Hello,
I' m sorry this response comes so late, but my mailsystem seems to
have killed the instant reply without noticing me.
On Feb. 5th Martin Weatherston wrote:
> This strikes me as not quite right. Surely it is not the
> *complexity* of German that gives it its putative superiority, but,
> as with Greek, it is the *concreteness* of its terminology. Greek
> and German are in touch with the original primal experience of
> Being, unlike other European languages, which view Being only
> through the corruption of the Latin translation of the Greek terms.
Hi,
in "Identitaet und Differenz" Heidegger states that translation from
greek into german seems easier than into other languages, because some
of the key terms, like being, are equally "fuzzy" in german and greek.
I think it is not the "concretness" of semantics, that speaks in
favour of german, but the vagueness. Heidegger seems to think, that
the german system of declination and conjugation is an adequate means
to keep the ambiguity of the original greek sentences. Consider e.g.
the notorious sentence: "Der Mensch spricht nur insofern er der
Sprache entspricht." from "Unterwegs zur Sprache". Other languages
might not provide the means to "play" with the different appearences
of "Sprache". Like old greek, german offers a variety of verbs,
adjectives and nouns derived from one commen root, but differ in
meaning in different contexts.
Another advantage of german is its notorious wordformation.
Heidegger makes extensive use of this "feature". If german lacks a
term, no problem, combine two or more existing words or split up a
compound with a dash to get it closer to the original term. This is
another example of flexibility and vagueness that do not exist to this
degree in other languages.
I think, that most of the above views are false. Heidegger never tried
to find out if there are other languages than indo-european ones that
might be even better to translate greek. If anyone knows about a study
that investigates these points, I would be very interested in the
source. Thanks.
Ciao
Martin
other language
Martin Baeuerle
Sprachlernzentrum Universitaet Bonn
0228/735368
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
I' m sorry this response comes so late, but my mailsystem seems to
have killed the instant reply without noticing me.
On Feb. 5th Martin Weatherston wrote:
> This strikes me as not quite right. Surely it is not the
> *complexity* of German that gives it its putative superiority, but,
> as with Greek, it is the *concreteness* of its terminology. Greek
> and German are in touch with the original primal experience of
> Being, unlike other European languages, which view Being only
> through the corruption of the Latin translation of the Greek terms.
Hi,
in "Identitaet und Differenz" Heidegger states that translation from
greek into german seems easier than into other languages, because some
of the key terms, like being, are equally "fuzzy" in german and greek.
I think it is not the "concretness" of semantics, that speaks in
favour of german, but the vagueness. Heidegger seems to think, that
the german system of declination and conjugation is an adequate means
to keep the ambiguity of the original greek sentences. Consider e.g.
the notorious sentence: "Der Mensch spricht nur insofern er der
Sprache entspricht." from "Unterwegs zur Sprache". Other languages
might not provide the means to "play" with the different appearences
of "Sprache". Like old greek, german offers a variety of verbs,
adjectives and nouns derived from one commen root, but differ in
meaning in different contexts.
Another advantage of german is its notorious wordformation.
Heidegger makes extensive use of this "feature". If german lacks a
term, no problem, combine two or more existing words or split up a
compound with a dash to get it closer to the original term. This is
another example of flexibility and vagueness that do not exist to this
degree in other languages.
I think, that most of the above views are false. Heidegger never tried
to find out if there are other languages than indo-european ones that
might be even better to translate greek. If anyone knows about a study
that investigates these points, I would be very interested in the
source. Thanks.
Ciao
Martin
other language
Martin Baeuerle
Sprachlernzentrum Universitaet Bonn
0228/735368
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---