tics seeks a breakthrough to the more or less subconscious infrastructures
which are present with in each speaker and listener.32 Then Koch explains
the double aspect of the linguistic sign: term and conception. Wherever
language is used it serves a certain intention. A linguistic symbol has
always two sides: the term and the conception. eg the sequence of sounds
t-r-e-e is not merely a thing in our surroundings but also combined with our
conception of this thing. Term and conception are examined separately to
a great extent by modern linguistics which was not done by traditional
grammar. The latter was determined by the contents whereas the modern
grammar is formalistic and possibly uses terms of structure.33 Next, Koch
deals with sound, word, sentence, levels or steps of language.34 For Koch
the composition of a sentence is more than the sum of its individual words.
A sentence consists of constituents and has to be subdivided. Desiring to
speak means to have made up one's mind in order to express oneself in a
linguistic form, ie, in a sentence. Traditional grammar examines the
surface structure whereas the generative transformational grammar -
according to Noam Chomsky - investigates the structure of the back-
ground.35 Koch shows the steps of text and form or genre. The ongoing
discussion in the science of literature shows that the field of the form
critical method is entered as soon as the structure of literature is questioned
and not only the aesthetic evaluation. Units consisting of more than one
sentence are nowadays called text in Europe whereas in America the
corresponding term is utterance or discourse. Koch quotes P. Hartmann
who remarked that it is not the sentence but the text which is 'the isolated
occurence of a functioning language' and as such the 'original linguistic
symbol." For "language occurs as text only if functional and functioning
complexes are being expressed.36
Finally, Koch looks at the sociology of language and literature. It
is important to work out the step of form or genre because only from this
step the connection of the language with other kinds of human interactions
can be seen. Forms or genres are sociological facts. They belong to a setting
in life and, in a further sense, to a certain field of life. The connections
between linguistics and linguistic sociology, between the science of
literature and literary sociology, should be developed further.'37.
As a result of the form-critical method new commentaries were
published. In the title of these books the new method becomes obvious, eg
in a commentary series consisting of twenty-four volumes: The Forms of
the Old Testament Literature (FOTL).38 The glossaries of this series do not
give the traditional headwords, but 'Genres" (forms) or "Formulas'. Under
genres' we find mentioned: "Anecdote', 'Annals', 'Battle Story', 'Farewell
Speech', 'Historical Story', "Itinerary', 'Letter', 'Oath', 'Oracle', 'Register',
32
