In this episode, we look at the emergence of comparative-historical grammar, focusing on the work of Franz Bopp and Jacob Grimm.
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Podcast episode 1: Pre-history of comparative-historical linguistics
The first series of the History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences Podcast looks at the history of modern linguistics. We begin in this episode by examining the pre-history of comparative-historical grammar.
Typology – a new task of linguistics
James McElvenny University of Edinburgh In lieu of an introduction Below I offer an English translation of the last essay Georg von der Gabelentz (1840–1893) personally submitted for publication, “Hypologie [Typologie] der Sprachen, eine neue Aufgabe der Linguistik”. This essay…
Tagged with: Gabelentz, typology
Posted in 19th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Typology
Posted in 19th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Typology
Query: Boas on Alternating Sounds
What secondary literature exists on the historical context and significance of Franz Boas’ (1889) essay “On alternating sounds” or on his approach to phonology more generally?
Posted in Announcements, Queries and discussion
The secret history of grammaticalization
James McElvenny Universität Potsdam Research into grammaticalization has an established pedigree, first certified by Lehmann (2015[1982]: 1-9) and confirmed, with various additions, by Heine et al (1991: 5-23) and Hopper & Traugott (2003[1993]: 19-38).[1] The standard genealogy records the birth…
Tagged with: aesthetics, agglutination, Gabelentz, grammaticalization, Heine, Hopper and Traugott, idealism, Lehmann, Meillet, positivism, Vossler
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Pragmatics, Semantics
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Pragmatics, Semantics
Otto Neurath’s Isotype and his philosophy of language
James McElvenny University of Sydney The public image of the Vienna Circle, a group of thinkers active in Vienna in the 1920s and 30s (see Haller 1993; Stadler 2001[1997]), was characterised by a near-fanatical faith in ‘scientific’ thinking. In their…
Tagged with: Isotype, Otto Neurath, philosophy of language, physicalism, protocol sentence debate, Rudolf Carnap, Vienna Circle
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Philosophy
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Philosophy
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…
Tagged with: 19th century, 20th century, aesthetics, constructed languages, Couturat, Gabelentz, grammar, history, international language, Jespersen, linguistics, Ogden, Peano, philosophy, Sapir
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences 