Blog Archives

Ludwig NoirĂ© and the Debate on Language Origins in the 19th Century

Jacopo D’Alonzo Sorbonne Nouvelle & Sapienza UniversitĂ  di Roma Introduction Linguistic naturalism was one of the main positions taken in linguistic research during the 19th century (for France, see Auroux 1984 and Desmet 1996; for England, see Aarsleff 1983; for

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Philosophy

(Non-)universality of word-classes and words: The mid-20th century shift

Martin Haspelmath Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig While looking at a range of views by grammarians on word-class distinctions (noun, verb, adjective etc.) and word division in two recent papers (Haspelmath 2011; 2012a), I was struck by what

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics, Typology, Uncategorized

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

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

The social cognition of linguists

Andrea C. Schalley Griffith University It is social cognition which enables us to construct functioning societies sharing knowledge, values and goals, and to undertake collaborative action. It is also crucial to empathising and communicating with others, to enriching imprecise signs

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics

No beetle? Wittgenstein’s ‘grammatical illusions’ and Dalabon emotion metaphors

Maïa Ponsonnet Australian National University and Dynamique du Langage (CNRS/Université Lyon 2) Apart from a few fruitful but pointed encounters, linguistics and philosophy of language often talk past each other. In this post, I try and establish a dialogue between

Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Article, Australia, Linguistics, Philosophy, Semantics

Linguists choosing the wrong side: Jacob van Ginneken and other alleged Nazi collaborators

Toon Van Hal University of Leuven Unlike the other posts to this blog, the present post is not intended as a contribution to learning. Its sole ambition is to open a discussion on a rather sensitive topic (which is not

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics

The notion of stereotype in language study

Elena L. Vilinbakhova St. Petersburg State University 1. Introduction Originally, the word stereotype derives from two Ancient Greek roots: στΔρΔός ‘solid’ and Ï„ÏÏ€ÎżÏ‚ ‘impression’. It was first used by the French printer Firmin Didot in 1796 as a typographical term. Later,

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Semantics

Otto Jespersen and progress in international language

James McElvenny University of Sydney When it comes to expressing the ideas of our own day, the deficiencies of classical Latin appear with ruthless clarity: telephones and motor-cars and wireless have no room in Ciceronian Latin, and it will be

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics

Philosophy of linguistics: the phenomenological perspective

Lei Zhu Shanghai International Studies University Philosophy of linguistics is a special branch of the philosophy of science which focuses on linguistics, the scientific study of language. It was formally established in the last decades of the 20th century after

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Article, Phenomenology, Philosophy

Upcoming events


8-11 January 2026
New Orleans, United States
NAAHoLS 2026 Annual Meeting


21-23 January 2026
Paris
SHESL Conference 2026
Versification and the History of Linguistic Ideas


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