bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Richard Johnson
Authors: Biletzki Anat
Published: November 2010

The grammarians of 16th, 17th, and 18th century England were, in the main, conservative, but the elements of continuity and change characteristic of these times make for a strange blend of uniformity and variety in the grammars they produced. Of all the grammatical categories, the treatment ofmoodis most hesitant, variable, and problematic. Building on this confusion, and taking a cue from the modern discussion of mood which lends itself to pragmatic analysis, the paper asks about pragmatics in the treatment of mood in earlier periods. In this it is claimed that although numerous hints and inklings provide evidence of some pragmatic tendencies, only one grammarian, Richard Johnson, in theGrammatical Commentariesof 1706, comes close to an explicit rendering of moods akin to speech acts and based on language use. His theory of moods is presented and analyzed; it is seen to formulate theoretical, pragmatic principles for moods and, furthermore, to apply such principles in the detailed analysis of specific moods. Johnson emerges as unique in his time for his treatment of moods, but obviously still limited by its conceptual frameworks.
The Place of G. F. Stout’s “Thought and Language” (1891) in the History of English Semantics
Authors: Nerlich Brigitte
Published: November 2010

This article is intended to fill a gap in the history of semantics and the history of the psychology of language in England at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. The work of the psychologist and philosopher George Frederick Stout (1860–1944) is analysed, focusing on an article on ‘thought and language’, published in 1891. In this article Stout proposes a new theory and typology of signs – his contribution to semiotics. He also puts forward a new definition of language as a system of signs and an instrument of communication. Finally, he develops a new conception of word meaning, sentence meaning and meaning in discourse, based on the notion of ‘apperception’. He compares his concept of meaning and meaning change with that of Hermann Paul and uses it to criticize the latters definitions of usual and occasional meaning.
La Particule Làkinna vue par un Grammairien Arabe du XIIIe Siècle
Authors: Larcher Pierre
Published: November 2010

Cet article se veut une double contribution matérielle et méthodologique à une histoire bien comprise de la linguistique. Partant de la description, de nature pragmatique, donnée de la particule lākinna par le grammairien Radī l-dīn al-’Astarābāḏī (XIIIe siècle), nous montrons en 2 que, par le biais de l’interprétation qu’en propose ce grammairien (lākinna = ‘istadraktu, où ’istadraktu est un verbe à la lère personne), elle s’inscrit en fait dans le cadre d’une véritable théorie générale, elle-même de nature pragmatique, où fa’altu représente la formalisation d’un objet dont la catégorie de ’inšā (= “création”) constitue la conceptualisation. En 3, enfin, nous montrons que l’utilisation d’un texte ‘marqué’ par rapport à la grammaire arabe ‘moyenne’ permet non seulement de faire l’histoire de celle-ci, mais encore de représenter des nuances importantes entre groupes de grammairiens, voire d’un grammairien à l’autre.
The Concept of Structure in General Linguistic Theory
Authors: Koerner E. F. K.
Published: November 2010

Of aHabilitationsschriftin progress, supported by a fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn-Bad Godesberg
Berkeley’s Theory of Meaning
Authors: Land Stephen K.
Published: November 2010

Recent scholars disagree over whether Berkeley’s theory of meaning constitutes a radical departure from Locke in the direction of current philosophy of language or offers no real alternative to the semantics of Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding. Berkeley agrees with Locke that linguistic meaning consists in the transmission of ideas from speaker to hearer by means of words, but he does not accept the Lockean account of this transmission. Specifically he departs from Locke at two fundamental points: he insists that ideas themselves have meanings and stand in need of interpretation, and he holds that the meanings of ideas may vary with the contexts in which they occur. To accommodate Berkeley’s principle of contextual meaning the account of communication must relate not individual ideas to individual words but strings of ideas to strings of words. Words and ideas, moreover, are not isomorphic as Locke implies they are: Berkeley indicates in particular the cases of general terms and names for spiritual substances, for neither of which Corresponding ideas can be discovered. To accommodate such cases within the general theory that meaning depends upon corresponding ideas an encoding process must be introduced into the account of the verbal transmission of ideas, a process whereby verbal structures including such terms as universals and names for spirits can be related to different ideational structures in which no such terms appear. The conclusion is that Berkeley accepts from Locke the fundamental principle that meaning depends upon corresponding ideas in the mind but that he holds this relation of correspondence to be much more complex than Locke allowed: in particular Berkeley introduces structural considerations by abandoning the traditional view that words and ideas correspond on a one-to-one basis, and he requires the mind to perform certain interpretative encoding procedures in translating between verbal and ideational structures.
English in Latin Guise
Authors: Enkvist Nils Erik
Published: November 2010

The balance between Latin and English in 16th and 17th-century school grammars is of particular interest in the light of textbooks such as Joshua Poole’s English Accidence (1646), which could be described as a grammar of Latin entirely in English. The aim of such books was to make the study of Latin grammar easier for beginners. But the classroom procedures they reflect must also have added precision to the pupils’ views of the structural differences between Latin and English, and contributed to the pupils’ understanding of the structure of their mother tongue.
History of linguistics
Authors: Amsler Mark
Published: November 2010

Recent work in the history of early medieval linguistics has challenged a number of assumptions about the representation of Latin and language usage during the period. Given the way Latin is often positioned as a standard for literacy and schooling, these revisions of early medieval linguistics also raise questions for teaching literacy, language arts, and standard English. Late classical and early medieval grammatical discourse presents not a monolithic view of Latin but various accounts of pronunciation, spelling, and semantics. Some stigmatize contemporary usage, others do not. In addition, historical texts such as the 9th-centuryHistory of the Langobardsrepresent heterogeneous and bilingual speech communities in which Latin and Germanic languages are used in different contexts. Rather than constraining the history of linguistics as a ‘specialist’s add on’, we can reconceptualize writing histories of linguistics as contributions to a critical cultural history, uncovering the assumptions and practices of not only linguistic theory and description but also language teaching practices, ideological constructions of national languages, representations of language differences and identity, and attitudes toward language usage and standardization.
The linguistic preoccupations of the glossators of the st gall priscian
Authors: Hofman Rijcklof
Published: November 2010

The existence of a native Irish grammatical tradition suggests that the intensive study of Priscian’sInstitutiones grammaticaeby Irish scholars which is attested to by the glosses in the St Gall Priscian should have been the occasion for a contrastive analysis of Latin and Old Irish. This is not the case, however, as is apparent from the glossators’ apparent identification of themselves withLatiniand their silence about Old Irish usage. Evidence of an original contribution to linguistic thought may be found only in the use of construe marks (syntactical glossing) and vernacular calques of Latin grammatical terms. This is to be explained by the glossators’ narrowly didactic focus upon Latin forms.
Fragments carolingiens de la grammaire de dynamius
Authors: Jeudy Colette
Published: November 2010

Du IXe siècle et d’origine française, le manuscrit 3303 de la bibliothèque de Darmstadt est surtout célèbre pour son fragment de la version originale de la Satisfactio de Dracontius. Les quatre feuillets subsistants contiennent aussi deux fragments grammaticaux non identifiés: au f. 4-4v un relevé des schèmes tirés du commentaire de Cassiodore sur les Psaumes et aux f. l-2v la fin de l’Ars grammatica de Dynamius. Après l’édition et l’étude précise de ces fragments de Dynamius sont posés les problèmes concernant l’auteur, le contenu réel et la date de composition de cette grammaire. Ces nouveaux fragments permettent de corriger l’édition d’Angelo Mai d’après l’unique manuscrit de Lorsch (Vatican, Pal. lat. 1746) et constituent un nouveau témoin, important bien que fragmentaire, pour l’édition critique préparée par Luigi Munzi.
Syntax and dialectic in carolingian commentaries on priscian’sinstitutiones grammaticae
Authors: Luhtala Anneli
Published: November 2010

The present article deals with two aspects of linguistic study associated with the reintroduction of Priscian’sInstitutionesin the Carolingian Renaissance – the infiltration of logical concepts into linguistic description and the initiation of syntactic studies. In both of these fields the achievement of ninth-century scholars marks a significant departure from the grammatical tradition of preceding centuries. Evidence for the new orientation of linguistic studies can be found mainly in the philosophical elaboration of grammatical notions in grammatical commentaries as well as in glosses to Priscian’sInstitutiones; the latter material is as yet unedited.

Sharing the concern of their philosopher contemporaries for the Aristotelian categories, the grammarians not only elaborated the philosophical notions present in Priscian’s work but searched continuously for new sources of inspiration, mainly in elementary logical texts. Syntactic doctrine, which figures throughout Priscian’s discussion of the parts of speech, is from the start an object of concern for the commentators. The Carolingian scholars achieve an interpretation of Priscian’s syntactic doctrine which is peculiar to them, placing a special emphasis on certain philosophical points of doctrine. An alternative approach to syntactic analysis, applying the dialectical notions of subject and predicate to syntactic description, offered by theDe nuptiis Philologiae et Mercuriiof Martianus Capella, is employed by at least one master concerned with both logical and grammatical issues.
Les arabisants et la catégorie De ‘inšā’
Authors: Larcher Pierre
Published: November 2010

La catégorie arabe postclassique de ’inšā’ (“performatif”) joue un rôle central dans plusieurs disciplines traditionnelles en islam, qu’elle met ainsi en relation. Pourtant, l’Encyclopédie de l’Islam en ses deux éd.s ne la mentionne pas. Et dans un texte-phare comme la Muqaddima de Ibn Ḫaldūn, le terme ou bien n’est pas traduit ou bien est mal traduit, étant assimilé à sa subdivison ṭalab (“jussion”). Pour comprendre ce silence ou ce demi-silence, il faut remonter à Silvestre de Sacy (1758–1838): tenant de la grammaire générale, il relit l’opposition ’inšā’ vs ’iḫbār (“assertion”) à travers celle des ‘modes’ (comme “formes ou manières de notre pensée”) que fait celle-ci. Cette lecture a néanmoins pu être influencée par l’œuvre de Ibn al-Hāğib, où cette opposition, dont est issue la classification des énoncés en ḫabar (“affirmation”) et ’inšā’ (tout ce qui n’est pas affirmation), articule une double différence: celle des emplois assertif et performatif d’une même phrase, mais aussi celle de l’impératif et du performatif correspondant comme ‘expression’ et ‘représentation’ de la demande. En ne retenant qu’un des deux volets, Silvestre de Sacy manque l’origine juridique et l’originalité conceptuelle de la catégorie. De même Massignon (1883–1962) ne retient que la réduction du ’inšā’ à un ’iḫbār ’ammā fī l-bāṭin (“assertion sur ce qui est dans le for intérieur”) vs ’iḫbār = ’iḫbār ’ammā fī l-ḫāriğ (“assertion sur ce qui est dans la réalité extérieure”), qui articule une différence entre mondes référés. Moralité: les théories personnelles ou contemporaines de l’historien de la linguistique, ainsi que 1’‘autorité’ de tel ou tel savant, peuvent être la meilleure ou la pire des choses. Reste que si les arabisants avaient prêté davantage d’attention à cette catégorie pluridisciplinaire et à son cheminement transdisciplinaire, ils auraient pu jouer un rôle de pionniers en matière d’histoire de la linguistique et dans la mesure où la fin de toute histoire est de dépasser cette histoire même anticiper sur l’émergence du phénomène de l’‘énoneiation’, omniprésent dans la tradition linguistique arabe.
William Holder and other 17th-century phoneticians
Authors: Abercrombie David
Published: November 2010

In spite of inevitable deficiencies in their knowledge, 17th-century writers on phonetics can be said to have succeeded in laying the foundations of a true general phonetics. They include some famous names, such as John Wallis and Isaac Newton, but many of them have remained virtually unknown until comparatively recent times, in spite of having contributed significant insights. A brief mention is given here of the work of thirteen of these early writers on phonetics, followed by a fuller account of William Holder (1616–1698), probably the best phonetician of his time. He was not an orthoepist, nor was he concerned to describe the sounds of English. His book had a practical purpose – to provide a theoretical basis for techniques of teaching the deaf. Possible ambiguity in the 17th-century use of ‘letter’ is explained before examining Holder’s description of the sounds of speech. This includes his interesting use of the hylomorphic distinction between ‘matter’ and ‘form’. The description of vowels is almost inevitably less satisfactory than that of the consonants, but his phonetic terminology and general framework would not be out of place in a modern introduction to phonetics. He deserves more attention than he has received, both for his theoretical contribution and for his pioneering work in techniques of teaching the deaf.
A minimalist program for linguistics
Authors: Nevin Bruce E.
Published: November 2010

Zellig S. Harris (1909–1992) is a familiar icon of American structuralism. According to received views of the history of linguistics in the 20th century, he is an exemplar of ‘taxonomic linguistics’ seeking practical discovery procedures whereby one could mechanically derive a grammar from distributional analysis of a corpus of utterances without reference to meaning, and a proponent of empiricist and behaviorist views that have been overthrown by the revolution of Generative linguistics. An examination of what he actually wrote, however, shows a lifelong concern with the analysis and representation of meaning. Harris’ approach to the evaluation of alternative tools of analysis, alternative grammars, and alternative theories of language arises from a crucial but little acknowledged dilemma of linguistics grounded in a fundamental property of language, namely, that it contains within itself virtually unrestricted metalinguistic capacities, upon which any description of language whatever either directly or indirectly depends.
On generativity
Authors: Ney James W.
Published: November 2010

Chomsky insists that he has always understood a generative grammar to be “nothing more than an explicit grammar”. Other commentators have understood that ‘generate’ means ‘specify an infinite set’ and that a ‘generative’ grammar is a grammar which specifies an infinite set of sentences. This understanding of the term ‘generative’ has had a long and interesting history within the confines of linguistic theory starting in the writings of Chomsky’s intellectual predecessors and continuing through the writings of Chomsky himself. In some cases, it even seems that ‘to generate’ is a near synonym for ‘to produce’ both in the writings of Chomsky and of other early transformationalists. In other instances, it is difficult to see how ‘explicit’, an adjective, can serve as a synonym for ‘generate’, a verb as this verb has been used throughout the history of transformational generative linguistics. Furthermore, it would appear that a rule like move-α has little or no meaning in a non-generative grammar, i.e., one that is merely ‘explicit’, one that does not rely on process type statements as its modus operandi. Nevertheless, in the recent history of transformationalism, Chomsky insists that ‘generative’ means nothing more than ‘explicit’ and nothing less. To him, the notion that ‘generative’ has something to do with specifying or characterizing a set of sentences is a notion that never was.
Bridging Saussurean structuralism and British linguistic thought
Authors: Gordon W. Terrence
Published: November 2010

British linguistic thought in the first half of the 20th century reacted against the Saussurean oppositions signifiant/signifié, langue/parole, and signification/valeur. Ogden & Richards (1923) reject them on epistemological, orthological, and terminological grounds. For Bronislaw Malinowski meaning in a pre-literate language cannot be described by the dyadic sign. Alan H. Gardiner too rejects this concept of the sign, but he modifies langue/parole and synchronie/diachronie to make them complementary. J. R. Firth rejects most of the Saussurean canon, but the starting point of his own line of analysis proves to be indistinguishable from the same brand of functionalism. The connection between the British linguistic tradition and Saussure therefore displays a full range of positions from incompatibility to unwilling and unwitting compatibility.
The Structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss
Authors: Darnell Regna
Published: November 2010

Despite the importance of Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism to a range of disciplines, little historiographic attention has been given to the sources of his thought about universals of human cognition. This paper examines his roots in Durkheimian sociology and his borrowings from Boasian anthropology and Prague School structuralism (documenting his rather startling lack of engagement with language as such). Biography, public pronouncements of Lévi-Strauss, and ongoing scholarly commentary are used to broaden the understanding of structuralism as an international tradition transcending the boundaries of linguistics as a discipline.
The 1930s – at the birth of a Pragmatic Conception of Language
Authors: Nerlich Brigitte
Published: November 2010

The 1930s were a time of immense cultural and scientific activity. It is well known that this was the time when structuralism made its appearance on the linguistic scene. It is generally less well known that this was also a time when a great number of books and articles dealing with ‘pragmatic’ issues appeared in linguistics and its adjacent disciplines. This article describes the birth of a ‘pragmatic Weltanschauung’ through the analysis of a selection of texts. It leaves open the question as to why the pragmatic insights made in the 1930s were forgotten when ‘pragmatics’ became a branch of linguistics in the 1970s.
John Bulwer’s (1606–1656) place in the history of the Deaf
Authors: Wollock Jeffrey
Published: November 2010

It would be unfair to characterize John Bulwer (1606–1656) as a dilettante, although he did not achieve all his goals with the deaf. He tried unsuccessfully to find the Spaniard (described by Kenelm Digby in a report of 1644) who taught speech to deaf pupils. As a Royalist during the reign of Parliament, he also was unable to find support for a ‘Dumbe Mans Academie’. While his theory of speech education was wrong in one important respect, he later read Juan Pablo Bonet (1574–1633) and, if (as it seems) his daughter was deaf, he must have tried that method – years before William Holder (1616–1698) or John Wallis (1616–1703). Their very limited success would do little more than prove it possible; Bulwer might have done at least as much.
Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), a little known opponent of Comenius’ Theory of Language and Language Learning
Authors: Hüllen Werner
Published: November 2010

Concerning the methods of language teaching, Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), one of the encyclopedic philosophers of the 17th century, stood in opposition to Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), the pedagogue of Europewide influence. He published Methodus didactica (1668) and Novum organon (1672), the latter being a universal nomenclator as they were popular in the 17th century. This nomenclator is organised according to Aristotelian categories which Becher saw expressed in word-classes. It assembles groups of synonyms in Latin and German under headwords which were taken as the simple notions, i.e., the building-blocks, of the human mind. Becher demanded didactic principles to be developed out of these linguistic assumptions. Whereas Comenius shaped his teaching methods according to the situational learning abilities of the individual, Becher regarded them as being dominated by the structures of language seen as structures of the mind, thus foreshadowing Cartesian thinking.
From pragmatics to semiotics
Authors: Subbiondo Joseph L.
Published: November 2010

John Wilkins’ (1614–1672) earlier work on pulpit oratory in Ecclesiastes (1646) and Gift of Prayer (1655) provide a rationale for his later work on philosophical language in his Essay towards a Real Character (1868). Clauss (1982) pointed out that one could view Wilkins’ linguistic writings as compatible, and the present paper advances her argument by showing that his work on philosophical language grew out of his work on pulpit oratory. Moreover, his pulpit oratory is rooted in pragmatics – how to move the listener to righteous action – while his philosophical language is focused on semiotics – how to convey the ‘true meaning’ of all things and notions.
Savage eloquence in America and the linguistic construction of a British identity in the 18th century
Authors: Lauzon Matthew
Published: November 2010

This paper examines particular aspects of 18th-century British linguistic thought by focusing upon discussions of American Indians which depicted them as poetic and eloquent. The paper places this depiction within the context of the larger British concerns of the time to show how it was used by some to portray the ‘primitive’ Indians and their languages as inferior, by others as superior, to the ‘modern’ Europeans and their languages. It is argued that this contextualizing of the idea of the ‘savage poet’ helps us to understand the terms of the debates over which European language could rightfully lay claim to the crown of linguistic supremacy.
Evolución en Los Diccionarios de Antonio de Nebrija, 1492–1512
Authors: Codoñer Carmen
Published: November 2010

The lexicographic activities of Antonio de Nebrija (1444?–1522) are present in his numerous works and their adaptations. They are different realisations of various kinds that more often than not exist in the form of a dictionary; the present study, however, deals primarily with nontechnical compilations of the lexicon. It first studies Nebrija’s sources and then the process by which the progressive amplification of lemmata took place, the modification of the criteria in the presentation of the entries, the evolution of his lexicographic concepts, and the like. In order to reach these goals the present paper analyzes, chronologically, the sources, the disposition and treatment of the entries in the vocabulary which accompanies his Latin grammar of 1481 as well as those found in the Latin-Spanish dictionaries of 1492 and 1512.
Le Gentilhomme Lexicographe
Authors: Kaltz Barbara
Published: November 2010

Maurice landgrave de Hesse (1572–1632), dit Maurice le Savant en raison de son érudition, fit publier en 1631 un volumineux dictionnaire français-allemand, destiné en premier lieu aux élèves du collège qu’il avait fondé. L’organisation du texte est quelque peu déroutante dans la mesure où l’auteur regroupe les entrées selon leur appartenance à telle ou telle classe de mots et qu’à l’intérieur des sections destinées aux différentes parties du discours, les entrées ne sont pas traitées dans l’ordre alphabétique habituel. Après avoir analysé la description métalexicographique pratiquée dans ce dictionnaire, nous nous penchons sur la question de savoir de quelles sources l’auteur a pu s’inspirer: du Dictionaire François-Allemand de Levinus Hulsius (avant 1540–1606), sans doute, et peut-être du Thresor de la langve françoise de Jean Nicot (cl 520–1604).
Le Rôle Théorique de la psychopathologie du langage dans L’historiographie linguistique
Authors: Pennisi Antonino
Published: November 2010

Le but de ce travail est la reconstruction des lignes essentielles du débat sur la psychopathologie du langage et sur le rôle théorique qu’il a joué dans les sciences du langage d’aujourd’hui. Pour simplifier ce débat, qui commence à partir du XIXe siècle et continue encore aujourd’hui, on distingue ici deux grandes orientations. La première est représentée par les analyses du langage dans la psychiatrie clinique classique (de Emil Kraepelin jusqu’aux études récentes de Sergio Piro) et dans le cognitivisme (de Kurt Goldstein jusqu’à la neuropsychologie cognitive de la schizophrénie). La deuxième recueille les recherches de la psychiatrie philosophique: le bergsonisme (Eugène Minkowski, Pierre Janet), la phénoménologie et l’existentialisme (Heidegger et l’an-thropoanalyse de Ludwig Binswanger). De ce débat on examine surtout deux problèmes théoriques: le rapport entre régularité et liberté du langage et la définition des idées de ‘puissance’ et ‘complexité’. Dans la discussion on conclue l’impossibilité d’esquisser une théorie cognitive du langage en dehors de ses bases biologiques et, surtout, de la dimension ontologique de la conscience linguistique.
Notes on the beginnings of systematic dialect description and comparison in Chinese
Authors: Branner David Prager
Published: November 2010

When 19th-century Westerners first began applying modern methods to Chinese linguistics, they were heavily influenced by Chinese phonological traditions. This influence is apparent in a number of their methodological decisions. For instance, they do not seem to have resolved their difficulties distinguishing plain from aspirated obstruents until they copied Chinese sources. Their work in comparative dialectology was almost always dominated by the Chinese rime-table tradition. Even the systems of universal orthography they developed for Chinese incorporated traditional Chinese tonal symbols. Yet these Western sinologists seem to have made little attempt to communicate their own work to Chinese scholars in a formal way; though they were influenced by Chinese ideas, they published their work in the main for other Westerners, with the result that their new synthesis did not directly influence native Chinese linguistics.
The Italian connection in Juan de Valdés’ Diálogo de la lengua
Authors: Mazzocco Angelo
Published: November 2010

The article reassesses the connection between Juan de Valdés’ (c.1495–1541) Diálogo de la lengua (1535) and the Italian Renaissance by demonstrating that Valdés was thoroughly familiar with the Italian literature on language and the concept of its possible rebirth. It is shown that the Italian humanist Pietro Bembo’s (1470–1547) argument, as laid down in his seminal work Prose della volgar lingua (1525), that great writers contribute significantly to the normalization and enrichment of a language constitutes the frame of Valdés’ work from which flow the author’s concerns about culture and linguistic theory. Valdés’ appropriation of and reaction to the Italian literature on language reflect the views prevalent in the intellectual circles of Europe at the time.
The treatment of syntax by some early 19th-century linguists
Authors: Graffi Giorgio
Published: November 2010

This article examines the views about syntax held by Humboldt, on the one hand, and by the founders of historical-comparative grammar (Bopp, Rask, Grimm, Pott, Schleicher), on the other. In general, it is noted that thegrammaire généraletradition of 17th and 18th centuries still survives in the work of such scholars, despite of all criticism they seemingly raised against it. For Humboldt, the common core of all languages has its source in the identity of human thought; also his treatment of the verb and especially his reference to a ‘natural’ word order (i.e., SVO) are clearly reminiscent of this tradition. Traces thereof are also found in Bopp’s analysis of Indo-European conjugation, and in some of Rask’s writings. For instance, Rask, just as Humboldt, assumes a ‘natural’ word order and proposes a list of possible syntactic forms which closely remind us of Girard’smembres de phrase. Grimm’s position appears as more innovative, heavily influenced by a Romantic view of language, but some older conceptions sometimes show up in his work, e.g., when he deals with the notion of ‘subject’. Pott does not completely reject general grammar and a logically-based view of language; he only stresses the need of a more empirical approach than that adopted by the 17th and 18th century linguists. This picture radically changed with Steinthai and Schleicher: the former scholar pronounced a ‘divorce’ between grammar and logic, while the latter one argued that syntax does not belong to linguistics proper and rejected any possibility of postulating syntactic distinctions which do not have any direct morphological correlate.
The development of general linguistics within the history of the language sciences in Poland, 1868–1968
Authors: Wąsik Zdzisław
Published: November 2010

This essay offers an overview of the contribution of Polish linguists to the development of general linguistics covering the period of the late 1860s – late 1960s. It analyzes, within an epistemological perspective, the heritage of academic teachers of the period who developed their own proposals to the theory of language against the scientific legacy which characterized European linguistics of the time. The division into periods of development considers not only historical-political circumstances contributing to the formation of linguistic centers, but also professional turning points in the careers of individual linguists illustrated by the nature and dates of particular publications as well as at times by changes in university appointments.
Leonard bloomfield
Authors: Hockett Charles F.
Published: November 2010

This essay outlines Leonard Bloomfiek’s career and describes his focal role in the history of linguistic science.
Leonard bloomfield’s linguistic legacy
Authors: Fought John G.
Published: November 2010

Leonard Bloomfield’s system of linguistics was recast by his colleagues and students. His morphophonemic phonology influenced Chomsky’s early generative phonology. His version of Wundt’s psychologically based immediate constituent analysis was adopted by the distributionalists, and later also by the Chomskyans, each for different reasons. His descriptive semantics was left out of American linguistics except for some linguistic anthropologists who came back to it around 1955. Finally, despite the restraint of his descriptions and his principles, the sources of distributionalism can be found in Bloomfield’s denial of lexical synonymy and his use of zeros in morphology.
De l’ubiquité de l’ordre dans les premières grammaires catégorielles
Authors: Godart-Wendling Béatrice
Published: November 2010

Parmi les différences qui opposent les deux grands courants de grammaires formelles du XXe siècle, celles qui concernent le traitement de l’ordre des mots sont restées jusqu’à aujourd’hui peu traitées. Pourtant, les premières grammaires catégorielles (de 1935 à 1959) présentent une conception de l’ordre des mots qui tranche de celle mise en oeuvre dans le modèle trans-formationnel chomskien (1957) et leur originalité sur ce point mérite l’attention. La syntaxe d’Ajdukiewicz (1935), la grammaire bidirectionnelle de Bar-Hillel (1953) et le calcul syntaxique associatif de Lambek (1958, 1959) s’accordent en effet à gérer l’ordre en le faisant intervenir simultanément à tous les niveaux d’analyse. L’article précise le traitement de l’ordre des mots dans ces trois premières grammaires catégorielles et les compare entre elles de manière à dégager la portée qu’ont eu à un niveau conceptuel les modifications que ces différents auteurs ont introduites dans la notation de l’ordre.
Johannes De Garlandia – Forgotten Grammarian and the Manuscript Tradition
Authors: Bursill-Hall G. L.
Published: November 2010

John of Garland (fl. early 13th century) was a prolific writer of grammatical treatises and teaching texts and yet he has been almost completely neglected by the historian of linguistics. He was however recognised in his own day and for some time afterwards as a scholar and teacher of some importance. This paper seeks to list as exhaustively as possible the many versions of his treatises and texts still extant in the manuscript collections of European libraries. An examination of this large corpus of unedited material could resolve the matter of the authorship of a number of treatises which have traditionally been assigned to John but which may on examination prove to be of different authorship; equally well, it would be useful if it were possible to assign him his real place in the medieval grammatical tradition, i.e., was he the last of the literary grammarians or one of the first of the logical grammarians?
The Study of Logic and Language in England in the Early 17th Century
Authors: Trentman John A.
Published: November 2010

Round the turn of the seventeenth century there was a revival of interest in and sympathy for scholastic and Aristotelian philosophy in the English universities. To some extent this meant a continuation of traditions that had never died out, but it also meant a conscious rejection of anti-Aristotelian doctrines like those of Ramus. Fortunately, we have good contemporary evidence of the sorts of authors recommended for study in the early 17th century in theDirections for a Student in the Universitie, attributed to Richard Holdsworth (1590–1649). Here we find a remarkable proportion of time given to the study of logic texts. An examination of the texts recommended, however, shows that they attempted little formal logic and were careless in what they did attempt. The primary interest of the authors of these books was in the philosophy of logic and language and in related epistemological and metaphysical questions. In this they show, if not the influence of Ramus, at least a parallel emphasis to that of some of the philosophies they rejected. Their philosophy of language is generally thoughtfully and coherently worked out, but it is not original. Indeed, it closely follows the doctrines of the medieval logicians and speculative grammarians, which philosophical doctrines can be identified with the principles delineated by Chomsky as characteristic of so-called Cartesian linguistics. The preservation of medieval philosophy of language combined with a relative lack of interest in medieval formal logic, however, has the effect of sharpening the emphasis in these works on what is innate in human beings and their use of language. This shift of interest rather than any real doctrinal change tends to distinguish these works from those of their medieval predecessors. In Edward Brerewood’s (c. 1565–1613) treatise on the diversity of languages (1614) we see these same philosophical doctrines combined with an interest that was new and not medieval, an interest in the historical and, in its way, empirical study of national languages themselves.
Some Problems of Classification in Linguistics and Biology, 1800–1830
Authors: Picardi Eva
Published: November 2010

In this article an attempt is made to bring out the epistemological and methodological affinities between biological and linguistic paradigms of the first decades of the 19th century. After giving an exposition of G. Cuvier’s and E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s different ways of understanding comparative anatomy, the author calls attention to Kant’s anticipatory discussion of the methodological problems implied by the concept of organism and by teleological reasoning in general. This discussion constitutes the background of Humboldt’s view that a science of language ought not to be based on mechanistic principles but rather stated in terms capable of capturing the ‘rule-governed creativity’ of linguistic activity. The different interpretations the notion of type receives in the works of Cuvier, Geoffroy, Goethe, and Humboldt are discussed, and it is found that the idea of typology as basic for classification was shared by comparativists of both disciplines. Humboldt’s concept of ‘Sprachtypus’ differs in many ways from analogous notions employed by the Schlegel brothers. Further analysis of Humboldt’s idea of ‘Sprachtypus’ and the related concepts of silent and explicit grammar brings out the rationale of the grouping of languages on a teleological basis. This basis is given by the ideal of pure grammatical form which all languages ought to be seen as aiming at, an ideal which forms part of Humboldt’s concept of the ‘perfection’ of language.
A Few Remarks on Adam Smith’s Dissertation (1761)
Authors: Noordegraaf Jan
Published: November 2010

In 1761 Adam Smith (1723–90) published his Dissertation on the Origin of Languages. Erroneously scholars have thought that this essay appeared as a supplement to the second edition of Smith’s book The Theory of Moral Sentiments of the same year; in fact it was only added to the third edition of that work (1767). Against Coseriu’s opinion that Adam Smith must be considered as a pioneer of the typology of language, one can put forward that Smith’s ideas on the typology of language are very similar to those of the French Abbé Gabriel Girard (1677–1748), whose influence is admitted by Smith himself. On another point, it turns out that before 1809, the year in which J. Manget published a French translation of Smith’s Dissertation, already three other translations into French of the same work had appeared. First-hand inspection of texts appears desirable in the writing of the history of linguistics.
Wilhelm Bacher’s Place in the History of Hebrew Linguistics
Authors: Dotan Aron
Published: November 2010

The comparative study of languages goes back at least as far as to the work of Hebrew grammarians of the 10th century; consequently, medieval Hebrew linguistics should receive more attention within the general history of linguistics than it has generally been given. Wilhelm Bacher’s (1850–1913) role in the study of the history of Hebrew linguistics was decisive; the two recently reprinted volumes, Die Anfänge der hebräischen Grammatik (1895) and Die hebräische Sprachwissenschaft vom 10. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert (1892), constitute important contributions to the field. The extensive bibliography of Bacher added to the reprintings under review supplies an idea of the scope of Bacher’s scholarship in general, and of his contribution to the study of medieval linguistics in particular. The present article surveys this latter aspect of Bacher’s work, covering his text editions and monographic studies. This is concluded up by a chronological overview of all medieval linguists treated by Bacher and a list of his books translated into Hebrew.

In the remainder of the article the two reprinted works are evaluated individually, the chronological span and the nature of their approach to the subject matter are compared, and an attempt is made to analyze Bacher’s methods in collecting his material and in preparing it for scholarly presentation. There follows an evaluation of Bacher’s studies in the light of present-day scholarship in the historical treatment of Hebrew linguistics. Finally, critical measure is taken of the introductory article prefaced to the reprint of Bacher’s works.
Shall and Will in English Grammars
Authors: Moody Patricia A.
Published: November 2010

The future tense in English has been difficult to understand and describe, particularly where rules for the verbal auxiliaries shall and will are concerned. The impression that rules for shall and will were largely the fabrication of 18th-century grammarians was first created by the work of Charles C. Fries. Evidence from the grammatical tradition, however, does not warrant the conclusions Fries drew. Whereas Fries suggested that the first hint of a differentiation in the use of shall and will was in Mason’s grammar (1622), evidence strongly suggests that even before Mason, grammarians hinted at differences in the uses of the two auxiliaries. Fries credited John Wallis (1653) with the definite rule for shall in the first person to correspond with will in the second and third; actually, the distinction was made before Wallis. Fries credited Lowth (1762) with the rules for interrogative sentences, yet a full discussion of questions is found in Maittaire (1712). Fries indicated that the first complete scheme of conventional rules was found in William Ward (1767), yet Ward was anticipated by James White (1761). Fries implied a closer relationship between Ward and Murray (1795) than the evidence warrants. And Fries provided no evidence for his assertion that the rules became a standard feature of English and American grammars only after 1825. Thus the rules for shall and will were actually remarkably perceptive, if incomplete, descriptions of an elegant usage of some speakers of the language, framed in spite of methodological restrictions of the tradition grammarians worked in.
Linguistic Theory and the Problem of Mutism
Authors: Read Malcolm K.
Published: November 2010

Spain in the Renaissance witnessed a growth of interest in the methods of teaching the deaf and dumb to read and write, and, in cases, to speak. This practical activity continued alongside more philosophical speculation concerning the phenomenon of mutism. In this paper the author has tried to show how in the work of Juan Pablo Bonet (1579–1633) there was considerable interaction between the theoretical study of language and the consideration of practical problems concerning mutism. In particular, he believed that the linguistic deficiencies of the deaf revealed the extent to which man’s linguistic attributes in general may be deemed ‘natural’ or ‘conventional’. Work on mutism declined in Spain after Bonet, but at the end of the 18th century "another Spanish scholar, Lorenzo Hervás y Pan-duro (1735–1809), made another notable contribution to the subject. The author illustrates how Hervás, like Bonet, speculated intelligently on the light that language pathology throws on more general linguistic problems. He suggests that a study of traditional linguists of ‘applied’ interests is particularly rewarding at a time when scholars are again seeking a closer relationship between theoretical linguistics and language therapy.
François Thurot and the First History of Grammar
Authors: Andresen Julie T.
Published: November 2010

François Thurot’s Discours préliminaire (1796), a first attempt at a historiography of grammar, sums up the language theories of the philosophes, while prefiguring the 19th century in both his concept of language and his attitude towards the science of language. He accepts, for instance, the theory that the perfection of a language reflects the progress of the mind but rejects the metaphysical speculation on the origin of language that characteristically accompanied such a theory. And although Thurot, like his contemporaries, still preoccupies himself with the method of logico-linguistic analysis which would lead to a langue bien faite, his study opens up to a new variety of linguistic phenomena in the vernacular. Thus, his view of language embraces both the mechanical reductionism aimed at scientific language with its pretention to universality as well as the creative dynamism of discursive language with its recognition of cultural relativity. Furthermore, Thurot assimilates the interest in the genetic relationship among languages, that was already in the air, to the historicism of the philosophes, whose historical tableaux unfolded within their theories of language.

Thurot’s interest in natural language is an outgrowth of the prevailing ‘climate of opinion’. The data-oriented approach to language had begun with the invention of the printing press, from which time there was an ever increasing accumulation and distribution of material on non-European languages. The French Revolution was to dramatize the importance of discursive language, since the unification of the nation depended, in part, on the democratization and standardization of daily language. Such a climate proved favorable for subsequent work on genetic classification and on Indo-European in the 19th century.
Between Heymann Steinthal and Adolf Tobler
Authors: Malkiel Yakov
Published: November 2010

This bio-bibliographical account of Georg Cohn (1866–194?) essays to sketch out the life of a Berlin Privatgelehrter at the end of the 19th and the early period of the 20th century. It characterizes the intellectual milieu of time and place, both inside and outside the vistas of Romance philology at the University of Berlin, and traces in particular the influence on Georg Cohn of scholars such as the general linguist, philosopher, and psychologist of language, Heymann Steinthal (1823–99), on the one hand, and the Romanist Adolf Tobler (1835–1910), on the other. In addition, a detailed analysis is offered of Cohn’s most important contributions to Romance scholarship.
De James Harris à John Horne Tooke
Authors: Bergheaud Patrice
Published: November 2010

Cet article cherche à montrer dans quels termes la critque globale du Hermes (1751) de James Harris par John Horne Tooke (Diversions of Purley, 1786/ 1805) prend place dans le mouvement d’autonomisation de la réflexion linguistique qui paraît se dessiner en Grande-Bretagne dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle. (1) Harris proposé une distinction entre le ‘grammatical’ et le ‘logique’, ce qui, formellement, le différencie des ‘cartésiens’, mais maintient l’élaboration des catégories linguistiques dans la dépendance d’une typologie des idées déterminée a priori par l’analyse philosophique des processus mentaux. Commençant par une critique empiriste radicalisée de l’idéalisme harrisien, Tooke rejette ce cadre; il soutient que les instruments fournis par la philosophie sont inadéquats à l’objet considéré. L’opposition au départ philosophique, débouche sur une mutation de la théorie linguistique: l’inversion du rapport pensée/langage conduit à une conception autonome des catégories linguistiques. (2) Les analyses particulières de Tooke (conjonctions, prépositions…) traduisent les répercussions théoriques et méthodologiques de cette mutation; pour expliquer les mécanismes de la signification en termes purement intra-linguistiques, Tooke élabore un système paraphrastique appuyé sur sa thèse des ‘abréviations’; utilisant intuitivement la propriété de la métalangue d’être dans la langue, il formule des ‘résolutions’ permettant de réduire toute séquence d’une langue donnée à une séquence abstraite de deux classes fondamentales nom + verbe. (3) L’étymologie n’est pas pour l’essentiel, une pré-philologie, mais a le même statut que les analyses ‘synchroniques’ qui lui sont parallèlement développées; elle fournit pour une part les éléments de la métalangue, en spécifiant la valeur de la relation ou de l’unité étudiée de telle sorte qu’elle puisse être intégrée dans les paraphrases. Tooke entend ainsi montrer que le langage, qui constitue la réalité première, fournit les moyens nécessaires à son analyse.