Blog Archives

Language and smell: traces of synesthesia in premodern learning

Raf Van Rooy PhD fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) University of Leuven It is well known that, in present-day English, the verb ‘smell’ can obtain a negative connotation when used intransitively; the adjective derived from it, ‘smelly’,

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Posted in Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Semantics

New dating of the Iloko manuscript lexicography

Rebeca FernĂĄndez RodrĂ­guez Centro de Estudos em Letras (CEL) Universidade de TrĂĄs-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) Missionary lexicography in the Philippines is extensive and exhaustive. Dozens of grammars and vocabularies have been written since the Spanish arrival in the Philippines

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Posted in 17th century, 18th century, Article, Europe, Field linguistics, Lexicography, Linguistics, Philippines

Bloomfield : Du mentalisme au behaviorisme

Jean-Michel Fortis Laboratoire d’histoire des thĂ©ories linguistiques, UniversitĂ© Paris-Diderot On peut s’interroger sur l’évolution qui voit Bloomfield passer de la psychologie Ă  dominante wundtienne, qui imprĂšgne son Introduction de 1914, au behaviorisme, et d’une linguistique “mentaliste” Ă  une linguistique psycho-abstinente

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

El Sermonario de fray Bernardino de SahagĂșn y los fondos en lenguas indĂ­genas de la Biblioteca Nacional de MĂ©xico

Pilar Måynez Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Sobre el repositorio que resguarda la versión tardía del Sermonario de los Sanctos del año en lengua mexicana La Biblioteca Nacional de México fue oficialmente inaugurada el 2 de abril de 1884 en

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Posted in 15th century, 16th century, America, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics

Teaching language to a boy born deaf in the seventeenth century: the Holder-Wallis debate

Jaap Maat University of Amsterdam 1. The Popham notebook In the summer of 2008, a leather-bound booklet attracted the attention of a member of staff of Warner Leisure Hotels in Littlecote House, near Hungerford, Wiltshire, UK. It looked old, and

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Posted in 17th century, Article, Europe, History

Hendrik Pos and the epistemological foundations of structuralism

Patrick Flack Charles University, Prague The name of Dutch linguist and philosopher Hendrik Josephus Pos (1898-1955) is not one that rings many bells today, except perhaps in the Netherlands and the (growing) circles of Merleau-Ponty specialists. But to the keen

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Posted in 20th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Phenomenology, Philosophy, Structuralism

A uniform orthography and early linguistic research in Australia

David Moore University of Western Australia Introduction A Uniform orthography can be defined as one which is segmental and phonographic. Each graphic segment is pronounced and has a distinct value. Internal consistency in transcription is achieved by defining each segment

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Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Australia, Field linguistics, History, Linguistics, Phonology

Emile Benveniste et les langues amĂ©rindiennes.

ChloĂ© Laplantine Laboratoire d’Histoire des ThĂ©ories Linguistiques CNRS-UniversitĂ© Paris Diderot Les langues amĂ©rindiennes ont une place critique dans la linguistique d’Emile Benveniste (1902-1976). A deux reprises dans les ProblĂšmes de linguistique gĂ©nĂ©rale, il explique l’importance pour l’histoire de la linguistique

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Posted in 20th century, America, Article, Field linguistics, History, Linguistics, Structuralism

From Inductivism to Structuralism: the ‘method of residues’ goes to the field

Michael Silverstein University of Chicago It should be clear to anyone who surveys the historical record that the “discovery” of the phoneme – that is, the codification of phonological theory and method – was key in linguists’ consciousness of a

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Posted in 19th century, 20th century, America, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Structuralism

Historical Chinese phonology as a meeting ground for the Indian, the Chinese, and the Western linguistic tradition

Lei Zhu Shanghai International Studies University The speech sound, being the most important medium between our physical body and linguistic mind, is one of human beings’ oldest objects of study. In different cultures, it has been understood in different ways,

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Posted in Article, China, Europe, History, India, Linguistics, Phonology

Upcoming events


17–20 March 2026
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (Spain)
XV Congreso Internacional de la Sociedat Española de HistoriografĂ­a LingĂŒĂ­stica
Prescriptivism and descriptivism from the peripheries


23–25 March 2026
Montpellier (France)
Asian Languages in the History of Lexicography


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


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


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