Jacopo D’Alonzo Sorbonne Nouvelle & Sapienza Università 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…
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Ludwig Noiré and the Debate on Language Origins in the 19th Century
Tagged with: animal communication systems, language and labour, language origins, linguistic naturalism, linguistics, Ludwig Noiré
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, Europe, History, Linguistics, Philosophy
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: 20th century, linguistics, typology, universal grammar, word classes
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics, Typology, Uncategorized
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics, Typology, Uncategorized
Bloomfield : Du mentalisme au behaviorisme
Jean-Michel Fortis Laboratoire d’histoire des théories linguistiques, Université Paris-Diderot On peut s’interroger sur l’évolution qui voit Bloomfield passer de la psychologie à dominante wundtienne, qui imprègne son Introduction de 1914, au behaviorisme, et d’une linguistique “mentaliste” à une linguistique psycho-abstinente…
Tagged with: behaviourism, history of structuralism, Leonard Bloomfield, linguistics, mentalism, psychology, Wilhelm Wundt
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, America, Article, History, Linguistics, Structuralism
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: linguistics, psycholinguistics, social cognition, sociolinguistics, sociology of linguistics
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics
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: 20th century, history, Jacob van Ginneken, linguistics, Nazi ideology
Posted in 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics
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: στερεός ‘solid’ and τύπος ‘impression’. It was first used by the French printer Firmin Didot in 1796 as a typographical term. Later,…
Tagged with: Hilary Putnam, linguistics, prototype, semantics, stereotype
Posted in Article, Linguistics, Semantics
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: 19th century, 20th century, aesthetics, constructed languages, Couturat, Gabelentz, grammar, history, international language, Jespersen, linguistics, Ogden, Peano, philosophy, Sapir
Posted in 19th century, 20th century, Article, History, Linguistics
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…
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences 