Can Herder's "Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache" provide inspiration for today's linguistics? : A comparison with contemporary concepts of language origin and development, with a special focus on grammaticalization

Abstract

A comparison of contemporary concepts of language origin and development with Herder's Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache puts a special emphasis on grammaticalization. An overview of today's approaches and an analysis of the original text by Herder attempted to answer the question, to which extent are the texts of that type inspirational.

Keywords

• Johann Gottfried Herder
• language origin
• grammaticalization
• enlightenment