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JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDERS FORDERUNG EINER BERÜCKSICHTIGUNG DER MUSIKALISCHEN ASPEKTE VON SPRACHE IN WISSENSCHAFTSTEXTEN
Author(s) -
Danneck Martin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
german life and letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1468-0483
pISSN - 0016-8777
DOI - 10.1111/glal.12168
Subject(s) - poetry , poetics , style (visual arts) , ideal (ethics) , musical , philosophy , linguistics , literature , art , epistemology
This paper argues that we can find in Johann Gottfried Herder's thoughts on the poetics of scientific style implicit references to a claim to consider the musical aspects of language in the style of scientific prose. This claim is based on the assumption that cognition is a process that contains bodily and intellectual aspects. In his idea of ‘schöne Prose’ Herder develops the stylistic ideal of a holistic scientific language that contains a synthesis of rational‐logical and poetic stylistic elements. The semantic and denotative part of this stylistic ideal refers to the visual aspect of language whereas its poetic part refers to its musical aspect. In this way Herder describes poetic language as a mode of language in which its musical aspect is marked by stressing the auditory correspondence between signifier and signified. In doing so, Herder is pointing to the idea that the relationship between man and world is conveyed by the sound of language. Therefore, the integration of poetic elements in the idea of ‘schöne Prose’ can be interpreted as an implicit claim to consider the musical aspects in the style of scientific prose.