Skip to Content

JAKOBSON, ROMAN.

Kindersprache, Aphasie und allgemeine Lautgesetze. - [THE RISE AND FALL OF LANGUAGES]

Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn38103
Uppsala, 1941. 8vo. Bound in a recent full blue cloth w. printed paper title to front board. A bit of creasing to title-page and remains of cloth strip to hinge of title-page. Otherwise nice and clean, w. some marginal notes, all in light pencil. Old owner's name to title-page (J.A. Joffe). (2), 83 pp.

The very scarce first edition of Jakobson's monumental work, "Child Language, Aphasia and Phonological Universals", in which the seminal linguist and founder of the Prague School presents a revolutionary theory about the underlying uniform structure of the world's languages. Roman Osipovich Jakobson (1896 - 1982) was a famous Russian linguist and literary critic, who became one of the most influential linguists of the 20th century. He is probably most famous as the pioneer of structural analysis of language and as the co-founder of structuralism.Jakobson was born into a Russian Jewish family. He early on showed a great interest in the theory of language, and already as a student he became a leading figure of the Moscow Linguistic Circle. He was very much influenced by Husserl's phenomenology and the work of Saussure, and he developed a deep interest in the question of how language, the human speech, functions and is possible.Due to political troubles in Russia, in 1920 Jakobsen moved to Prague, where he was to become even more influential. He here, in 1926, co-founded the Prague School of linguistic theory, together with the Copenhagen School the most influential school of linguistics of its time and of decades to come. It is here that Jakobson develops his seminal ideas of phonology as well as the term structuralism and the contents of it.When the Second World War broke out, Jakobson moved to Scandinavia, where he met the Copenhagen School of linguistics and its main figure, Louis Hjelmslev. It is during his time in Scandinavia that he writes (in German) and published (in Uppsala, Sweden) his influential "Kindersprache...". Later he fled to America, where he met Claude Lévi-Strauss, Quine, Bloomfeld and many other important thinkers within the field of language theory.Jakobson's structuralist theories of language differentiate much from other parts of the structuralist movement in that he constantly bases them on knowledge from other sciences, from mathematics, philosophy, psychology etc.In the present work, Jakobson sets out to prove that child language and aphasia must be considered within comparative linguistics, because it is the same rules that govern these as those that govern all human world languages. ""Die einzige Gelegenheit, die wir haben, die menschliche Sprache in statu nascendi zu beobachten bietet das Kind." So schrieb vor kurzem Karl Bühler, und man könnte dementsprechend fortsetzen: "Die einzige Gelegenheit, die wir haben, die menschliche Sprache im Abbau zu beobachten, bieten die pathologischen Sprachstörungen zentraler Natur." Für den Linguisten, der sich mit dem Enfaltetsein des Sprachgebildes befasst, muss auch seine GEBURT und ABSTERBEN viel lehrreiches bieten. Diese drei Teilformen des sprachlichen Geschehens wurden trotzdem noch nicht einer systematischen vergleichenden Analyse unterzogen." (p. (1)-2). (""The only opportunity we have to observe the human language in statu nascendi is offered by the child." So Karl Bühler wrote not long ago, and one could continue in the same manner: "The only opportunity we have to observe the human language in disintegration is offered by the pathological language disturbances of central nature." For the linguist, who is occupied with the turning out of the language formation, its BIRTH and DEATH must also contribute with something instructive. In spite of this, these three parts of the happening of language have not yet been subjected to a systematic comparative analysis." -Own translation). Jakobson now formulated specific hypotheses about the order in which children acquire their native language and about the nature of language dissolution, creating an entirely new approach to the study of the world's languages. By linking observations about language typology, language acquisition and language pathology, Jakobson here presents an original, revolutionizing theory about the structure of the sound inventories that underlie the world languages. This approach to the study of the structure of sound and language was clearly ahead of its time, and phonology still did not have the sufficient empirical evidence or the sufficient instruments to properly verify it. Thus, only much later has Jakobsen's theories on the rise and fall of language been fully appreciated.
Address:
Silkegade 11
DK-1113 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone:
CVR/VAT:
DK 16 89 50 16

Recently Added From Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S

Anmärkiningar Om biåsestenen. (In:
More Photos
BERGIUS, PETER JONAS
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62692
(Stockholm, 1777). 8vo. As extracted from "Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar", uncut unopened. Fine and clean. Pp. 304-309.
Defensio regia pro Carolo I. Ad Sereniss. Magnae…
More Photos
SAUMAISE; CLAUDE.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62707
(Leiden, Netherlands), Sumptibus Regiis, 1649. 12mo. In contemporary full calf with four raise bands and richly gilt spine. Edges of boards gilt. Previous owner's name to title-page. Worm-tract throughout, otherwise internally nice and clean. 444 pp.
Pierre Simon Laplace 1749-1827. A Determined…
More Photos
HAHN, ROGER.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62703
Cambridge (MA), Harvard University Press, 2005. 8vo. In the original full cloth publisher's binding with title to spine. With the original dust jacket. Ownership signature to inside of front board. Internally clean. X, (1), 310 pp.
Medicinische und philosophische Schrifften von…
More Photos
ALBERTI, MICHAEL.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62695
Halle im Magdeburgischen, Hendel, 1721. 8vo. In contemporary full calf with four raise bands and richly gilt spine. Traces from old paper-label to upper part of spine. Leather on spine cracked, spine-ends slightly chipped. Internally nice and clean. (14), 620, (28) pp. First collected edition of Alberti’s essays. Alberti (1682–1757), professor of medicine and philosophy at Halle and later rector of the university, was a leading disciple of Georg Ernst Stahl who considered the soul as having control on the body. Therapies involved dealing with the internal senses and feelings.
More info
Tale i Anledning af hans Kongelige Høihed…
More Photos
BUGGE, THOMAS.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62706
Kiøbenhavn, Møller, (1774). 8vo. In contemporary full sprinkled calf with five raised bands and gilt ornamentation to spine. Edges of boards gilt. All edges coloured in red. Old paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Head of spine chipped. Internally very nice and clean, printed on good paper. 24 pp.
O Capital. (i.e. Portuguese:
More Photos
MARX, CARLOS [KARL] (+) GABRIELLE DEVILLE (+) [Translator:] ALBANO DE MORAES.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62679
Lisboa, De Francisco Luiz Goncalves, 1912. 8vo. In the original red printed cloth-binding with black and white lettering. Spine with loss of the white lettering. Paper-label pasted on to lower inner margin of front board. Very light wear to extremities, Internally very fine and clean. 240 pp. The exceedingly scarce first Portuguese edition of the most important abridged version of Marx's Capital ever to have appeared, published fifty-six years before the first full Portuguese (but published in Brazil) translation and whole sixy-two years before the first full translation published in Portugal. Curiously, two translations of the present work were made 1912 but the present translation seems to have priority (see Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). After the 1933 rise of Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, suppression of the relatively newly founded Communist party grew. Members were arrested, tortured, and executed and many were sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp in the Cape Verde Islands. Communist literature suffered an equally repressive fate, hence the rarity of the present work. Marxism and especially Marxist writing caught on comparatively late in Portugal: "As for the Socialist Party - supposed to be the main expression of Marxism -, it revealed itself unable to stimulate effective theoretical and doctrinal efforts. Its existence was an example of ambiguity and inconsequence. Its political programme went on mixing Marxian elements, associationist tradition and positivist thinking. Its strategy balanced continuously between an alliance with republican politicians and the maintenance of political autonomy. Its tatics balanced between electoral abstencionism and an involvement in election processes, that never led it to a relevant position in parliament. Even its international relations showed a lasting ambiguity: it had been created according to the instructions of the Marxist majority at the Hague Congress, when most of its members tended to support political abstencionism. When the formation of the Second lnternacional was taking place in Paris in 1889 Portuguese socialists tried to join the Marxist congress, after being present at the possibilist congress. In 1920 they decided to join the Third lnternacional (what was not accomplished), at the same time that an internal reformist turn was taking place." (Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). "The epitome, here translated, was published in Paris, in 1883, by Gabriel Deville, possibly the most brilliant writer among the French Marxians. It is the most successful attempt yet made to popularize Marx's scientific economics. It is by no means free from difficulties, for the subject is essentially a complex and difficult subject, but there are no difficulties that reasonable attention and patience will not enable the average reader to overcome. There is no attempt at originality. The very words in most cases are Marx's own words, and Capital is followed so closely that the first twenty-five chapters correspond in subject and treatment with the first twenty-five chapters of Capital. Chapter XXVI corresponds in the main with Chapter XXVI of Capital, but also contains portions of chapter XXX. The last three chapters-XXVII, XXVIII, and XXIX-correspond to the last three chapters-XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII-of Capital." (ROBERT RIVES LA MONTE, Intruductory Note to the 1899 English translation). Capital de Marx also had a Portuguese edition at this time, or better, two different editions, both in 1912, but only in translation of the survey of Book I published in France by Gabriel Deville in 1883 (Marx, 1912a and Marx, 1912b). This version omitted material dealt with in at least four chapters of the original text and was not particularly appreciated by Engels. It was a simplified text, aimed at supporting the training of socialist militants and that made it possible for them to have access, indirect, to the work of Marx. The other summaries and anthologies of Capital, which, with a purpose similar to that of Deville, circulated in Europe during this period or ignored in Portugal, as was the case with Carlo Cafiero, or were only occasionally mentioned, as was the case with Paul Lafargue and Karl Kautsky, in its French versions. OCLC list two copies, both in the US.
More info