History of Linguistics Vol III

TheHistory of Linguistics, to be published in five volumes, aims to provide the reader with an authoritative and comprehensive account of the attitudes to language prevailing in different civilizations and in different periods by examining the very varied development of linguistic thought in the specific social, cultural and religious contexts involved. Issues discussed include the place of language in education, variation and prestige, and approaches to lexical and grammatical description. The authors of the individual chapters are specialists who have analysed the primary sources and produced original syntheses by exploring the linguistic interests and assumptions of particular cultures in their own terms, without seeking to reinterpret them as contributions towards the development of contemporary western conceptions of linguistic science.
The third volume of the History of Linguistics covers the Renaissance and the Early Modern Period. The chapter on the Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries), examines the study of Latin in both the new Humanist and rationalist traditions, along with the foundations of vernacular grammar in the study of Romance, Germanic and Slavic. The chapter on the Early Modern Period (17th and 18th centuries) presents the study of language in its philosophical context (Bacon, Port-Royal, Hobbes, Locke, Leibniz, the Enlightenment), as well as the accumulation of data which led to the foundation of Comparative Philology in the 19th century.

Giulio C. Lepschy

Introduction Notes on the Contributors 1. Renaissance Linguistics Mirko Tavoni 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Western Europe Latin grammar The emancipation of the vernacular languages The orthography of the vernacular languages The grammar of the vernacular languages Diachronic and comparative linguistics in the Romance world Diachronic and comparative linguistics in the Germanic world Appendix: lexicography, translation, New World Notes Bibliography 1.3 Roman Slavdom Maria Delfina Gandolfo The 'language question' and Western models The emergence of the vernacular languages in the Czech, Polish, Slovak abd Sorbian areas The success of the vernacular language in the Slovenian and Croat areas Notes Bibliography 1.4 Orthodox Slavdom Silvia Toscano The beginnings of the linguistic reflection and the treatise. The eight parts of speech (tenth to fourteenth centuries) Hesychasms and the birth of 'philology' among the Balkan Slavs Grammatical studies in Russia (fifteenth-sixteenth centuries) Printed grammars of Church Slavonic (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries) Notes Bibliography 2. The Early Modern Period Raffaele Simone 2.1 The reawakening of a research period 2.2 Fields of evidence, backgrounds, myths and paradigms Language and theology Language and knowledge Language and education Human language, animals and machines The misuse of language and its reformation The origins of language The unity of language and the diversity of languages Language change, usage and society 2.3 Bacon 2.4 The description of languages and the accumulation of linguistic data 2.5 The 'original language' and linguistic research 2.6 The Port-Royal Grammar and Logic 2.7 Projects for 'universal' and 'philosophical' languages 2.8 Hobbes and Locke 2.9 Leibniz 2.10 Accumulation of linguistic data 2.11 Vico 2.12 Condillac 2.13 The 'genius' and the specificity of languages. The dispute on word order 2.14 Animals, machines and languages 2.15 Origin, formation and function of language 2.16 The Encyclopédie and linguistic thought 2.17 The 'discovery' of Sanskrit 2.18 Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index