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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 22:3 (1995) ► pp.311–334

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The 1930s – at the birth of a Pragmatic Conception of Language

 | University of Nottingham
Published online: 1 January 1995
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.22.3.03ner
Summary
The 1930s were a time of immense cultural and scientific activity. It is well known that this was the time when structuralism made its appearance on the linguistic scene. It is generally less well known that this was also a time when a great number of books and articles dealing with ‘pragmatic’ issues appeared in linguistics and its adjacent disciplines. This article describes the birth of a ‘pragmatic Weltanschauung’ through the analysis of a selection of texts. It leaves open the question as to why the pragmatic insights made in the 1930s were forgotten when ‘pragmatics’ became a branch of linguistics in the 1970s.
Résumé
Les années 1930 furent marquées par une activité étonnante dans les domaines culturelles et scientifiques. On sait que c’était le temps que le structuralisme faisait son apparition en linguistique. On ne sait généralement pas que c’était également l’époque pendant laquelle une grande quantité de livres et d’articles, traitant de problèmes ‘pragmatiques’, furent publiés en linguistique et dans les disciplines adjacantes. Dans cet article on décrit la naissance d’une ‘Weltanschauung pragmatique’ à travers une analyse d’un choix de textes. On pose seulement la question suivante: Pourquoi ces idées pragmatiques furent-elles oubliées quand la ‘pragmatique’ devint une branche de la linguistique dans les années 1970.
Zusammenfassung
Die dreißiger Jahre dieses Jahrhunderts waren durch eine intensive kulturelle und wissenschaftliche Aktivität gekennzeichnet. Es ist allgemein bekannt, daß um diese Zeit der Strukturalismus in der Linguistik seinen Einzug hielt. Es ist weniger bekannt, daß in dieser Zeit auch ein große Anzahl von Büchern und Artikeln geschrieben wurden, die ‘pragmatische’ Probleme in der Linguistik und ihren Nachbardisziplinen behandelten. In diesem Artikel soll die Geburt einer ‘pragmatischen Weltanschauung’ anhand der Analyse ausgewählter Texte beschrieben werden. Er läßt die Frage offen, weshalb diese Einsichten in den pragmatischen Charakter der Sprache in den 70er Jahren, als die ‘Pragmatik’ ein Zweig der Linguistik wurde, in Vergessenheit gerieten.
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