Bloomfield’s revisions of Language (1933)

Leonard Bloomfield’s Language (1933), a milestone in 20th-century linguistics, was revised for the British edition of 1935 to accommodate British English readers. A slightly revised American edition also appeared beginning in 1941. However, no edition following the original publication fully reflects Bloomfield’s wish for more extensive additions and corrections, no doubt because the publishers did not want any resetting of type that would alter pagination and require considerable revision of the whole book. But Bloomfield’s extensive additions and corrections are recorded in notes which he wrote in the margins of a copy owned by his student and junior colleague, John G. Kunstmann (1894–1988). The present article, based on these notes, presents those changes and additions which the author deems of greatest value as improvements in Bloomfield’s treatise. Purely stylistic changes are not included. In general, the modifications amount to clarification of concepts and correction of flawed examples rather than a shift in theoretical positions.