Subject collection: Linguistics (2,773 titles, 1967–2015)

Sir William Jones (1746 –1794) was an Anglo-Welsh philologist and scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among Indo-European languages. His third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (1786) is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies. Jones’ interdisciplinary scholarship innovatively combined language and linguistic study with the traditional subjects of research to throw light on transcending questions like the origins of man and culture. This bibliography aims to provide an overview of the full width of his writings and secondary scholarship.

This study of the South African variety of English is an exercise in the sociology of language conducted mainly within the conceptual framework and methodology created by William Labov. It accepts that social process and social structure are reflected in patterns of covariation involving linguistic and social variables, and in attitudes to different varieties of speech within the community. This premise is pursued here in its historical implications: linguistuic evidence in present-day speech patterns of earlier states of the society and of the social, political and cultural changes that have brought about the present state. The second main focus in this volume is directed at the concept of ‘standard variety’, that is the social attributes and functions of a formal speech pattern for which the status of standard might be claimed.

The writings of Siger of Courtrai were first edited by Gaston Wallerand in 1913. This new edition on the basis of Wallerand's editio prima , with additions, critical notes, and an introduction by Jan Pinborg, reprints the two works from that edition that have an immediate relevance for the study of medieval grammar, i.e., the Summa modorum significandi, and the Sophismata. To this have been added some critical notes, correcting the text of Wallerand where his readings were faulty, and supplying references of the sources. Finally, three more Sophismata which have recently been recovered are here edited for the first time.

The Summa is a compendium which closely follows Priscian’s Institutiones, but puts the doctrinal elements from Priscian into the frame of reference characteristic of Modistic literature. The importance of Siger’s Sophismata in the context of this volume is that they offer a more thorough discussion of the fundamental logico-epistemological tenets presupposed in his linguistic theory.

In the 19th century research on the Indo-European languages was to a large degree coterminus with the development of linguistics itself. The most notable accomplishments, as related in every history of linguistics, took place in the area of phonology. The present study examines one aspect of phonological investigation of the Indo-European languages: vocalism from the early 1800’s to around 1870, the threshold of the neogrammarian era. It attempts to go beyond a mere chronological presentation of research on vocalism in the 19th century to examine other questions, such as the origin of the concepts which linguists employed and the methodology they advanced. Moreover, it attempts to illustrate anew that the history of any science cannot be reduced to a simple linear arrangement of discoveries.