Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics

Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics PDF Author: Emanuel J. Drechsel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108967590
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), an early pioneer in the philosophy of language, linguistic and educational theory, was not only one of the first European linguists to identify human language as a rule-governed system –the foundational premise of Noam Chomsky's generative theory – or to reflect on cognition in studying language; he was also a major scholar of Indigenous American languages. However, with his famous naturalist brother Alexander 'stealing the show,' Humboldt's contributions to linguistics and anthropology have remained understudied in English until today. Drechsel's unique book addresses this gap by uncovering and examining Humboldt's influences on diverse issues in nineteenth-century American linguistics, from Peter S. Duponceau to the early Boasians, including Edward Sapir. This study shows how Humboldt's ideas have shaped the field in multiple ways. Shining a light on one of the early innovators of linguistics, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the field.

Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics

Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics PDF Author: Emanuel J. Drechsel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108967590
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Get Book Here

Book Description
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), an early pioneer in the philosophy of language, linguistic and educational theory, was not only one of the first European linguists to identify human language as a rule-governed system –the foundational premise of Noam Chomsky's generative theory – or to reflect on cognition in studying language; he was also a major scholar of Indigenous American languages. However, with his famous naturalist brother Alexander 'stealing the show,' Humboldt's contributions to linguistics and anthropology have remained understudied in English until today. Drechsel's unique book addresses this gap by uncovering and examining Humboldt's influences on diverse issues in nineteenth-century American linguistics, from Peter S. Duponceau to the early Boasians, including Edward Sapir. This study shows how Humboldt's ideas have shaped the field in multiple ways. Shining a light on one of the early innovators of linguistics, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the field.

Linguistic Relativities

Linguistic Relativities PDF Author: John Leavitt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139494872
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
There are more than six thousand human languages, each one unique. For the last five hundred years, people have argued about how important language differences are. This book traces that history and shows how language differences have generally been treated either as of no importance or as all-important, depending on broader approaches taken to human life and knowledge. It was only in the twentieth century, in the work of Franz Boas and his students, that an attempt was made to engage seriously with the reality of language specificities. Since the 1950s, this work has been largely presented as yet another claim that language differences are all-important by cognitive scientists and philosophers who believe that such differences are of no importance. This book seeks to correct this misrepresentation and point to the new directions taken by the Boasians, directions now being recovered in the most recent work in psychology and linguistics.

The Limits of State Action

The Limits of State Action PDF Author: Wilhelm von Humboldt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316284018
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This text is important both as one of the most interesting contributions to the liberalism of the German Enlightenment, and as the most significant source for the ideas which John Stuart Mill popularized in his essay On Liberty. Humboldt's concern is to define the criteria by which the permissible limits of the state's activities may be determined. His basic principle, like that of Mill, is that the only justification for government interference is the prevention of harm to others. He discusses in detail the role and limits of the state's responsibility for the welfare, security and morals of its citizens. Humboldt's special achievement in this work is to enlarge our sense of what a liberal political theory might be by his particularly sensitive grasp of the complexity of our attitudes to and our need of other people. Dr Burrow has based his translation on Coulthard's version of 1854. In an important introduction, he provides a most perceptive as well as scholarly guide to Humboldt's political thought.

Toward a History of American Linguistics

Toward a History of American Linguistics PDF Author: E.F.K. Koerner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134495080
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
A comprehensive account of essential periods and areas of research in the history of American Linguistics which addresses contemporary debates and issues within linguistics.

The Philosophical Foundations of Humboldt's Linguistic Doctrines

The Philosophical Foundations of Humboldt's Linguistic Doctrines PDF Author: Martin L. Manchester
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027245142
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Wilhelm von Humboldt s writings on language are a mixture of philosophical theorizing about mind and language on the one hand, and on the other hand, specialized studies of the most detailed sort of both the classical languages and languages which only in Humboldt s day were becoming known to European scholars, such as Sanskrit, Chinese, and native north and south American languages. This book endeavors to show that Humboldt s work on language is a coherent system of thought; to recapture and expose the systematic structure of assumption, hypothesis, argument and conclusion; and to assign many of the specific themes in his writing to a place within this structure.

Humboldt, Worldview and Language

Humboldt, Worldview and Language PDF Author: James W. Underhill
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748640223
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
With the loss of many of the world's languages, it is important to question what will be lost to humanity with their demise. It is frequently argued that a language engenders a 'worldview', but what do we mean by this term? Attributed to German politician and philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), the term has since been adopted by numerous linguists. Within specialist circles it has become associated with what is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which suggests that the nature of a language influences the thought of its speakers and that different language patterns yield different patterns of thought.Underhill's concise and rigorously researched book clarifies the main ideas and proposals of Humboldt's linguistic philosophy and demonstrates the way his ideas can be adopted and adapted by thinkers and linguists today. A detailed glossary of terms is provided in order to clarify key concepts and to translate the German terms used by Humboldt.

Papers in the History of Linguistics

Papers in the History of Linguistics PDF Author: Hans Aarsleff
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027245215
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 710

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Book Description
This volume presents a selection of slightly revised versions of papers from the third International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS III), Princeton, 1984. The papers are organized under the following headings: I Generalia; II Classical Period; III Medieval Period; IV Renaissance; V 17th Century; VI 18th Century; VII 19th Century, and VIII 20th Century.Contributors include W. Keith Percival, Aron Dotan, Michael G. Carter, Kees Versteegh, Brian O Cuiv, Francis P. Dinneen, Manuel Breva-Claramonte, Douglas A. Kibbee, Joseph L. Subbiondo, Rudiger Schreyer, Marc Wilmet, Robert H. Robins, Jean Rousseau, Ramon Sarmiento, Edward Stankiewicz, Irmengard Rauch, Talbot J. Taylor, Julie Andresen, and many others.

Humboldt: 'On Language'

Humboldt: 'On Language' PDF Author: Wilhelm von Humboldt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521667722
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Wilhelm von Humboldt's classic study of human language was first published in 1836, as a general introduction to his three-volume treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of the nature of language, exploring its universal structures and its relation to mind and culture. Empirically wide-ranging - Humboldt goes far beyond the Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclusions from comparative linguistics. This 1999 volume presents a translation by Peter Heath, together with an introduction by Michael Losonsky that places Humboldt's work in its historical context and discusses its relevance to contemporary work in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology.

A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America

A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America PDF Author: Marcin Kilarski
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 902725897X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
The languages indigenous to North America are characterized by a remarkable genetic and typological diversity. Based on the premise that linguistic examples play a key role in the origin and transmission of ideas within linguistics and across disciplines, this book examines the history of approaches to these languages through the lens of some of their most prominent properties. These properties include consonant inventories and the near absence of labials in Iroquoian languages, gender in Algonquian languages, verbs for washing in the Iroquoian language Cherokee and terms for snow and related phenomena in Eskimo-Aleut languages. By tracing the interpretations of the four examples by European and American scholars, the author illustrates their role in both lay and professional contexts as a window onto unfamiliar languages and cultures, thus allowing a more holistic view of the history of language study in North America.

History of the Language Sciences / Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften / Histoire des sciences du langage. 2. Teilband

History of the Language Sciences / Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften / Histoire des sciences du langage. 2. Teilband PDF Author: Sylvain Auroux
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 311019421X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 936

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Book Description
Volume 2 treats, in great detail and, at times quite innovatively, the individual stages of development of the study of language as an autonomous discipline, from the growing awareness in 17th and 18th century Europe of genetic relationships among a host of languages to the establishment of comparative-historical Indo-European linguistics in the 19th century, from the generation of the Schlegels, Bopp, Rask, and Grimm to the Neogrammarians and the application of the comparative method to non-Indo-European languages from all over the globe. Typological linguistic interests, first synthesized by Humboldt, as well as the development of various other non-historical endeavours in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, such as language and psychology, semantics, phonetics, and dialectology, receive ample attention.