Overview

1924 was the year of the founding of the Linguistic Society of America, the year when linguistics in America was beginning to become professionalized and no longer the domain of philologists or amateur students of language. From an initial consideration of seventeenth-century missionary study of indigenous languages, Toward a History of American Linguistics goes on to focus mainly on the ideas of scholars who dominated linguistic thinking post-1924. Beginning with the anthropological linguistics tradition associated primarily with the names of Franz Boas, Edward Sapir and their students and concluding with the work of Noam Chomsky and William Labov at the end of the century, this book offers a comprehensive account of essential periods and areas of research in the history of American Linguistics and also addresses contemporary debates and issues within linguistics. Topics covered include: * On the sources of the 'Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis' * Leonard Bloomfield and the Cours de linguistique generale * The 'Chomskyan Revolution' and its Historiography * On the Origins of Morphophonemics in American Linguistics * William Labov and the origins of Sociolinguistics in America. Toward a History of American Linguistics will be invaluable reading for academics and advanced students within the fields of linguistics and the history of linguistics.

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9780415300605

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Reviews

Koerner's various essays assemble a considerable record of historiographic scholarship on American linguistics by American linguists.. <br>-Regna Darnel, Journal of the History of Behavioral sciences, 2004 <br>

Koerner's various essays assemble a considerable record of historiographic scholarship on American linguistics by American linguists.. -Regna Darnel, Journal of the History of Behavioral sciences, 2004

Author Information

E.F.K. Koerner is on the faculty at Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung, Berlin, Germany.

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