Conjecture

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Conjecture ( Latin coniectura , 'presumption' , 'interpretation') is a method of textual criticism (or edition philology), which in turn is an important part of literary studies . It is used for the edition of codices , manuscripts or printed editions and means that the editor completes missing text passages as well as improvements in content and style that are deemed necessary. A detailed and justifying reference is always made to the conjecture. Correcting pure spelling or printing errors is called emendation ; Emendations are also shown in detail in modern editions, but they can also be summarized by explaining general emendation rules.

When editing texts, conjectures are made where the editor suspects a falsification and inauthenticity of the text witness compared to the underlying original . This happens when a point in the text does not seem to match the rest of the text in terms of style , rhyme and verse scheme , sentence structure, vocabulary, etc. Conjecture is based on the idea of ​​an original text intended by the author, which is exposed to "corruption" for various reasons in the course of its text history. Such damaged text is called "corrupted text" in technical terms.

If several handwritten versions of texts are compared with one another (for example, those of poems, the different versions of which differ greatly from each other), an editor has to decide on a case-by-case basis which text is to be included in the print version. He can opt for the earliest manuscript if he considers it to be the “more original” and conjugate an “Urtext” from it. Alternatively, for example, he can also use the so-called " last hand edition " as the most important text witness, this is the last printed version that was corrected by the author himself. It is not uncommon for some authors to revise their early works themselves for the later print versions because they were dissatisfied with them.

Often, however, the corrections and changes made by the author from version to version are of particular interest. In some cases an original text has to be conjugated, where it fell victim to "corrections" by an early printer (for example in Shakespeare's plays, which have only been preserved in several first editions, some of which differ greatly from one another).

In the case of critical issues in the critical apparatus, all the conjectures carried out are printed in the appendix or at the foot of the page. This leaves the opportunity to understand the editor's conjectures.

One possibility of text edition, which replaces the edition by means of a conjecture in special cases, is contemporary editions such as editions of the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin or Georg Trakl , which is practiced in the Frankfurt edition of Hölderlin's works: each page of the manuscript can also be printed as a facsimile become; A readable print version is inserted next to it, which has special markings for strikethrough, highlighting, various writing tools and other text features. During the text interpretation , specialists can track how the texts were created and how an author made certain changes. Conjectures only have to be made here if the handwriting is illegible.

In 19th century philology, conjectures were practiced much more generously than they are today. However, the problem of overzealous conjuring was recognized even then; thus noted the famous classical philologist August Boeckh :

“[...] the suspicious sense easily misleads the critic if he is not kept in check by objectivity. Even a Bentley and Valckenaer were often wrong [...] In general, one can say that out of 100 conjectures made by the critics, 5 are not true. "

A critical objection of modern edition philology is that conjectures are often made without sufficient justification and “according to feeling”; the editor is competing with the author, as it were, and thereby exceeding his authority. The plan to reconstruct an “intended original text” is met with increasing skepticism. Modern methods of literary studies are therefore not so much concerned with speculating about a statement presumably corresponding to the author's view, but rather use the oldest surviving text as the starting material. In the case of editions, therefore, often only clear spelling mistakes are corrected; Conjectures formulated nevertheless are never noted in the text of a critical edition, but only in the critical apparatus or in the editor's commentary . From the outset, they do not have a text-constituting character but only an argumentative character, so they are not part of the creation of the text , but the beginning of the text's interpretation .

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Conjecture  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Remarks

  1. ^ August Boeckh: Encyclopedia and Methodology of the Philological Sciences. 2nd edition, Leipzig 1886, p. 175.