Teaching the History of Linguistics
This is a list of university-level courses currently or recently offered. For more information, please contact the person responsible for the course (e-mail addresses are provided).
Boston College, USA
Classics in Linguistics
Margaret Thomas: thomasm@bc.edu
Classics in Linguistics is an introduction to the history of linguistics, organized chronologically from the ancient world to the present day. Our emphasis is on the development of the language sciences in cultures with historical roots in Europe, but there is some treatment of language study in non-western societies. The course presupposes previous exposure to the major subfields, analytic tools, and conceptual vocabulary of modern linguistics. Assignments include four short written exercises of varied natures; midterm and final essay exams; and an ambitious semi-collaborative project defined jointly by students and instructor, which gives students the opportunity to work with both primary and secondary sources, and to think through the intellectual value of understanding the history of linguistics.
University of Helsinki, Finland
History of Linguistics
Therese Lindström Tiedemann: therese.lindstromtiedemann@helsinki.fi
The course deals with the development of linguistic thought through time. Attention will be paid not only to the Western tradition starting from Ancient Greece, but also Eastern traditions such as the Chinese, Indian and Arabic ones. The course will also address the history of linguistics in the Nordic countries and observe its connections to linguistics elsewhere in Europe. During the course, special attention will be paid to selected themes of importance in contemporary linguistic research – such as universalism or variation – examining their historical roots and their position in the development of linguistic thought.
Further information: University of Helsinki course catalogue
University of Edinburgh, UK
History of Linguistics
James McElvenny: james.mcelvenny@ed.ac.uk
Linguistics as an institutionalised discipline can look back on a history of around two hundred years. In this relatively short time span the discipline has played host to a variety of conceptions of human language and different approaches to its study. This course surveys key ideas that have shaped linguistics as a discipline and the debates surrounding them. The aim is to understand the background of linguistics as currently practised, along with how it has come to be situated where it is with respect to related sciences. The course is structured around the question of how linguists have responded to the diversity of the world’s languages.
The University of Potsdam, Germany
Geschichte der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft (History of Romance Linguistics)
Gerda Haßler: hassler@uni-potsdam.de
Die Geschichte der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft beginnt dort, wo es zu ersten Reflexionen über romanische Sprachen kam, also zur Zeit Dantes. Sie setzt sich in der Beschreibung und Apologie der romanischen Volkssprachen in der Renaissance fort, findet sich in Normierungsbestrebungen wieder und fand schließlich in der Sprachdiskussion der Aufklärung einen Höhepunkt. Im 19. Jahrhundert markiert Friedrich Diez einen für viele als eigentlichen Beginn der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft geltenden Einschnitt: im Vordergrund stand fortan die Betrachtung der historischen Entwicklung von Sprachformen, die sich bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts immer weiter vervollkommnete und in der Betrachtung der „Lautgesetze“ durch die Junggrammatiker gipfelte. Mit Saussure trat dann eine Hinwendung zu synchronen Fragen der Sprachwissenschaft in den Vordergrund, die sich in vielfältigen Schulen und Betrachtungsweisen des 20. Jahrhunderts ausdifferenzierte.
Grammatikographie, Lexikographie und Normierung romanischer Sprachen (Description of Grammar, Lexicography and Normalization of Romance Languages)
Gerda Haßler: hassler@uni-potsdam.de
Fragen der Sprachnormierung finden auch in der Gegenwart nicht nur bei professionellen Linguisten Interesse. Ihre Geschichte zeigt ständige Diskussionen um die Einigung auf bestimmte Grundsätze der Orthographie, Grammatik und Lexikographie, verdeutlicht aber auch die Rolle der Sprache als identitätsbildender Faktor im Zusammenhang mit der Kulturgeschichte. Anliegen des Seminars ist es, die Entwicklung der Normierungsdiskurse in romanischen Ländern zu untersuchen und zu vergleichen. Dabei wird sowohl die Kodifizierung der Norm in Grammatiken und Wörterbüchern betrachtet als auch die Wirkung der Normierungsprozesse auf sprachliche Strukturen untersucht. Aufmerksamkeit wird auch den Akteuren der Normierung und deren Institutionen geschenkt. Ein besonderes Gewicht kommt auch den gegenwärtigen Aktivitäten von Akademien zu, die über das Internet zu einer aktiven Beteiligung an der Diskussion über Sprachfragen aufrufen. Es sollen dabei Wege und Methoden vermittelt werden, wie man aktuelle Entwicklungstendenzen in romanischen Sprachen verfolgen kann. Außerdem behandelt das Seminar theoretische Zugänge zur Problematik des Sprachwandels und zu einer Wertung des Zusammenhangs von Sprache und Sprachbewusstsein.
Sprachkonzepte im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Linguistic concepts of the 17th and 18th centuries)
Gerda Haßler: hassler@uni-potsdam.de
Das 17. und 18. Jahrhundert wurden in der Geschichtsschreibung des sprachtheoretischen Denkens mit anspruchsvollen Charakteristika versehen. Kennzeichnungen des 17. Jahrhunderts als âge classique und des 18. Jahrhunderts als Jahrhundert der Sprachdiskussion sprechen für die Relevanz, die der Reflexion über Sprache, ihrer Normierung und ihrem Einfluss auf kognitive und soziale Handlungen zugeschrieben wurde. Gegenstand des Seminars sind sprachbezogene Konzepte, in denen sich das Sprachdenken des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts sowohl in synchroner Perspektive als auch in seiner Kontinuität gegenüber der Tradition, seiner epochenbezogenen Dynamik und als Konzeptualisierungsangebot für spätere Zeiträume darstellt. Dabei soll eine Bereite europäische Perspektive angestrebt werden, die die romanischen Länder, aber auch England, Deutschland, die Niederlande und Russland einschließt. Schwerpunkte sind Begriffe, die das Wesen, den Vergleich und Besonderheiten der Sprachen erfassen.
Historiografía de la lingüística española (History of Spanish linguistics)
Gerda Haßler: hassler@uni-potsdam.de
Trataremos de todas la épocas de la lingüística española desde Nebrija hasta el siglo XX.
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Theories of Language: Origins and Impact of German Philology
K. Arens: k.arens@mail.utexas.edu
This course will develop a profile for German philology as part of the general intellectual history of the late eighteenth century through the late nineteenth century. At the start of the emergence of a modern philosophy of language, we find Herder’s Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache, followed shortly by Humboldt’s work, Friedrich Schlegel’s work on “Hindi,” August Wilhelm Schlegel’s work on meter and rhyme, Fichte’s essay on “Sprache und Sprachfähigkeit,” and Steinthal’s work on the relation of psychology to a scientific study of language. These texts helped establish the fundamental questions of what was to become German philology: about usage, cognition, phonological, sociological, and syntactical pressure on language variation, and “inner” or “deep” structure of language. A later generation (Leskien, Schleicher, Osthoff, Brugmann, Paul– the latter three most closely identified as Neogrammarians) turned the earlier generation’s philosophies into a systematic science and university discipline — combining fieldwork (sources for their dialect geographies, editions, and language descriptions still partially in use today) with less-well- attended modifications of a theory of language use. Important in this context will also be the recent claim by O. Amsterdamska that questions the unified identity of a “Neogrammarian” approach to philology. Closer to the turn of the century, further modifications to the discipline of philology arose, where offshoot disciplines evolved from the well-publicized advances in philology proper (Bréal, Saussure, Wundt, Mach). The goal of this course is to read these texts in the contexts of the various disciplines from which they stemmed and to which they ultimately contributed — outlining a much broader picture of the role of philology/linguistics in the human sciences than is generally considered today. The full syllabus is available as a download.
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
History of Linguistic Thought (Part I)
Arleta Adamska-Sałaciak: arleta@ifa.amu.edu.pl
The lecture deals with the history of linguistic thought in the West, from ancient Greece up to the end of the eighteenth century. Recurrent themes are examined, such as the origin of language, the relationship between language, thought, and the world, attempts at language classification, or the place of the study of language vis-à-vis other disciplines. The interests peculiar to each period are looked at with the view towards assessing the achievements of that period in its own terms, as well as establishing their relevance for the later development of linguistics. Wherever possible, the presentation is based not only on secondary literature and commentaries, but also on original primary sources.
University College London, UK
Signs, Mind, and Society: Early Modern Debates on Language
This course explores early modern ways of thinking about language and its cognitive and social roles. After a brief survey of earlier discussions of the origins of language and linguistic conventionality, we shall analyse contrasting views of language in the seventeenth century (a passive expression of thought or a necessary tool for mental operations?). Special attention will be given to the problematic revival of the Epicurean history of language and civilisation in eighteenth-century essays on the emergence of human society, political institutions, and the arts. These works will be read with reference to contemporary accounts of deaf-mutes, early language acquisition, and the mental operations of feral children and indigenous overseas communities. The authors whose works will be discussed in this course include Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Condillac, Diderot, Rousseau, Hamann, and Herder.
This course is offered by Dr Avi S. Lifschitz on MA programmes at UCL and as part of the University of London’s MA in the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History.
University of Nottingham, UK
Cultivating the German Language 1500-2000 and German Through English Eyes
Nicola McLelland: nicola.mclelland@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor Nicola McLelland welcomes enquiries from students in all areas of her research, especially early modern linguistic thought, the history of foreign language teaching, and linguistic purism and patriotism in the Germanic languages. At final-year undergraduate level she teaches “Cultivating the German Language 1500-2000” and “German Through English Eyes”, which examines the history of teaching German as a foreign language in Britain and Ireland. Recent Masters students have investigated the construction of identity in German language textbooks of the Nazi era, and representations of the German language in textbooks for English learners in the 20th century. Professor McLelland also teaches on the MA in German studies core module on the relationship between language, nation and identity: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/clas/people/nicola.mclelland.