Hermann Paul

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Hermann Otto Theodor Paul (August 7, 1846, Salbke – December 29, 1921, Munich) was a German linguist and lexicographer. He was professor for German language and literature in Freiburg in the Breisgau as well as Munich, and he was a prominent Neogrammarian.

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His main work, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1st ed. 1880), has been translated into English: Paul, Hermann 1970. Principles of the History of Language, translated from 2nd edition by H.A. Strong. College Park: McGroth Publishing Company.

From a theoretical linguistic perspective, Hermann Paul contended that sentences are the sum of their parts (1886. See also, Blumenthal, 1970). Sentences arise sequentially from individual associations, linked together in a linear form. These contentions were contradicted by Wilhelm Wundt (1900) who believed that sentences begin as a simultaneous thought that is converted into linear, sequential parts.

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