Cfp – (Hi)stories of meaning: The “Semantic Century” and Its Roots (CISPELS III)

Posted on 14 January 2025 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

Università della Calabria (Italy), 9–11 October 2025

“Meaning” is one of the most debated terms in linguistics, particularly in its historical dimension. On the one hand, the focus on meaning—and its public or objective nature—constituted a defining feature of twentieth-century linguistic thought, encompassing the so-called linguistic turn, and the rise of language as a central theme in the humanities (from Frege to Wittgenstein, from Bréal to Saussure, from Peirce to Morris). Yet, this momentum seems to have waned in the current century. On the other hand, meaning as a domain, theme, and problem has long been in existence (even prior to Bréal’s coining of the term science of meaning) and continues to occupy the background, even though the words “semantics” and “meaning” have fallen out of fashion in contemporary discourse.

Posted in Conferences and workshops

Funding for MA degrees in the language sciences available at Université Paris Cité

Posted on 18 December 2024 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

Funding for MA degrees in the language sciences is available at Université Paris Cité, through the Paris Graduate School of Linguistics.

The Paris Graduate School of Linguistics (PGSL) is a Paris-area graduate program covering all areas of language science.

It offers several comprehensive Master curricula integrating advanced study and research, in close connection with PhD programs as well as with the Empirical Foundations of Linguistics consortium.

Research plays a central part in the program, and students also take elective courses to develop an interdisciplinary outlook. Prior knowledge of French is not required.

The relevant track to choose for students interested in history of linguistics and in an affiliation with the Histoire des théories linguistiques research group is called Theoretical and experimental linguistics and Phonetics.

For more details, please see https://paris-gsl.org/index.html

New funding opportunity: https://mobility.smarts-up.fr/

Deadline for grant applications : January 17th 2025 (Program start date: September 1st 2025). Note that funding is only available for non-French citizens and for students who do not hold a French university degree. Citizens of some countries (those requiring visas for study in France) must additionally and simultaneously apply to Campus France, as explained on the application portal.For more information, contact aimee.lahaussois@cnrs.fr

Posted in Jobs and funding

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of the language sciences – December 2024

Posted on 12 December 2024 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

Carey, Hilary M. 2024. The Colonial Bible in Australia. Scripture translations by Biraban and Lancelot Threlkeld, 1825-1859. Berlin: Language Science Press (History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences). 260 p. ISBN ISBN: 978-3-96110-486-4. DOI DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14007559
Page de l’éditeur
Book in open access

This book provides an extended introduction to the scripture translations of Biraban, an Awabakal man, and the missionary Lancelot Threlkeld. It examines Threlkeld’s linguistic field work in Raiatea prior to coming to New South Wales. It places the translations he undertook in the context of Australian missionary linguistics and the rapid advance of the settler frontier, for which he was a key eyewitness. It analyses the motivation and collaboration between Biraban and Threlkeld in the light of discoveries of new manuscripts, including that of the Gospel of St Matthew, as well as Threlkeld’s personal diary, neither of which have previously been analysed. The review includes a linguistic and ethnographic analysis of the complete corpus of Biraban and Threlkeld’s collaboration. It includes a complete list of the Threlkeld manuscripts and the many printed editions, including those available online. For historical purposes, it includes a copy of the unique standalone edition of the Gospel of Saint Luke, presented by the editor, James Fraser, to the British and Foreign Bible Society. The original is now in Cambridge University Library. It also includes a full digitisation of Threlkeld’s autograph manuscript, illuminated by Annie Layard, in Auckland City Library.

Posted in Publications

Podcast episode 43: Judy Kaplan on universals

Posted on 1 December 2024 by James McElvenny — 1 Comment

Combined book covers of "Universals of Language" and "Universals of Linguistic Theory"

In this interview, we talk to Judy Kaplan about universals in American linguistics of the mid-20th century.

Posted in Podcast

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of the language sciences – November 2024

Posted on 11 November 2024 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

Stockigt, Clara. 2024. Australian Pama-Nyungan languages: Lineages of early description. Berlin: Language Science Press (History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences). 520 p. ISBN 978-3-96110-488-8. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13880534
Publisher’s website
Book in open access

A substantial proportion of what is discoverable about the structure of many Aboriginal languages spoken on the vast Australian continent before their decimation through colonial invasion is contained in nineteenth-century grammars. Many were written by fervent young missionaries who traversed the globe intent on describing the languages spoken by “heathens”, whom they hoped to convert to Christianity. Some of these documents, written before Australian or international academic institutions expressed any interest in Aboriginal languages, are the sole record of some of the hundreds of languages spoken by the first Australians, and many are the most comprehensive. These grammars resulted from prolonged engagement and exchange across a cultural and linguistic divide that is atypical of other early encounters between colonised and colonisers in Australia. Although the Aboriginal contributors to the grammars are frequently unacknowledged and unnamed, their agency is incontrovertible.
This history of the early description of Australian Aboriginal languages traces a developing understanding and ability to describe Australian morphosyntax. Focus on grammatical structures that challenged the classically trained missionary-grammarians – the description of the case systems, ergativity, bound pronouns, and processes of clause subordination – identifies the provenance of analyses, development of descriptive techniques, and paths of intellectual descent. The corpus of early grammatical description written between 1834 and 1910 is identified in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 discusses the philological methodology of retrieving data from these grammars. Chapters 3–10 consider the grammars in an order determined both by chronology and by the region in which the languages were spoken, since colonial borders regulated the development of the three schools of descriptive practice that are found to have developed in the pre-academic era of Australian linguistic description.

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Podcast episode 42: Randy Harris on the Linguistics Wars

Posted on 1 November 2024 by James McElvenny — 4 Comments

In this interview, we talk to Randy Harris about the controversies surrounding the generative semantics movement in American linguistics of the 1960s and 70s.

Posted in Podcast

Cfp: Discussions on Legacy Materials (DiLegMa) – opportunities and challenges for descriptive linguistics

Posted on 22 October 2024 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

The numerous political and ecological crises of the last years have palpably demonstrated that access to field sites can quickly be severely restricted for linguists engaged in language description around the world. Furthermore, issues of environmental responsibility and sustainability are motivating linguists working on languages that require long-distance flights to reconsider their workflows and data sources. Those factors have resulted in a renewed interest in utilizing legacy materials to supplement one’s own field data.

Legacy materials, which may result from colonial, missionary, earlier scientific enterprises or other activities, can present a number of challenges. From a contemporary perspective, they may seem deficient both with regards to content and methodology. Modern trained linguists may be faced with unfamiliar terminology, ontological systems, frameworks, presentation style or typographies.

Posted in Conferences and workshops

Cfp: Henry Sweet Society Colloquium 2025

Posted on 16 October 2024 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

The 2025 annual colloquium of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas will be held from Wednesday 3 September to Friday 5 September 2025 at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA, Reims, France).

The general theme of the colloquium is:

Linguistics and Rhetoric: A Tale of Two Frenemies

From its very beginnings the study of language in the Western world has been intimately related to rhetoric. Although the two branches eventually split, their mutual influence continues to this day, triggering at times lively discussions between the proponents of each field. Within this general theme, we welcome contributions on historical interaction between, on the one hand, language study and/or linguistics and, on the other hand, any kind of traditional lore on eloquence (such as Western rhetoric) from any part of the world. Contributions may, for example, explore questions related to the transfer of metalinguistic terminology and theoretical notions or to methodological controversies involving both fields.

Confirmed speaker: Anne Grondeux (CNRS – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

Posted in Announcements, Conferences and workshops

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of the language sciences – October 2024

Posted on 14 October 2024 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

Tenchini, Maria Paola & Savina Raynaud, ed. 2024. Insights Into the History of Linguistics. Selected Papers From ICHOLS XV. Sesto San Giovanni: MIM Edizioni Srl (Literature/Language, 4). 194 p. ISBN 9788869774553
Publisher’s website
Book in open access

This volume collects a selection of papers concerning the history of linguistics spanning the centuries from the 17th to the 20th. These contributions were presented and debated at ICHoLS XV (Milan, 23 – 27 August 2021). The essays focus on various contexts across the modern and contemporary ages in Europe, Asia, and the United States. This collection offers an accurate exploration of linguistic topics and metalinguistic traditions across diverse historical and geographical settings.

Posted in Publications

Interview 5: Une nouvelle édition de la Grammaire générale et raisonnée, entretien avec Bernard Colombat et Jean-Marie Fournier

Posted on 20 September 2024 by Chloé Laplantine — Leave a comment

Interview préparée par Lionel Dumarty et Chloé Laplantine
enregistrée à Paris le 27 juin 2024 à l’université Paris Cité par Thomas Zoritchak
(version PDF)

Posted in Interviews

Cfp – (Hi)stories of meaning: The “Semantic Century” and Its Roots (CISPELS III)

Funding for MA degrees in the language sciences available at Université Paris Cité

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of the language sciences – December 2024

Podcast episode 43: Judy Kaplan on universals

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of the language sciences – November 2024

Podcast episode 42: Randy Harris on the Linguistics Wars

Cfp: Discussions on Legacy Materials (DiLegMa) – opportunities and challenges for descriptive linguistics

Cfp: Henry Sweet Society Colloquium 2025

Recent publications in the history and philosophy of the language sciences – October 2024

Interview 5: Une nouvelle édition de la Grammaire générale et raisonnée, entretien avec Bernard Colombat et Jean-Marie Fournier

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