On the reception of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s linguistic ideas in the Soviet Union from the late 1920s to the early 1950s

The present article discusses the Soviet reception of Humboldt’s linguistic ideas, focusing on different interpretations of his ideas during the period between the latter half of the 1920s and the early 1950s. While Humboldt’s idea of the inner form of language was an important ingredient in Shpet’s phenomenology, the attitude towards Humboldt changed radically in the late 1920s and early 1930s when the ‘bolshevization’ of the sciences had reached linguistics. The idea that language, nation, and culture are closely interconnected was at odds with the ‘Marxist’ idea of class-language, according to which linguistic diversity derives from the socio-economic characteristics of societies. In the…

Language Rights of the Russian-Speaking Minority in Finland: Multi-sited Historical Arguments and Language Ideologies

Kielellistä valkopyykkiäkö?

Dancing with Alternative Lyrics : Integrating Sociocultural, Dialogical, Distributed and Dynamical Conceptualization of Language and its Development for L2 Studies

This paper sets out to chart underlying assumptions and fundamental axioms of an integrative research edifice for studying language and how it is developed over time as a human- and culture-centered and multifaceted phenomenon. Specifically, invoking Vygotskian sociocultural theory, the Bakhtin circle dialogism, distributed language and cognition and dynamic systems theory, it is argued that language is a purposive, multifaceted, complex, dialogical, and dynamic system that emerges distributively across the interpenetrated web of human somatic and brain activities, socio-cultural umwelt, sociohistorically-fashioned artifacts and realized affordances simultaneously and over time. Suggestions…

Contextualising Baxtin’s Linguistic Ideas

Summary This article discusses the origins and formation of the notion of ‘metalinguistics’ in Mixail Mixajlovič Baxtin’s (1895–1975) writings. It is argued that the discussion of metalinguistics and the division of labour within the study of language in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s may have exerted a more profound influence on the formation of Baxtin’s linguistic views than was previously thought. The article investigates the nature and extent of this interaction and shows that there are interesting parallels between Baxtin’s conception of metalinguistics and the metalinguistics writings of George L. Trager (1906–1992). This suggests that, apart from any purely terminological i…

On rules and rule-following: obeying rules blindly

Abstract The theoretical importance and explanatory value of ‘rules’ have frequently been questioned. This article discusses two different lines of criticism presented by the representatives of ethnomethodology and connectionism. It is argued that in both approaches a ‘rule’ is understood in a limited sense. Consequently their criticism does not give grounds to refute the notion of rules. The assumption that the later Wittgenstein proposes to reject ‘rules’ altogether can also be seen as mistaken. Wittgenstein attempts to dissolve the conceptual problems associated with the notion by considering it as praxis . His rule-considerations are compatible with an emergent approach to language, for…

Perusteos dialogisesta kielentutkimuksesta. (Per Linell: Approaching dialogue)

But who killed Harry?

Nikolai Marr and the idea of a unified language

Abstract Nikolai Marr’s idea of the class-character of language assumes that language mechanically reflects the characteristics of the socio-economic basis. Marr argued that typological similarities between different languages are not based on ‘blood relationship’ but derive from the fact that all languages have developed through the same stages corresponding to the stages in the development of the socio-economic basis. For Marr, national oppression resulted from ‘racial’ or ‘ethnic’ definitions of such concepts as language and nation. His aim was to battle against oppression by replacing ‘racial’ definitions proposed by Indo-European linguistics with his non-ethnic and ‘sociological’ under…

Teacher Exchange as a Tool for Improving Pedagogical Expertise

Dialogues on Bakhtin : interdisciplinary readings

The ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin have received a great amount of scholarly interest both in his homeland and in the West, giving rise to a special discipline devoted to the study of the legacy of the Bakhtin Circle. Despite the huge amount of material published on Bakhtin, the appropriation of Bakhtin’s ideas has remained a rather controversial issue, and thus, there are competing views, especially between Russian and Western scholars, on what Bakhtin’s project was. Furthermore, the relevance of Bakhtin is not limited to ’Bakhtinology proper’, nor to literary criticism, cultural studies, and philosophy, which are traditionally considered Bakhtin’s home ground. It has become trendy to apply Bakh…

Stalin’s critique of the idea of the class character of language

Shedding light on the different Soviet linguistic approaches to the phenomenon of the class character of language, this paper shows that Stalin’s 1950 critique of Nikolaj Marr’s views echoed criticism that had already been addressed to Marr by his contemporaries. The idea of the class character of language did not amount to a single coherent theory, in Soviet linguistics, of social and linguistic structures, but in many cases remained an abstract theoretical construct. Even if some linguists manifestly subscribed to the Marrist dogma, it did not immediately follow that the idea of the class character of language had exerted significant influence on the actual analysis of language material. …

Vološinov and Cassirer

SUMMARY Recently, it has been suggested that Valentin Vološinov (1895–1936) plagiarised Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945). This claim is to be seen as grossly overstated, although Vološinov obviously benefited from Cassirer’s work on language. This article compares Vološinov’s and Cassirer’s concepts of the sign and discusses their views concerning the relation between language and reality. There are fundamental differences between their views on the nature of the sign which mainly stem from the fact that they are committed to different philosophical paradigms. Thus, the validity of the claims according to which philosophical sources of the dialogical conception of the sign can be found in Cassire…