Blog Archives

“Except in the case of Andrade”: Manuel J. Andrade’s Quileute (1933) on the questions of “drift” and “function”

Perry Wong University of Chicago While currently nearly unknown, Manuel J. Andrade (1885-1941)[1] is one of the central figures in the history of linguistics in the United States. He was a student of Boas at Columbia and an early methodological

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in 20th century, America, Article, Field linguistics, History, Linguistics, Pragmatics, Structuralism

In Praise of “Exceptionless:” Linguistics among the Human Sciences at Bloomfield and Sapir’s Chicago

Michael Silverstein University of Chicago Edward Sapir (1884-1939) arrived at the University of Chicago for Autumn Quarter, 1925, having spent the summer, in transit from Ottawa, in New York City teaching summer school at Columbia. Two years later, in 1927,

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

Sapir’s form-feeling and its aesthetic background

Jean-Michel Fortis Laboratoire d’histoire des thĂ©ories linguistiques, UniversitĂ© Paris-Diderot I find that what I most care for is beauty of form, whether in substance or, perhaps even more keenly, in spirit. A perfect style, a well-balanced system of philosophy, a

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

From Inductivism to Structuralism: the ‘method of residues’ goes to the field

Michael Silverstein University of Chicago It should be clear to anyone who surveys the historical record that the “discovery” of the phoneme – that is, the codification of phonological theory and method – was key in linguists’ consciousness of a

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

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

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