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.
1969Sprachwissenschaft: Der Gang ihrer Entwicklung von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. Freiburg & Munich: K. Alber.
Beneš, Brigit
1958 Wilhelm von Humboldt, Jacob Grimm, August Schleicher: Ein Vergleich ihrer Sprachauffassungen. Winterthur: P. G. Keller.
Bichat, Xavier
1800Recherches sur la vie et la mort. Paris: Béchet.
Bopp, Franz
1816Ueber das Conjugationssystem der Sanskritsprache in Vergleichung mit jenem der griech., lat., pers. und germ. Sprache. Hrsg. von Dr. K. J. Windischmann. Frankfurt: Andräische Buchhandlung.
Brown, Roger
1967Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Conception of Linguistic Relativity. The Hague: Mouton.
Cain, A. J.
1954Animal Species and their Evolution. London: Hutchinson Univ. Library.
Cassirer, Ernst
1923Die Philosophie der symbolischen Formen. Erster Teil: Die Sprache. Berlin: B. Cassirer. (2nd ed., Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1957.)
Cassirer, Ernst
1945 “Structuralism in Modern Linguistics”. Word 11.99–120.
Cassirer, Ernst
1950The Problem of Knowledge: Philosophy, science and history since Hegel. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
Chomsky, Noam
1964Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. The Hague: Mouton.
Chomsky, Noam
1966Cartesian Linguistics: A chapter in the history of rationalist thought. New York & London: Harper & Row Publishers.
Coseriu, Eugenio
1970 “Semantik, innere Sprachform und Tiefenstruktur”. FoL 41.53–63.
Coseriu, Eugenio
1973 “Sulla tipologia linguistica di Wilhelm von Humboldt. Contributo alla critica della tradizione linguistica”. LeSt 8:2.235–266.
1825Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe, et sur les changemens qu’elles ont produits dans le règne animal. Paris: G. Dofour & Ed. D’Ocagne. (1st ed. 1812–13.)
Cuvier, George
1836Le règne animal distribué d’après son organisation. 31 vols. Bruxelles: Louis Hauman. (1st ed. 1817).
Darwin, Charles
1890The Origin of Species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th ed. London: J. Murray. (1st ed. 1859.)
Foucault, Michel
1966Les mots et les choses. Paris: Gallimard.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
1962 [1830/32] “Principes de philosophie zoologique”. Schriften zur Anatomie. Zoologie, Physiognomik, 151–178. München: dtv.
1972La révolution copernicienne du langage dans l’oeuvre de Wilhelm von Humboldt. Paris: Vrin.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von
1903–07Werke. 71 vols. ed. by Albert Leitzmann. (= Gesammelte Schriften, 1–7.) Berlin: B. Behr. (Repr., Berlin: W. de Gruyter 1967–68.)
Humboldt, Wilhelm von
1905 [1820]Ueber das vergleichende Sprachstudium in Beziehung auf die verschiedenen Epochen der Sprachentwicklung. (= Werke, 4), 1–34.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von
1905 [1821]Ueber die Aufgabe des Geschichtsschreibers. (= Werke, 4), 35–56.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von
1906 [1825–26]Lettre à Monsieur Abel-Rémusat sur la nature des formes grammaticales en général et sur le génie de la langue chinoise en particulier. (= Werke, 5), 254–308. (Repr., Bordeaux: Ducros 1969.)
Humboldt, Wilhelm von
1906 [1824–26]Grundzüge des allgemeinen Sprachtypus. (=Werke, 5.), pp. 364–473.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von
1907 [1827–29]Ueber die Verschiedenheiten des menschlichen Sprachbaues. (= Werke, 6), 111–303.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von
1907 [1830–35]Ueber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluss auf die geistige Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts. (= Werke, 7.)
Jacob, François
1970La logique du vivant: Une histoire de l’hérédité. Paris: Gallimard.
Kant, Immanuel
1970 [1790]Erste Einleitung in die Kritik der Urteilskraft. Hamburg: F. Meiner. (1st ed. 1927.)
Kant, Immanuel
1793Kritik der Urteilskraft. Berlin: F. T. Lagarde. (Cited as KdU; E. transl. by J. C. Meredith, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1911.)
Koerner, E. F. K.
1972 “Towards a Historiography of Linguistics: 19th and 20th century Paradigms”. AnL 14:7.255–80. (Rev. version in History of Linguistic TTiought and Contemporary Linguistics ed. by Herman Parret, 685–718. Berlin: W. de Gruyter 1976.)
1808Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier: Ein Beitrag zur Begründung der Alterthumskunde. Heidelberg: Mohr & Zimmer. (New ed., with an introductory article by Sebastiano Timpanaro, Amsterdam: J. Benjamins 1977.)
1996. Toward a history of linguistic typology. In Linguistic Reconstruction and Typology, ► pp. 1 ff.
Koerner, E.F.K.
1995. History of Typology and Language Classification. In Concise History of the Language Sciences, ► pp. 212 ff.
Montety, Felix de
2021. La toponymie comme traduction ?. Terra Brasilis :15
O'Hara, Robert J.
2006. Trees of History in Systematics, Historical Linguistics, and Stemmatics: A Working Interdisciplinary Bibliography. SSRN Electronic Journal
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.