The study of language change has evolved at a high rate throughout the last century.
Significant insights have been gained concerning the workings of the human mind and,
by extension, the workings of semantic and linguistic change. Set in comparison and
contrast, however, it becomes obvious that some convictions have remained stable and
still play a role as prominent as they did in the year of 1880. It can even be argued that
most of the accomplishments of today’s language change researchers strongly build on
those of the last century and could not have been achieved without them. To illustrate
this assumption, the present termpaper compares two works on language change that
were written in two different centuries in two different countries; Prinzipien der
Sprachgeschichte (Chapter 4: Wandel der Wortbedeutung) written by Hermann Paul in
1880 and Semantic Change and Cognition written by Gábor Györi in 2002. Hermann
Paul was a German linguist and lexicographer, who was born on August 7 in 1846 and
passed away on December 29 in 1921. He was a significant representative of the
Neogrammarian school of thought. The cognitive linguist Gábor Györi is associate
professor and head of the department of English linguistics at the University of Pécs,
Hungary and has a strong focus on the evolution of cognition and categorization.
It shall furthermore be shown that Paul’s work shares many of the tenets of
modern cognitive linguistics even though that might not be obvious at the first glance,
due to differences in terminology and methodology.
In order to filter out similarities and differences between both the authors’ points
of view, chapter 1.1 will briefly summarize the contents of Paul’s text, while chapter 1.2
will give an account of the most important tenets of Györi’s work. In chapter 2.1, the
terminology Paul and Györi used will be explained and contrasted. Chapter 2.2 then
deals with the contentual comparison of both texts. Here the focus will be set on the role that the authors assign to metaphor and metonymy as mechanisms of semantic change.
In chapter 2.3, it will be analyzed, which notion of language is manifested in the
respective works.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Hermann Paul: Wandel der Wortbedeutung
- Gábor Györi: Semantic change and cognition
- Comparison
- Terminology
- Similarities and differences
- The authors' notion of language
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This termpaper aims to compare two works on language change written in different centuries and countries: "Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte" (Chapter 4: Wandel der Wortbedeutung) by Hermann Paul (1880) and "Semantic Change and Cognition" by Gábor Györi (2002). The paper highlights the similarities and differences between the two authors' perspectives on language change and explores how Paul's work anticipates some of the tenets of modern cognitive linguistics.
- The role of metaphor and metonymy in semantic change
- The relationship between language change and cognitive processes
- The authors' conceptions of language and its structure
- The evolution of linguistic thought over time
- The influence of the Neogrammarian school on contemporary linguistics
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
1.1. Hermann Paul: Wandel der Wortbedeutung
Paul's chapter distinguishes between "usual" and "occasional" meanings of words. The "usual" meaning encompasses all the associations a speaker has with a word, while the "occasional" meaning is context-dependent and richer in content. Paul focuses on how occasional meanings become usual, describing mechanisms of semantic change such as specialization, extension, and transference. He discusses the role of metaphor in creating new names for concepts and the importance of metonymy in the transference of meaning through related concepts. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the subjectivity and variability of language and language change.
1.2. Gábor Györi: Semantic Change and Cognition
Györi's paper argues for a cognitive explanation of semantic change, emphasizing the role of conceptual and cognitive structures in the minds of speakers. He suggests that when speakers modify language structures using pragmatic devices like metaphor and metonymy, these modifications can be passed on to the next generation, resulting in language change. Györi seeks to identify the cognitive factors that govern the detection of similarity, contrast, and contiguity, setting the stage for a deeper exploration of these factors in the comparison chapter.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This term paper delves into the complex interplay between language change, cognitive processes, and historical linguistics. Key terms include semantic change, metaphor, metonymy, cognitive linguistics, Neogrammarian school, language structure, and linguistic evolution.
- Quote paper
- B.A. Marie Adler (Author), 2013, Semantic Change. A Comparison between "Wandel der Wortbedeutung" by Hermann Paul and "Semantic change and cognition" by Gábor Györi, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/272623
