1Facultatea de Limbi si Literaturi Straine

Jacob Grimm and his contribution to the Science of language

Project made by: Gomeaja Radu Ilascu Marian Bloj Amalia Irina Jipa Laura

Jacob Grimm is one of the two brothers known for their collection of fairytales for children and home which transcribe with authenticity the german folklore. He brought a contribution in many areas. We are going to talk about Romantic Language Theory, Deutsche Grammatik & Worterbuch, Etimologie and I Indeuropenistica.

Anul I Semestru II | Grupa Germana - Engleza

2Facultatea de Limbi si Literaturi Straine

ROMANTIC LANGUAGE THEORY

Jacob Grimm focused on language, philology and he was responsible for the scholarly work. In the guide written by Ford Madox The March of the Literature (1938), he see`s there is more than a simple German romanticism. Even if the Grimm brothers were seen as a team, in fact most of their work was done separately, Jacob focused on linguistic studies and his brother Wilhelm was a literary scholar. Many of the tales published in the first volume were written by Jacob. ber den altdeutschenMeistergesang is the first work published by Jacob Grimm in the year 1811 and was entirely literary character. Grimm tries to show that Meistersang and Minnesang are single form poetry and the only differences are the stages of development. He also announced his huge discovery of the invariable division of the Lied into three strophic parts. The text editions were prepared with his brother. In the year 1812 the Grimm brothers published two fragments from the Hildebrandslied and the WeienbrunnerGebet. Jacob with this occasion discovered the alliteration in the poems. But Jacob wasnt interested in text editing and he didn`t get any pleasure to work on a critical text. He took the decision to let this field to others, in particular to Lachmann which appears to be a genius in criticism. The Romantic Movement in Germany (a movement in the arts that brought forward a return to nature and a greater focus on national culture, especially folk tales) opened the Germans' interest for the past of their own country. Even if the work in the rediscovery and editing of medieval ( period of the Middle Ages, 5001500) German literature started in the 18 Century, only in the 19 Century the poets and the theorists started to focus on the national attention regarding the German origins of culture and literature. The poets were separated in those which wanted to study the past and what he revels and those who viewed medieval literature as a source of inspiration for writing. In the following years, their interest in old literature led the Grimm brothers to the study of older languages and their relationship to modern German. Jakob especially began to specialize in the history and structure of the German language. The first edition of his Deutsche Grammatik (German Grammar) was published in 1819 and presents the grammar base of all the germanic languages. In the years that came they manifested an interest in old literature, which made the Grimm brothers to study old languages and the relationship to modern German. In time Jacob began to specialize in history and the structure of German language. In 1819 the first edition of Deutsche Grammatik German Grammar) was published.

Anul I Semestru II | Grupa Germana - Engleza

3Facultatea de Limbi si Literaturi Straine

DEUTSCHE GRAMMATIK & WORTERBUCH

Deutsche Grammatik (German Grammar) was the outcome of Grimm's purely philological work. The labors of past generations from the humanists onwards resulted in an enormous collection of materials in the form of text-editions, dictionaries, and grammars, although most of them were uncritical and untrustworthy. So the concept of a comparative Germanic grammar had been used to treat with this problem. Grimm did not at first intend to include all the languages in his Grammar, but he soon found that the later stages of German could not be understood without the help of other West Germanic varieties including English. The first edition of the first part of the Grammar (which appeared in 1819) was about the subject of the inflections of all these languages, and included a general introduction, in which he vindicated the importance of an historical study of the German language. In 1822 this volume appeared in a second edition. The wide distance between the two stages of Grimm's development in these two editions is significantly shown by the fact that while the first edition gives only the inflections, in the second volume phonology takes up no fewer than 600 pages, more than half of the whole volume. The Grammar was continued in three volumes, treating principally derivation, composition and syntax, the last of which was unfinished. Grimm then began a third edition, of which only one part, comprising the vowels, appeared in 1840, his time being afterwards taken up mainly by the dictionary. The Grammar stands alone in the annals of science for its comprehensiveness, method and fullness of detail. Grimm's monumental German dictionary, the DeutschesWrterbuch, remains a standard work of reference to the present day. The dictionary was undertaken on so large a scale as to make it impossible for him and his brother to complete it themselves. The dictionary, as far as it was worked on by Grimm himself, has been described as a collection of disconnected antiquarian essays of high value.

ETIMOLOGIE

Anul I Semestru II | Grupa Germana - Engleza

4Facultatea de Limbi si Literaturi Straine

Even if the Grimm brothers were seen as a team, in fact most of their work was done separately, Jacob was focused on linguistic studies and his brother Wilhelm was a literary scholar. Many of the tales published in the first volume were written by Jacob. Both Jacob and Wilhelm told and argued that folktales should be gathered from oral sources which intended at a real reproduction of the original story. This method becomes a model for other scholars, but the tales were modified and some late editions of fairytales were more famous due to the editing and his literary aspiration preformed by Wilhelm. Even if Jacob was collaborating with his brother he started to study philology and eventually he managed to write Deutsche Grammatik. The way in which Jacob viewed grammar had a big impact on the contemporary study of linguistics Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. Even in the modern period we use this work. In 1822 Jacob invented the principle of consonantal shifts in pronunciation also known as Grimm`s Law. He showed the changes in German by citing contrasting cognates in Greek, Latin and Sanskrit In DEUTSCHE MYTHOLOGIE fairytales are found in the pre-Christian era, an era of superstitions, ancient faithand fears of the Germanic peoples. The pre-medieval Germany represented the golden age. It was the period of comparative peace and harmony as well as happines but in the end it was lost and the romanitc view of this period of history is due to the Bible`s story of Eden and the Legends of Arthur. The most important work made by him is definitely Geschichte der deutschen Sprache (History of the German Language), where the linguistic elements are emphasized. The subject is the history concealed in the words of the German language (the oldest natural history of the Teutonic tribes determined by means of language). For this reason , with difficulty he collected the scattered words and allusions originate in classical writers, and endeavoured to determine the relationship between the German language and those of the Getae, Thracians, Scythians, and other nations whose languages were at the time known only through doubtfully identified, often exceptionally corrupted remains preserved by Greek and Latin authors. Deutsche Mythologie (German Mythology), the first edition appeared in 1835 and this book covered the entire subject, fallowing the mythology and superstitions of the old Teutons back to the very dawn of direct evidence, and observing their evolution to modern-day popular traditions, tales, and expressions.

INDOEUROPENISTICA

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5Facultatea de Limbi si Literaturi Straine

From his first book, BER DEN ALTEDEUTSCHEN MEISTERGESANG (1811) Jacob Grimm supported the theory about the unique relationship between the 'original' German language and the folktales, whose origins were the same origins of German culture. Linguists such as himself inferred the previous existence of a common mother-language, Proto-Indo-European, from the systemic variation in sound systems among these languages and Sanskrit. The two brothers, especially Jakob, were also working to document the relationship between similar words of related languages, such as the English apple and the German Apfel. Their creation of the rules for such relationships became known as "Grimm's law." It was later expanded to account for all word relationships in the Indo-European group of languages. The Grimm brothers were not the first to take note of such similarities, but they can be credited with gathering the bulk of linguistic (related to language) data and working out the details of the rules. Grimm's law is the Germanic Sound Shift, that was first observed by the Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask. Grimm's law was the first non-trivial systematic sound change to be discovered. Grimm's Law, also known as 'Rask's-Grimm's Rule' is the first law in linguistics concerning a non-trivial sound change. It was a turning point in the development of linguistics, allowing the introduction of a rigorous methodology to historic linguistic research. It concerns the correspondence of consonants in the older Indo-European, and Low Saxon and High German languages, and was first fully stated by Grimm in the second edition of the first part of his grammar. Although Grimm's Law had an important influence in linguistics and grammar Donald Ringe seed: "It remains unclear whether Grimm's Law was in any sense a unitary natural sound change or a series of changes that need not have occurred together. It is true that no sound change can be shown to have occurred between any of the components of Grimm's Law; but since Grimm's Law was among the earliest Germanic sound changes, and since the other early changes that involved single non-laryngeal obstruents affected only the place of articulation and rounding of dorsal . . . that could be an accident. In any case, Grimm's Law is most naturally presented as a sequence of changes that counterfed each other." (Donald Ringe, A Linguistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006)

Anul I Semestru II | Grupa Germana - Engleza

6Facultatea de Limbi si Literaturi Straine

Bibliografie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Grimm Zipes, Jack David. The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. New York: Routledge, 1988.
Zipes, Jack. The Great Fairy Tale Tradition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001. http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/read05.html Jacob Grimm/ Ernest Renan, Dou tratate despre originea limbajului.

Anul I Semestru II | Grupa Germana - Engleza