BOOK REVIEW
Concise History of the Language Sciences: From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists. Edited by E.F.K. Koerner and R.E. Asher. Oxford: Pergamon, 1995, xii, 497 pp. (Elsevier Science.) [ISBN 0-08-042580-1; $105, - hb.].
Reviewed by Brigitte Nerlich, University of Nottingham, UK [email protected]
This end of the 20th century is a good time to take stock of what has been done in the field of the language science and to assess in how far past insights can be used to rethink and inspire modern linguistic theories (the 'Seventh International Conference on the History of Linguistics' has just taken place in Oxford, 12-17 September, 1996). This 'Concise History' is a timely and a stimulating contribution to this debate. Up to now those interested in the history of the language sciences could choose either to sift through the information provided in various multi-volume histories of linguistics edited by Sylvain Auroux ('Histoire des idees linguistiques', Bruxelles: Mardaga, 1990ff, 2 vols. to date), Giulio C. Lepschy ('Storia della linguistica', Bologna: Il Mulino, 1991-1994, 3 vols.), and Peter Schmitter ('Geschichte der Sprachtheorie', Tubingen: Narr, 1987ff, 4 vols. to date, which includes a discussion of methodological questions) (see Editors' Foreword, p. xi), or to mix and match information contained in a long list of shorter volumes, which I shall enumerate in a little appendix. Now there is a third option available, which bridges the gap between the results of enormous teamwork efforts invested in the multi-volume projects and these more personal views of the history of linguistics. The 'Concise History of the Language Sciences' (CHoLS) is also the product of teamwork, but shorter than any of the others, and therefore more accessible and affordable. This book brings together the (in some cases revised) historical overviews which originally appeared in 'The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics' (published in 10 volumes in 1994 by Pergamon Press, Oxford), for which E.F.K. Koerner was subject editor for the History of Linguistics, and R.E. Asher, Editor-in-Chief. One Chapter, on the Hebrew Linguistic Tradition (David Tene, pp.21-28), is entirely new. CHoLS overlaps in some parts with the obviously less grammatically and more philosophically oriented volume 'Sprachphilosophie Philosophy of Language La philosophie du langage', edited by Marcelo Dascal et al. (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1992), and it replaces to some extend the 1975 'Historiography of Linguistics', edited by Thomas Sebeok as vol. 13 of 'Current Issues in Lingusitics' (The Hague: Mouton). CHoLS has been briefly reviewed by Peter Schmitter in 'Beitrage zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft' 6.1 (1996), 171-172. What distinguishes this history of linguistics from the up to now available shorter histories of linguistics is its almost global coverage. It goes well beyond the Eurocentric views that prevailed in some of the older historiographical accounts (it stays however somewhat Anglocentric as far as more contemporary linguistic traditions are concerned, as we shall see later on). And in giving more room to the 20th century, CHoLS supplements the multi-volume accounts mentioned above. CHoLS has 12 sections. In section I Konrad Koerner provides a useful overview of the field of the 'history of linguistics' and a judicious account of the various approaches to writing this history which have been developed since the 1960s, that is, the 'historiography of linguistics' (pp.3-16). Sections II to V are devoted to Antiquity. Section II focuses on the Babylonian, the Hebrew, and the Arabic linguistic traditions; section III on the Chinese and Japanese linguistic tradition, and the history of East Asian phonetics; section IV on linguistic theories developed in India (Paninian linguistics, Indian theories of meaning, Ancient Indian Phonetics, and the Tamil linguistic tradition); section V on Europe's classical linguistic tradition (Plato, Aristotle, Dionysius Thrax, Varro, the Roman language science, Apollonius Dyscolus, and the Roman Ars Grammatica, including Priscian). Section VI is devoted to European medieval grammar and language philosophy (the non-European Middle Ages had also been covered in section II). Section VII deals with European Renaissance linguistics in Italy, Spain and France (Germany is only mentioned in the overview that leads into this section, Keith Percival, pp.147-151). Section VIII covers the 17th and 18th century in Europe with the Port-Royal tradition of general grammar, universal language schemes in Britain, early historical and comparative studies in Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and German-speaking countries, the beginnings of comparative and historical studies in Britain, the origin of language debate, and finally, the discovery of Sanskrit by Europeans. Section IX deals with the main strands of 19th century linguistics (historical and comparative linguistics and language classification). Section X delves into 20th century linguistics (Saussure, Geneva School, neolinguistics in Italy, Prague School, Glossematics, Firth, systemic linguistics, Guillaume, valency grammar, functional grammar, American structuralism, post-Bloomfieldian phonology, tagmemics, stratificational grammar, transformational grammar, generative semantics, applicational grammar, case grammar, cognitive grammar). Section XI is devoted to special applications of linguistics in phonetics and translation. The book is rounded off by extensive indexes of subjects and names (with life-dates) and a list of contributors. Inevitably there are some gaps in this history, some of which have been pointed out by the editors (if space had permitted there could have been articles on early Tibetan grammarians, the Korean, Burmese and Old Javanese linguistic traditions and so on, cf. p. xi), some not. Any reader trying to find out more about the roots of certain branches of linguistics, such as traditional historical and more modern structural and cognitive semantics, semiotics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics or psycholinguistics, is left rather disappointed (Michel Breal and Antoine Meillet, to mention only two important French linguists of the late 19th and early 20th century, are only alluded to in the fine overview provided by John Joseph at the beginning of section X, pp.221-232). The section on the 19th century looks particularly meagre, compared to the amount that has been written about this century. There is nothing about the various philosophies of language developed during that century, not even about the most famous one of them, the philosophy of language developed in the circle surrounding Hamann, Herder, and Humboldt and their followers. And finally, and again inevitably, every reader will find their own special gaps in the 20th century section. The contributions are all of a very high standard and written by specialists. To mention just a few names from the 20th century section alone: Rene Amacker writes about the Geneva School, Frank Palmer about Firthian linguistics, M.A.K. Halliday about systemic theory, Andre Martinet about functional grammar, James McCawley about generative semantics, and Ronald Langacker about cognitive grammar. It is one of the great joys of reading this book to plunge into chapters that deal with remoter regions of the history of linguistics which are unfamiliar to the reader. The chapter devoted to the Arabic linguistic tradition (Yasir Suleiman, pp.28-38) and the one on Indian theories of meaning (Frits Staal, pp.66-71) were real eye openers to this reviewer. It is also a delight to find fresh, detailed and enlightening descriptions of already well charted territories, such as the linguistics developed in the later Middle Ages (Geoffrey Bursill-Hall, pp.130-136), and, even more so, of the history of comparative and of historical linguistics (both by N.E. Collinge, pp.195-212). However, this book should not only be read by those interested in the _history_ of the language sciences. The 20th century section in particular should be read by all those studying contemporary linguistics in order to grasp the _diversity_ of approaches that have been developed, that are currently being developed, and that still _can_ be developed in the future. They should also look at and compare with each other the various European and non-European traditions of linguistics, because (and here I quote loosely from a review article by Jonathan Owens) 'the commonalities between those traditions and the modern ones arise from the systematic analysis of language itself by humans. Through their comparison we can discern what is common and essential in linguistic theory. We may be dealing with many different traditions, but we are dealing with only one theoretical object' ('Historiographia Linguistica' 22:3 [1995], p.438). The volume has been edited very thoroughly (although one could be nit-picking and list a few names mentioned in the articles which do not occur in the index).
Appendix: Contemporary histories of linguistics (* = mentioned in Koerner's overview, pp.3-7)
Those interested in the history of linguistics can choose from *Hans Arens' pioneering 'Sprachwissenschaft' (Freiburg, Karl Albert, 1955), *Milka Ivic's 'Trends in Linguistics' (The Hague: Mouton, 1959), *Maurice Leroy's early 'Les grands courants de la linguistique moderne' (Univ. Press of Brussels, 1963), *Noam Chomsky's controversial but flood-gate-opening 'Cartesian Linguistics. A chapter in the history of rationalist thought' (New York, London: Harper & Row, 1966), *Robert H. Robins' traditional 'Short History of Linguistics' (London, Harlow: Longmans, 1st ed. 1967; 3rd ed. 1990), George Mounin's 'Histoire de la linguistique des origines au XXe siecle' (PUF, 1967), Gerhard Helbig's 'Geschichte der neueren Sprachwissenschaft' (Reinbeck: Rowohlt, 1970), Geoffrey Sampson's 'Schools of Linguistics. Competition and Evolution' (London, etc.: Hutchinson, 1980), T.A. Amirova et al.'s 'Abriss der Geschichte der Linguistik' (Leipzig: VEB Bibliographisches Institut, 1980), F.M. Beresin's 'Geschichte der sprachwissenschaftlichen Theorien' (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1980), Olga Amsterdamska's more limited 'Schools of Thought. The development of linguistics from Bopp to Saussure' (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987), *Bertil Malmberg's more ambitious 'Histoire de la linguistique: Sumer a Saussure' (PUF, 1990), Roy Harris & Talbot T. Taylor's selective 'Landmarks in Linguistic Thought. The Western Tradition from Socrates to Saussure' (London: Routledge, 1989), and Esa Itkonen's idiosynchratic 'Universal History of Linguistics. India. China, Arabia, Europe' (Amsterdam, Philadelphia, 1991).
Reviewer:
Brigitte Nerlich is a Research Fellow at the Department of Psychology, University of Nottingham, UK. She has published books on the history of semantics and pragmatics: 'Semantic Theories in Europe, 1830-1930. From etymology to contextuality' (1992), and (with David D. Clarke) 'Language, Action, and Context. The early history of pragmatics, 1780-1930' (1996). Both Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr Brigitte Nerlich, Department of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK; Phone 0115 951 5361 Ext 8341; FAX 0115 951 5324 email: [email protected] http://www.psyc.nott.ac.uk/met/metaphor.html
[LINGUIST note: This work is also reviewed by:
Andrew Robert Linn in _Historiographia Linguistica_ 23:1/2 (1996), 194-199.]
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