Lucretius on the Origin of Language
The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c. 99–55 B.C.) deserves a place in the history of linguistics because of his views on the origin of language. He was the first one to draw the parallel between the sounds of animals and the beginnings of human speech, and the first one to clearly envisage the creation of language as a fact of fundamental importance for the social organization of man. His ideas are related to modern research in the area in an interesting way.
References
Aarsleff, Hans
1974 “
The Tradition of Condillac: The problem of the origin of language in the eighteenth century and the debate in the Berlin Academy before Herder”.
Studies in the History of Linguistics ed. by
Dell Hymes, 93–156. Bloomington & London: Indiana Univ. Press.
Aarsleff, Hans
1976 “
An Outline of Language-Origins Theory since the Renaissance”. In
Harnad,
Steklis &
Lancaster, 4–13.
Allen, W. Sydney
1948 “
Ancient Ideas on the Origin and Development of Language”.
TPhS 811.35–60.
Bailey, Cyril
ed. 1947 Titi Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura Libri Sex. Ed. with prolegomena, critical apparatus, translation, and commentary. 31 vols. Oxford Univ. Press.
Borst, Arno
1957 Der Turmbau von Babel: Geschichte der Meinungen über Ursprung und Vielfalt der Sprachen und Völker. Vol. 11. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann.
Cole, Thomas
1967 Democritus and the Sources of Greek Anthropology. (=
Philological Monographs published by the American Philological Association, 25.) Ann Arbor, Michigan: Western Reserve University Press.
Chlumska, Eva, and I. Kabrt
1968 “
Quid Lucretius de origine orationis eiusque incrementis censuerit”.
Latinitas 161.189–95.
Dahlmann, Johannes Hellfried
1928 De philosophorum Graecorum sententiis ad loquellae originem pertinentibus capita duo. Diss., Univ. of Leipzig. (Printed, Weida 1928.)
Giussani, Carlo
ed. 1923–29 T. Lucreti Can De Kerum Natura Libri Sex. Revisione del testo, commento e studi introdutivi. 21 vols. Torino: Chiantore.
Harnard, Stevan R., Horst D. Steklis, and Jane Lancaster
eds. 1976 Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech. (=
Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, 280.) New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Marler, Peter
1975 “
On the Origin of Speech from Animal Sounds”.
The Role of Speech in Language ed. by
James F. Kavanagh and
James E. Cutting, 11–37. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Offermann, Helmut
1972 “
Lukrez V 1028–1090”.
Rheinisches Museum N.F. 1151.150–156.
Rouse, W. H. D., and Martin Ferguson Smith
eds. 1975 Lucretius: De Rerum Natura with an English Translation by
W. H. D. Rouse, revised by
Martin Ferguson Smith. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Schrijvers, P. H.
1974 “
La pensée de Lucrèce sur l’origine du langage (Drn. V 1019–1090)”.
Mnemosyne Ser. 4, 271.337–64.
Škiljan, D.
1975 “
Lucrèce sur le langage”.
Latina et Graeca 61.5–10. (Original title in Slovenian).
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Dorothea Frede & Brad Inwood
2005.
Language and Learning,
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.