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The origin of the social psychology of language in German expressivism
Author(s) -
Markova Ivana
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1983.tb00598.x
Subject(s) - german , psychology , meaning (existential) , consciousness , social psychology , psycholinguistics , epistemology , linguistics , philosophy , cognition , neuroscience , psychotherapist
The origin is traced, in the period 1770–1830, of the social psychology of language in the works of Herder, Humboldt and Hegel. For these German expressivists, language was an inherently social phenomenon. Their social and developmental approach to the study of language and thought stands in sharp contrast to the Cartesian paradigm which pervades most contemporary research in psycholinguistics. German expressivists initiated the study of language as a means of interpersonal interaction; conceived of reflexion, consciousness and self‐consciousness as genuinely social phenomena; introduced the idea of meaning potentialities in words; and coined the term ‘empathy’. Whilst this tradition survives, e.g. in the social psychology of G. H. Mead, its origins in the work of the German expressivists is not always explicitly acknowledged.