Postair "I Love New York" le Milton Glaser (2009)
Eaconamas cànanach mar ro-bhrath eaconamach ann an raon-cèille modalach a' chomharrachaidh shamhlaich. Na h-'Aktionsarten' (na 'caractaran' agus 'aogasan') ann an structair nan cànan prìomhadail.
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Linguistic economy as an economic anticipation in the modal meaning-aspect of symbolic signification. The Aktionsarten' (the 'characters' and 'aspects') and the structure of primitive verbal languages.
The modal structure of the lingual [1] aspect can also express its meaning-coherence with the economical sphere only in its anticipatory moments.
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[1] The term 'lingual', as a general modal qualification of the aspect of symbolic signifying, is not adequate. It is used only for lack of a better adjective in the English language, denoting the general modal character of the aspect concerned.
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Linguistic economy wards off the superfluous in symbolic signification, but, as we remarked in our introductory examination, it is not yet found in the closed retrocipatory structure of language [2]
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[2] Cf. Vol. II, p. 67 ff.
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This appears clearly and convincingly in the language of primitive gestures, which can do nothing but point out every intended object separately. Mimic gestures show a deepening of meaning; they also show some symbolic economy instead of the merely deictic [direct pointing] function of primitive gestures.
In addition there is a tendency to an ever increasing degree of 'economization' in the aspect of symbolic signification at the higher stages of historical development. This becomes evident if we compare modern and primitive verbal languages. The structure of the latter is closely bound up with the structure of primitive (not yet 'opened') thought.
Primitive speeches often have an extremely rich vocabulary, but they lack the capacity to express abstract and general relations and states of affairs. The discovery of the so-called 'Aktionsarten [3] and 'aspects' has brought to light that in the development of the Indo-European verbal languages the flexional endings added to the same verb-stem to denote the abstract meaning of external time, viz. the past, the present, and the future, must have been preceded by the distinction of the internally-qualitative kinds of time of the concrete actions and occurrences, in which the temporal aspect was expressed by different stems.
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[3] Translator's note: They are called characters, because they denote intrinsic characteristics (and not subjective appreciations of the stage of development) of an action, a state, or an occurrence. Aspects express a subjective appreciation of the stage of development of an action, state or occurrence. Cf. E. KRUISINGA, A Handbook of Present-Day English, vol. II, pp. 232 ff.; H. JACOBSOHN, Gnomen II, 379 ff.; Prof. Dr N. v. WIJK, Nieuwe Taalgids, October 1928.
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The stem of the verb 'to arrive' expresses perfective aspect, i.e. an action that comes to an end [4].
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[4] Translator's note: Or it denotes the result of an action, etc.; hence the final stage; the inchoative aspect denotes the initial stage; the imperfective or durative aspect denotes the going on of an action. An example of a genuine 'character' is the verb 'to tremble', which is called 'frequentative' in character. The form: — He was trembling — has both durative aspect and frequentative character. Cf. E. KRUISINGA, op. cit. pp. 230 ff.
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The stem of the verb 'to begin' denotes inchoative aspect, that of the verb 'to remain' denotes durative aspect. The Latin verbal forms: fero, tuli, latum, go back to different stems denoting different 'Aktionsarten' (or rather 'aspects') .
It is assumed that the use of the forms to denote differences of 'aspect', i.e. of internal time, has been superseded by an abstract scheme of chronological time-indications as a result of a systematic tendency in linguistic development.
It is obvious that this development is bound to bring about a large measure of economy in the way time is linguistically signified. This process must be connected with the increasing ability of thought to shake off the shackles of the sensory image-world to which it was rigidly tied down at the primitive stage in the formation of concepts.
American native speeches show that the qualitative concrete manner of signifying time and place is more original than the abstract, symbolically economical method [5].
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[5] The treatise Die Bildung der Tempora und Modi im Griechischen und Lateinischen (Sprachvergleichende Beiträge I, 1846), by S. G. CURTIUS was basic for the theory of the "Aktionsarten".
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The artificial languages (esperanto, volapück, etc.) are examples of a deliberate tendency to economize. In another respect the language of science, too, shows its economic anticipations, and at the same time it anticipates the juridical aspect because it requires its symbols to be univocal as a condition of justice in scientific intercourse and discussion.
Herman Dooyeweerd, New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol II/ Part I/ Chapt 2/§4 pp 126-127)
