Erwin Koschmieder

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Erwin Koschmieder (born August 31, 1896 in Liegnitz , Province of Silesia , † February 14, 1977 in Ebersberg ) was a German Slavist and linguist .

Live and act

Erwin Koschmieder was the son of the high school principal Johann Koschmieder (1858–1952) and his wife Elisabeth born. Gürich (1863–1927), director of a secondary school for girls. During the First World War he entered the military as a flag junior , but then withdrew from his thoughts on a career as an officer. At the end of the war, which he had witnessed with all its atrocities, Koschmieder renounced another military career. Koschmieder studied from 1919 Classical and Slavic Philology at the University of Breslau , where he received his doctorate in 1922 . He then took up a position at the University and State Library. In 1926 he completed his habilitation with the thesis "Studies on the Slavic Verbal Aspect". Then he was initially a private lecturer in Slavic Studies. In 1931 he was appointed to the then Polish University of Wilna , and in 1939 he was appointed to succeed Erich Berneker in Munich. Here at the University of Munich he taught until his retirement in 1964. He was also interested in Old Slavic music and especially in Russian church music.

From 1942 he was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , from 1970 a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences .

Koschmieder and the time reference of language

Koschmieder dealt intensively with the questions of time reference and language, placing psychological processes in the foreground of his explanations, because in his opinion the human concept of time is closely linked to the process of thinking. Based on the considerations based on Richard Hönigswald Basics of Thinking Psychology (1925) and his student Moritz Löwi , the ego or “ ego consciousness ” for Koschmieder moves together with the (virtual) “present point” on a “timeline”. As a result, I and the present are constantly moving from the past towards the future. All concrete actions are “facts” for Koschmieder. They can be localized as concrete, outlined or individual processes on an imaginary “timeline”, in a sense spatialized. Koschmieder calls this place on the "timeline" "Zeitstellewert", the localization in time. In the present shows for Koschmieder that the promised clear facts actually happening and not just in the abstract or potential lingers. On the other hand, that the fact also happens at the moment of speaking.

Pictorial representation of a “time line”, on the left side of the graphic from a localized (virtual) “present point” (e.g. point 3 ) are the “time point values” of the past (in the direction of A ), to the right of this those of the future (in Direction to B )

Time value and time step reference

A relationship of the “time step reference” can be described between the “time point value” and the “I”. The “time level reference” of the past, present and future arises when a “fact” (or to a certain extent an action) is defined in relation to the situation of the “time value” to the speaker. Here, the “time value” of a “fact” according to its position in relation to the “present point” on the (virtual) “time line” is then promulgated as past, future or present ( tense system ). Because the tense system expresses the relationship between a observed time and speaking time (cf.  Hans Reichenbach's tense system, one talks about the past or future),

With the "time direction reference", however, the aspect system is recorded. Because with the type of temporal relationship in which a “fact” is set, the speaker defines a relationship between the “I” and the “fact”, the “time directional reference”, due to the meaning of the verbal statement. This relationship leaves two options open for Koschmieder:

  • The verbalized statement is directed from the past into the future. The “fact” is characterized as happening (see imperfective aspect ).
  • The promised statement is directed from the future into the past. In this way one interprets the "state of affairs" as happened and grasps it in its totality (see perfect aspect ).

For Koschmieder (1934/1987), self-awareness, perceiving itself as the present, can relate to its individual past and future in two ways relative to the "timeline":

  • as moving relative to the static time line, moving along it from left to right (in the illustration from A of the past to B of the future), whereby the ego-consciousness observes and reflects itself in relation to the "time point values", or
  • as static to the “timeline” moving past from right to left, whereby the self-awareness is related to itself with these time values. The self-conscious subject remains about a (virtual) "present point" (e.g. point 3 )

Koschmieder (1934/1987) calls the first relation a directional relationship from the past (point A ) to the future (point B ). The ego-conscious subject comes from the past (in the illustration from A ) and perceives itself reflectively at a certain point in time insofar as the “fact” has just occurred and will continue to occur. From this the subject can deduce that it also occurs in the present identified with the reference time (present tense). The sense of direction from the past, from point A to point B , is promised by the self-conscious subject through imperfectivity.

If, however, the action has taken place or has occurred, i.e. has become reality at a certain “time value” or is represented as reality, then the “time value” (the (virtual) “present point”, e.g. point 3 ) represents the starting point and the factual situation moves relatively, as in the second relation of the static ego-conscious subject, from this to or into the past. In this relation it is not possible to present the fact or the action as currently being concluded, because for this the self-conscious subject would have to move as in the first relation. Because one cannot say of a fact that it was and will be further if the point of occurrence occurs at the moment of speaking, this directional relationship from the future (point B ) to the past is expressed through perfection.

The opposing aspect system of perfective vs. In Koschmieder, imperfect is represented by a grammatical category, it serves to express a cognitive movement relation of an ego-conscious subject or the subject-dependent time coordinate system and "timeline" or the facts situated on it.

Facts with and without time value

For Koschmieder there are facts with time value and facts without time value . Events with temporal value are individual, one-off events assigned to a defined location (see point 3 in the figure ) on the timeline. The events without temporal value are unlimited, repeated facts that are timelessly presented as events outside of time, so-called eternal truths. They do not mean an individual process and are not presented in a calendar - chronometrically through time measurement or time position information . One could translate Koschmieder's terms with individual-concrete and general-abstract facts .

Works (selection)

  • Report on a study trip to Poland in 1930 . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, vol. 49 (1932), pp. 130–146.
  • Time reference and language. A contribution to the aspect and tense question. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1971, 1st edition, Breslau 1928, ISBN 3-534-05775-9
  • The noetic foundations of syntax. Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 1952
  • Collected treatises on the phonetics, phonology and morphology of the Slavic languages. Hieronymus-Verlag, Neuried 1979.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolodyrnyr Janiw: Erwin Koschmieder. Honorary doctorate from the Ukrainian Free University (October 31, 1975). Varia, No. 10, special print from: Communications of the Working and Funding Association of Ukrainian Sciences eV, No. 13, Cicero, Munich 1976, p. 4
  2. ↑ Helmut W. Schaller: Koschmieder, Erwin Slavist, * August 31, 1896 Liegnitz, † February 14, 1977 Ebersberg near Munich, German biography
  3. ↑ Richard Hönigswald: The basics of thought psychology. 2. reworked. Edition. Leipzig / Berlin 1925 (ND: Darmstadt 1965).
  4. ↑ Moritz Löwi : On the I and I-consciousness. A contribution to basic research in thought psychology. In: Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft (11) 1930, 19–26
  5. ↑ Erwin Koschmieder: Time reference and language. A contribution to the aspect and tense question. Breslau 1928, (ND: WTB, Darmstadt 1971, ISBN 3-534-05775-9 , p. 2)
  6. ↑ from A. Eddington : Space Time and Gravitation. Cambridge University Press 1920
  7. ↑ Erwin Koschmieder: Nauka o aspektach czasownika polskiego w zarysie. Próba syntezy. Wilno 1934. Translation: Aspectology of Polish. Selecta Slavica 11, Neuried 1987
  8. ↑ Helmut Jachnow, Monika Wingender, Karin Tafel: Temporality and Tempus: Studies on general and Slavic questions. Vol. 6 Slavic study books, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-447-03610-9 , p. 42
  9. ↑ Andrea Stahtschmidt: About the time reference in the Hopi verbal system. In: Edeltraud Bülow, Peter Schmitt (Ed.): Integral Linguistics: Festschrift for Helmut Gipper. John Benjamin Publishing, Amsterdam 1979, ISBN 90-272-7413-4 , p. 618
personal data
SURNAME Koschmieder, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Slavist and linguist
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Liegnitz , Province of Silesia
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1977
Place of death Ebersberg