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Historiographia Linguistica: Online-First Articles

Jacques van Ginneken and Significs

| Vossius Center, University of Amsterdam,
In the early 1920s, the Dutch linguist Jacques van Ginneken S. J. (1877–1945) was involved in Significs, an idealistic-linguistic movement. He joined the group despite his objections against language reform, which was a central signific goal. The curious combination of Van Ginneken’s considerable impact on the movement and the tensions between this Jesuit linguist and his co-significians, brilliant intellectuals and social idealists, calls for further analysis. In this article, Van Ginneken’s contribution to Significs and his complicated role in the movement will be discussed in some detail. Special attention will be paid to the position of Van Ginneken and the leading significians in the contemporary multi-faceted transition from linguistic psychologism to linguistic anti-psychologism. Both parties adopted a prominently psychologistic program, which entailed some shared focuses of interest. However, they combined this with very diverse anti-psychologistic elements, which widened the gap between them.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Significs and Van Ginneken: “Bien étonnés de se trouver ensemble”?
    • 2.1Significs: Language research and idealism
    • 2.2Van Ginneken: A Jesuit linguist in search of interdisciplinarity
    • 2.3Significs and Van Ginneken. Timetable
  • 3.Van Ginneken’s introduction to the signific movement
  • 4.1919–1921. Van Ginneken’s first years as significian: “guest” member of the Institute
  • 5.1922–1924. Van Ginneken as member of the Signific Circle
  • 6.Van Ginneken’s farewell to Significs
  • 7.Van Ginneken and Significs; common areas of interest
  • 8.Discrepancies
    • 8.1From psychologism to anti-psychologism
      • 1.Radicalized psychologism
      • 2.“Levelled” depsychologization
      • 3.The “reconstructing” listener
    • 8.2Significs: Hearer-directedness and semi-radicalized psychologism
      • 1.Hearer-directedness
      • 2.Semi-radicalized psychologism
    • 8.3Van Ginneken: A half-open “inner theatre”?
      • 1. Psychologism autonomism
      • 2.Small steps towards the listener
      • 3.Assent
      • 4.The reconstructing listener
    • 8.4Reconstructing an implicit controversy: Looking in the rearview mirror
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 29 March 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.00139.elf
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