Andres Bello’s contribution to modern linguistics and philology

Authors

  • Nelson Cartagena Universidad de Heidelberg

Abstract

Based on the studies and widespread international appraisal of Andrés Bello's writings, his crucial importance in the history of Spanish Grammar is not only highlighted, but also does this paper manifest his remarkable role as precursor of the major currents of linguistic studies of the 20th century: the European and the American structuralisms, the generative grammar and the pragmatics. By referring to Bello's traditional studies his significance in Modern Philology is clearly shown, and some unique and surprising findings on Bello's idea on the translation of libretti (i.e. the actual vocal parts of opera) are presented by the author of this paper. Bello's characterization and assessment of the difficulties that arise from the symbiosis of text and music in these texts are pronounced about 80 years ahead of Gustav Becher's famous holistic theory on the translation of this type of texts. A theory which, according to distinguished European musicologists, has lead the way in the discussion of the functionality of these distinct interlingual transfers throughout the 20th century, as well as a revaluation of this specific activity during the preceding centuries (15th - 19th century)

Keywords:

Spanish grammar, modern linguistics and philology, Holistic theory