Author : Vivien Law
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521565325
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (653 download)
Book Synopsis The History of Linguistics in Europe by : Vivien Law
Download or read book The History of Linguistics in Europe written by Vivien Law and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-30 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authoritative and wide-ranging book, first published in 2003, examines the history of western linguistics over a 2000-year timespan, from its origins in ancient Greece up to the crucial moment of change in the Renaissance that laid the foundations of modern linguistics. Some of today's burning questions about language date back a long way: in 1400 BC Plato was asking how words relate to reality. Other questions go back just a few generations, such as our interest in the mechanisms of language change, or in the social factors that shape the way we speak. Vivien Law explores how ideas about language over the centuries have changed to reflect changing modes of thinking. A survey chapter brings the coverage of the book up to the present day. Classified bibliographies and chapters on research resources and the qualities the historian of linguistics needs to develop, provide the reader with the tools to go further.