The social semantics of Mikhail Pokrovskij and Nikolaj Marr

Ekaterina Velmezova

pp. 349-362

in: Craig Brandist (ed), Language and its social functions in early Soviet thought, Studies in East European Thought 60 (4), 2008.

Abstract

Criticizing the works of "Western" specialists in semantics, Soviet academician M. M. Pokrovskij (1868–1942) comes to the conclusion that social factors are essential for semantic evolution, while psychological factors constitute an intermediate link between the "external" life of a society and the semantics of the corresponding language. This conception resembles the general explanations of semantic evolution proposed by N. Ja. Marr (1864–1934). Nevertheless, despite a number of common points in the semantic theories of these two researchers, Pokrovskij's attitude towards Marr was negative: in particular, he disagreed with the thesis of the chronological primacy of Marr's discoveries in the domain of semantics. The article investigates why Pokrovskij had for a long time constituted an intermediate link between Russian and "Western" "traditions" in the field of semantics.

Cited authors

Marr Nikolaj

Pokrovskij Michajl