Simplex verbs and conceptualisation in German language: a case study based on Heidegger’s history of Being

Abstract

This paper examines how Martin Heidegger makes use of the German language in the process of articulating his thought in his later work. It is the claim of this paper that Heidegger con-ceptualises the history of Being (Seinsgeschichte) by choosing certain simplex verbs as a spring-board in the process of word formation, a process that is both enabled and conditioned by idiosyncrasies of the German language. This process of conceptualisation can be described and elucidated from a structuralist perspective concerned with linguistic morphology. Therefore this paper starts with a brief summary of the basic concepts of classic structural linguistics, with special emphasis on syntagmatic and paradigmatic sign relations. Secondly, based on the structuralist notion of language, the idiosyncratic character of German language will be elaborated. Last but not least, Heidegger’s application of the simplex verbs stellen, stehen and schicken in numerous operations of word formation will serve for a case study of the process of philosophical conceptualisation rooted in idiosyncrasies characteristic of the German language.