Jacobus Joannes Antonius (Jac.) van Ginneken S.J. (21 April 1877, Oudenbosch - 22 October 1945,

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

) was a Dutch linguist, priest and Jesuit, professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen since its start in 1923. He taught

Dutch Language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' ...

and Dutch Literature,

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...

of the Indo-european languages, and Sanskrit.

Ideas

Starting with his ''Grondbeginselen van de psychologische taalwetenschap'', based on which he wrote his dissertation ''Principes de linguistique psychologique'', van Ginneken worked on developing a psychological foundation for linguistics and language. Three substantial parts of his convictions are presented in the following: Firstly, van Ginneken opposed the prevalence of the

neogrammarians The Neogrammarians (German: ''Junggrammatiker'', 'young grammarians') were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change. ...

’ methods in linguistics and was a proponent for a psychological approach to linguistics in a more synchronic way, thereby allowing, he thought, to gain an extended view of the diachronic development of language as well. Secondly, language, it seemed to him, had its foundations in sub- or unconscious regions of sentiment and emotion. This notion, which he explained in his ''Principes'', had its opposition in the field of language psychology from those who saw language as prevailingly cognitive, notably Edward Sapir. Thirdly, in the latter half of his life, van Ginneken developed the idea, that besides psychological factors, sound changes were influenced by genetic and anthropological ones, a view which didn’t find much agreement in the linguistic community at the time and much less after the Second World War, when much of language biology began to be seen as an absurdity of pre-War sciences.

References

Works

* ''Principes de linguistique psychologique, essai de synthèse'', 1907. * ''Handboek der Nederlandsche taal'', 1928 * ''De Oorzaken der Taalveranderingen'', 1930 * ''La Reconstruction typologique des langues archaïques de l'humanité'', Amsterdam, 1939. Jac

Bibliography

* ''Mélanges de linguistique et de philologie offerts à Jacq. van Ginneken, à l'occasion du soixantième anniversaire de sa naissance''. Paris : Klincksieck, 1937. *

Gustave Guillaume Gustave Guillaume (16 December 1883 – 3 February 1960) was a French linguist and philologist, originator of the linguistic theory known as "psychomechanics". Career Guillaume was introduced to linguistics by the comparative grammarian Antoine ...

, 'Review of: J. Van Ginneken, La Reconstruction typologique des langues archaïques de l'humanité', Amsterdam, 1939, ''Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris'', 40, 3, 120, 1939, p. 14-24. * Jan Noordegraaf, 'Hoogvliet versus van Ginneken. Dutch linguistics around the turn of the century'. ''Historiographia Linguistica'' 15 (1988), 207-238. (Ook in: Jan Noordegraaf, ''The Dutch Pendulum. Linguistics in The Netherlands 1740-1900'' Münster 1996, 99-129).(http://hdl.handle.net/1871/1033). * Marcin Sobieszczanski, 'Contribution du R. P. Jacq. Van Ginneken S. J. à la linguistique moderne'. ''Histoire Épistémologie Langage''. 1990, 12/1, p. 133-151. *Gerrold van der Stroom, ''The reception of Jac. van Ginneken's language biology''. Amsterdam/Münster 1995. (= Cahiers voor taalkunde, 13). * Ad Foolen, 'Language and emotions. The case of Jac. van Ginneken's ''Principes de linguistique psychologique'' (1907)'. In: B. Caron (ed.), ''Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Linguists''. Oxford: Pergamon 1997. CD-rom, artikelnr. 0030. * Jan Noordegraaf, 'Dutch linguists between Humboldt and Saussure: the case of Jac. Van Ginneken (1877–1945)'. ''Historiographia linguistica'', 2002, vol. 29, no 1-2, pp. 145–163. * Gerrold van der Stroom, ''Jac. van Ginneken onder vuur. Over eigentijdse en naoorlogse kritiek op de taalkundige J.J.A. van Ginneken S.J. (1877-1945)''. Amsterdam: Stichting Neerlandistiek VU & Münster: Nodus Publikationen 2012. X + 372 pp. & 3893237685. (Zusammenfassung:'Angriffe auf Jac. van Ginneken. Zur von seinen Zeitgenossen und nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg an dem Sprachwissenschaftler J.J.A. van Ginneken (1877-1945) geübten Kritik', pp. 321–326).

External links

On ''Principes de linguistique psychologique, essai de synthèse''
at CTLF
Hoogvliet Versus Van Ginneken. Dutch linguistics around the turn of the century
by Jan Noordegraaf

Contribution of Jac. van Ginneken S.J. to modern linguistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ginneken, Jac. van 1877 births 1945 deaths 20th-century Dutch Jesuits Linguists from the Netherlands People from Halderberge Academic staff of Radboud University Nijmegen 19th-century Dutch Jesuits