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Franz Bopp and His Comparative Grammar Model

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Franz Bopp and His Comparative Grammar Model ISSN: 0213-2095 e-ISSN: 2444‐3565 ÍNDICE Dossier Monográfico: Franz Bopp and his Comparative Grammar model (1816-2016). 9 Foreword / Presentación: J. Gorrochategui, C. García Castillero, J. M. Vallejo (coords.) . 13 P. Swiggers, Franz Bopp, “mit Haar und Haut ein Mensch der Bücher”: searching for the origin of Indo- European grammatical forms / Franz Bopp, “mit Haar und Haut ein Mensch der Bücher”, a la búsqueda del origen de formas gramaticales indoeuropeas. 19 B. D. Joseph, The Comparative Method: Simplicity + Power = Results / El Método Comparativo: Simplici- REVISTA DE PREHISTORIA, HISTORIA ANTIGUA, ARQUEOLOGÍA dad + Poder explicativo = Resultados . 39 Y FILOLOGÍA CLÁSICAS I.-X. Adiego, Anatolian languages and Proto-Indo-European / Lenguas anatolias y protoindoeuropeo. 49 J. L. García Ramón, Los infinitivos en el Conjugationssystem de Franz Bopp / The infinitives in Franz Bopp’s Conjugationssystem. 65 Th. Eythórsson & J. Barðdal, Syntactic Reconstruction in Indo-European: State of the Art / Reconstrucción sintáctica en indoeuropeo: estado de la cuestión . 83 Ch. Lehmann, Grammaticalization in Bopp / Gramaticalización en Bopp. 103 L. Campbell, Comparative Linguistics of Mesoamerican Languages Today / Lingüística comparada de las len- guas de Mesoamérica hoy. 113 FRANZ BOPP AND HIS COMPARATIVE Artículos GRAMMAR MODEL A. A. Jordán, D. Vega Almazán, J. Muruzábal Cal y V. Orozco Legaza, Un acercamiento a la vida coti- (1816-2016) diana en los primeros años del Islam en el norte de la Península Ibérica: Una cocina del siglo viii d.C. en El Pueyo (Los Bañales, Uncastillo, Z). I. Estudio arqueológico, fragmentos metálicos y óseos / An Appro- ach to the daily life in the early years of Islam in the North of the Iberian Peninsula: An eighth century kitchen in El Pueyo (Los Bañales, Uncastillo, Z). I. Archaeological study, metal and bone fragments . 137 F. Larran, Du retour d’Ulysse à Argos ou la spatialité idéale selon Ménélas / Ideal spatiality according to Mene- laus: Odysseus back to Argos. 163 G. Fontana Elboj, El muchacho desnudo del prendimiento de Marcos (14, 51-52): una nueva interpretación 33 / The naked young man in the scene of Jesus’ arrest (Mk 14, 51-52). A new interpretation . 185 G. Sanz Casasnovas, Escribir con fuego. Amiano Marcelino y la ira de los emperadores panonios / Writing with fire. Ammianus Marcellinus and Pannonian emperors’ rage . 211 E. R. Luján, Sobre los nombres de las unidades familiares indígenas en la Hispania antigua (1.ª parte) / On the names of the indigenous family units in Ancient Hispania (1st part) . 227 N. Moncunill, J. Ferrer i Jane y J. Gorrochategui, Nueva lectura de la inscripción ibérica sobre piedra conservada en el Museo de Cruzy (Hérault) / A new Reading of the Iberian inscription on stone preserved in the Museum of Cruzy (Hérault). 259 33 • 2016 Varia H. White, On The Date Of Avianus / Sobre la fecha de Aviano . 277 J. del Hoyo y M. Rodríguez Ceballos, Bronces epigráficos inéditos del Museo de Burgos / New bronze ins- criptions in the Museum of Burgos . 279 J. Santos Yanguas y A. L. Hoces de la Guardia Bermejo, Inscripciones romanas de Segovia, IV: Addenda et corrigenda a Epigrafía romana de Segovia y su provincia / Roman inscriptions of Segovia, IV: Addenda et corrigenda to Epigrafía Romana de Segovia y su provincia. 289 Reseñas bibliográficas . 303 Memoria de las actividades de investigación y de formación de investigadores del Instituto de Cien- cias de la Antigüedad / Antzinaroko Zientzien Institutua (ICA/AZI). Curso Académico 2015-2016 335 Informe Editorial . 337 e-ISSN: 0213-2095 VITORIA 2 0 1 6 GASTEIZ e-ISSN: 2444-3565 Cubierta Veleia 33 (17).indd 1 17/11/16 18:36:19 GRAMMATICALIZATION IN BOPP GRAMATICALIZACIÓN EN BOPP Christian Lehmann University of Erfurt [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-9713-9206 DOI: 10.1387/veleia.16825 Abstract: In many diachronic analyses, Franz Bopp underpinned what became known as agglutination theory. In this, he took up earlier and contemporary thinking about linguistic evolution and contributed to the development of modern grammaticalization theory. Keywords: Franz Bopp, grammaticalization, agglutination theory, language evolution. Resumen: En muchos análisis diacrónicos, Franz Bopp apuntaló lo que llegó a conocerse como teoría de la aglutinación. En ella, recogió la opinión anterior y la contemporánea sobre evolución lingüística y contribuyó al desarrollo de la moderna teoría de la gramaticalización. Palabras clave: Franz Bopp, gramaticalización, teoría de la aglutinación, evolución lingüística. Recibido: 14-10-2015 Informado: 10-3-2016 Definitivo: 25-5-2016 1. Introduction The aim of the present contribution is to extract, from the work published by Franz Bopp, his contribution to research on grammaticalization. We will briefly sketch the relevant situation in linguistic research when Bopp began publishing, adduce some quotations from his work in order to illustrate his approach, try to generalize from them and throw a brief glance at the impact this work made on more recent linguistics. The title of this contribution may lead to erroneous expectations. Bopp’s work antedates by a century modern linguistic work on grammaticalization. The term was unknown to him. However, the idea of grammaticalization is present in his work, as well as in the work of some of his contem- poraries, as will be shown in section 31. 2. The situation of diachronic linguistics In setting the stage for the kind of linguistics done by Bopp, the following conditions must be recalled: Franz Bopp embarked on systematic linguistic studies from 1809 on. At that time, ro- 1 I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers for sev- eral useful hints. VELEIA, 33, 103-112, 2016 ISSN 0213 - 2095 VVeleiaeleia 33.indd33.indd 103103 118/10/168/10/16 112:09:462:09:46 104 CHRISTIAN LEHMANN manticism fostered curiosity about the origin of language and culture and humanism propagated education based on the standards and the texts of classical antiquity. The prevalent approach in the humanities was the historical approach. However, although comparative linguistic work had been done on several languages (s. Bernabé 1983), available grammars of Indo-European languages were essentially normative grammars. Descriptive linguistics was not established, a large number of grammars of exotic languages discovered in the colonies notwithstanding. Consequently, most of the variation existing in every language escaped researchers of the time. Moreover, the fervent in- terest in the reconstruction of origins could not be based on historical grammars, which were prac- tically unavailable. One of the very first was Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Grammatik, which started getting published in 1819 and whose second, much more influential edition of 1822 was reviewed by Bopp in 1827. The only contemporary work of relevance for linguistic theory was done by W ilhelm von Humboldt; but little of it was yet available at that time2. The big successes of the natural sciences, thus, of empirical scientific work, of positivism and evolution theory were yet to come. However, the first scientific discoveries and their presentation in the form of “laws” had al- ready started making their impression on the public, so any academic discipline wanting to get a foot in the university system was well advised to follow that model. Although syntax had existed at least since Apollonios Dyskolos (2nd cent. AD), it remained a stepchild in linguistic work until, roughly, the rise of the Neogrammarians and then, after a period of dormancy, again with the rise of generative grammar. This means that there was little syntax in linguistics at Bopp’s time. One of the first to vigorously oppose this limitation of grammatical analysis was Wilhelm von Humboldt (1836, 418f): “Gerade das Höchste und Feinste läßt sich an jenen getrennten Elementen nicht erkennen und kann nur ... in der verbundenen Rede wahrgenommen oder geahndet werden. Nur sie muß man sich überhaupt in allen Untersuchungen, welche in die lebendige Wesenheit der Sprache eindrin- gen sollen, immer als das Wahre und Erste denken. Das Zerschlagen in Wörter und Regeln ist nur ein totes Machwerk wissenschaftlicher Zergliederung3”. Thus, when Bopp embarked on his enterprise, linguistic analysis was mostly confined to pho- nological and morphological analysis. There was no linguistics of the spoken variety of a language. One quite superficial reason for this state of affairs was, of course, the lack of technical equipment to conduct such research on an empirical basis. However, even if this had been available, one may doubt that linguists at Bopp’s time would have used it. Of course, the languages of the colonies had been taken notice of both in the form of missionary grammars and in the form of a couple of collections of comparative sam- ples. However, linguistics had been so firmly grounded in a 2000-year old philological and logi- cal tradition that hardly anybody in Europe came up with the idea of a scientific investigation of a spoken language. Linguistics was much less an empirical science than today. Because of its strong bond with philology, the object of study were written texts. It took researchers some time to clarify 2 Since both were members of the Royal Academy principally only this latter which must be regarded as of Berlin, Bopp was familiar with Humboldt 1822, the true and first thing in all investigations which are while Humboldt 1827 was less accessible. meant to penetrate into the living essence of language. 3 “It is precisely the highest and finest which is not The breaking up into words and rules is only a dead recognizable in those separated elements and can only botch of scientific dissection”. … be perceived or guessed in connected speech. It is VELEIA, 33, 2016 VVeleiaeleia 33.indd33.indd 104104 118/10/168/10/16 112:09:462:09:46 GRAMMATICALIZATION IN BOPP 105 the difference between letters and sounds. In 1833, Bopp still speaks of letters, even of a “tönender Buchstabe” (sounding letter, p.
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