Die Rolle der Sprachgeschichte in Gottscheds Auseinandersetzung mit Frankreich

Abstract

This paper wants to contribute to better understanding of the ambivalent relation of Johann Christoph Gottsched to France. Gottsched strives to revaluate German culture, literature and language; in this effort he shows an ambiguous attitude towards France. On the one hand, he acknowledges the achievements of French culture, on the other hand he fights fiercely against the denigration of German culture in face of what he considers a Francisation of Germany. This paper shows that language history plays an important role in his argumentation: with the help of etymological »prove« and other strategies that are dealt with in detail in this paper he tries to prove that German language history is longer, more noble and thus of higher value than the history of the French language. He deduces that German language is a noble and valid base for the foundation of a German culture and literature on the example but independent of the French. The material my analysis is based on are Gottsched’s reviews of French works on language history taken from the scientific journals he published. They proved to be a valid source and have not been used before as a corpus.