuition contributed to a grammatical description that linguists often refer to as the model of analytical excellence.

Ottawa

From 1910 to 1925, Sapir was director of the anthropological department of the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa , conducting field research on North American languages ​​during this time BC. a. about the Wakash languages . He researched the Nuchatlaht Indians of Vancouver Island, worked on Sarcee and other Athabaskan languages . His new interest was also language change and genetic relationships between languages. This period was interrupted once when Kroeber invited him to California to work with Ishi , the last remaining spokesman for Yahi . He spent 1915 recording his unique knowledge of his language and culture. During his time in Ottawa, Sapir also wrote poetry, literary criticism, and music. His poems were regularly published in various magazines, e.g. B. The New Republic . From 1910 to 1924, Sapir was married to Florence Delson. He had three children with her.

Chicago

From 1925 to 1931 he was Professor of Anthropology and General Linguistics at the University of Chicago . He began to be interested in individual psychology. He strived to combine the various disciplines with one another. At the time, the Chicago School of Sociology was the most prestigious and professional department of social science in North America. Much of Sapir's work has been sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation . In 1924, Sapir helped found the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). In 1927 he married a second time. With Jean McClenaghan, he had 2 children.

Yale

He then took over the Sterling Professorship in Anthropology and Linguistics at Yale University . He was working at a new, independent linguistics institute. He brought some of his Chicago students with him to Yale. This resulted in the first Yale school of linguistics. In addition, Sapir was supposed to design an interdisciplinary research program between anthropology, linguistics and psychology. But the Yale Sociological Institute rejected the Chicago school "outsider"; besides, as a Jew he was not welcome there. During his time at Yale, Sapir therefore mainly focused on linguistic theory and also worked with African, Semitic and Indo-European languages.

In 1933 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1937 to the American Philosophical Society . In 1937 he suffered a heart attack from which his health no longer fully recovered

Edward Sapir was a member of the International Auxiliary Language Association , which developed the world auxiliary language Interlingua .

position

linguistics

Sapir believed that all language families must be studied in detail in order to discover the basic properties of language. For him, all languages ​​in the world have the same aesthetics and complexity.

Indigenous American languages

Meeting Franz Boas inspired Sapir to describe endangered Indigenous American languages ​​before they become extinct. For the first 20 years of his career, he was mostly preoccupied with it. He recorded 39 languages ​​for posterity and often worked with the last remaining speakers.

He did not rely on superficial similarities in classifying American languages. He used methods of comparative Indo-European linguistics to determine even sound shifts and characteristic sound patterns. He was the first to apply such methods to indigenous languages ​​without writing, as these were previously considered too primitive. His classification of indigenous American languages, which he published in the 1929 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica , was authoritative at the time, and also the first to be based on comparative linguistics. Sapir was the first to find clues for the Algic and Uto-Aztec language families . He also postulated the Na-Dené language group and suspected a relationship with the Sinotibetan languages , but such far-reaching classifications are rejected by most linguists as too speculative. Nevertheless, Sapir is considered to be the most influential scientist in the field of indigenous American languages ​​in the 20th century.

Phonology

Sapir has made important contributions in the field of phonology . He suggested that the phoneme was not just an abstraction on the structural level of language, and not just a physical phenomenon, but had a psychological reality for the respective speaker. He defined the concept of the phoneme based on meaningful relationships between sounds, rather than their objective properties. In every language, the sounds are part of a phonological system made up of contrasts that are intuitively combined by the speakers according to shared linguistic conventions. This work was recognized as important in later periods of American linguistics. His view was not just theoretical, it was inspired by field research with the speakers of the respective languages.

In 1932 the International Phonological Association was founded in Prague . Sapir was the only American member on the committee and became a link between European and American phonologists.

anthropology

Sapir wanted to combine anthropological research with linguistics and psychology.

Personality and culture

Sapir was one of the few anthropologists of his time who was interested not only in factors such as the material culture , geographical environment and language of a society, but also in the individual's perception within the culture. He emphasized intra-cultural variability and was critical of the determinism in Alfred Kroeber's “super-organic” concept of culture. In his opinion, individuals are formed by culture up to a certain point, but conversely, the personality is also able to interpret and influence cultural patterns in its own way. Sapir wanted to know how the culture of a society is shaped by the composition of individual personalities, their relationships and their social interactions. In 1930 the “Conference on Personality and Culture” took place in Hanover, where Sapir contributed a great deal to the development of this approach.

The psychiatric science of the individual

Sapir was interested in "total personality" - i.e. H. the whole individual with his biological, sociological and psychological characteristics, from a personal point of view. Sapir envisioned a psychiatric science in which methods and concepts from individual psychology , psychoanalysis and psychiatry should flow into anthropology. With this, perceptions of individuals should be analyzed in detail and over a longer period of time. This also includes conventional ethnographic categories and their conscious and subconscious meanings for an individual. For example, he researched the meaning of "prosperity" for members of the Nuchatlaht.

Sapir often writes of the application of his psychiatric science, but does not explain it in detail. It is more about theoretical guidelines for field research. Since his conception of this science was complex and he could not work out a concrete, applicable method for it, it was never realized.

Interdisciplinary field research

In Sapir's day, most American anthropologists (e.g. George P. Murdock ) wanted to collect quantitative data in order to be able to compare cultures around the world. Sapir, on the other hand, did not want generalizations. He insisted on detailed studies of individual societies from an emic point of view, just as Boas intended. In fieldwork with participant observation , he envisioned an interdisciplinary collaboration of anthropologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and linguists who research the behavior of individuals in relatively small local groups. They should also fathom the personality of individual members with the help of psychological interviews. In addition, there are studies of group life as a whole, especially of the dominant cultural patterns. Historical records that provide information about past behavior should also be used.

Role of Linguistics in Anthropology

Sapir found that for their field research anthropologists need to learn the language of the respective community in order to understand the emic point of view. It is also important to understand the language from a scientific point of view. This is how anthropologists should study linguistics too. He assumed that humans mainly perceive the world through language. Phonology and grammar have an unconscious reality for the speakers of a language. A deep analysis of linguistic structures could therefore help to uncover cognitive aspects and explain different behavior patterns in different cultures. These ideas later contributed to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis .

Contributions and aftermath

In addition to Leonard Bloomfield , Edward Sapir is considered the founder of modern American linguistics as a variant of structuralism .

He was one of the first scientists to research the relationships between the study of language and anthropology , specifically the languages ​​of the Native Americans . Sapir thus contributed to the establishment of ethnolinguistics . He was both a field researcher and a theorist.

In 1921 he proposed an alternative view, a linguistic relativity principle on language. It is believed that language affects the way people think. Sapir's influence on linguistics results from his numerous publications and from his students. They included:

In the years that followed, his students significantly advanced the development of the discipline. Above all, Whorf took over Sapir's ideas and developed them further. They have come to be known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis .

Sapir's role in founding the Linguistic Society of America and its journal Language has helped linguistics gain acceptance as an academic discipline in America.

Sapir was one of the pioneers in combining anthropology, linguistics and psychology. He was one of the leading American linguists and anthropologists of his time. He was described by colleagues as an excellent scientist both during his lifetime and after his death. His writing style is clear and understandable. Sapir's reputation is evident in his high academic positions - his professorships in Chicago and Yale, an honorary degree from Columbia University, his presidency of the American Anthropological Association and the Linguistic Society of America, his membership in the National Academy of Sciences, and the like . a.

Despite the important contributions of Sapir, there is no "Sapir School" in any of his main disciplines. After his death in 1939, GP Murdock took over the chairmanship of the anthropology institute at Yale and reversed Sapir's efforts to combine the various subjects.

Publications

Books

  • Wishram Texts, together with Wasco Tales and Myths . Collected by Jeremiah Curtin. In: American Ethnological Society, ed. by Franz Boas. Brill, 1909.
  • Time Perspective in Aboriginal American Culture: A Study in Method Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey, Memoir 90, 1916. ISBN 978-1171510970
  • Language. An Introduction to the Study of Speech. Harcourt Brace, New York, 1921.
    • German translation: The language. An introduction to the essence of language. Hueber, Munich, 1961.
  • Sapir, Edward, Swadesh, Morris: Nootka Texts: Tales and ethnological narratives, with grammatical notes and lexical materials . Linguistic Society of America, Philadelphia 1939. ISBN 0-404-11893-3
  • Notes on the Culture of the Yana . With Leslie Spier. University of California Press 1943. * Selected Writings on Language, Culture, and Personality. David G. Mandelbaum (Ed.), Berkeley, 1949. 2nd ed., 1963.
  • The Psychology of Culture. A Course of Lectures . Judith T. Irvine (Ed.), De Gruyter 2002 ISBN 978-3-11-017282-9

Essays / articles

  • Herder's "Origin of Language" , in: Modern Philology , Volume 5, 1907.
  • Notes on Chasta Costa Phonology and Morphology . University Museum Publications 1914.
  • The Na-dene languages: a preliminary report. In: American Anthropologist 17, 1915, pp. 765-773.
  • Do we need a superorganic? In: American Anthropologist 19, 1917, pp. 441-447.
  • Sound patterns in language . In: Language 1, 1925, pp. 37-51.
  • The unconscious patterning of behavior in society. In: The Unconsciuous: A Symposium , 1928, pp. 114-142.
  • Central and North American languages . In: Encyclopaedia Britannica 5, 1929, pp. 138-141.
  • Leslie Spier and ES: Wishram Ethnography , University of Washington Publications in Anthropology , Volume 3, 1930.
  • The Function of an International Auxiliary Language , in: Psyche , Volume 11, 1931.
  • La réalité psychologique des phonèmes . In: Journal de Psychologie Normale et Pathologique 30, 1933, pp. 247-265.
  • The emergence of the concept of personality in a study of cultures. In: Journal of Social Psychology 5, 1934, pp. 408-415.
  • The contribution of psychiatry to an understanding of behavior in society. In: American Journal of Sociology 42, 1937, pp. 862-870.
  • The relation of American Indian linguistics to general linguistics. In: Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 1, 1947, pp. 1-4.

Biographies

  • Darnell, Regna: Edward Sapir: linguist, anthropologist, humanist . University of California Press, Berkeley 1989, ISBN 978-0-520-06678-6 .

literature

  • Leslie Spier, A. Irving Hallowell, et al. Stanley S. Newman (Ed.): Language, Culture and Personality. Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir. Edition Sapir Memorial Publication Fund. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City 1960.
  • Sapir, Edward, Darnell, Regna, Irvine, Judith T., Handler, Richard: The collected works of Edward Sapir: culture. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1999, ISBN 978-3-11-012639-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Darnell, Regna, Irvine, Judith T. (1997): A Biographical Memoir . In: Office of the Home Secretary, National Academy of Sciences: Biographical Memoirs , V.71, pp. 279-299. Washington DC: National Academies Press. Pp. 283-284
  2. ↑ a b c Darnell, Irvine 1997: p. 285
  3. ↑ a b Benedict, Ruth: "Edward Sapir". In: "American Anthropologist", Vol. 44, 1939, pp. 465-477. P. 466
  4. ↑ Benedict 1939: p. 468
  5. ↑ a b Darnell, Irvine 1997: p. 287
  6. ↑ a b c d http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Found/sapirbio.html Biographical sketch of Edward Sapir . Suzanne Kemmer. 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
  7. ↑ Darnell, Irvine 1997: p. 288
  8. ↑ a b Darnell, Irvine 1997: p. 289
  9. ↑ Biographia , accessed December 1, 2015 (ia)
  10. ↑ a b Darnell, Irvine 1997: pp. 294-295
  11. ↑ Darnell, Irvine 1997: pp. 294-295
  12. ↑ Darnell, Irvine 1997: pp. 294-295
  13. ↑ a b c d Darnell, Irvine 1997: pp. 289-290
  14. ↑ http://biography.yourdictionary.com/edward-sapir Edward Sapir Facts . Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  15. ↑ http://ling.yale.edu/history/edward-sapir Edward Sapir . SR Anderson, Yale University Linguistics. 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  16. ^ A b c Bryson, Dennis (2009): "Personality and Culture, the Social Science Research Council, and Liberal Social Engineering: The Advisory Committee on Personality and Culture, 1930-1934." In: "Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences," Vol. 45 (4) (2009), pp. 355-386.
  17. ^ Preston, Richard J. (1966): "Edward Sapir's Anthropology: Style, Structure and Method." In: "American Anthropologist", Vol. 68, No. 5, pp. 1105-1128 (1966). Pp. 1109-1112
  18. ↑ Benedict 1939: pp. 467-4688
  19. ↑ Preston 1966: pp. 1111, 1112, 1120
  20. ↑ Preston 1966: pp. 1124-1127
  21. ↑ Darnell, Regna (1998): "Camelot at Yale - The Construction and Dismantling of the Sapirian Synthesis, 1931-39". In: "American Anthropologist", Vol. 100, No. 2, 1999, pp. 361-372.
  22. ↑ Darnell 1998: p. 361
  23. ↑ dtv lexicon. Munich 2006, Lemma Edward Sapir.
  24. ^ "Edward Sapir" The Authors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  25. ↑ Darnell, Irvine 1997: p. 291
  26. ^ Preston 1966: 1105
  27. ↑ Darnell, Irvine 1997: pp. 293-294
personal data
SURNAME Sapir, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sapir, Eduard (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ethnologist and linguist
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Lauenburg , Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1939
Place of death New Haven