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Kurt Baldinger (November 17, 1919 – January 17, 2007) was a Swiss linguist and philologist who made important contributions to Romance studies in the Gallo-Romanic and Ibero-Romanic branches, with works of
lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...
, historical linguistics,
etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
and
semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comp ...
.


Life and work

Kurt Baldinger was born in Binningen, near
Basel Basel ( , ), also known as Basle ( ),french: Bâle ; it, Basilea ; rm, label= Sutsilvan, Basileia; other rm, Basilea . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zürich a ...
. At the age of twelve, he lost his father, who was a professor of secondary education. After finishing high school in 1938, he went to work as a physical education instructor at a secondary school while he studied at the Universities of Geneva and Basel, graduating as a professor of middle and higher education in the disciplines of Germanic and French philology and history. In 1947 he married Heidi Isler, with whom he had four daughters. In 1948 he earned a doctorate at the University of Basel. His thesis, ''Collective suffixes and the concept of collectivity in French'', under the direction of eminent romanist Walther von Wartburg. He became a disciple of von Wartburg and one of his principal collaborators on his '' Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch'' (French Etymological Dictionary), which reached twenty-five volumes. Being a Swiss citizen like his teacher, Baldinger was able to cross the borders of the Cold War. Thus, he could be employed as a professor at
Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
in the
German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...
, following von Wartburg as Head of Romance Linguistics and Philology, where he remained until 1957. He moved to the
University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
, where he stayed for the rest of his life. (He retained his post as director of the Romance Languages Institute of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin until 1962.) In 1958, at 39 years old, Baldinger was elected member of the Academy of Sciences in Heidelberg, one of the most prestigious academies in Germany. Baldinger's dedication to Romance studies focused primarily on the Gallo-Romanic sphere. Besides his contribution to the '' Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch'' (French Etymological Dictionary) for which he is the author of at least ninety extensive articles, and of numerous monographs, he stands out for the launch of two major dictionaries: ''Dictionnaire onomasiologique de l'ancien occitan'' (Onomasiological Dictionary of
Old Occitan Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label= Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries. Ol ...
), which later was merged into the ''Dictionnaire onomasiologique de l'ancien gascon'' (Onomasiological Dictionary of Old Gascon), as well as '' Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français'' (DEAF) (Etymological Dictionary of Old French) (1971). As its name indicates, the first dictionary is onomasiological; that is, it is organized by concept, while the second (DEAF) is organized by etymological families. Baldinger originally published his ''Teoría semántica: Hacia una semántica moderna'' (Semantic Theory: Toward a Modern Semantics) (Madrid, Alcalá, 1970 and 1976) in Spanish. Baldinger's productivity was enormous: a tribute collection, published to mark his seventieth birthday, included 70 monographs, 261 articles and 1,890 reviews. The amazing number of reviews is partly explained by the fact that Baldinger had headed the ''Zeischrift für romanische Philologie'', one of the most prestigious journals in Romance studies, since 1958. His academic career progressed through the years. After having served as dean of the School of Philosophy, he was elected chancellor of the University of Heidelberg. This coincided with the student disturbances that broke out in May 1968, when police intervention was required to clear out the university auditorium. He earned several honorary doctoral degrees, especially from Spanish and Latin American universities., and was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1976. After retirement, Baldinger suffered from limitations stemming from blindness and the complications of a stroke in his last years. He died in 2007, at age 87. His conception of philological study is reflected in the title of one of his articles: "Language and Culture". He didn't think of language as an isolated entity, but rather one framed in the sphere of activities of human beings.


Bibliography

* Germà Colón DOMÈNECH: "Necrología: Kurt Baldinger (1919-2007)", Revista de Filología Española (RFE), LXXXVII, 1.º, 2007, pp. 197–199. * Helmut LÜDTKE: "Kurt Baldinger (1919-2007), Llengua & Literatura, núm. 19 (2008), pp. 577-578. * Wolfgang Raible: "Kurt Baldinger: 17 November 1919 - 17 January 2007". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol.153, n.º 2, June 2009, pp. 222–224. * José Luis Rivarola: "Kurt Baldinger (1919-2007)", Estudis Romànics, 30, 2008, pp. 621–624.


References

# Germà Colón Domènech, loc. cit. en Bibliography, p. 197. # J.L.Rivarola, loc. cit en Bibliography, p. 623. # Georges Straka y Max Pfister (eds.): Die Faszination der Sprachwissenschaft. Ausgewählte Aufsätze zum 70. Geburtstag mit einer Bibliographie. Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen, 1990. # Fuente: ABC, February 6, 1969. # Helmut Lütdke, loc. cit. en Bibliography, p. 578. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldinger, Kurt 1919 births 2007 deaths Linguists from Switzerland Swiss philologists Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin 20th-century linguists 20th-century philologists Members of the American Philosophical Society