Neogrammarian

Neogrammarian

The Neogrammarians (also Young Grammarians, German Junggrammatiker) were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change. According to this hypothesis, a diachronic sound change affects simultaneously all words in which its environment is met, without exception. Verner's law is a famous example of the Neogrammarian hypothesis, as it resolved an apparent exception to Grimm's law. The Neogrammarian hypothesis was the first hypothesis of sound change to attempt to follow the principle of falsifiability according to scientific method. Today this hypothesis is considered more of a guiding principle than an exceptionless fact, as numerous examples of lexical diffusion (where a sound change affects only a few words at first and then gradually spreads to other words) have been attested.

Other contributions of the Neogrammarians to general linguistics were:

  • The object of linguistic investigation is not the language system, but rather the idiolect, that is, language as it is localized in the individual, and therefore is directly observable.
  • Autonomy of the sound level: being the most observable aspect of language, the sound level is seen as the most important level of description, and absolute autonomy of the sound level from syntax and semantics is assumed.
  • Historicism: the chief goal of linguistic investigation is the description of the historical change of a language.
  • Analogy: if the premise of the inviolability of sound laws fails, analogy can be applied as an explanation if plausible. Thus, exceptions are understood to be a (regular) adaptation to a related form.

Leading Neogrammarian linguists included:

Despite their strong influence in their time, the methods and goals of the Neogrammarians have been criticized from various points of view[citation needed], but mainly for: reducing the object of investigation to the idiolect; restricting themselves to the description of surface phenomena (sound level); overvaluation of historical languages and neglect of contemporary ones.

Literature

  • Hermann Paul: Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. (1880).
  • Karl Brugmann und Bertold Delbrück: Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen. (1897–1916).
  • Hugo Schuchardt: „Über die Lautgesetze. Gegen die Junggrammatiker“, in Hugo-Schuchardt-Brevier, ein Vademekum der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft., ed. Leo Spitzer. Halle (Saale) 1922.
  • Harald Wiese: Eine Zeitreise zu den Ursprüngen unserer Sprache. Wie die Indogermanistik unsere Wörter erklärt, Logos Verlag Berlin, 2007, ISBN 978-3832516017.

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  • Neogrammarian — Ne o*gram*ma ri*an, n. [Neo + grammarian; a translation of G. junggrammatiker.] One of a group of philologists who apply phonetic laws more widely and strictly than was formerly done, and who maintain that these laws admit of no real exceptions.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • neogrammarian — /nee oh greuh mair ee euhn/, Ling. n. 1. a member of the Junggrammatiker. adj. 2. of or pertaining to the Junggrammatiker. [1880 85; trans. of G Junggrammatiker] * * * ▪ German scholar German   …   Universalium

  • Neogrammarian — noun A member of a 19th century school of German linguists who first advanced the theory of regular sound change; or a follower of that school …   Wiktionary

  • neogrammarian — neo·grammarian …   English syllables

  • neogrammarian — “+ noun Etymology: ne + grammarian; translation of German junggrammatiker : one of a school of philologists arising in Germany about 1875, advocating the more exact formulation of phonetic law and its more rigid application to linguistic… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Neogrammatical — Neogrammarian Ne o*gram*ma ri*an, n. [Neo + grammarian; a translation of G. junggrammatiker.] One of a group of philologists who apply phonetic laws more widely and strictly than was formerly done, and who maintain that these laws admit of no… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Comparative method — This article is about the comparative method in linguistics. For other kinds of comparative methods, see Comparative (disambiguation). Linguistic map representing a Tree model of the Romance languages based on the comparative method. Here the… …   Wikipedia

  • Brugmann, Karl — ▪ German linguist in full  Friedrich Karl Brugmann   born , March 16, 1849, Wiesbaden, Nassau [Germany] died June 29, 1919, Leipzig, Ger.       German linguist who gained a position of preeminence in comparative Indo European linguistics during… …   Universalium

  • Sound change — includes any processes of language change that affect pronunciation (phonetic change) or sound system structures (phonological change). Sound change can consist of the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature) by… …   Wikipedia

  • Lexical diffusion — In historical linguistics, lexical diffusion is both a phenomenon and a theory. The phenomenon is that by which a phoneme is modified in a subset of the lexicon, and spreads gradually to other lexical items. For example, in English, /uː/ has… …   Wikipedia

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