Johann Severin Vater: Versuch einer allgemeinen Sprachlehre

The theologian and specialist in Middle Eastern and oriental studies Johann Severin Vater (1771–1826) gives a detailed explanation of »the concept of a universal grammar« in this work. In addition to an excursus »on the origin and the development of language,« in the main part of the work he attempts to show the universal relevance of traditional syntactic categories and relations such as noun, verb, subject, predicate etc. These efforts to establish linguistic universals, to put this in modern terms, have secured him a place in the current discussion on linguistics.