Blog Archives

Galant grammarians: Donneau de Visé’s Mercure galant

Doyle Calhoun Yale University (Department of French) What was the Mercure galant and why should it interest historians of linguistics? Founded in 1672 by Jean Donneau de Visé (1638–1710) — journalist and royal historiographer under Louis XIV — the bestselling

Posted in 17th century, 18th century, Article, Grammars

Podcast episode 4: Interview with Jürgen Trabant on Wilhelm von Humboldt

Jürgen Trabant

In this episode, we talk to Jürgen Trabant about Wilhelm von Humboldt.

Posted in 19th century, Europe, History, Linguistics, Philosophy, Podcast, Typology

What is Syriac and what is Aramaic according to Syriac grammarians (8th-16th cent.)

Margherita Farina Histoire des Théories Linguistiques (Paris) What is Aramaic? In modern linguistic terms, we can say that Aramaic is a linguistic group, composed by dialectal varieties defined on a geographical, chronological and socio-cultural basis. For example, we speak about

Posted in Article, Grammars, Syriac, Uncategorized

Podcast episode 3: Language classification

Wilhelm von Humboldt

In this episode, we look at language classification in the first half of the nineteenth century and at some key ideas in the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt.

Posted in 19th century, History, Linguistics, Podcast, Typology

Being critical: Elements of Critical Theory in the work of critical discourse analysts

Adorno thumbs down

Diego Romeo University of Edinburgh The constellation of linguistic research broadly labelled as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can hardly be understood as the homogeneous product of a monolithic theory or methodology. The variety of approaches employed by critical discourse analysts

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Posted in Article, Linguistics

Der Siegener Diskursmonitor – ein Onlineportal zur strategischen Kommunikation

Friedemann Vogel, Fabian Deus & Clemens Knobloch Universität Siegen 1. Gegenstand und Ziel des Diskursmonitors Der “Diskursmonitor” (www.diskursmonitor.de) ist ein disziplinenübergreifendes, webbasiertes Informations- und Dokumentationsportal zur strategischen Kommunikation in öffentlichen Diskursen.[1] Das Portal richtet sich nicht nur an die Fachcommunity

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Posted in Article, Linguistics

Podcast episode 2: Comparative-historical linguistics – Bopp and Grimm

Der Boppard ist ein Ort am Rhein; die Bopp-Art sind Pedanterei'n

In this episode, we look at the emergence of comparative-historical grammar, focusing on the work of Franz Bopp and Jacob Grimm.

Posted in 19th century, Denmark, Germany, historical linguistics, History, Linguistics, Podcast

Has the LSA Been a Generativist-Dominated Organisation?

Frederick J. Newmeyer University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and University of Washington There are two stories about how the field of linguistics (at least in the United States) reacted sociologically to the advent of generative grammar. I call

Posted in 20th century, America, Article, Linguistics, Uncategorized

Podcast episode 1: Pre-history of comparative-historical linguistics

Monument to Sir William Jones, St Paul's Cathedral, London

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.

Posted in 19th century, historical linguistics, History, India, Linguistics, Philosophy, Podcast

Language in and out of society: Converging critiques of the Labovian paradigm

Johannes Woschitz University of Edinburgh The following text is based on and is, where appropriate, an elaboration of Woschitz (2019), a paper I have recently published and which is the centrepiece of my PhD thesis. A different title could have

Posted in America, Article, Dialectology, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sociolinguistics

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