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- Volume 1, Issue, 1974
Historiographia Linguistica - Volume 1, Issue 2, 1974
Volume 1, Issue 2, 1974
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John Wilkins' Essay (1668): Critics and continuators
Author(s): Vivian Salmonpp.: 147–163 (17)More LessOne of the major achievements of Britsh linguistic scholarship before the 19th century was John Wilkins' (1609-72) Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (1668), which attempted to construct, for scientific purposes, a language in which the elements were isomorphic with the categories of reality (as they were perceived by Wilkins). Immediately after its publication, the Essay was presented to the scientists of the newly-founded Royal Society for their critical appraisal. Since the committee appointed to examine it never reported, it has usually been assumed that they were uninterested or disapproving. It can now be shown, however, that it was certainly not lack of enthusiasm among Wilkins' contemporaries that led to the absence of a report, and that three members of the original committee took part in a project to revise the Essay after its author's death. It has long been known that a small group were informally engaged on its revision in 1678, according to a report of the antiquarian John Aubrey (1626-97), F.R.S., but hitherto nothing has been known of the enterprise. Recently, their correspondence has been discovered among Aubrey's collection of manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, and these letters, besides showing links with the original committee, illustrate the growth of linguistic insight in the would-be improvers, particularly in respect of semantic classification and various problems in the phonetics of English. The course of their discussion is traced here, and the reasons for their eventual rejection of Wilkins' scheme. Yet the immense undertaking was never wholly forgotten; it aroused the interest of at least one eminent 18th-century scientist, and became one source of inspiration for Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), creator of the famous Thesaurus.
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Note Sur Al-Astarabadhi
Author(s): Henri Fleischpp.: 165–168 (4)More LessLittle is known about Muhammed Radi al-Din Ibn Hasan al-Astarabadhi, the famous Arab grammarian who died about 1289, and even this date depends on whether the colophons of his two major works, the Sharh al-Shafiya and the Shark al-Kafiya, offer reliable information. Indeed, for long one did not even know his name; he has generally been referred to as the 'Star of the Imams' in view of the authority ascribed to his treatises of Arabic. Although al-Astarabad-hi followed in many respects the analyses advanced in the Kitab by Sibawayhi (8th century), his works contain a number of important observations of his own. Thus he was the first to explain the phenomenon of rhotacism in Arabic, and analyzed the function of particular cases and demonstrative pronouns which had hitherto been unsolved in Arabic linguistic scholarship.
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John Eliot of Massachusetts and the Beginnings of American Linguistics
Author(s): Kenneth L. Minerpp.: 169–183 (15)More LessThe author puts forward the claim that The Indian Grammar Begun (1666) of John Eliot of Massachusetts (1604-90) constitutes the first published account of an 'exotic' language that can rightfully be called scientific (0.). The first portion of the argument treats Eliot's English-based orthography and the problems it poses in the description of a language completely different from English (1.). Eliot's use of a 'morphophonemic' transcription is presented (2.). Eliot's The Logick Primer (1672) is suggested as a source of particular insights into the Puritan understanding and use of logic (3.). Having speculated about the impact that Jesus College, Cambridge, may have had on Eliot's linguistic accomplishments in his analysis of an Amerindian language (4.), the author concludes that Eliot derserves to be called the true founder of American linguistics, in particular since he anticipated modern use of levels of representation by more than a century (5.).
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Grammar and Meaning in the Late Middle Ages. Part I
Author(s): L.G. Kellypp.: 203–219 (17)More Less
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Volume 50 (2023)
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Volume 16 (1989)
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Volume 7 (1980)
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Volume 4 (1977)
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Volume 3 (1976)
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Volume 2 (1975)
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Volume 1 (1974)
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