Arbeiten des Kölner Universalien-Projekts : akup
Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, Universität zu Köln. Hrsg. der Reihe: H. Seiler
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31
Ich möchte für das Folgende annehmen, daß ein Paradigmenwechse1 in den Wissenschaften sich als Wechsel der methodisch leitenden grammatischen Sätze rekonstruieren läßt. Oder mindestens möchte ich behaupten; die Betrachtung eines Paradigmenwechsels als Wechsel der grammatischen Sätze sei wenigstens bei einer Wissenschaft zwingend: bei der Linguistik. Daß die Linguistik längst keine vorparadigmatische Wissenschaft mehr ist, läßt sich bereits daran erkennen, daß sie sich stark genug fühlt, nicht abseits zu stehen, sondern ihrerseits mit einer linguistischen Definition von Wissenschaft aufzuwarten.[…] Daß es inzwischen Untersuchungen über die Sprache der Physik gibt, die linguistische Ergebnisse berücksichtigen, hat sicherlich unter anderem damit zu tun, daß die Linguistik seit der Jahrhundertwende, seit Ferdinand de Saussure, selbstbewußt und sehr vernehmlich im Chor der Wissenschaften mitgesungen hat, bisweilen so laut, daß viele Wissenschaften, besonders in der Abteilung Geisteswissenschaft, sich gezwungen sahen, die Melodie der Linguistik zu übernehmen, wenn anders sie nicht gänzlich übertönt werden wollten. In dieser Situation ist es also auch für andere Wissenschaften von einigem Interesse, davon Kenntnis zu nehmen, daß in der kräftigen Stimme der Linguistik ziemlich genau um das Jahr 1957 ein etwas abrupter Melodiewechsel nicht zu überhören war: Noam Chomskys Buch 'Syntactic Structures' kündigte weiteren Kreisen eine wissenschaftliche Revolution, ein neues Paradigma an. Das heißt […], daß die Wissenschaft der Grammatik, die ja insgesamt nur aus grammatischen Sätzen besteht, das System ihrer methodologischen, […] rein-grammatischen Sätze gegenüber ihren empirisch-grammatischen Sätzen über einzelne Sprachen gründlich veränderte. Der Linguist würde sagen: die Vorstellung von den linguistischen Universalien änderte sich radikal gegenüber derjenigen, die in dem paradigmatischen Lehrbuch der strukturalistischen Epoche entwickelt worden war, dem Cours de linguistique generale Saussures von 1916. Diese Revolution vom Jahre 1957 möchte ich nun zum Gegenstand einer näheren Betrachtung machen.
30
One of the striking features in modern Newari noun phrases is the wide usage of a set of affixes found in combination with the various elements that may expand a noun into an endocentric construction. At first sight such affixation would appear as a linking device by which the subordinate constituents of a noun phrase are tied to their head noun. Closer investigation, however, reveals a more complex picture which I have attempted to outline in the following paragraphs. The results of this inspection lead to the conclusion that the pattern of affixation displayed in Newari mirrors the close interaction of two converse functional principles: both the syntagmatic function of nominal determination on the one hand and a paradigmatic function – the formation of certain types of lexicalized expressions in Newari – formally tie in with each other by the application of one common technique.
29
Meine Untersuchung behandelt das Problem der Kennzeichnung notivischer Bestimmtheit/Unbestimmtheit aus der Perspektive der Wortstellung in Sätzen mit Objekt, also in sogenannten transitiven Sätzen. Relativsätze und Sätze, in denen das Verb diskontinuierlich ist, wurden dabei nicht berücksichtigt, weil die Wortstellung hier von anderen Faktoren abhängt. Die Möglichkeit der grammatischen Realisierung des Ausdrucks von notivischer Bestimmtheit/Unbestimmtheit […] wird dabei mit berücksichtigt.
28
The search for universals is a tendency which is based in the structure of human knowledge and which correlates with a complementary search for individual properties. The recurrence to universals is inherent in both classificatory and deductive knowledge. Admittingly, the attempt to classify the definitorial universals of human language hierarchically meets various difficulties. In contrast to the universals of the formal systems of logic and mathematics, the universals of human language are of a heterogeneous character. Often the relation among the universals of language is not to be determined merely as a relation of logical compatibility or implication, but, additionally, as a relation of means and end. Not everything which is logically possible according to certain basic universals of language is also realized by the languages. Beyond the logical possibilities linguistics must recognize structural, perceptual and cognitive restrictions. – Universal properties have the merit that they are, presumably, more fundamental in the language system than the mere particular properties. – One of the important discoveries of the more recent investigation in language universals is that diversities, in particular certain types of interlingual inversions and gradual distinctions in the development of a dimension, are also subject to universal laws. – As a motive for research in language universals, which is also a motive for the opposed inquiry in linguistic relativity, one must ultimately consider a psycho-sociological factor. According to the level at which one seeks identification with a gruppe (ethnocentric or anthropocentric) one will be more likely to advocate a constrative linguistics (in the broadest sense of the term) or a universal linguistics.
27
The language of the Cahuillas shows two systems of expressions referring to kinship, which could be termed, respectively, as labeling-relational and as descriptive-establishing. […] Descriptive terms show two properties: 1. They are analysable into constituent elements so as to recognize the connection between the term and the proposition. 2. They are distinguishable from the proposition: a. by a special formal element […], in Cahuilla the absolutive suffix. b. by a narrowing or specialization in the meaning. A term which is not descriptive, i.e. which is not connected with a proposition, I shall call "label", "1abeling": It does not say anything about the object but is assigned to it just as a label is attached to a thing […].
26
Eine ausführliche Analyse der Prinzipien der etikettierenden und der deskriptiven Benennung findet sich in Seiler 1975 a. [...] Wesentlich ist; daß der Term gegenüber der Paraphrase; die vermittels der Proposition, zu der er in Beziehung steht, formuliert werden kann (Lehrer = einer, der lehrt), eine Bedeutungsverengung erfährt, die in diesem Falle durch eine zusätzliche semantische Komponente 'professionell' oder 'habituell' o.ä. erfaßt werden kann. Der deskriptiven Benennung, auch charakterisierbar als "Benennen durch Aussagen", dienen diverse sprachliche Mittel oder Techniken wie Derivation, Komposition (mit der Subtechnik der Inkorporation), Absolutivbildung usw. Nicht alle Techniken kommen in jeder Sprache zur Anwendung und auch in den Sprachen, in denen sie zur Anwendung gelangen, ist diese in vielen Fällen auf bestimmte morpho-syntaktische Bereiche beschränkt. [...] Betrachten wir nun unter diesem Gesichtspunkt der Distribution deskriptiver Techniken die Verteilung von Komposition und Derivation im Deutschen. [...] Gegenstand der folgenden Überlegungen soll […] die verbale Wortbildung, und zwar im Vergleich zur nominalen, sein.
24
Using Ultan's theory of descriptivity grading as a starting point, I will attempt to capture this differential utility in terms of [...] criteria of literalness, explicitness and syntactic complexity. I will first briefly present his System and investigate some generalizations which he has proposed on the basis of his study of body part terminologies in numerous languages. I will apply his theory to nouns in this and four other semantic domains, in three North American Indian languages. I will test his generalizations and propose some new ones. I will then present an alternative system of descriptivity grading and compare the results of its application with those of Ultan's system. In the final section I will suggest another methodology for quantification. An appendix at the end of the paper lists all of the descriptive lexical items mentioned, graded according to both systems.
23
The basic idea I want to develop and to substantiate in this paper consists in replacing – where necessary – the traditional concept of linguistic category or linguistic relation understood as 'things', as reified hypostases, by the more dynamic concept of dimension. A dimension of language structure is not coterminous with one single category or relation but, instead, accommodates several of them. It corresponds to certain well circumscribed purposive functions of linguistic activity as well as to certain definite principles and techniques for satisfying these functions. The true universals of language are represented by these dimensions, principles, and techniques which constitute the true basis for non-historical inter-language comparison. The categories and relations used in grammar are condensations – hypostases as it were – of such dimensions, principles, and techniques. Elsewhere I have outlined the theory which I want to test here in a case study.
22
The first question under Consideration is whether it is possible to explicate the meaning of 'meaning' (in the sense of Carnap's 'meaning explication'). It is argued then that we have to distinguish just between meaning1 and meaning2: Meaning1 refers to the proper semantic meaning whereas meaning2 refers to a pragmatic meaning expressed by the form 'S means that p'. The statement follows that there is no possibility of giving an explication of meaning directly based on meaning1. Concerning meaning2, arguments are given which demonstrate the identity of meaning2 with material implication. An explication of meaning2 would show tight resemblances to Tarski's well- known truth-definition.
21
In an earlier paper, I proposed a system for evaluating the relative descriptivity of lexical items in a consistent manner in terms of the interrelations of three metrics. The first of these, including five possible degrees of descriptivity, is based on the premise that the sum of the meaningful parts of a given form is or is not equal to the meaning of the whole. The second, also composed of five degrees, is based on paraphrase-term relations in which the logical quantifiers: all, some and no, are applied to the terms of the paraphrase in one test and to the meaningful parts of the term (linguistic form) in the reversibility test. Both tests are applied in the form of logical propositions. The third metric, with three degrees, deals with the relative explicitness of the meaningful parts of a given form: explicit, implicit or neither. […] This system was then tested in a pilot study involving the fairly limited and semantically homogeneous lexical domain of body-part terms in a specific language, Finnish. The purpose of the present paper is to subject comparable data from other languages to the same kind of analysis and compare the results in order to ascertain whether the generalizations arrived at with the Finnish data also hold for the other languages or, more specifically, which of these generalizations are more or less universal and which language or language-type specific? The additional languages to be examined here are: French, German, Ewe, Maasai and Swahili.
20
These notes grew out of my preoccupation with writing a grammar of a particular language, Cahuilla, which is spoken in Southern California and belongs to the Uto-Aztecan family. [...] The Introduction to the Grammar as a whole – of which two sections are reproduced here in a modified version – tries to integrate the synoptic views of the different chapters into a series of comprehensive statements. The statements cluster around two topics: 1. A presentation of Cahuilla as a type of language. 2. Remarks on writing a grammar.
19
Semiotische Philosophie?
(1975)
The philosophical interest in semiotics arose out of its chief aim, the elucidation of the foundations and forms of knowledge. Since Locke and Leibniz it has been recognized that signs not only serve to present and communicate knowledge already given, but also open up certain domains of knowledge that would otherwise be inaccessible. Since the use of sign systems presupposes insight into the rule-governed construction of these systems, it is more appropriate to speak of a semiotic complementation than of a 'semiotic transformation of philosophy' (Apel). With the exception of elementary forms of knowledge, which are, however, fundamental, all knowledge rests on an interdependence of intuitive and semiotically mediated cognitions. In the contemporary philosophy of science a planifactory function joins the cognitiye function of signs. Signs serve to plan and steer actions and operations. The cybernetic sciences as a semiotic discipline have succeeded, for the first time since the breakthrough of modern science, in reversing the relation between the natural and the human sciences. A model from the human sciences has successfully been superposed upon natural sciences and technical disciplines.
18
Actually, the title should include intralinguistic variation along with the interlinguistic one. For variation within one and the same language is the thing which directly presents itself to the observation while it still remains to be demonstrated that phenomena in different languages can be regarded as variants to be assigned to one and the same invariant principle. There are two senses in which the terms of variant, variation are used in the following remarks: one, which has just been mentioned, concerns the assignment of variants to some definite invariant. The other implies the possibility of gradient transitions and opposes the notions of discreteness and of yes-or-no. I shall not try here to reconcile these two senses and I trust that what I intend to show will become intelligible nevertheless. Henri Delacroix (1924:126f) has reformulated an old hypothesis which seems worth exploring in connection with the search for language universals: "Une langue est une variation historique sur le grand thème humain du langage." It remains to be seen what "le grand thème" or rather "les grands thèmes" are about and what particular language-specific properties could be shown to be variants of one and the same theme. One such major theme which we shall now investigate is the interrelation between, on one side, a word or a sequence of words, and, on the other, a sentence. As this for us is not only a syntactic but also a semantic problem, we might rephrase the anti thesis as that between a term or sequence of terms and a proposition. Two alternative views on the nature of this interrelation seem conceivable: A. The interrelation is yes-or-no, i. e. an element or a string of elements either constitutes a term (sequence of terms) or a proposition. B. The interrelation is of gradient nature, i. e. we find intermediary stages. Both alternatives are appropriate, but under different circumstances.
16
Three quantificational approaches to the measurement of lexical descriptivity are proposed, based on: the semantic sum of the parts of a lexeme is equal to the whole, paraphrase-term and term-paraphrase congruence, explicitness of semantic elements of a construction. Combination of all possible values into tripartite sets and then into equipollent groups results in a system composed of 12 grades. This system was tested with a semantic domain of the Finnish lexicon: body-part terms. The descriptivity indices for each lexical item were correlated with natural divisions of the body, construction-motivation types (form, function, location), grammatical construction types (endo- and exocentric compounds, derived forms, metaphors), and loanwords. These comparisons result in a number of grade profiles whereby specific descriptivity grades are characteristically associated with one or more types of body section, construction motivation, and grammatical construction. Diachronic and synchronic evidence points overwhelmingly to a process of semantic narrowing in the development of descriptive words and labels from phrases or sentences.