Klaas Willems

Meaning and interpretation: The semiotic similarities and differences between Cognitive Grammar and European structural linguistics

Abstract The theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the cognitive paradigm have traditionally been discussed against the background of generative grammar, its immediate predecessor. A significantly less researched yet no less interesting relationship is the one between the cognitive and structuralist paradigm. This article focuses on the in part converging, in part diverging semiotic assumptions underlying European structural linguistics and Cognitive Grammar. A comparison of important concepts of both theories (isomorphism, the sign concept, compositionality, and case marking) shows that, although Cognitive Grammar arrives at a more realistic understanding of how language works in discourse, the theory fails to offer a coherent theory of the linguistic sign.

Geschichte und Systematik des adverbalen Dativs im Deutschen : eine funktional-linguistische Analyse des morphologischen Kasus

Die Reihe Studia Linguistica Germanica (SLG), 1968 von Ludwig Erich Schmitt und Stefan Sonderegger begrundet, ist ein renommiertes Publikationsorgan der germanistischen Linguistik. Die Reihe verfolgt das Ziel, mit dem Schwerpunkt auf sprach- und wissenschaftshistorischen Fragestellungen die gesamte Bandbreite des Faches zu reprasentieren. Dazu zahlen u. a. Arbeiten zur historischen Grammatik und Semantik des Deutschen, zum Verhaltnis von Sprache und Kultur, zur Geschichte der Sprachtheorie, zur Dialektologie, Lexikologie/Lexikographie, Textlinguistik und zur Einbettung des Deutschen in den europaischen Sprachkontext.

Eugenio Coseriu (1921-2002)

Der Tod Eugenio Coserius am 7. September 2002 stellt für die Sprachwissenschaft eine einschneidende Zäsur dar. Mit Coseriu ist ein Gelehrter von uns gegangen, der durch seinen Rang als Sprachwissenschaftler – und das heißt nicht nur als Linguist, Sprachtheoretiker und Philologe (vor allem Romanist), sondern auch als Sprachphilosoph und, sit venia verbo, Geisteswissenschaftler im Allgemeinen – einen einmaligen Platz in den Kulturwissenschaften des 20. Jahrhunderts einnahm. Das sprachwissenschaftliche Gesamtwerk, das Coseriu hinterlässt, ist so breit und tief angelegt, dass es im gesamten 20. Jahrhundert seinesgleichen sucht. Aus eben diesem Grund muss jeder Versuch, der Bedeutung Coserius für die moderne Sprachwissenschaft beizukommen, vorläufig unvollständig bleiben, und zwar nicht nur, weil es schwierig, ja geradezu unmöglich ist, der Fülle dieses Lebenswerkes gerecht zu werden, sondern auch, weil das Coseriu’sche Œuvre publikationsmäßig einigermaßen problematisch ist (s. weiter unten, § 7) und eine große Anzahl von Manuskripten bisher unveröffentlicht geblieben ist (s. KABATEK/MURGUÍA 1997, § 5 und KABATEK 2002). Es muss also grundsätzlich bemerkt werden, dass unsere Kenntnis von Coserius Œuvre heute noch unvollständig ist. Dennoch möchte ich in dem vorliegenden Versuch einer Würdigung, als Hommage an den großen Mann, der vielen Sprachwissenschaftlern unvergessen bleiben wird, wenigstens in Ansätzen deutlich machen, worin die Einmaligkeit der Schriften Coserius besteht und weshalb sie für die gesamte Sprachwissenschaft so außerordentlich wichtig und zugleich zukunftsweisend sind. Dabei nehme ich in diesem Beitrag grundsätzlich den Standpunkt der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft ein, was bereits eine nicht unwesentliche Einschränkung ist.

Zipf, George Kingsley (1902–1950)

Zipf was born in Freepot, Illinois, and died in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1924, where he also completed his Ph.D. in comparative philology. During this period, he spent three years in Germany as a student at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin. His Ph.D. was published in 1929. After his return from Germany, he became an instructor in German at Harvard in 1930 and assistant professor of German in 1936. From 1939 onwards, he held the rank of university lecturer. Shortly before his premature death, he published his most important book Human behavior and the principle of least effort (1949).

Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC analysis)

Immediate Constituent Analysis is a structural method for analysing the hierarchical relations among the constituents of complex linguistic constructions, proceeding consecutively from the higher to the next lower level until no further breakdown into smaller units is possible.

The universality of categories and meaning: a Coserian perspective

Abstract Studies in linguistic typology have challenged the idea that languages can be analyzed in terms of a set of preestablished universal categories. Each language should instead be described “in its own terms,” a view consistent with the ‘old’ structuralist paradigm in linguistics. The renewed orientation toward differences between languages raises two questions: (i) How do we identify the meanings which are assumed to be crosslinguistically comparable? (ii) What is the relationship between language-particular categories and comparative concepts commonly used in linguistic typology? To answer these questions, this article focuses on a number of distinctions advocated by Eugenio Coseriu (1921–2002). Coseriu distinguishes three levels of meaning (designation, “signifiés,” and sense) and three types of universals (essential, empirical, and possible universals). Their relevance for linguistic typology is discussed with regard to the expression of possession and a particular diathesis in Japanese, viz. ukemi or “indirect passive.” As well as relating language-particular categories and comparative concepts, Coseriu’s approach offers a promising avenue to account for the ways language-specific meanings interact with extralinguistic knowledge and contents of discourse and texts, which are the object of translation.

Indeterminiertheit, Valenzvariation und Verbbedeutung vom Gesichtspunkt der funktionellen Syntax / Indeterminateness, valency variation and verb meaning from a functional syntax perspective

Abstract This paper deals with the problem of how inherent verb meanings are to be assessed in a synchronic theory of verb valency, given that verbs usually occur in different syntactic patterns and display considerable semantic variation. Moreover, in a recent paper, Fischer (2003) claims that valency is essentially “indeterminate”, because the way verbs build up constructions is subject to various interpretations by different speakers. In the present paper, the variability problem is approached from the point of view of “functional syntax”, a non-generative and non-cognitive theory of grammar developed by Eugenio Coseriu. The paper focuses on the question whether indeterminacy not only holds for valency, but for verb meanings as well. The empirical account is based on a case study of a set of sentences in which the German verb graben occurs in various instantiations, including transparent complex verbal phrases with idiomatic prepositions and metaphorical uses. To adopt the functional approach advanced by Coseriu implies a commitment to account for variability at the level of valency by assuming an invariant general meaning to the verb that licenses all productive occurrences.

Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839–1914)

Charles Sanders Peirce was born on September 10, 1839, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was regarded as a child prodigy in science and philosophy. His father, Benjamin Peirce, was a renowned mathematician at Harvard University who liked to stimulate his sons thinking by presenting intricate and original problems. This unique didactic atmosphere may have been a stimulus for Peirces development as an original thinker. However, despite a promising youth and a brilliant mind, Peirce never achieved a tenured academic position.