Hermann Ammann

Hermann Ammann (born August 10, 1885 in Bruchsal , † September 12, 1956 in Innsbruck ) was a German linguist who worked as a professor at the University of Innsbruck from 1928.

Life

Hermann Ammann, the youngest son of the grammar school director Jacob Ammann († 1895), attended the grammar school in Bruchsal and Freiburg and from Easter 1903 studied classical philology , German and philosophy at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg . Through the seminars and lectures of the linguist Rudolf Thurneysen , he came to Indo-European studies , which he studied intensively during his semester in Heidelberg (1905/1906).

After graduating graduated Ammann (1909) a practical year at the Berthold Gymnasium in Freiburg while also working on his dissertation on a theme of the Latin syntax, with whom he on July 23, 1910 doctorate was. From January 1911 to October 1913 he worked as an assistant at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich, where he received a wealth of inspiration for his scientific work. After his return he worked as a lecturer for classical philology at the University of Freiburg. During the First World War , Ammann volunteered for the Red Cross and was appointed group leader in 1917. After the end of the war, Ammann prepared for his habilitation in comparative linguistics with Ludwig Sütterlin , which he achieved in 1920.

At this time Ammann's main scientific concern developed: to examine the apparently arbitrary language for its hidden regularity. In his inaugural lecture, he asked whether there are generally applicable causal laws for language change. He put forward the thesis that the language change is due to the change in social norms.

After Ammann had received the Georg Curtius Prize for his publications in 1923, he was appointed associate professor in 1926 and was able to undertake a longer trip to Greece in 1927. In 1928 he was appointed to the full professorship for linguistics at the University of Innsbruck (as successor to Alois Waldes ). Ammann worked there as head of the Institute for Linguistics until his death. He declined offers to the universities of Graz (1940) and Vienna (1955).

Ammann's main work is the monograph The Human Speech (two volumes, Lahr 1925–1928; reprint Darmstadt 1974).

Fonts

• On the double sense of linguistic forms . Heidelberg, 1920 (session reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, 1920, 12th treatise).

literature

• Hermann Ammann: Post-legacy writings on comparative and general linguistics. Prepared for printing by Fritz Gschnitzer . Innsbruck 1961 (with picture, biography and list of publications)

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Ammann in the catalog of the German National Library