Tsugio Sekiguchi
Tsugio Sekiguchi (関口存男; November 21, 1894 - July 25, 1958) was a Japanese linguist and author of many books on German grammar, finally he developed the meaning form theory.
He started to learn German when had entered into Osaka Junior Army School at 14 years old. He got pleurisy just after he graduated from Imperial Japanese Army Academy and quitted the army. As a result, he decided to set up for a scholar of German Language. He constructed his original grammatical system called Sekiguchi grammar or meaning form theory.
Manuscript
He collected examples of actual language use (manuscript) for 30 years, 25,000 pages in total. He wanted to burn the manuscript, but many researchers including Eugenio Coseriu find the value of manuscript. Thanks to Ikuya, Tsugio's eldest son, it still preserved. In this website, I am to digitalize, decipher and make it open public.
Meaning Form Theory
Sekiguchi constructed his original grammatical system, Meaning Form Theory (意味形態論, Imi Keitai Ron).
Wenn die Nase der Kleopatra um einen Witz kürzer gewesen wäre, dann würde die Weltgeschihite einen ganz andern Varlauf genommen haben, dann wäre vielleicht der Weltkrieg nicht ausgebrochen.
Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.
"um einen Witz kürzer" (for a wit shorter), this expression would like to express "a little" shorter. There are many ways to express "a little" in German: um ein Haar (for a hair), um einen Schatten (for a shadow), um eine Idee (for an idea), um ein Atom (for an atom), um eine Molekel (for a molecure), or um ein Nichts (for a nothing).
The sense of all these expressions is same, "a little". The Meaning Form is the characteristic habit which each language contains.
Bibliography
1894, Born in Himeji city, Hyogo Prefecture
1913, Graduated from the Military Preparatory School (Rikugun Yonen Gakko)
1915, Graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy
1916, Entered into Sophia University
1917, Entered into Athenee Francais
1918, Professor of French Language, Athenee Francais
1918, Professor of Latin Language, Athenee Francais
1919, Graduated from Sophia University
1933, Professor, Faculty of Letters, Hosei University
1943, Quit Hosei University
1950, Lecturer of Takada School of Foreign Languages
1952, Lecturer, Faculty and Graduate School of Letters, Waseda University and Faculty of Letters, Keio University
1958, Died at age 64, of brain bleeding.
Sekiguchi wrote his language learning way in "How did I learn German?".