Dialektik der Fremdwortkritik: Aufklärung und Nationalismus im Purismus

Felhofer, Ludwig (2024) Dialektik der Fremdwortkritik: Aufklärung und Nationalismus im Purismus. JAHRBUCH DER UNGARISCHEN GERMANISTIK. pp. 71-86. ISSN 2677-1195

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Abstract

In this article, the dialectic of foreign word criticism is presented using exemplary positions. After first presenting two opposing manifestations of purism, Joachim Heinrich Campe’s enlightened purism and the Allgemeine Deutscher Sprachverein’s (ADSV) nationalist purism, it is shown how one turns into the other; Campe‘s purism as permeated by nationalist traits and the ADSV’s purism as acting in an enlightening manner towards the Nazis. The contradiction is presented as immanent to purism and as well as its logic to resolve this contradiction. As a linguistic act, it is a process with two moments: one of realisation, its nationalist aspect that devalues the foreign, and one of result, its enlightening aspect that brings about the transparency of linguistic expression. Following Adorno, finally, the use of foreign words is examined. His general welcome of the enlightening use of foreign words – as they elucidate with their foreignness the social alienation and show the creative, unnatural potential of language –, having come into conflict with the enlightened moment of purism, is transformed into a practice of reflected, particular use of foreign words.

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