In this episode, we look at the emergence of comparative-historical grammar, focusing on the work of Franz Bopp and Jacob Grimm.
Blog Archives
Mapping Language: linguistic cartography as a topic for the history of science
Jan David Zimmermann (Braun) University of Vienna Introduction Beginning with the history of cartography, this paper will first discuss the development of spatial thinking in different scientific contexts. It will then deal with the practice of linguistic mapping in German…
Tagged with: cartography, dialect geography, Dialectology
Posted in 20th century, Article, Austria, Dialectology, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics
Posted in 20th century, Article, Austria, Dialectology, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics
Christian Karl Reisig as an upholder of philosophical linguistics in 19th century Germany
Jacques François Université de Caen & CNRS In his introduction (p.6-18) to the Vorlesungen über lateinische Sprachwissenschaft (Lectures on Latin Linguistics, 1839), Christian Karl Reisig offered a philosophically grounded account of the epistemology of language as a Prinzipienwissenschaft (“Science of…
Tagged with: Humboldt, Karl Reisig, semantics, semasiology
Posted in 19th century, Article, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics, Pragmatics, Semantics
Posted in 19th century, Article, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics, Pragmatics, Semantics
Networking and obstacles to the development of the language sciences as reflected in the correspondence of Rodolfo Lenz and Hugo Schuchardt
Silvio Moreira de Sousa & Johannes Mücke Hugo Schuchardt Archive, University of Graz As the call for papers for the upcoming Coloquio Rodolfo Lenz 2016 is open until February 22nd (the conference will be held on May 5th 2016, at…
Tagged with: history of creolistics, Hugo Schuchardt, Rudolf Lenz
Posted in 19th century, Article, Field linguistics, Germany, History, Linguistics
Posted in 19th century, Article, Field linguistics, Germany, History, Linguistics
Sensualism for Dummies
Els Elffers University of Amsterdam 1. From sensualism to intentionalism. Four examples. What do Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), Jacques van Ginneken (1877-1945), Ernst Cassirer (1894-1945) and Martinus Langeveld (1905-1989) have in common? Apart from the fact that they were all men,…
Tagged with: Ernst Cassirer, intentionalism, Jacob van Ginneken, Karl Bühler, Martinus Langeveld, psycholinguistics, psychology, sensualism, Van Ginneken, Wilhelm Wundt
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Austria, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics, Netherlands, Psycholinguistics
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Austria, Europe, Germany, History, Linguistics, Netherlands, Psycholinguistics
“Some Americans could not by any means count to 1000”: the cognitive effects of the lack of names for numbers in exotic languages from the perspective of linguistic theorists before Humboldt
Gerda Haßler Universität 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 d’histoire des théories linguistiques, Université 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, Formgefühl, 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
Rethinking the history of the Aryan paradigm
Christopher Hutton University of Hong Kong My involvement with this topic began when I observed that the notion of a superior ‘Aryan race’, which functions in the English-speaking world as a near-universal shorthand for Nazi ideology, has no clear counterpart…
Tagged with: Aryan, Germany, history of linguistics, Nazi ideology, race, Volk
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Germany, History, Linguistics
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Germany, 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…
Tagged with: 17th century, Anatolia, Germany, history, Ludolf
Posted in 17th century, Anatolia, Article, Germany, History
Posted in 17th century, Anatolia, Article, Germany, History
Gabelentz — Grammatiker einer Sprache ohne Grammatik
Kennosuke Ezawa Ost-West-Gesellschaft für Sprach- und Kulturforschung e. V., Berlin In der Wissenschaft gilt ein Modell von dem Gegegenstand, der erklärt werden soll, nur solange, bis es nicht mehr taugt. Bei der so genannten Chomskyschen Revolution in der Linguistik Mitte…
Tagged with: 19th century, Chinese, Gabelentz, Germany, grammar, history
Posted in 19th century, Article, Germany, History
Posted in 19th century, Article, Germany, History
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences 