Semantic Theories in Europe, 1830–1930
From etymology to contextuality
It is widely believed by historians of linguistics that the 19th-century was largely devoted to historical and comparative studies, with the main emphasis on the discovery of soundlaws. Syntax is typically portrayed as a mere sideline of these studies, while semantics is seldom even mentioned. If it comes into view at all, it is usually assumed to have been confined to diachronic lexical semantics and the construction of some (mostly ill-conceived) typologies of semantic change. This book aims to destroy some of these prejudices and to show that in Europe semantics was an important, although controversial, area at that time. Synchronic mechanisms of semantic change were discovered and increasing attention was paid to the context of the sentence, to the speech situation and the users of the language. From being a semantics of transformations', a child of the biological-geological paradigm of historical linguistics with its close links to etymology and lexicography, the field matured into a semantics of comprehension and communication, set within a general linguistics and closely related to the emerging fields of psychology and sociology.
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 59] 1992. xi, 359 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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1.0 Introduction | p. 1
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1.1 The Importance of the History of Semantics for the History of Linguistics
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1.2 Review of Literature
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1.3 The Purpose and Scope of This Book
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1.4 General Overview
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Part I
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2.0 The Development of Semasiology in Germany | p. 29
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2.1 Introduction and Overview
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2.2 Reisig – A Broad Programme for Semasiology
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2.3 Tobler's Etymo-Logical Semasiology
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2.4 Haase – Semasiology between History and Philosophy
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2.5 Heerdegen – Logico-Historical Semasiology at Its Best
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2.6 Hey – Towards a Psychological Semasiology
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2.7 The Psychological Tradition in Semasiology – Völkerpsychologie Mark 1
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2.8 The Schoolmasters' Interlude – Thomas and Schmidt
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2.9 The Psychological Tradition in Semasiology – Völkerpsychologie Mark 2
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2.10 Official Semantics and Semantic Innovators
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2.11 Meaning and Emotion
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2.12 Stern's Theory of Meaning and Change of Meaning: The Apotheosis of the Semasiological Tradition
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Part II
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3.0 The Development of la Sémantique in France | p. 125
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3.1 Introduction
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3.2 Ideology and Lexiology
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3.3 Littré – Semantics and Lexicography
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3.4 Bréal – First Steps towards Semantics as a Human Science
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3.5 Darmesteter – A First Programme for Semantics
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3.6 Back to Bréal and the Establishment of la sémantique
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3.7 Back to Darmesteter and a Biological-Rhetorical Model for Semantic Change
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3.8 Darmesteter – A Centre of Innovations and Controversies
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3.9 Bréal's Essai de sémantique
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3.10 French Psycho-Semantics
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3.11 French Socio-Semantics
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3.12 From Diachrony to Synchrony
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3.13 Conclusion
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Part III
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4.0 The Development of Semantics in England – From Sematology to Significs and Beyond | p. 207
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4.1 Introduction
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4.2 Smart's Sematology
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4.3 Garnett's Criticism of English Lexicography
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4.4 The New Philological Approach to Meaning
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4.5 Meaning, Action, and Mind
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4.6 Language, Thought, and Meaning
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4.7 British Contextualism
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Notes | p. 269
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Abbreviations | p. 293
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Semasiology in Germany (1800-1950) | p. 297
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La sémantique in France (1800-1950) | p. 316
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Semantics in England (and the USA) (1800-1950) | p. 324
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Semantics (1820-1950): Other Countries | p. 332
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Index of Authors | p. 347
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Index Rerum | p. 356
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2019. Structuring Polysemy in English Learners’ Dictionaries: A Prototype Theory-Based Model. International Journal of Lexicography 32:1 ► pp. 20 ff.
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2018. Wilhelm von Humboldt in der linguistischen Historiographie und in der Wirkungsgeschichte der Linguistik – ein Missverhältnis. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 48:4 ► pp. 641 ff.
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2020. Von der Bedeutung zum Gemeinten (und zurück): Semantik und Noetik. In Sine ira et studio, ► pp. 11 ff.
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Bologna, Maria Patrizia
2009.
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2009.
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Brandist, Craig
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2005. Anton Reichling (1898–1986). Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Bulletin 45:1 ► pp. 11 ff.
Elffers, Els
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2015. Sentence and its Parts. A Psycholinguistic Theory of Syntactic Value. Histoire Epistémologie Langage 37:1 ► pp. 9 ff.
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1994. Bridging Saussurean structuralism and British linguistic thought. Historiographia Linguistica 21:1-2 ► pp. 123 ff.
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General