Jerzy Kurylowicz
Encyclopedia
Jerzy Kuryłowicz (ˈjɛʐɨ kurɨˈwɔvit͡ʂ; 1895-1978) was a Polish
linguist who studied Indo-European languages
. He was the brother of Włodzimierz Kuryłowicz and his son is also called Jerzy Kuryłowicz.
, Austria–Hungary (now Ivano-Frankivsk
, Ukraine
), is considered the most outstanding contemporary Polish historical linguist, structuralist and language theoretician, deeply interested in the studies of Indo-European languages.
He studied in Vienna
at Die Hochschule fur Welthandel (1913-1914), and then, after World War I
, continued the studies at the University of Lviv
, where his unusual language skills drew the attention of some prominent linguists. As a result, he was granted a scholarship in Paris
. This gave him an opportunity to qualify as a university professor of Indo-European linguistics soon after his return to Poland. After obtaining the title, he became a professor at the University of Lviv. Later on, in 1946-48 Kuryłowicz filled in for Dr Krzyżanowski at the Institute of English Philology in Wrocław. Finally, he moved to Cracow, where he took the chair of General Linguistics at Jagiellonian University
. He retired in 1965. Kuryłowicz was a member of the Polish Academy of Learning and the Polish Academy of Science. He died at the age of 83 on January 28th 1978 in Kraków
.
He was a member of the Polish Academy of Learning
and the Polish Academy of Sciences
. His son, Jerzy Kuryłowicz (1925-2002) obtained his PhD from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland.
, whose many assumptions he accepted and developed.
He is best known for his works on the Indo-European languages. The most important ones are Apophony in Indo-European (1956) and The Inflectional Categories of Indo-European (1964). In the latter, he discussed the inflectional categories of Indo-European languages and later, on the basis of these studies, formulated the so-called Case Theory.
The category of case covers two basic case groups:
1. grammatical case
2. concrete cases
Grammatical cases: their primary function is syntactic, the semantic function is secondary. If we take the sentence: ‘The boy sat down’ (Fisiak 1975: 59) with an intransitive verb ‘sit’, we may notice that the sentence can be changed into causative construction: ‘’He made the boy sit down’’ (ibid), where the word ‘boy’ is changed from nominative into accusative, with the superior position of nominative. (Nominativus, accusativus)
Concrete cases: they include instrumentalis, locativus and ablativus, whose primary function is the adverbial semantic function. They answer the questions: with whom?, where?, from where?. The syntactic function of concrete cases is secondary. These cases are governed by semantically determined verbs.
For instance, the Polish verb kierować (to drive) governs the direct object in the instrumental case, as in the expression kierować samochodem (to drive a car) (Fisiak 1975: 60)
, a major step forward in Indo-European linguistics.
Kate washes the car.
and change it into passive:
The car is washed by Kate.
we can notice that the second sentence has the same meaning as the first one. They differ just in terms of style. The idea of transformative derivation proves that Kuryłowicz was ahead of his times, because what he described resembles one of the main assumptions of Chomsky’s Transformative – Generative Grammar postulated several years later.
always forms the –orem ending in the accusative
. It does not work the other way round because the ending in the accusative does not allow us to predict the ending in the nominative case: It can be either –os or –or. (Fisiak 1975: 56)
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
linguist who studied Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
. He was the brother of Włodzimierz Kuryłowicz and his son is also called Jerzy Kuryłowicz.
Life
He was born on August 26th 1895 in StanisławówIvano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in the western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast, municipality....
, Austria–Hungary (now Ivano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in the western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast, municipality....
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
), is considered the most outstanding contemporary Polish historical linguist, structuralist and language theoretician, deeply interested in the studies of Indo-European languages.
He studied in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
at Die Hochschule fur Welthandel (1913-1914), and then, after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, continued the studies at the University of Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, where his unusual language skills drew the attention of some prominent linguists. As a result, he was granted a scholarship in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. This gave him an opportunity to qualify as a university professor of Indo-European linguistics soon after his return to Poland. After obtaining the title, he became a professor at the University of Lviv. Later on, in 1946-48 Kuryłowicz filled in for Dr Krzyżanowski at the Institute of English Philology in Wrocław. Finally, he moved to Cracow, where he took the chair of General Linguistics at Jagiellonian University
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....
. He retired in 1965. Kuryłowicz was a member of the Polish Academy of Learning and the Polish Academy of Science. He died at the age of 83 on January 28th 1978 in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
.
He was a member of the Polish Academy of Learning
Polish Academy of Learning
The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning , headquartered in Kraków, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of sciences....
and the Polish Academy of Sciences
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Warsaw, is one of two Polish institutions having the nature of an academy of sciences.-History:...
. His son, Jerzy Kuryłowicz (1925-2002) obtained his PhD from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland.
Work in linguistics
Kuryłowicz did not belong to any of the structuralist linguistic schools. In his views he was close to glossematicsGlossematics
Glossematics is a structuralist linguistic theory of the twentieth century proposed by Danish linguist Louis Hjelmslev. It defines the glosseme as the most basic unit or component of language...
, whose many assumptions he accepted and developed.
He is best known for his works on the Indo-European languages. The most important ones are Apophony in Indo-European (1956) and The Inflectional Categories of Indo-European (1964). In the latter, he discussed the inflectional categories of Indo-European languages and later, on the basis of these studies, formulated the so-called Case Theory.
Case Theory
In this theory he proposes the division into grammatical and concrete cases. According to Kuryłowicz, the case is a syntactic or semantic relation expressed by the appropriate inflected form or by linking the preposition with a noun, so it is the category based on a relation inside the sentence or a relation between two sentences.The category of case covers two basic case groups:
1. grammatical case
2. concrete cases
Grammatical cases: their primary function is syntactic, the semantic function is secondary. If we take the sentence: ‘The boy sat down’ (Fisiak 1975: 59) with an intransitive verb ‘sit’, we may notice that the sentence can be changed into causative construction: ‘’He made the boy sit down’’ (ibid), where the word ‘boy’ is changed from nominative into accusative, with the superior position of nominative. (Nominativus, accusativus)
Concrete cases: they include instrumentalis, locativus and ablativus, whose primary function is the adverbial semantic function. They answer the questions: with whom?, where?, from where?. The syntactic function of concrete cases is secondary. These cases are governed by semantically determined verbs.
For instance, the Polish verb kierować (to drive) governs the direct object in the instrumental case, as in the expression kierować samochodem (to drive a car) (Fisiak 1975: 60)
Laryngeals
While studying the phonology of Indo-European languages, Kuryłowicz pointed at the existence of the Hittite consonant h. This discovery supported Ferdinand de Saussure’s coefficients sonantiques, elements de Saussure reconstructed to account for vowel length alternations in Indo-European. This led to the so-called laryngeal theoryLaryngeal theory
The laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of one, or a set of three , consonant sounds termed "laryngeals" that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language...
, a major step forward in Indo-European linguistics.
Syntactic transformation
In 1936 Kuryłowicz introduced the idea of syntactic transformation, pointing at the same time that this syntactic (transformative) derivation does not change the meaning of syntactic form. Therefore, if we take the sentence like:Kate washes the car.
and change it into passive:
The car is washed by Kate.
we can notice that the second sentence has the same meaning as the first one. They differ just in terms of style. The idea of transformative derivation proves that Kuryłowicz was ahead of his times, because what he described resembles one of the main assumptions of Chomsky’s Transformative – Generative Grammar postulated several years later.
Foundation concept
Kuryłowicz was also interested in the element hierarchy and the function of the language system. Analyzing the problem of hierarchy he introduced the concept of foundation, which is the relation between two forms or functions in a language. One of the forms or functions, so-called founding, always results in the presence of the founded, not conversely. For instance, in Latin, the ending –os or –or in sg. The nominativeNominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
always forms the –orem ending in the accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
. It does not work the other way round because the ending in the accusative does not allow us to predict the ending in the nominative case: It can be either –os or –or. (Fisiak 1975: 56)
Publications
- Kuryłowicz, J., 1936. “Derivation lexicale et derivation syntaxique”. In Kuryłowicz, J., 1960, 41–50.
- Kuryłowicz, J., 1938. “Struktura morfemu”. In Kuryłowicz, J., 51–65.
- Kuryłowicz, J., 1949a. “La nature des proces dits ‘analogiques’”. Acta Linguistica 5: 121–38.
- Kuryłowicz, J., 1949b. “La notion de l’isomorphisme”. In Kuryłowicz, J., 1960, 16–26.
- Kuryłowicz, J., 1949c. “Le probleme du classement des cas”. In Kuryłowicz, J., 1960, 131–154.
- Kuryłowicz, J., 1956. Apophony in Indo-European.
- Kuryłowcz, J., 1960. Esquisses linguistiques. Wrocław – Kraków, Polska Akademia Nauk.
- Kuryłowicz, J., 1964. The Inflectional Categories of Indo-European. Heidelberg, Carl Winter.