Recent publications in the history and philosophy of linguistics, August 2019

James McELVENNY (ed.). 2019. Gabelentz and the Science of Language. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 316 p. ISBN : 9789462986244
Publisher’s website

The German sinologist and general linguist Georg von der Gabelentz (1840—1893) occupies a crucial place in linguistic scholarship around the end of the nineteenth century. As professor at the University of Leipzig and then at the University of Berlin, Gabelentz was present at the main centers of linguistics of the time. He was, however, generally critical of the narrow, technical focus of mainstream historical-comparative linguistics as practiced by the Neogrammarians and instead emphasized approaches to language inspired by a line of researchers stemming from Wilhelm von Humboldt. Gabelentz’ alternative conception of linguistics led him to several pioneering insights into language that anticipated elements of the structuralist revolution of the early twentieth century. Gabelentz and the Science of Language brings together four essays that explore Gabelentz’ contributions to linguistics from a historical perspective. In addition, it makes one of his key theoretical texts, ‘Content and Form of Speech’, available to an English-speaking audience for the first time.

Introduction and Table of contents available here.

Seino VAN BREUGEL. 2019.  Atong Texts. Glossed, Translated and Annotated Narratives in a Tibeto-Burman Language of Meghalaya, Northeast India. Leiden : Brill. Brill’s Studies in South and Southwest Asian Languages, Volume: 12. 582 p. ISBN: 978-90-04-37825-4
Publisher’s website

Atong Texts by Seino van Breugel consists of a collection of 37 glossed, annotated and translated narratives in the Atong language (Tibeto-Burman) of Meghalaya, India, presented in phonemic standard orthography. This testimony of cultural and linguistic heritage of the Atongs, who are members of the Garo Tribe, complements the author’s Grammar of Atong, also published by Brill.
Each text is preceded by a systematic literary analysis. The photos in the appendix provide a visual impression of the environment in which the stories are told. This book is of great value to Tibeto-Burmanists, general linguists, discourse analysts and everyone interested in the languages, history and folklore of Northeast-India in general, and Meghalaya in particular.

Alisa VAN DE HAAR (ed.). 2019. The Golden Mean of Languages. Forging Dutch and French in the Early Modern Low Countries (1540-1620). Leiden: Brill. Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 305. ISBN: 978-90-04-35521-7
Publisher’s website

In The Golden Mean of Languages, Alisa van de Haar sheds new light on the debates regarding the form and status of the vernacular in the early modern Low Countries, where both Dutch and French were local tongues. The fascination with the history, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary of Dutch and French has been studied mainly from monolingual perspectives tracing the development towards modern Dutch or French. Van de Haar shows that the discussions on these languages were rooted in multilingual environments, in particular in French schools, Calvinist churches, printing houses, and chambers of rhetoric. The proposals that were formulated there to forge Dutch and French into useful forms were not directed solely at uniformization but were much more diverse.

Rodolfo CERRÓN-PALOMINO, Álvaro EZCURRA RIVERO & Otto ZWARTJES (eds.). 2019. Lingüística misionera: Aspectos lingüísticos discursivos, filológicos y pedagógicos. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial/ Aleph Impresiones S.R.L. ISBN: 978-612-317-506-1 (446 pp.).

Los vocabularios, gramáticas, textos doctrinales, catecismos, confesionarios y sermonarios de las lenguas amerindias elaborados por religiosos, entre los siglos XVI y XVIII, son el resultado de un esfuerzo por atender las dificultades pedagógicas y pastorales propias de la evangelización colonial. Los misioneros europeos tuvieron que examinar lenguas tipológicamente distintas de las del tronco latino, y moldearlas a las exigencias de la escritura y de la expresión de conceptos cristianos.
Este libro se ocupa de asuntos de lingüística misionera, especialmente en Mesoamérica y Sudamérica, que se inscriben dentro de este marco histórico. La primera parte está dedicada a la reflexión sobre aspectos lingüistícos y pedagógicos de gramática, vocabularios y cartillas ; la segunda ofrece estudios sobre los modelos discursivos y estilísticos empleados ; y la tercera se concentra en la documentación lingüística de la época colonial. Colaboran especialistas de universidades americanas y europeas.

The table of contents available here.