Une bonne langue pour chanter ? Réflexions sur les caractéristiques phonétiques des langues et sur le chant baroque

Posted on 19 November 2019 by Chloé Laplantine — 1 Comment

Claudia Schweitzer
Histoire des Théories Linguistiques, CNRS, Université de Paris

Dans sa Lettre sur la musique française (1753 : 91), Rousseau déclare « qu’il n’y a ni mesure ni mélodie dans la Musique Française, parce que la langue n’en est pas susceptible ». Par conséquent, son « chant n’est qu’un aboyement continuel, insupportable à toute oreille non prévenue ». Le français est une langue inadaptée pour chanter, ainsi l’opinion souvent exprimée (comme ici chez Rousseau), et ceci jusqu’à aujourd’hui. La préférence est généralement donnée à la langue italienne dont Giambattista Mancini (1776 : 199) fait l’éloge ici : « Toutes les nations sont obligées, bon gré ou malgré [sic !], de convenir que la langue italienne est, de toutes les langues, la plus harmonieuse, la plus douce, la plus suave, la plus propre, en un mot, à être adaptée à une bonne musique. »

Si l’on compare ces constats avec celui de Hermann Finck (1556 : livre 5) au milieu du Read more ›

Posted in 17th century, 18th century, Article, Europe, Uncategorized

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of linguistics – November 2019

Posted on 17 November 2019 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

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

Posted on 6 November 2019 by johw92 — 1 Comment

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 been: the structuralist heritage in sociolinguistics. Yet another title could have been: the ongoing clarification of the register concept within sociolinguistics.

Consider the following phenomenon: All throughout North America, a range of sound changes – more specifically, phonological changes – have been reported (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006). Speakers of the Inland North are undergoing the so-called Northern Cities Vowel Shift, Canadians are undergoing the Canadian Vowel Shift, the West merges CAUGHT with COT, Philadelphians show fronting of back vowels, and so on. Similar changes have been studied across the Atlantic Ocean. In Danish spoken in Denmark, for instance, vigorous sound changes have been reported to have happened in the 20th century, which is why Swedes find it increasingly hard to understand their neighbours (see Gregersen, 2003, p. 145).

In their analysis of such phenomena, linguists are faced with at least three challenges. Read more ›

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

Henry Sweet Society Colloquium 2020, London

Posted on 21 October 2019 by The Editor — Leave a comment

The 2020 annual colloquium of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas will be held on Thursday 30 April at the University of Westminster, London. Papers are invited on any topic in the History of Linguistics and Linguistic Ideas. We also welcome proposals for panels of papers on a specific topic. Read more ›

Posted in Announcements, Conferences and workshops

SHLP VII Conference, 2020, Canberra

Posted on 18 October 2019 by The Editor — Leave a comment

Pacific region

Due to the situation with coronavirus and uncertainties regarding international travel in the next few months the SHLP 2020 committee has regretfully decided that the best course of action is to postpone the conference. This decision is also partly influenced by the decision at ANU to postpone their 60+ years celebration. At this point in time it does not make sense to suggest an alternative time for the conference. Once the situation regarding the virus is clear, we will discuss the options, and post a notice on this website.

Australian National University, Canberra
3–4 August 2020

Organisers: Bill McGregor, Clara Stockigt & David Moore

SHLP website
Read more ›

Posted in Announcements, Conferences and workshops

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of linguistics, October 2019

Posted on 18 October 2019 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

The journal WORD and the structural heritage of usage-based linguistics: Three functional tenets and an overarching principle

Posted on 18 September 2019 by Enrico Torre — 1 Comment

Enrico Torre
Università degli Studi di Genova

The first issue of WORD was launched in 1945, announced on its front cover as “the journal of the Linguistic Circle of New York, devoted to the study of linguistic science in all its aspects.” At the time, the only other general linguistics journal published in the United States was Language, the organ of the Linguistic Society of America, which – at least according to the received view – was firmly in the hands of mechanist post-Bloomfieldians. Indeed, under Bernard Bloch’s (1907–1965) editorship, most contributions accepted in Language were either papers on historical linguistics or strictly formal descriptions of linguistic phenomena. As scholars of the mechanist orientation were increasingly perceived as becoming elitist and the field seemed to be narrowing, a sense of discontent began to spread among fellow linguists who did not recognize themselves in that approach (Householder 1978). Read more ›

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

Program September–December 2019

Posted on 18 September 2019 by The Editor — Leave a comment

As new posts are published, they will be added here.

18 September	The journal Word and the structural heritage of usage-based linguistics: Three functional tenets and an overarching principle. Enrico Torre University of Genoa
6 November	Language in and out of society: Converging critiques of the Labovian paradigm Johannes Woschitz University of Edinburgh
19 November	Une bonne langue pour chanter ? Réflexions sur les caractéristiques phonétiques des langues et sur le chant baroque Claudia Schweitzer Histoire des Théories Linguistiques, CNRS, Université de Paris

Posted in Programs

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of linguistics, September 2019

Posted on 16 September 2019 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

Call for Papers: Between form and meaning: the structural quest for “Gesamtbedeutungen”, Open Workshop ICHoLS XV, 24-28 Aug. 2020, Milan

Posted on 16 September 2019 by The Editor — Leave a comment

Lorenzo Cigana (University of Copenhagen)
Henrik Jørgensen (University of Aarhus)

In 1936, Roman Jakobson qualified the “quest for general meanings” as a specific trend in structural linguistics aiming to motivate each morphological category (such as gender, number or case) by associating it to an abstract content or to a possibly closed inventory of semantic traits. According to him, such trend was of paramount importance in the establishment of a general grammar, and characterized it as follows: Read more ›

Posted in Announcements, Conferences and workshops

Une bonne langue pour chanter ? Réflexions sur les caractéristiques phonétiques des langues et sur le chant baroque

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of linguistics – November 2019

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

Henry Sweet Society Colloquium 2020, London

SHLP VII Conference, 2020, Canberra

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of linguistics, October 2019

The journal WORD and the structural heritage of usage-based linguistics: Three functional tenets and an overarching principle

Program September–December 2019

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of linguistics, September 2019

Call for Papers: Between form and meaning: the structural quest for “Gesamtbedeutungen”, Open Workshop ICHoLS XV, 24-28 Aug. 2020, Milan

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