Universal History of Linguistics

India, China, Arabia, Europe

Author

Esa Itkonen | University of Turku, Finland

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027245526 (Eur) | EUR 125.00

ISBN 9781556193606 (USA) | USD 188.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027277671 | EUR 125.00 | USD 188.00

This wide-ranging book presents the linguistic achievements of four major cultures to readers presumably conversant with modern theoretical linguistics. The chapter on India discusses in detail Pāṇini's (c. 400 B.C.) grammar Ast-adhy-ay-i as well as the work of his commentators Kātyāyana, Patanjali, and Bhartṛhari. In the Chinese tradition, the Confucian doctrine of the Rectification of Names' is singled out for treatment. Arabic linguistics is represented by Sibawaihi's (d. 793) grammar al-Kitāb, in particular its syntax, as well as the subsequent commentary tradition. The chapter on Europe, which is the most comprehensive of the four, covers the time span from antiquity to the 20th century; special attention is devoted to the contributions of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Varro, Apollonius Dyscolus, and the Modistae. The achievements of the cultures in linguistics are treated throughout from a deliberately value-laden point of view. The achievements of Western antiquity and the Middle Ages are shown to be much more than the average linguist is inclined to believe. Even more importantly, it is shown that the Indian and the Arab traditions have been superior to the European tradition at least until the 20th century. The fact that a linguistic theory created some 2,400 years ago is fully as adequate as our best theories today must have far-reaching implications for the notion of 'scientific progress'. More precisely, it proves necessary to distinguish between 'progress in the human sciences' and 'progress in the natural sciences'. These issues, which pertain to the general philosophy of science, are treated in the final chapter of the book.

[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 65] 1991. x, 368 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.65

Table of Contents

1. Introduction | p. 1

2. India | p. 5

2.1 The Relation of Linguistic Theory to Hinduism
2.2 Linguistics before Pāṇini
2.3 Pāṇini
2.4 Linguistics after Pāṇini
2.5 Conclusion: Pāṇini and the Riddle of ‘Progress’
Notes

3. China | p. 89

3.1 Confucius
3.2 Mencius
3.3 The School of Names
3.4 The Taoist School
3.5 Mo Tzu and His School
3.6 Hsün Tzu
3.7 The Legalist School
3.8 The Aftermath
3.9 Conclusion: Pāṇini and Confucius
Notes

4. Arabia | p. 125

4.1 The Cultural Context of Arab Linguistics
4.2 General Characteristics of the Arab Linguistic Tradition
4.3 Central Aspects of the Arab Syntactic Theory
4.4 Metatheoretical Implications
4.5 Sībawaihi's Conception of ‘Discourse-Based’ Linguistics
4.6 Residual Issues
4.7 Conclusion: Pāṇini, Confucius, and Sībawaihi
Notes

5. Europe | p. 165

5.1 Linguistic Thinking in Greek Philosophy
5.2 The Alexandrian School
5.3 Linguistics in the Middle Ages
5.4 Grammatical Theory 1500–1900
5.5 The 20th Century
5.6 Conclusion: Unity in Variety
Notes

6. Implications for the Philosophy of Science | p. 325

6.1 The Notion of Progress
6.2 Relativism vs. Universalism
6.3 Externalism vs. Internalism
Notes

7. Conclusion | p. 347

Name Index | p. 363

Cited by

Cited by 37 other publications

Order by:

Atherton, Catherine

1995. Apollonius Dyscolus and the ambiguity of ambiguity. The Classical Quarterly 45:2 ► pp. 441 ff.

Bernárdez, Enrique

1970. Non-Western Concepts of Language: Are they of Any Use for the Scientific Knowledge of Language?. Complutense Journal of English Studies 25 ► pp. 9 ff.

Bielecki, Robert

2017. The refinitivization of the infinitive in Finnish. Lingua Posnaniensis 59:2 ► pp. 23 ff.

Bod, Rens

2023. How Diverse Is the History of the Humanities and Does It Matter?. History of Humanities 8:2 ► pp. 189 ff.

Bogusławski, Andrzej

2021. Lingwistyczna teoria mowy. Preliminaria,

Bogusławski, Andrzej

2023. Metodologia lingwistyki. Zarys,

Bubenik, Vit, Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, Harold C. Fleming, John Hewson, John Hewson, Alan S. Kaye, Heidi Quinn, Kanavillil Rajagopalan, William J. Samarin, Solomon I. Sara, Solomon I. Sara, Jyh Wee Sew, Jacob J. Spa, Edward J. Vajda, Edward J. Vajda, Edward J. Vajda, Edward J. Vajda, Chaoqun Xie & Dajin Lin

2004. Reviews. <i>WORD</i> 55:1 ► pp. 73 ff.

Carter, Michael G.

1994. Writing the History of Arabic Grammar. Historiographia Linguistica 21:3 ► pp. 385 ff.

Chung, Karen Steffen

1995. History of linguistics. Ed. by Giulio Lepschy. Historiographia Linguistica 22:3 ► pp. 401 ff.

Cram, David

2007. Shelf life and time horizons in the historiography of linguistics. Historiographia Linguistica 34:2-3 ► pp. 189 ff.

Danielewiczowa, Magdalena

2016. Dosięgnąć przedmiotu. Rzecz o Ferdynandzie de Saussurze,

File-Muriel, Richard J.

2006. Spanish Adjective Position: Differences between Written and Spoken Discourse. In Functional Approaches to Spanish Syntax, ► pp. 203 ff.

Givón, T.

2018. On Understanding Grammar,

Itkonen, Esa

2002. Linguistics as a System of Distinct Types of Ontology-Cum-Methodology. In In the Scope of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, ► pp. 431 ff.

Itkonen, Esa

2019. Concerning the scope of normativity. In Normativity in Language and Linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series, 209], ► pp. 29 ff.

Itkonen, Esa

2020. Three Models for Linguistics: Newtonian Mechanics, Darwinism, Axiomatics. In The Philosophy and Science of Language, ► pp. 195 ff.

Kertész, András

2023. Relativism Versus Absolutism in Linguistics. Foundations of Science

Klein, Wolf Peter

2007. Sprache und Sprachen in Berlin um 1800. Hrgg. von Ute Tintemann und Jürgen Trabant. Historiographia Linguistica 34:2-3 ► pp. 422 ff.

Laasanen, Mikko

2019. Language as a system of norms and the Voloshinovian critique of abstract objectivism. In Normativity in Language and Linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series, 209], ► pp. 151 ff.

Leather, Jonathan & Jet Van Dam

2002. Towards an Ecology of Language Acquisition. In Ecology of Language Acquisition [Educational Linguistics, 1], ► pp. 1 ff.

Lipari, Lisbeth A.

2018. Humboldt, Bhartrihari, and the dialogic. In From Pragmatics to Dialogue [Dialogue Studies, 31], ► pp. 29 ff.

Lähteenmäki, Mika

2004. Between Relativism and Absolutism: Towards an Emergentist Definition of Meaning Potential. In Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language and Culture, ► pp. 91 ff.

Mansouri, Reza

2013. The History of Science in Iran from a Physicist’s Perspective. In Science and Innovations in Iran, ► pp. 15 ff.

McDonald, Edward

2020. Postlude: Reflections on the Long Twentieth Century of Linguistics. In Grammar West to East [The M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series, ], ► pp. 227 ff.

Mäkilähde, Aleksi, Ville Leppänen & Esa Itkonen

2019. Norms and normativity in language and linguistics. In Normativity in Language and Linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series, 209], ► pp. 1 ff.

Owens, Jonathan

1995. The comparative study of medieval Arabic grammatical theory. Historiographia Linguistica 22:3 ► pp. 425 ff.

Pajunen, Anneli

1998. Adjectives in spoken language discourse. <i>WORD</i> 49:3 ► pp. 341 ff.

Pajunen, Anneli & Esa Itkonen

2019. Intuition and beyond. In Normativity in Language and Linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series, 209], ► pp. 213 ff.

Pereira, Marcos

2012. A "estranheza" dos antigos, ou. Revista de Estudos Filosóficos e Históricos da Antiguidade 11:22/23

Piotrowski, David

2017. The Saussurean Analysis. In Morphogenesis of the Sign [Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis, ], ► pp. 79 ff.

Piotrowski, David

2018. The Saussurean Analysis. In Morphogenesis of the Sign [Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis, ], ► pp. 79 ff.

Rahman, Tariq

2012. Pakistan's policies and practices towards the religious minorities. South Asian History and Culture 3:2 ► pp. 302 ff.

THOMAS, MARGARET

1995. Medieval and Modern Views of Universal Grammar and the Nature of Second Language Learning. The Modern Language Journal 79:3 ► pp. 345 ff.

Wang, William S.-Y.

1996. Linguistic Diversity and Language Relationships. In New Horizons in Chinese Linguistics [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 36], ► pp. 235 ff.

[no author supplied]

2003. Bibliography. In The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, ► pp. 744 ff.

[no author supplied]

2017. Bibliography. In The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics: A Handbook for Language Teaching, ► pp. 744 ff.

[no author supplied]

2018. Conceptual Semantics [Constructional Approaches to Language, 23],

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 april 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.

Subjects

Linguistics

History of linguistics

Main BIC Subject

CF: Linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General

ONIX Metadata

ONIX 2.1

ONIX 3.0

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 91030574 | Marc record