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By introducing the reader to the main issues and themes that have determined the development of the Western linguistic tradition, an evolution of linguistic thought quickly becomes apparent. Each chapter in this accessible book contains a short extract from a `landmark' text followed by a commentary which places the text in its social and intellectual context.The authors, who consider writers from Aristotle to Caxton to Saussure, have fully revised the original edition ofthis text. Complete with two new chapters on Bishop John Wilkins and Frege, a revised preface and updated bibliography, this book will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in the History of Linguistics, or the History of Western Thought.
List of contents
Chapter 1 Socrates on names; Chapter 2 Aristotle on metaphor; Chapter 3 The Bible on the origin and diversification of language; Chapter 4 Varro on linguistic regularity; Chapter 5 Quintilian on linguistic education; Chapter 6 Thomas of Erfurt on the modes of signifying; Chapter 7 Caxton on dialects; Chapter 8 The Port-Royal Grammar; Chapter 9 Wilkins on a real character; Chapter 10 Locke on the imperfection of words; Chapter 11 Condillac on the origin of language and thought; Chapter 12 Horne Tooke on etymological metaphysics; Chapter 13 Humboldt on linguistic and mental diversity; Chapter 14 Müller on linguistic evolution; Chapter 15 Frege on sense and reference; Chapter 16 Saussure on language and thought;
About the author
Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics in the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Language-Makers (1980), The Language Myth (1981), The Origin of Writing (1986), The Language Machine (1987), Reading Saussure (1987), Language, Saussure and Wittgenstein (1988), Signs of Writing (1995) and Signs, Language and Communication (1996). His award-winning translation of Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics was published in 1983.,
Talbot J. Taylor is L.G.T. Cooley Professor of English and Linguistics at the College of William and Mary, Virginia. He has published widely on language theory and the history of linguistic ideas. He is the author of Mutual Misunderstanding (1992) and Apes, Language and the Human Mind, with Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Stuart Shanker. He and Roy Harris are Co-Editors of the journal Language & Communication.
Summary
By introducing the reader to the main issues and themes that have determined the development of the Western linguistic tradition, an evolution of linguistic thought quickly becomes apparent.
