The History of Linguistics in Europe: From

Authoritative and wide-ranging, this book examines the history of western linguistics over a 2000-year timespan, from ancient Greece to the Renaissance. Vivien Law explores how ideas about language over the centuries have changed to reflect evolving modes of thinking. Classified bibliographies and chapters on research resources are included. A survey chapter updates the coverage to the present day.

List of illustrations

x

List of maps

xii

List of boxes

xiii

Preface

xv

Getting ready to study the history of linguistics

1

(12)

What does this book cover?

1

(1)

Getting ready

1

(1)

What is the history of linguistics?

2

(1)

What background knowledge do you need in order to study the history of linguistics?

2

(2)

What do historians of linguistics do?

4

(3)

Why study the history of linguistics?

7

(1)

Being aware of language and doing linguistics: are they the same?

8

(5)

Further reading

11

(2)

Greek philosophy and the origins of western linguistics

13

(25)

Introduction

13

(1)

Before the Greeks: the world-view of the ancient Near East

13

(2)

The Greek discovery of the independent human intellect

15

(2)

Plato: language as a route to reality

17

(6)

Aristotle: language in use

23

(15)

Further reading

33

(5)

Towards a discipline of grammar: the transition from philosophy

38

(14)

The Stoics

38

(4)

Varro: linguistic analysis from first principles

42

(10)

Further reading

49

(3)

From literacy to grammar: describing language structure in the ancient world

52

(42)

From literacy to grammar

52

(1)

The Hellenistic world and the scholarship of Alexandria

52

(3)

The first grammars in the West

55

(3)

Grammar in the Roman world

58

(2)

Quintilian and the ideal education

60

(5)

Donatus and the Schulgrammatik genre

65

(16)

After Donatus: the commentators

81

(2)

Regulae grammars: foreigners and form

83

(3)

Integrating meaning and form

86

(1)

Priscian

86

(8)

Further reading

91

(3)

Christianity and language

94

(18)

The arrival of Christianity

94

(5)

The Bible on language

99

(9)

Medieval priorities: focus on the spiritual

108

(1)

Form or meaning? Which branch of linguistics?

109

(3)

Further reading

110

(2)

The early Middle Ages

112

(27)

Linguistic thought in the Middle Ages

112

(3)

Language as a pointer to higher things: medieval littera theory and correlative thinking

115

(9)

The language policy of the Church: a push toward linguistic materialism?

124

(1)

The linguistic conversion: creating descriptive grammars of Latin

125

(6)

Developing an awareness of word structure: morphological metalanguage and visual representation

131

(8)

Further reading

136

(3)

The Carolingian Renaissance

139

(19)

The notion of 'renaissance'

139

(1)

The Carolingian Renaissance

140

(3)

The rediscovery of Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae

143

(4)

Linking grammar with the laws of thought: the Carolingian discovery of Aristotelian logic

147

(11)

Further reading

155

(3)

Scholasticism: linking language and reality

158

(32)

Universities and universals

158

(7)

Aristotle's Physics: from motion to phonetics and syntax

165

(6)

Aristotle's Metaphysics: distinguishing the essential from the arbitrary

171

(8)

Practical grammar

179

(3)

A new development: making the invisible visible

182

(8)

Further reading

185

(5)

Medieval vernacular grammars

190

(20)

What is a vernacular grammar?

190

(2)

Why write a vernacular grammar?

192

(1)

Vernacular grammar in England

193

(6)

Reforming the orthography: the Old Icelandic First Grammatical Treatise

199

(2)

Thinking about the vernacular: the Occitan Leys d'Amors

201

(9)

Further reading

204

(6)

The Renaissance: discovery of the outer world

210

(48)

Turning-points in the history of linguistics

210

(2)

Focus on the material world: training the faculty of observation

212

(8)

The scientific mentality: collectors and dissectors

220

(3)

The rediscovery of Classical Latin

223

(7)

Latin: a language like any other?

230

(2)

Ennobling the vernaculars

232

(9)

New ways of thinking about linguistic form: Christians meet Hebrew

241

(17)

Further reading

250

(8)

A brief overview of linguistics since 1600

258

(18)

Introduction

258

(1)

Looking back: main themes

258

(2)

The process continues: observation and linguistics after 1600

260

(12)

Linguistics in the twentieth century

272

(4)

Becoming a historian of linguistics

276

(8)

Going further

276

(1)

Cultivating the faculties a historian needs

276

(3)

Ethics and the historian of linguistics: the impact of your work

279

(2)

Ethics in working methods

281

(3)

Research resources in the history of linguistics

284

(6)

Notes

290

(9)

Index

299

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

The History of Linguistics in Europe: From Plato to 1600

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials