The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt

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Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison) Brinton. The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt

The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages

§ 1. Introductory

§ 2. Humboldt’s Studies in American Languages

§ 3. The Final Purpose of the Philosophy of Language

§ 4. Historical, Comparative and Philosophic Grammar

§ 5. Definition and Psychological Origin of Language

§ 6. Primitive Roots and Grammatical Categories

§ 7. Formal and Material Elements of Language

§ 8. The Development of Languages

§ 9. Internal Form of Languages

§ 10. Criteria of Rank in Languages

§ 11. Classification of Languages

§ 12. Nature of Incorporation

§ 13. Psychological Origin of Incorporation

§ 14. Effect of Incorporation on Compound Sentences

§ 15. The Dual in American Languages

§ 16. Humboldt’s Essay on the American Verb

On the Verb in American Languages. By Wilhelm von Humboldt

I. When the notion of Being is expressed independently

II. The notion of Being is incorporated with the verb as an Auxiliary

III. The notion of Being is present in the Verbal form only in idea

Notes (by the translator) on the various American Tribes and Languages mentioned by Humboldt in the preceding Memoir

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The foundations of the Philosophy of Language were laid by Wilhelm von Humboldt (b. June 22, 1767, d. April 8, 1835). The principles he advocated have frequently been misunderstood, and some of them have been modified, or even controverted, by more extended research; but a careful survey of the tendencies of modern thought in this field will show that the philosophic scheme of the nature and growth of languages, which he set forth, is gradually reasserting its sway, after having been neglected and denied through the preponderance of the so-called naturalistic school during the last quarter of a century.

The time seems ripe, therefore, to bring the general principles of his philosophy to the knowledge of American scholars, especially as applied by himself to the analysis of American languages.

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In his memoir, read two years later, “On the Origin of Grammatical Forms, and their Influence on the Development of Ideas,” he chose most of his examples from the idioms of the New World;8 and the year following, he read the monograph on the Verb in American languages, which is printed for the first time with the present essay.

In a later paper, he announced his special study of this group as still in preparation. It was, however, never completed. His earnest desire to reach the fundamental laws of language led him first into a long series of investigations into the systems of recorded speech, phonetic hieroglyphics and alphabetic writing, on which he read memoirs of great acuteness.

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