Jost Trier (Trier Jost)

(1894-1970)
Born December 15, 1894 in a family physician in g.Shlitts (Hesse) in 1914 entered the University of Freiburg, where he studied Germanic and Romance philology, and comparative linguistics. In August 1914, was mobilized to active duty. Captured by the French as a prisoner of war has participated in archaeological excavations in Algeria. From 1916 until the end of World War I, being interned in Switzerland, studied at the University of Basel, where he became acquainted with the ideas of F. de Saussure. Since 1918 Trier continued his education at the University of Marburg. In 1923 he defended Freiburg dissertation, combining onomastic approach lives of Catholic saints, and study the history of their cult. After defending his doctoral dissertation in 1928 Trier in 1931 published its results in the book of German conceptual vocabulary of intellectual property. The history of the language field since ancient times to the beginning of 13 in. (Der deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezirk des Verstandes. Die Geschichte eines sprachliches Feldes. Von den Anfngen bis zum Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts; reprinted in 1974), which brought him fame. This work contains the basic provisions of the theory of semantic field, whose creation is seen as the main contribution of Trier in Linguistics. Very similar views were expressed simultaneously L. Vaysgerberom, with whom Trier was personally acquainted. A distinctive feature of the work of Trier is their orientation to a comprehensive description of empirical data and the systematic treatment of the data in the history of the language he established the doctrine of 'ergologicheskoy etymology'. The essence of this concept is to apply the methodology of semantic fields to study the etymology of the traditional symbols of objects of peasant life in Germany in the broader cultural context of the Middle Ages and the establishment of metaphorical connections of these signs with a number of abstract tokens,
. To some extent, this concept has continued the traditions of the school 'Words and things', and R. H. Shuhardta Meringer (1859-1931) (cm. WORDS AND VSCHEY School) and at the same time anticipating the ideas of cognitive metaphor theory, developed since the early 1980's Dzh.Lakoffom etc..
In 1932, Trier became a professor at the University of Munster, which was connected all his further life and scientific activity. In 1935-1936 - Dean of the Faculty of Philology, in 1956-1957 - Rector of the University of Munster. Member of the Academy of Sciences in Gottingen, winner of the Prize. Conrad Dudena. Died Trier in Bad Salzuflen September 15, 1970.