Humboldt: 'On Language': On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and Its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human SpeciesWilhelm von Humboldt's classic study of human language was first published in 1836, as a general introduction to his three-volume treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of the nature of language, exploring its universal structures and its relation to mind and culture. Empirically wide-ranging - Humboldt goes far beyond the Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclusions from comparative linguistics. This 1999 volume presents a translation by Peter Heath, together with an introduction by Michael Losonsky that places Humboldt's work in its historical context and discusses its relevance to contemporary work in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology. |
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Contents
| vii | |
| xxxv | |
| xxxvii | |
| xl | |
| 11 | |
| 23 | |
| 25 | |
| 29 | |
The procedure of language more fully explained verbal affinity and verbal form | 90 |
Isolation inflection and agglutination of words | 100 |
Verbal unity more closely examined incorporative system of languages means of designating verbal unity the pause letterchange | 109 |
Accent | 125 |
Incorporative system of languages framing of the sentence | 128 |
Congruence of soundforms in languages with grammatical requirements | 140 |
Main division of languages according to the purity of their formative principle | 143 |
Character of languages poetry and prose | 148 |
| 37 | |
| 41 | |
| 46 | |
| 48 | |
| 54 | |
Soundsystem of languages nature of the articulated sound soundchanges allocation of sounds to concepts designation of general relations the sense of... | 65 |
Inner linguistic form | 81 |
Combination of sound with inner linguistic form | 88 |
Power of languages to evolve felicitously from on to another act of spontaneous positing in languages the verb the conjunction the relative pronouns... | 182 |
Retrospect on the course of the inquiry so far languages that deviate from purely regular form | 214 |
Nature and origin of less perfect languagestructure the Semitic languages the Delaware language | 220 |
The Chinese language the same continued the Burmese language | 230 |
Whether the polysyllabic languagestructure has evolved from the monosyllabic | 262 |
Glossary | 288 |
Index | 290 |
Other editions - View all
Humboldt: 'On Language': On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and ... Wilhelm von Humboldt No preview available - 1999 |
Humboldt: 'On Language': On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and ... Wilhelm von Humboldt No preview available - 1999 |
Humboldt: 'On Language': On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and ... Wilhelm von Humboldt No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
according activity actually already appears arises articulation attached becomes belong Burmese called character Chinese closely combination complete compound concept connection consonants constitutes construction contains correct coupling course culture depends designation detail determine direction distinction distinguish diversity effect elements entirely essential example expression external fact fashion feeling final follows formation further give grammatical Greek hand hence human Humboldt ideas independent indication individual inflection influence inner intellectual internal kind language latter laws less linguistic living Malayan material meaning mental merely mind namely nature never noun objects occurs once organs original particles particular person poetry position possess possible precisely present principle produced pronoun purely reason regard relation remains roots Sanscrit seems sense sentence separate significance simple single sound speak specific speech structure syllables term thing thinking thought true truly understanding unity verb vowel whole words writing
Popular passages
Page 54 - Language is the formative organ of thought. Intellectual activity, entirely mental, entirely internal, and to some extent passing without trace, becomes, through sound, externalized in speech and perceptible to the senses. Thought and language are therefore one and inseparable from each other.
Page 63 - Nobody means by a word precisely and exactly what his neighbour does, and the difference, be it ever so small, vibrates, like a ripple in water, throughout the entire language. Thus all understanding is always at the same time a not-understanding, all concurrence in thought and feeling at the same time a divergence.
Page 60 - Humboldt's posthumous magnum opus may serve to round out the picture, where he declares that [...] there resides in every language a characteristic world-view. As the individual sound stands between man and the object, so the entire language steps in between him and the nature that operates, both inwardly and outwardly, upon him. He surrounds himself with a world of sounds so as to assimilate and process within himself the world of objects.
Page 48 - We must look upon language, not as a dead product, but far more as a producing.
Page 60 - ... is so, since every language contains the whole conceptual fabric and mode of presentation of a portion of mankind. But because we always carry over, more or less, our own world-view, and even our own language-view, this outcome is not purely and completely experienced.
Page 21 - ... are also connected with, and dependent upon, a third and higher phenomenon, theijrourth of man's mental pouters into ever new and often more elevated forms. . . . This revelation of man's mental powers, diverse in its degree and nature, over the course of millennia and throughout the world, is the highest aim of all spiritual endeavour, the ultimate idea which world history...
Page 24 - Language, indeed, arises from a depth of human nature which everywhere forbids us to regard it as a true product and creation of peoples. It possesses an autonomy that visibly declares itself to us, though inexplicable in its nature, and, seen from this aspect, is no production of activity, but an involuntary emanation of the spirit, no work of nations but a gift fallen to them by their inner destiny.
Page 49 - For it is the ever-repeated mental labour of making the articulated sound capable of expressing thought. In a direct and strict sense, this is the definition of speech on any occasion; in its true and essential meaning, however, we can also regard, as it were, only the totality of this speaking as the language.
Page 56 - Regardless of communication between man and man, speech is a necessary condition for the thinking of the individual in solitary seclusion. In appearance, however, language develops only socially, and man understands himself only once he has tested the intelligibility of his words by trial upon others.
Page 60 - Words well up freely from the breast, without necessity or intent, and there may well have been no wandering horde in any desert that did not already have its own songs. For man, as a species, is a singing creature, though the notes, in his case, are also coupled with thought.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Humboldt: 'On Language': On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and Its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy Cambridge Texts in the History Cambridge texts in the history of political thought |
| Authors | Wilhelm von Humboldt, Wilhelm Freiherr von Humboldt, Humboldt Wilhelm von |
| Editor | Michael Losonsky |
| Translated by | Peter Heath |
| Contributors | Karl Ameriks, Desmond M. Clarke |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint, revised |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1999 |
| ISBN | 0521667720, 9780521667722 |
| Length | 296 pages |
| Subjects | › › Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General Philosophy / General Philosophy / History & Surveys / General Philosophy / Language |
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