Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Linguistics
- The Cambridge History of Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations, Acronyms, Special Symbols, and Other Conventions
- Introduction
- Part I Ancient, Classical, and Medieval Periods
- Part II Renaissance to Late Nineteenth Century
- Introduction to Part II The Cultural and Political Context of Language Studies from the Renaissance to the End of the Nineteenth Century
- 7 Universal Language Schemes
- 8 Locke and Reactions to Locke, 1700–1780
- 9 Rousseau to Kant
- 10 The Celebration of Linguistic Diversity: Humboldt’s Anthropological Linguistics
- 11 Early Nineteenth-Century Linguistics
- 12 The Neogrammarians and their Role in the Establishment of the Science of Linguistics
- Part III Late Nineteenth-through Twentieth-Century Linguistics
- Part IIIA Late Nineteenth Century through the 1950s: Synchrony, Autonomy, and Structuralism
- Part IIIB 1960–2000: Formalism, Cognitivism, Language Use and Function, Interdisciplinarity
- References
- Index
12 - The Neogrammarians and their Role in the Establishment of the Science of Linguistics
from Part II - Renaissance to Late Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2023
- The Cambridge History of Linguistics
- The Cambridge History of Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations, Acronyms, Special Symbols, and Other Conventions
- Introduction
- Part I Ancient, Classical, and Medieval Periods
- Part II Renaissance to Late Nineteenth Century
- Introduction to Part II The Cultural and Political Context of Language Studies from the Renaissance to the End of the Nineteenth Century
- 7 Universal Language Schemes
- 8 Locke and Reactions to Locke, 1700–1780
- 9 Rousseau to Kant
- 10 The Celebration of Linguistic Diversity: Humboldt’s Anthropological Linguistics
- 11 Early Nineteenth-Century Linguistics
- 12 The Neogrammarians and their Role in the Establishment of the Science of Linguistics
- Part III Late Nineteenth-through Twentieth-Century Linguistics
- Part IIIA Late Nineteenth Century through the 1950s: Synchrony, Autonomy, and Structuralism
- Part IIIB 1960–2000: Formalism, Cognitivism, Language Use and Function, Interdisciplinarity
- References
- Index
Summary
From the beginning of the nineteenth century constant progress was made in comparative studies (e.g., work on exceptions to Rask’s and Grimm’s sound laws: Lottner, Grassmann, Verner). In 1870 young German scholars, the Junggrammatiker (‘Neogrammarians’) declared in their programmatic statement (by Osthoff and Brugmann) that a change ‘in the face of comparative linguistics’ was necessary for it to gain the reliability of the natural sciences. The main principles of their credo were: language is localized/observable in the individual: to understand how speech lives and develops, linguists have to pay attention to speakers and the speaking process; psychological factors at work in language change have to be considered; sound laws operate without exception; analogical changes explain violations of sound laws. The last two axioms were criticized (e.g., Curtius), but the neogrammarian contribution to the advancement of linguistics was recognized and their principles followed: cf. Sievers's work, the creation of neogrammarian periodicals, Brugman and Delbruck’s Grundriss and Paul’s Prinzipien, a methodological tool for historical studies for decades. By the end of the century, language studies greatly expanded in German universities. The most important neogrammarian center was Leipzig University, where foreigners such as Saussure, and later Bloomfield, studied.
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- The Cambridge History of Linguistics , pp. 345 - 360Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023