Douglas Kibbee University of Illinois Are lies information? This was the question before the Supreme Court of Michigan in a 2016 case (People v. Harris, based on a 2009 incident). A police officer was charged with pulling a motorist out…
Blog Archives
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
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
Family resemblance and semantics: the vagaries of a not so new concept
Jean-Michel Fortis Université Paris Diderot The motivation for writing this post is twofold: first, there is still something to be said about the origins of the notion of family resemblance and its application to semantics, most notably in the version…
Tagged with: Aristotle, cognitive linguistics, cognitive semantics, family resemblances, Lakoff, prototype theory, Rosch, Wittgenstein
Posted in 20th century, Article, Cognitive Linguistics, Europe, History, Linguistics, Semantics
Posted in 20th century, Article, Cognitive Linguistics, Europe, History, Linguistics, Semantics
Some Remarks on Objectivity in Pragmatics
Samuel Lewin University of Sydney I Let me start with some background. In recent decades, linguists and philosophers have debated the role played by context in determining what we say, as opposed to what we imply or otherwise mean, when…
Tagged with: Donald Davidson, Grice, meaning, objectivity, pragmatics, Recanati
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Philosophy, Pragmatics, Semantics
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Philosophy, Pragmatics, Semantics
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’,…
Tagged with: Latin, premodern, semantics, smell, synesthaesia, synesthesia
Posted in Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Semantics
Posted in Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Semantics
Der Artikel ist keine ‘Wortart’! Zur synthetischen Grammatik von Sekiguchi
Kennosuke Ezawa Ost-West-Gesellschaft für Sprach- und Kulturforschung, Berlin Die Linguistik war lange nicht zur Erkenntnis dessen gekommen, was durch den Artikel geschieht, wenn er verwendet wird. „Allheit“ ist bekanntlich ein Inhalt, der im Deutschen mit dem sogenannten bestimmten Artikel realisiert…
Tagged with: Article, Artikel, Georg von der Gabelentz, semantics, syntax, synthetische Grammatik, Tsugio Sekiguchi
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Semantics, Syntax
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Semantics, Syntax
Do linguists measure anything?
Nick Riemer University of Sydney and Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques, Université Paris-Diderot Few questions in linguistics can be as hoary, fundamental or, perhaps, as unsatisfactorily handled, as that of the discipline’s empirical status – a question typically presented as…
Tagged with: philosophy of linguistics, science, scientificity, scientism, semantics
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Philosophy, Semantics
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Philosophy, Semantics
Analyses du fonctionnement sémantico-référentiel du nom propre dans l’Inde ancienne
Émilie Aussant Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques (CNRS) – Université Paris Diderot Introduction La question du « sens » des noms propres a suscité, aussi bien en Occident qu’en Inde, de nombreuses réflexions. Si les débats ont longtemps concerné, en Occident, la…
Tagged with: history of grammar, history of semantics, India, Sanskrit, semantics
Posted in Article, History, India, Linguistics, Semantics
Posted in Article, History, India, Linguistics, Semantics
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences 