Schriften zur Sprachtheorie

After Karl Bühler's masterpiece »Sprachtheorie - Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache« (Theory of Language - The Representational Function of Language) had finally been published in 1934, he was able to look back with some satisfaction on 25 years of constant study of the problem of language. As it is often the case with research on Bühler, sufficient attention was not paid to this casual remark he made concerning his way of thinking, it was merely his »Die geistige Entwicklung des Kindes« (The Mental Development of the Child), »Krise der Psychologie« (The Crisis of Psychology) and his » Ausdruckstheorie« (Theory of Expression) which apart from his »Theory of Language« were noticed. In order however to retrace each individual stage in Bühler's way of thinking, which is the equivalent of destroying outdated ideas in the sciences dealing with language and developing future-oriented linguistic, semiotic, philosophical models of communication science, it is essential to follow Bühler step by step. His articles on the development of the theory of language, collected in this volume, fulfill this function.