Page 504 - Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language

Key Figures
based on the vernacular. Common to these and to later works, such as the Ideen zur Philosophic der Ges- chichte der Menschheit (1784—91), is an interest in con- tinuity and development, which is accompanied throughout his writings by another in origins.
In the Fragmente (1766-68), a set of mainly literary essays, he suggests, much as Condillac had done, that language originated from a combination of gesture and natural reflex cries, whichdeveloped into irregular utterances, and thence into poetry. In social use lan- guage evolved further into oratory, before declining eventually into the dull regularity of 'philosophical' (i.e., scientific) language. His view of a language as a key to the national character of its speakers—also anticipated by Condillac—is often seen as a source of similar ideas expressed by Wilhelm von Humboldt.
The treatise on the origin of language, unlike other writings of the time, asserts unequivocally that lan- guage is not God-given, but man-made. However,
instead of Condillac's scheme of development it sug- 1
gests a specifically human quality of 'reflection (Besonnenheit), nature's compensation for man'sweak instinctual endowments, which enables man to ident- ify an object by selecting one of the set of features which characterize it. For example, a lamb is identified by its bleat; the observer bleats mentally on seeing it again; this event alone is sufficient to constitute language, even without a listener. Speech is not a reflex sound; neither is it mere irrational imitation or 'aping' (nachafferi). Later passages speak of a gestural com- ponent in language, and of the mutual reinforcement of reason and language.
The recognition of an object by a distinguishing mark is also used as the initial stage of identification in the mental processes set up in the Metacritique to the Critique of Pure Reason (1799), an empiricist attack on Kant's Critique, paralleling the increasingly complex perceptions of identity, quality, and activity by the progressive introduction of nominals, adjectives, and verbs in grammar.
While Herder is best known to linguists for hisviews on the origin of language, the Abhandlung is perhaps more important for its vigor than its views; his most influential contribution may lie rather in his sense of the organic growth and decay of language, in his consciousness of the distinctive national quality of languages, and in his propagating the use of simple unaffected German.
Bibliography
Clark R T 1955 Herder: His Life and Thought. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
Haym R 1958 [1st edn. 1877-35] Herder. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin
Wilhelm von Humboldt, elder brother of the famous scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, was born on June 22, 1767 in Potsdam, Prussia, and died in Tegel (now in Berlin) on April 8, 1835. Dis- tinguished as a statesman and diplomat, he is generally regarded as one of the profoundest thinkers on linguis- tic matters, though the difficulty of his style often makes his meaning hard to interpret.
After private tuition at home Wilhelm attended Gdttingen University (1788). Completing his legal studies, he traveled in Europe and pursued further studies in Greek language and civilization, which epitomized for him the versatile and harmonious way of life and remained a strong influence through- out his career.
His marriage into a wealthy family in 1791 meant
that he was able to devote his time and energies to developing to the full the individuality and inde- pendence of mind which from an early age he had striven for. In Jena from 1794 he enjoyed a close and intellectually stimulating friendship with Schiller and Goethe. During a period in Paris he visited Spain, and contact with the Basque language was an early stimulus to the study of languages in general. In 1801 he reluctantly moved to Berlin and the next year to Rome, as Prussian ambassador to the Vatican from 1802 to 1808. State service claimed his full attention on his recall to Germany in 1808, and he was respon- sible for important educational reforms. It was not until 1819 that disagreements with other members of the Prussian government led him to retire from public life and to devote himself to his study of languages.
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Humboldt, Wilhelm von J. A. Kemp
Heintel E (ed.) 1964 J G H Sprachphilosophische 2nd edn. Meiner, Hamburg
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Herder J G 1877-1913 (ed. Suphan B) Samtliche Werke. Weidmann, Berlin
Moran J H, Code A (transl.) 1966 On the Origin of Language: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Essay on the Origin of Languages; Johann Gottfried Herder, Essay on the Origin of Language. Ungar, New York
Stam J H 1976 Inquiries into the Origin of Language. The Fate of a Question. Harper and Row, New York