Michael Silverstein University of Chicago Edward Sapir (1884-1939) arrived at the University of Chicago for Autumn Quarter, 1925, having spent the summer, in transit from Ottawa, in New York City teaching summer school at Columbia. Two years later, in 1927,…
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In Praise of âExceptionless:â Linguistics among the Human Sciences at Bloomfield and Sapirâs Chicago
Tagged with: Bloomfield, Chicago, history of linguistics, Sapir
Posted in 20th century, America, Article, History, Linguistics
Posted in 20th century, America, Article, History, Linguistics
Early Descriptions of Gender in Pama-Nyungan Languages
Clara Stockigt University of Adelaide There is little correlation between the existence of a system of gender in Pama-Nyungan languages and the inclusion of a discussion of these systems under the heading “Gender” in early grammatical sources. Of the small…
Tagged with: 19th century, 20th century, Australian language, Australian languages, gender, grammar, history of field linguistics, history of linguistics, Pama-Nyungan languages, Pitta Pitta
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Australia, Field linguistics, Grammars, History, Linguistics, Syntax, Typology
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Australia, Field linguistics, Grammars, History, Linguistics, Syntax, Typology
âSome Americans could not by any means count to 1000â: the cognitive effects of the lack of names for numbers in exotic languages from the perspective of linguistic theorists before Humboldt
Gerda HaĂler UniversitĂ€t Potsdam The limited number word vocabulary in some languages for quantities above a specific amount has for some time been a much-debated topic. A study published in 2008 (Butterworth, Reeve, Reynolds, Lloyd 2008), which attracted much attention,…
Sapir’s form-feeling and its aesthetic background
Jean-Michel Fortis Laboratoire dâhistoire des thĂ©ories linguistiques, UniversitĂ© Paris-Diderot I find that what I most care for is beauty of form, whether in substance or, perhaps even more keenly, in spirit. A perfect style, a well-balanced system of philosophy, a…
Tagged with: 19th century, 20th century, aesthetics, Edward Sapir, FormgefĂŒhl, history of linguistics, Sapir
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, America, Article, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, America, Article, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics
(Non-)universality of word-classes and words: The mid-20th century shift
Martin Haspelmath Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig While looking at a range of views by grammarians on word-class distinctions (noun, verb, adjective etc.) and word division in two recent papers (Haspelmath 2011; 2012a), I was struck by what…
Tagged with: 20th century, linguistics, typology, universal grammar, word classes
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics, Typology, Uncategorized
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics, Typology, Uncategorized
German Lutheran Missionaries and the Linguistic Landscape of Central Australia 1890-1910
David Moore University of Western Australia My research aims to investigate documentation and research in the languages of Central Australia, providing a valid interpretation of the materials of the earliest work on the Aranda (Arrernte, Arrarnta) language of Central Australia.…
âYou donât see what you donât knowâ: examining material aspects of manuscripts (Part I)
Anna Pytlowany University of Amsterdam Part one: Paper, ink, watermarks My interest in manuscripts as material objects was sparked when I started my PhD research into the history of Dutch descriptive linguistics. Ultimately, I want to create a virtual digital…
Tagged with: 17th century, 18th century, 19th century, manuscripts, Netherlands, VOC
Posted in 17th century, 18th century, 19th century, Article, Europe, History, Netherlands
Posted in 17th century, 18th century, 19th century, Article, Europe, History, Netherlands
The lost Tesoro del ydioma ylocano
Rebeca FernĂĄndez RodrĂguez Universidade de TrĂĄs-os-Montes e Alto Douro At the end of the 18th century, Russian Empress Catherine II wanted to compile an atlas of the world’s languages. She commissioned first the German Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811) and then…
Tagged with: 18th century, lexicography, Philippines
Posted in 18th century, Article, Lexicography, Philippines
Posted in 18th century, Article, Lexicography, Philippines
Saussure’s sound symbolism
John Joseph University of Edinburgh “The most celebrated opponent of the sound symbolic hypothesis,” writes Magnus (2013: 201), “was, of course, Ferdinand de Saussure”. Of course. One of Saussure’s key contributions to modern linguistics is the principle of the arbitrariness…
Tagged with: arbitrariness, Saussure, sound symbolism, structuralism
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Structuralism
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Structuralism
The Latin-Portuguese grammarian Manuel Ălvares (1526-1583) and his De institvtione grammatica libri tres
Rolf Kemmler University of TrĂĄs-os-Montes e Alto Douro A little more than 440 years ago, in September 1572, the Portuguese typographer JoĂŁo da Barreira printed the first edition of a quite elaborate grammar of the Latin language. Little did the…
Tagged with: 16th century, Grammars, history of linguistics, Latin, Latin Grammar, Madeiran Jesuit Manuel Ălvares, Manuel Ălvares, Portugal
Posted in 16th century, Article, Europe, Grammars, History, Portugal
Posted in 16th century, Article, Europe, Grammars, History, Portugal
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences 