George W. Grace

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George William Grace (born September 8, 1921 in Corinth , Mississippi , † January 17, 2015 in Honolulu ) was an American linguist. Before being appointed Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii , he also taught as an anthropologist . His research focus was historical linguistics and comparative linguistics . He also dealt with ethnolinguistics and the philosophy of languageThemes. He was best known for his work on the Austronesian languages , particularly the Oceanic languages in Melanesia .

GW Grace (right), 1955 in New Caledonia

Life

George W. Grace was born in Corinth, Mississippi in 1921 and grew up as the eldest of three sons on the Gulf Coast. During the Second World War he served as a flight navigator and stayed in Europe after the war. At the age of 27 he graduated from the University of Geneva with a license en science politique and then returned to the USA.

Although he did not have an anthropology degree, he worked as a Junior Research Anthropologist at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1953 he became a research associate of the Tri-Institutional Pacific Program at Yale University , the University of Hawai'i and the Bernice P. Bishop Museum of Honolulu.

As part of this program, from 1955 to 1956 he carried out linguistic field research in New Caledonia , the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea . This time probably brought him to devote himself to the oceanic languages.

He completed his doctoral thesis The position of the Polynesian languages ​​within the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family in 1958 under Joseph Greenberg at Columbia University . This work is still considered a milestone in the research of the oceanic languages.

After receiving his doctorate, he worked as an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Women's Sociology College (1958-1959), Northwestern University (1959-1960) and Southern Illinois University (1960-1963). He was made an associate professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois University and served in that capacity from 1963 to 1964.

In 1961, George W. Grace founded the journal Oceanic Linguistics . For this he remained editor for the next 30 years (1961–1991). The journal became a primary forum for publications on Austronesian languages ​​and also for publications on Australian and Papuan languages .

From 1964 George W. Grace took up the position of professor at the University of Hawai'i in the then newly founded Department of Linguistics. Between 1966 and 1969 he was a board member of the department. Georg W. Grace remained professor in Hawai'i until 1991 and during this time conducted field research in New Caledonia (1970, 1971–1973) and in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia (1976). In 1991 he retired and also resigned as editor of Oceanic Linguistics .

George W. Grace died in Hawaii at the age of 93. He left his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Create

Georg W. Grace's work can be divided into descriptive studies with a focus on oceanic languages ​​on the one hand, and theoretical and language-philosophical publications on the other. He was not influenced by scientific currents in linguistics. He pursued his own interests and research questions. He also often referred to other disciplines such as biology in his publications. His famous comparison of birds and crocodiles also came from biology. Birds were fast-changing languages. George W. Grace referred to languages ​​that change less rapidly as crocodiles.

In his teaching activities he shaped and influenced an entire generation of oceanic linguists, including Robert Blust and John Lynch.

He returned periodically to the problem of sub-grouping within the Oceanic languages. For this reason, he repeatedly criticized the comparative method and the traditional view of language as it is used in linguistics. These considerations then led to considerations of the philosophy of language in his later work.

Descriptive Studies

As part of his employment as a research associate in the Tri-Institutional Pacific Program, George W. Grace began working with Oceanic Languages. He was the first linguist to postulate the languages ​​of Rotuma and Fiji along with the Polynesian languages as a subgroup of the Austronesian language family.

Isidore Dyen criticized the thesis and rejected it. According to him, the arguments are only indications that the languages ​​are more closely related. However, they cannot be viewed as a subgroup or a separate language family.

Isidore Dyen postulated her own family tree of the Oceanic languages. He created this family tree with lexicostatistics . Then George W. Grace wrote a review. In this he rejected Dyen's thesis that the Melanesian languages belong to different subgroups of the Austronesian language family. The review is seen as a laudable example of a scientific review.

The subgroup is now established as a subfamily of the Oceanic language family.

Philosophical Studies

In his later publications in particular, George W. Grace dealt more and more with theoretical-philosophical questions. Based on theories on language change and criticism of theoretical approaches in linguistics, his focus was on the nature of language change, language in general as a scientific object of study, theories on translation and the relationship between language and thought.

His considerations and theses are formulated in his books An Essay on Language and The Linguistics Construction of Reality .

He postulated a new perspective of looking at language and consequently investigating it. In the tradition of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis , he formulated the concept of the reality constructing view . He contrasted this concept with the mapping view . Both concepts show an understanding of how language relates to reality.

Mapping View

According to Grace, traditionally practiced linguistics occupies this position in the study of language. The central idea is that there is a common world or reality. Language depicts this reality like a map. The individual languages ​​have different nuances in speaking about this world. These differences are due to the imperfection and diversity of people. The mapping view is also represented by the intertranslatability postulate . It says that it is possible to express any thought in any language. The consequence of this view is that language and culture can be viewed separately. Thoughts and language are also to be separated from one another. Languages ​​are functionally the same. If a language dies, it is not a loss. Even if all languages ​​are replaced by a single one, in this view it does not mean a loss in linguistic diversity.

Grace criticizes this view that linguistics thereby diminishes its scientific significance and importance. However, it is used in traditional linguistics.

Reality Constructing View

The mapping view is George W. Grace, the reality-constructing view contrary. According to Grace, this view of language is not a new idea. It was formulated in a similar way early on by Etienne de Condillac or Wilhelm von Humboldt and thus also agrees with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis .

George W. Grace assumes that humans have no direct access to the world and their surroundings. He only gets access through his senses. The senses convey data to the individual. These data do not produce a perfect picture, but an incomplete and unsystematic picture. In order to get sense or meaning from this data, humans construct the world through models. The models are influenced and reflected by the respective language of the individual. Depending on the language, people categorize and classify their surroundings differently.

Man learns the model of the world through his language and his culture. Language is therefore inseparable from culture. It is also not possible to draw a clear line between language and culture. Language and culture influence and shape each other. Likewise, thinking cannot be separated from language. Not all thoughts can be expressed in another language. It is also not possible to translate any phrase or thought into another language. When a language dies out, it means a loss in linguistic and cultural diversity.

For these reasons, according to Grace, the reality-constructing view is preferable to the mapping view .

Publications

  • Subgrouping of Malayo-Polynesian: A Report of Tentative Findings. In: American Anthropologist . 57, No. 2, 1955, pp. 337-339.
  • The position of the Polynesian languages ​​within the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics. Waverly Press: Baltimore 1959.
  • On the Scientific Status of Genetic Classification in Linguistics . In: Oceanic Linguistics . 4, No. 1/2, 1965, pp. 1-14.
  • with Dell Hymes: Review. Austronesian Lexicostatistical Classification. A Review Article. In: Oceanic Linguistics. 5, No. 1, 1966, pp. 13-58.
  • Canala Dictionary . In Pacific Linguistics. Series C, No. 2 . The Australian National University, Canberra 1975, ISBN 0-85883-122-8 .
  • Grand Couli Dictionary . In: Pacific Linguistics. Series C, No. 12 . The Australian National University, Canberra 1976, ISBN 0-85883-154-6 .
  • An Essay on Language. 1st edition, Hornbeam Press, Columbia 1981.
  • Oceanic Subgrouping: Retrospect and Prospect . In: Pacific Linguistics. Series C, Volume 88 . The Australian National University, Canberra 1985, pp. 1-18.
  • The Linguistic Construction of Reality. Groom Helm Publishers Ltd., London 1987, ISBN 0-7099-3886-1 .

literature

  • Robert Blust: George W. Grace: an appreciation. In: Robert Blust (Ed.): Currents in Pacific Linguistics. Papers on Austronesian Languages ​​and Ethnolinguistics in Honor of George W. Grace. Pacific Linguistics, Canberra 1991, ISBN 0-85883-404-9 , pp. 1-4.
  • Isidore Dyen: Review. The Position of the Polynesian Languages ​​within the Austronesian {Malayo-Polynesian} Language Family. In: The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 69, No. 2, 1960, pp. 180-184.
  • John Lynch, Malcolm Ross, Terry Crowley: The Oceanic Languages. Curzon Language Family Series, Richmond 2002, ISBN 0-7007-1128-7 .
  • Albert J. Schütz: The publications of George W. Grace . In: Robert Blust (Ed.): Currents in Pacific Linguistics. Papers on Austronesian Languages ​​and Ethnolinguistics in Honor of George W. Grace. Pacific Linguistics, Canberra 1991, ISBN 0-85883-404-9 , pp. 5-10.
  • Alfred G. Smith: Review. The Position of the Polynesian Languages ​​within the Austronesian {Malayo-Polynesian} Language Family by George W. Grace. In: American Anthropologist . 62, No. 4, 1960, pp. 730-731.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/ol/
  2. ↑ http://ling.hawaii.edu/
  3. ↑ http://www2.hawaii.edu/~grace/vita.html ( Memento from May 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ https://obits.staradvertiser.com/2015/01/24/george-w-grace/
  5. ^ Robert Blust: George W. Grace: an appreciation. In: Robert Blust (Ed.): Currents in Pacific Linguistics. Papers on Austronesian Languages ​​and Ethnolinguistics in Honor of George W. Grace. Pacific Linguistics, Canberra 1991, ISBN 0-85883-404-9 , p. 4.
  6. ^ Oceanic Subgrouping: Retrospect and Prospect . In: Pacific Linguistics. Series C, Volume 88 . The Australian National University, Canberra 1985, p. 5.
  7. ^ Robert Blust: George W. Grace: an appreciation. In: Robert Blust (Ed.): Currents in Pacific Linguistics. Papers on Austronesian Languages ​​and Ethnolinguistics in Honor of George W. Grace. Pacific Linguistics, Canberra 1991, ISBN 0-85883-404-9 , p. 4.
  8. ^ The position of the Polynesian languages ​​within the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics. Waverly Press: Baltimore 1959.
  9. ↑ Isidore Dyen: Review. The Position of the Polynesian Languages ​​within the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) Language Family. In: The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 69, No. 2, 1960, pp. 180-184.
  10. ↑ George W. Grace, Dell Hymes: Review. Austronesian Lexicostatistical Classification. A Review Article. In: Oceanic Linguistics. 5, No. 1, 1966, pp. 13-58.
  11. ^ * Robert Blust: George W. Grace: an appreciation. In: Robert Blust (Ed.): Currents in Pacific Linguistics. Papers on Austronesian Languages ​​and Ethnolinguistics in Honor of George W. Grace. Pacific Linguistics, Canberra 1991, ISBN 0-85883-404-9 , p. 3.
  12. ^ George W. Grace: The Linguistic Construction of Reality. Groom Helm Publishers Ltd., London 1987, ISBN 0-7099-3886-1 , pp. 7-10.
  13. ^ George W. Grace: The Linguistic Construction of Reality. Groom Helm Publishers Ltd., London 1987, ISBN 0-7099-3886-1 , pp. 10-11.
personal data
SURNAME Grace, George W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grace, George William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American anthropologist and linguist
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Corinth , Mississippi
DATE OF DEATH 17th January 2015
Place of death Honolulu , Hawaii