
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
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A blog devoted to exploring and promoting the great diversity that exists in the study of language, in the past and today. Each blog post seeks to introduce a topic, idea or approach in language study historical, current or completely new with an invitation to all readers to engage in discussion in the comments.
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
1w ago
Danielle Candel, Didier Samain & Dan Savatovsky, ed. 2023. Eugen Wüster et la terminologie de l’école de Vienne. Paris : SHESL (HEL Livres, 2). 338 p. ISBN 979-10-91587-18-1. DOI : 10.5281/zenodo.7503185
Book in open access
Publisher’s website
La terminologie, avec ses analyses théoriques et ses applications, représente un secteur multidisciplinaire, qui s’est développé parallèlement aux progrès scientifiques ou industriels et aux échanges internationaux. Rares restent toutefois les linguistes ou les épistémologues et historiens de la linguistique bien au fait des ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
1M ago
Michaël Crevoisier & Aurélien Galateau, ed. 2022. Langage et Idéologie. Penser le devenir de la langue avec Klemperer. Nice : Éditions Unes. Unes Idée. 184 p. ISBN 978-2-87704-251-2,
Publisher’s website
Depuis une vingtaine d’années, on commence à mieux connaître en France la vie et l’œuvre de Victor Klemperer, ce philologue juif allemand qui a décrypté la langue du Troisième Reich et lui a miraculeusement survécu. Ses carnets, dans lesquels il a consigné pendant plus d’une décennie les distorsions que les nazis faisaient subir à la langue allemande, sont devenus un document incontournabl ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
2M ago
In this episode we talk to Andrew Garrett about the life, work and legacy of American anthropologist Alfred Kroeber. Kroeber achieved a number of firsts in American anthropology: he was Boas’ first Columbia PhD and the first professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. But Kroeber is not only of historical interest. The recent “denaming” of Kroeber Hall at UC Berkeley illustrates the clash of the past with our present-day social and political concerns.
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References for Episode 30 Primary sources
Dixon, Roland, and Alfr ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
3M ago
In this interview, we talk to Marcin Kilarski about the history of the documentation and description of the languages of North America.
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References for Episode 29 Primary sources
Bloomfield, Leonard. 1946. “Algonquian”. Linguistic structures of native America ed. by Harry Hoijer, 85-129. New York: Viking Fund.
Boas, Franz & Ella Cara Deloria. 1941. Dakota grammar. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office.
Deloria, Ella Cara. 1932. Dakota texts. (= Publications of the American Ethnological Society 14.) New York: G. E. Stechert. (Re ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
3M ago
Review of
Randy Allen Harris: The Linguistics Wars: Chomsky, Lakoff, and the Battle over Deep Structure. Second edition. Oxford University Press. 2021.
John Goldmith
University of Chicago
Randy Harris has written an extremely engaging account of the rise of generative syntax and of some of the linguists who participated in this development, focusing on the scruffy fights that held a lot of people’s attention in the second half of the 1960s, and then tracking the trajectories of the linguists after that very belligerent moment. The book is great fun to read—Randy is a terrific writer, the like ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
4M ago
In this episode, we begin our exploration of American linguistics by looking at the innovative contributions of Franz Boas (1858–1942) and his circle of students.
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References for Episode 28 Primary sources
Bastian, Adolf (1893), Controversen in der Ethnologie I, die geographischen Provinzen in ihren culurgeschichtlichen Berührungspuncten, Berlin: Weidmannische Buchhandlung. archive.org
Benedict, Ruth (1946), The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese culture, Boston: Houghton Mifflin. archive.org
Boas, Franz (1887a), ‘The occurren ..read more
Raymond de Saussure’s Freudian appropriation of Antoine Meillet’s historical and general linguistics
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
5M ago
John Joseph
University of Edinburgh
One hundred years ago, Raymond de Saussure (1894-1971), the second son of Ferdinand and Marie de Saussure, published a review of a collection of papers by his father’s most famous and devoted student, Antoine Meillet (1866-1936). Saussure (henceforth the surname used alone will designate Raymond) was not a linguist, but a psychologist who had become attached to Freudian psychoanalysis. He was personally psychoanalysed by Freud, who contributed a preface to Saussure’s first book in 1922, the same year as the review of Meillet. Saussure was a founding member o ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
6M ago
Didier Samain & Pierre-Yves Testenoire, ed. 2022. La linguistique et ses formes historiques d’organisation et de production. Paris: SHESL. HEL Livres 1. 336 p. ISBN : 979-10-91587-16-7. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6675029
Publisher’s website
La production et la transmission des savoirs scientifiques s’effectuent par des instances dédiées (exemplairement l’Université), mais aussi par la médiation de multiples structures, qui se sont agrégées autour d’une thématique (académies, sociétés savantes), d’une affiliation (dans le cas notamment des « écoles »), ou encore d’un projet (comme la grammatisati ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
6M ago
In this interview, we talk to Peter Trudgill about how the structure of speaker communities may influence the structure of languages.
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References for Episode 27
Aronoff, Mark. 1994. Morphology by itself: stems and inflectional classes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dahl, Östen. 2004. The growth and maintenance of linguistic complexity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dediu, Dan, & Stephen Levinson. 2013. On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences. Front ..read more
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
7M ago
In this interview, we talk to Philipp Krämer about the history of the study of creole languages and present-day efforts to standardise creoles around the world.
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References for Episode 26 Primary sources
Adam, Lucien (1883): Les idiomes négro-aryen et maléo-aryen. Essai d’hybridologie linguistique. Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie.
Baissac, Charles (1880): Etude sur le patois créole mauricien. Nancy: Berger-Levrault et Cie.
Dietrich, Adolphe (1891): Les parlers créoles des Mascareignes. In: Romania, 20: 216-277.
Focard, Volcy (1885): Du patois créo ..read more