Rules and Methods: Die Grammatikalisierung von Sprach- und Dichtungstheorien im England des 17. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

The concept of an English baroque age has been largely rejected in English, American and, more recently, in German literary and cultural studies. This refusal is mainly based on the process of change from medieval to modern perceptions of the universe and of society - a process which develops differently in England in comparison to continental Europe. The modulation of perceptions can be understood in terms of a shift from a paradigmatically to a syntagmatically organised construction of reality. At its core this process of change involves the substitution of the medieval system of eternal equivalences by the modern objectivation of reality whereby objects are perceived and arranged according to the categories of identity and difference. One major consequence of this shift in patterns of thought is marked by the desire to represent the new mental order in a new order of signs. Such a transformation of mentalities had immediate consequences for contemporary theories of language and literature. By using the writings of Francis Bacon and John Locke as delimiting boundary marks of seven-teenth-century critical discourse it is argued in this paper that the characteristic tendency for representation is realised through rule-governed approaches to language and to literature whereby linguistic practices are increasingly subjected to the process of grammaticalisation. The notion of developing grammars for human behaviour which is characteristic for all fields of seventeenth-century social interaction is, however, far from uniform. As is argued in this paper linguistic theory shows a strong tendency towards reforming the English language according to rules whereby simplicity is discovered as the new linguistic ideal, notably by experiments with universal languages as carried out by the Royal Society. On the other hand, literary theory seeks to reform the English language by refining its standards so as to be able to compete culturally with other European nations. The result is a fierce battle of discourses on linguistic ideals and literary practices. Ultimately, the conflicting theoretical approaches are largely reconciled by the philosophy of John Locke whose concept of the arbitrary sign and the accompanying notion of the communicative contract put an end to seventeenth-century controversies and prepare the discoursive strategies of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century.