LINGUIST List 29.3018
Thu Jul 26 2018
Books: René de Saussure and the theory of word formation: Anderson, Saussure (eds.)
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Date: 19-Jul-2018
From: Sebastian Nordhoff <Sebastian.Nordhoff
langsci-press.org>
Subject: René de Saussure and the
theory of word formation: Anderson, Saussure (eds.)
E-mail this message to a friend Title: René de Saussure and
the theory of word formation
Series Title: Classics in Linguistics
Published: 2018
Publisher: Language Science Press
http://langsci-press.org
Book URL:
http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/199
Editor: Stephen R. Anderson
Editor: Louis de Saussure
Electronic: ISBN: 9783961100965 Pages:
259 Price: Europe EURO 0 Comment: Open Access
Abstract:
This volume presents two works
elaborating a general theory of words and their structure written by René de Saussure, younger brother
of Ferdinand de Saussure. Although originating in René de Saussure's concerns for the structure of
Esperanto, these essays are clearly intended to articulate a general account of word formation in
natural language. They appear here in the French original with facing English translations, accompanied
by some remarks on René de Saussure's life and followed by essays on the Esperantist background of his
analysis (by Marc van Oostendorp), the contemporary relevance of his morphological theory (by Stephen
Anderson), and the semantic theory of words underlying his analysis (by Louis de Saussure). These two
works have remained essentially unknown to the community of scholars in general linguistics since their
publication in 1911 and 1919, respectively, although Esperantists have been aware of them. They develop
in quite explicit form a theory of what would later be called morphemic analysis, based primarily on
data from French (with some material from German and English, as well as occasional examples from other
Indo-European languages). In its fundamental aspect, René's view of word formation differed
significantly from that of his brother, who saw the structure of complex words as revealed not through
their decomposition into smaller "atomic" units but rather in the relations between words, relations
which could be presented in analogical form and which anticipate rule-based theories of morphological
structure. The contrast between the two brothers' views thus anticipates basic issues in current
theorizing about word structure.
Linguistic Field(s): History of Linguistics
Morphology
Written In: English (eng)
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Page Updated: 26-Jul-2018