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Oleksander Potebnja

Born

in Ukraine

September 22, 1835

Died

December 11, 1891

Genre

Linguistics, Philosophy, Science

Influences

Wilhelm von Humboldt, J. G. Herder, H. Steinthal, J. Herbart, H. Lotze ...more

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Olexander Potebnja or Oleksander Opanasovich Potebnia (Russian: Александр Афанасьевич Потебня; Ukrainian: Олександер Опанасович Потебня) was a Ukrainian philosopher and linguist active in the Russian Empire, who was a professor of linguistics at the University of Kharkiv. He translated part of Homer's Odyssey into Ukrainian, even though translating into that language was prohibited in the Russian Empire. He constructed a theory of language and consciousness that later influenced the thinking of his countryman the Psychologist Lev Vygotsky. His main work was "Language and Thought" (mysl' i jazyk) (1862). He was a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the foremost academic institution in the Russian Empire.

As a lingu Olexander Potebnja or Oleksander Opanasovich Potebnia (Russian: Александр Афанасьевич Потебня; Ukrainian: Олександер Опанасович Потебня) was a Ukrainian philosopher and linguist active in the Russian Empire, who was a professor of linguistics at the University of Kharkiv. He translated part of Homer's Odyssey into Ukrainian, even though translating into that language was prohibited in the Russian Empire. He constructed a theory of language and consciousness that later influenced the thinking of his countryman the Psychologist Lev Vygotsky. His main work was "Language and Thought" (mysl' i jazyk) (1862). He was a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the foremost academic institution in the Russian Empire.

As a linguist Potebnja specialized in four areas: the philosophy of language, the historical phonetics of the East Slavic languages, etymology, and Slavic historical syntax. His major works on the philosophy of language are Mysl’ i iazyk (Thought and Language, 5 edns, 1862, 1892, 1913, 1922, 1926); O sviazi nekotorykh predstavlenii v iazyke (On the Relation among Some Representations in Language, 1864); his doctoral dissertation, Iz zapisok po russkoi grammatike (From Notes on Russian Grammar, vol 1, 1874; repr 1958); and the posthumously published ‘Iazyk i narodnost’ (Language and Nationality, in Vestnik Evropy, 1895). He was particularly interested in the relations among language, thought, and reality. Language for him was primarily the means by which the mind ordered the influx of impressions and stimuli. Words carry not only a meaning, but also the past experience of the individual and the nation, through which all new experience is filtered. Thus a word usually has three aspects: an external form, a meaning, and an internal form. It is through the internal form that the objective world is subjectivized. In many cases the internal form is rooted in myth and, hence, acts as a bridge between language and folklore (with its symbols). These ideas constitute the framework of Potebnja's master's thesis, O nekotorykh simvolakh v slavianskoi narodnoi poezii (On Some Symbols in Slavic Folk Poetry, 1860; expanded edn 1914), and his monumental work Obiasneniia malorusskikh i srodnykh narodnykh pesen (Explanations of Little Russian and Related Folk Songs, 2 vols, 1883, 1887). With time the consciousness of a word's internal form fades, and one of the tasks of literature is to restore this consciousness. According to this theory, literature is a hierarchy of genres; the simplest ones (the proverb, riddle, and fable) directly recall or renew the word's internal form, and the other genres do so in a more complicated, sometimes hardly detectable, way through a complex system of subjective (in poetry) or seemingly objective (in the novel) images. Potebnia's principal works on this subject were published posthumously: Iz lektsii po teorii slovesnosti: Basnia, poslovitsa, pogovorka (From Lectures on the Theory of Literature: The Fable, the Adage, the Proverb, 1894; repr 1970; Ukrainian trans 1930), Iz zapisok po teorii slovesnosti: Poeziia i proza, tropy i figury, myshlenie poeticheskoe i mificheskoe, prilozheniia (From Notes on the Theory of Literature: Poetry and Prose, Tropes and Figures, Poetic and Mythical Thought, Addenda, 1905; repr 1970), and ‘Chernovyia zametki ... o L.N. Tolstom i F.M. Dostoevskom’ (Preliminary Remarks ... on L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky) in Voprosy teorii i psikhologii tvorchestva (vol 5 [1914]). ...more

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Oleksander Potebnja’s books

Average rating: 3.41 · 91 ratings · 8 reviews · 17 distinct works • Similar authors

	З лекцій теорії словесности. Байка, прислів'я, приповідка 3.45 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 1894 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	الفكر واللغة by Oleksander Potebnja, تحسين رزاق عزيز (Taranslator ) 3.11 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1892 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Слово о полку Игореве: Текст и примечания by Oleksander Potebnja, Unknown 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Мова, національність, денаціоналізація by Oleksander Potebnja, George Y. Shevelov really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1992	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Language and Nationality by Oleksander Potebnja, Richard Hantula (Translator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1895	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Український буквар : по підручнику А. Потебні by Oleksander Potebnja, С. Русов (Editor) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1906	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Переправа черезъ воду, какъ представление брака liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1868	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lʹvivsʹka potebniana: Materialy naukovykh chytanʹ, prysvi͡a︡chenykh 160-richchi͡u︡ z dni͡a︡ narodz͡h︡enni͡a︡ Oleksandra Potebni, 21 veresni͡a︡ 1995 r 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Естетика і поетика слова 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1985	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ударение by Oleksander Potebnja, В. Ю. Франчук (Editor), К. К. Целуйко (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1973	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Oleksander Potebnja…

Quotes by Oleksander Potebnja (?)

“Дети выучиваются языку взрослых только потому, что при других обстоятельствах могли бы создать свой.”
― Aleksander Potebnja, Мысль и языкъ

2 likes

“Ideas begin to guide life only afterwards, after long periods that are required for their transformation, so to speak, into the black soil of thought, that is, into something that is no longer a subject for discussion.”
― Oleksander Potebnja, Language and Nationality

tags: ideas

2 likes

“Искусство есть язык художника, и как посредством слова нельзя передать другому своей мысли, а можно только пробудить в нем его собственную, так нельзя ее сообщить и в произведении искусства; поэтому содержание этого последнего (когда оно окончено) развивается уже не в художнике, а в понимающих. Слушающий может гораздо лучше говорящего понимать, что скрыто за словом, и читатель может лучше самого поэта постигать идею его произведения. Сущность, сила такого произведения не в том, что разумел под ним автор, а в том, как оно действует на читателя или зрителя, следовательно, в неисчерпаемом возможном его содержании. Это содержание, проецируемое нами, то есть влагаемое в самое произведение, действительно условлено его внутренней формой, но могло вовсе не входить в расчеты художника, который творит, удовлетворяя временным, нередко весьма узким потребностям своей жизни.”
― Aleksander Potebnja

tags: говорящий, искусство, мисль, понимающий, поэт, произведение, слушающий, содержание, художник, читатель, язык

1 likes

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Polls

Which of the following works of the Ukrainian culture should be translated into English primarily?

1) " History of the Rus' or Little Russia" (a historical and political essay);

2) "Three Leaves Beyond the Window" by Valerii Shevchuk (a novel);

3) "From Lectures on the Theory of Literature: The Fable, the Adage, the Proverb" by Aleksander Potebnja (a study, series of lectures);

4) "Mary" by Taras Shevchenko (an apocryphal poem)

5) None of the above.

6) Your variant.

The image of Mary in Shevchenko's poem "Maria" (Mary, 1859) has not much in common with theological image of the Virgin. The biblical story is the only external drive for fully independent expression of the poet.
According to Ivan Franko and Boris Pasternak, who's translated the poem into Russian, it is the best Shevchenko's work.

6 votes, 37.5%

History of the Rus' or Little Russia (Russian: Исторія Русовъ, или Малой Россіи) or History of the Rus' (Ukrainian: Історія русів) is a book about the history of the Rus' people (Ruthenians) and their state (Ruthenia or Little Russia) from ancient times up to 1769. The book was written as a political essay in the end of the 18th century by anonymous author and firstly published in 1846 in Moscow in Russian language by Osyp Bodianski.
History of the Rus focuses on two ideas. Firstly, it emphasize the historical difference and antagonism between Rus' (Ukraine) and Muscovy (Russia). Secondly, it accentuate on the historical continuity of the Rus' people (Ukrainians) from the medieval times of Kievan Rus' till the early modern Cossack state.
Despite numerous factual mistakes and exaggerations, History of the Rus' had a great impact on Ukrainian scholarship, works of prominent Ukrainian writers like Nikolai Gogol and Taras Shevchenko, and formation of Ukrainian national discourse of the 19th century.

3 votes, 18.8%

Valerii Shevchuk's second major prose work Три листки за вікном (Three Leaves Beyond the Window, 1986), a three-part novel that traced the secularization of Ukraine and spiritual decay of its intellectual elite through the 17th, 18th, and 19th century. Recognized as a exemplary literary work of the glasnost period, this novel earned Shevchuk the Shevchenko Prize in 1988. A film based on one of the parts of the novel and entitled "Диво в краю забуття" (A Wonderful Event in the Land of Forgetfulness) was produced in 1991 by Natalia Motuzko.

3 votes, 18.8%

4 (write-in)

2 votes, 12.5%

None of the above

1 vote, 6.3%

2 (write-in)

1 vote, 6.3%

According to Aleksander Potebnja's theory, literature is a hierarchy of genres; the simplest ones (the proverb, riddle, and fable) directly recall or renew the word's internal form, and the other genres do so in a more complicated, sometimes hardly detectable, way through a complex system of subjective (in poetry) or seemingly objective (in the novel) images. Potebnia's principal work on this subject were published posthumously: Iz Lekcii Po Teorii Slovesnosti: Basnja; Poslovica; Pogovorka (From Lectures on the Theory of Literature: The Fable, the Adage, the Proverb, 1894).

0 votes, 0.0%

16 total votes

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