Subject: historical ling , history of ling

historical linguistics nostratic . sifting the evidence . joseph c . salmons and brian d . joseph ( eds ) 1998 vi , 293 pp . current issues in linguistic theory , 142 us / canada : cloth : 1 55619 597 4 price : us $ 75 . 00 rest of the world : cloth : 90 272 3646 1 price : nlg 150 . 00 the nostratic hypothesis positing a commonlingusitic ancestor for a wide range of language families including indo - european , uralic , and afro - asiatic has produced one of the most enduring and often intense controversies in linguistics . overwhelmingly , though , both supporters of the hypothesis and those who reject it have not dealt directly with one anothers arguments . this volume brings together selected representatives of both sides , as well as a number of agnostic historical linguists , with the aim of examining the evidence for this particular hypothesis in the context of distant genetic relationships generally . the volume contains discussions of variants of the nostratic hypothesis ( papers by a . bomhard , by j . greenberg , and one by a . manaster - ramer , k . baertsch , k . adams , & p . michalove ) , the mathematics of chance in determining the relationships posited for nostratic ( papers by r . oswalt and by d . ringe ) , and the evidence from particular branches posited in nostratic ( papers by l . campbell , by c . hodge , and by a . vovin ) with responses and additional discussion by e . hamp , b . vine , w . baxter and b . comrie . history of linguistics language and its functions . a historico-critical study of the pre-humanistic philology of bopp . translated by paul salmon , in consultation with anthony j . klijnsmit . pieter a . verburg1998 xxxiv , 534 pp . studies in the history of the language sciences , 84 us / canada : cloth : 1 55619 621 0 price : $ 110 . 00 rest of the world : cloth : 90 272 4572 x price : nlg 220 . 00 when pieter verburg ( 1905-1989 ) published taal en functionaliteit in 1952 , the work was received with admiration by linguistic scholars , though the number of those who could read the dutch text for themselves remained limited . the title alludes to the theories of linguistic function set out in 1936 by karl bhler , but verburg regards the three functions of discourse focusing respectively on the speaker , the person addressed and the matter discussed as no more than subfunctions of the human function of speech . his central concern is to explore the relationships between thought and language , and language and reality ; and the work sets out provide a historical analysis of views on these relationships in the period 1100-1800 . the great strength of the work lies in the way in which the views of language are related to contemporaneous moves in philosophy and science , contrasting essentially the mediaeval acceptance of authority , the beginnings of induction in the renaissance , the dependence of early rationalism on calculation based on axiomatic truths , and the further development of independent observation . all these trends are reflected in the way men thought about language , as well as in the way they used it . much has been written on the history of linguistics since this book was written , but it still offers a unique view of the development of thinking about language . john benjamins publishing web site : http : / / www . benjamins . com for further information via e-mail : service @ benjamins . com
