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The sociology of language in Johann David Michaelis's dissertation of 1760
Author(s) -
Smith Raoul N.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(197610)12:4<338::aid-jhbs2300120405>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - sociology , epistemology , philosophy
In 1759 Johann David Michaelis won a prize from the Prussian Royal Academy for his essay Beantwortung der Frage von dem Einfluss der Meinungen in die Sprache, und der sprache in die Meinungen . The essay was published in the following year and translated into French in 1762, into English in 1769, and into Dutch in 1771. The work has two major themes—linguistic relativity and language change—with ancillary discussions of language in general and of homonymy. Its most significant contribution to the theory of language is its discussion of linguistic relativity, especially in its manifestation in the influence of language on thought. Given the intellectual milieu of the work where inquiry was centered on the origin of language and language universals, it stands as one of the few discussions of this topic and it is also one of the most fruitful discussions of linguistic relativity for any period of history.