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Chapter 5. Walter Benjamin’s idea of language

  • Frank J.M. Vonk
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History of Linguistics 2021
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch History of Linguistics 2021

Abstract

The German literary critic, art critic and philosopher of language Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) has in many ways struggled with the question how language manifests itself in art, epistemology or literature. In posthumously published fragments, Benjamin shows how his restless mind has produced texts in which he has tried to connect the religious (Judaic) tradition with the ruinous appearance of an ideal language in names, trying to understand and explain the imperfection of language, also in translations between languages. Benjamin has covered this ruinous world in an allegoric view of language as it was done in Baroque allegories (the vanitas) showing itself in mourning plays,, hoping for a new, better world. In a way Benjamin’s concern with language shows how language is fragmentized in daily speech in which only the communicative function has survived. The ‘divine’ dimension or word can only allegorically be considered to be relevant to this communicative function.

Abstract

The German literary critic, art critic and philosopher of language Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) has in many ways struggled with the question how language manifests itself in art, epistemology or literature. In posthumously published fragments, Benjamin shows how his restless mind has produced texts in which he has tried to connect the religious (Judaic) tradition with the ruinous appearance of an ideal language in names, trying to understand and explain the imperfection of language, also in translations between languages. Benjamin has covered this ruinous world in an allegoric view of language as it was done in Baroque allegories (the vanitas) showing itself in mourning plays,, hoping for a new, better world. In a way Benjamin’s concern with language shows how language is fragmentized in daily speech in which only the communicative function has survived. The ‘divine’ dimension or word can only allegorically be considered to be relevant to this communicative function.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & acknowledgments 1
  4. Editors’ introduction 3
  5. Part 1. General and particular issues in the history of linguistics
  6. Chapter 1. Can linguistics and historiography of linguistics profit from each other? 14
  7. Chapter 2. Type or descent? 31
  8. Chapter 3. Le futur antérieur des linguistes (fin 19 e – début 20 e siècle) 47
  9. Chapter 4. Ethics and language in (and around) Philipp Wegener 60
  10. Chapter 5. Walter Benjamin’s idea of language 77
  11. Chapter 6. Eléments pour une histoire de l’interprétation 88
  12. Chapter 7. “Computational linguistics” as the horizon of projection of early machine translation 102
  13. Part 2. Antiquity
  14. Chapter 8. Declension and description 116
  15. Chapter 9. Constituent-order in Sanskrit Bahuvrīhi compounds 129
  16. Chapter 10. The internal order of Sanskrit compounds 145
  17. Part 3. Sixteenth to twentieth century works
  18. Chapter 11. How far are the horizons of descriptive linguistics? 160
  19. Chapter 12. The relevance of B. Delbrück’s work on Indo-European syntax (a century after his death) 179
  20. Chapter 13. Three documents bearing on the foundation of the Linguistic Society of America in the age of scientific racism 198
  21. Chapter 14. Archival resources for the study of the historiography of American linguistics 211
  22. Chapter 15. Courses in general linguistics by Roman Jakobson at the École Libre des Hautes Études 220
  23. Chapter 16. Contribution de Agostino Gemelli (1878–1959) à l’analyse des variations phoniques du langage 238
  24. Chapter 17. The structuralist quest for general meanings 248
  25. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 279
  26. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 283
https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.133.05von

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & acknowledgments 1
  4. Editors’ introduction 3
  5. Part 1. General and particular issues in the history of linguistics
  6. Chapter 1. Can linguistics and historiography of linguistics profit from each other? 14
  7. Chapter 2. Type or descent? 31
  8. Chapter 3. Le futur antérieur des linguistes (fin 19 e – début 20 e siècle) 47
  9. Chapter 4. Ethics and language in (and around) Philipp Wegener 60
  10. Chapter 5. Walter Benjamin’s idea of language 77
  11. Chapter 6. Eléments pour une histoire de l’interprétation 88
  12. Chapter 7. “Computational linguistics” as the horizon of projection of early machine translation 102
  13. Part 2. Antiquity
  14. Chapter 8. Declension and description 116
  15. Chapter 9. Constituent-order in Sanskrit Bahuvrīhi compounds 129
  16. Chapter 10. The internal order of Sanskrit compounds 145
  17. Part 3. Sixteenth to twentieth century works
  18. Chapter 11. How far are the horizons of descriptive linguistics? 160
  19. Chapter 12. The relevance of B. Delbrück’s work on Indo-European syntax (a century after his death) 179
  20. Chapter 13. Three documents bearing on the foundation of the Linguistic Society of America in the age of scientific racism 198
  21. Chapter 14. Archival resources for the study of the historiography of American linguistics 211
  22. Chapter 15. Courses in general linguistics by Roman Jakobson at the École Libre des Hautes Études 220
  23. Chapter 16. Contribution de Agostino Gemelli (1878–1959) à l’analyse des variations phoniques du langage 238
  24. Chapter 17. The structuralist quest for general meanings 248
  25. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 279
  26. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 283
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