Yearly Archives: 2013

Early writing and printing in the Philippines

Rebeca FerndĂĄndez RodrĂ­guez Universidade de TrĂĄs-os-Montes e Alto Douro Printing and publishing began in the Philippines with the arrival of the Spanish in 1565. Encountering an enormous number of native languages, the Spaniards felt a pressing need to describe the

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Posted in 16th century, 17th century, 18th century, Article, History, Philippines

Historical and moral arguments for language reclamation

Ghil‘ad Zuckermann University of Adelaide Language is an archaeological vehicle, full of the remnants of dead and living pasts, lost and buried civilizations and technologies. The language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history. Russell Hoban

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Posted in Article, Australia, Philosophy, Revival linguistics, Revivalistics

The creation of ‘parts of speech’ for Chinese: ‘translingual practice’ across Graeco-Roman and Sinitic traditions

Edward McDonald University of Sydney The English term ‘parts of speech’ is actually a mistranslation of long standing of the Latin partēs oratiƍnis, itself a translation of the Greek merē logou, in which the term oratiƍ / logos takes not

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Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, China, History, Linguistics, Syntax

Analyses du fonctionnement sĂ©mantico-rĂ©fĂ©rentiel du nom propre dans l’Inde ancienne

Émilie Aussant Laboratoire d’histoire des thĂ©ories linguistiques (CNRS) – UniversitĂ© Paris Diderot Introduction La question du « sens » des noms propres a suscitĂ©, aussi bien en Occident qu’en Inde, de nombreuses rĂ©flexions. Si les dĂ©bats ont longtemps concernĂ©, en Occident, la

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Posted in Article, History, India, Linguistics, Semantics

Theoretical linguistics and artificial languages

Alan Reed Libert University of Newcastle, New South Wales Mainstream theoretical linguists have generally ignored artificial languages, apparently considering them unworthy of attention. This is true not only of “fictional languages” such as Klingon, but also of “serious” languages such

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Posted in Article, Linguistics

The notion of stereotype in language study

Elena L. Vilinbakhova St. Petersburg State University 1. Introduction Originally, the word stereotype derives from two Ancient Greek roots: στΔρΔός ‘solid’ and Ï„ÏÏ€ÎżÏ‚ ‘impression’. It was first used by the French printer Firmin Didot in 1796 as a typographical term. Later,

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Posted in Article, Linguistics, Semantics

Otto Jespersen and progress in international language

James McElvenny University of Sydney When it comes to expressing the ideas of our own day, the deficiencies of classical Latin appear with ruthless clarity: telephones and motor-cars and wireless have no room in Ciceronian Latin, and it will be

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Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics

Greetings from the Orient: H.W. Ludolf as a central figure in 17th-cent. language study

Han Lamers (Leiden) & Toon Van Hal (Leuven) Leiden University and University of Leuven This post takes the reader to Ottoman Smyrna (Izmir in present-day Turkey) and Constantinople (now Istanbul) about 1700 A.D. Almost 250 years before, the Eastern-Roman, or

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Posted in 17th century, Anatolia, Article, Germany, History

On the history of the question of whether natural language is “illogical”

Barbara H Partee University of Massachusetts Amherst There have been centuries of study of logic and of language. Some philosophers and logicians have argued that natural language is logically deficient, or even that “natural language has no logic”. And before

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Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics, Logical form, Semantics

Gabelentz — Grammatiker einer Sprache ohne Grammatik

Kennosuke Ezawa Ost-West-Gesellschaft fĂŒr Sprach- und Kulturforschung e. V., Berlin In der Wissenschaft gilt ein Modell von dem Gegegenstand, der erklĂ€rt werden soll, nur solange, bis es nicht mehr taugt. Bei der so genannten Chomskyschen Revolution in der Linguistik Mitte

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Posted in 19th century, Article, Germany, History

Upcoming events


21-22 May 2026
Prague (Czech Republic)
Some Less Well-Known Relations of the Prague School: Networks and Dynamics of Cultural Transfer


2-4 September 2026
Nottingham (UK)
Henry Sweet Society Colloquium 2026
(Non-)Native Speakers in the History of Linguistic Ideas


10-11 September 2026
Fribourg (Switzerland)
The Prague Linguistic Circle in Geneva and Paris: Circulations and Decenterings


16–18 September 2026
Rome (Italy)
Studienkreis Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft
Universality and Universals in the History of Linguistics


19-21 November 2026
Sofia (Bulgaria)
La linguistique ‘fonctionnelle’ cent ans aprùs la fondation du Cercle linguistique de Prague


10-11 December 2026
Paris (France)
Language, Norm, and Society: The Prague Linguistic Circle (1926-2026) in the Face of Contemporary Challenges


28-29 January 2027
Paris (France)
SHESL Conference 2027
History of terminology – Diachronic terminology The emergence of a terminological conscienceness


31 March–3 April 2027
Vigo (Spain), Vila Real (Portugal)
13th International Conference on Missionary Linguistics


16–19 June 2027
Flensburg (Germany)
Language abuse and language criticism in the history of linguistics


23-27 August 2027
NiterĂłi, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
ICHoLS XVII