8.635, Books: History of Linguistics

Wed Apr 30 16:50:10 UTC 1997

LINGUIST List:  Vol-8-635. Wed Apr 30 1997. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 8.635, Books: History of Linguistics

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Editor for this issue: Susan Robinson <sue at linguistlist.org>
 ==========================================================================

Additional information on the following books, as well as a short
backlist of the publisher's titles, is available at the end of this
issue.

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New Books from JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING

HISTORY OF LINGUISTICS:

THE WHORF THEORY COMPLEX. A CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION
Penny Lee
1996 x, 324 pp.  Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 81
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 618 0  Price: $79.00
Paper: 1 55619 619 9  Price: $29.95
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 4569 X  Price: 140,--
Paper: 90 272 4570 3  Price: 60,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: service at benjamins.com

At last - a comprehensive account of the ideas of Benjamin Lee Whorf
which not only explains the nature and logic of the linguistic
relativity principle but also situates it within a larger 'theory
complex' delineated in fascinating detail. Whorf's almost unknown
unpublished writings (as well as his published papers) are drawn on to
show how twelve elements of theory interweave in a sophisticated
account of relations between language, mind, and experience.
The role of language in cognition is revealed as a central concern,
some of his insights having interesting affinity with modern
connectionism. Whorf's gestaltic 'isolates' of experience and meaning,
crucial to understanding his reasoning about linguistic relativity,
are explained. A little known report written for the Yale anthropology
department is used extensively and published for the first time as an
appendix.
With the Whorf centenary in 1997, this book provides a timely
challenge to those who take pleasure in debunking his ideas without
bothering to explore their subtlety or even reading them in their
original form.

LANGUAGE, ACTION AND CONTEXT. THE EARLY HISTORY OF PRAGMATICS IN
EUROPE AND AMERICA
Brigitte Nerlich & David C. Clarke (University of Nottingham)
1996  xiv, 497 pp.  Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 80
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 616 4  Price: US$115.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 4567 3  Price: Hfl. 200,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: service at benjamins.com

The roots of pragmatics reach back to Antiquity, especially to
rhetoric as one of the three liberal arts. However, until the end of
the 18th century proto-pragmatic insights tended to be consigned to
the pragmatic, that is rhetoric, wastepaper basket and thus excluded
from serious philosophical consideration.
It can be said that pragmatics was conceived between 1780 and 1830 in
Britain, but also in Germany and in France in post-Lockian and
post-Kantian philosophies of language. These early 'conceptions' of
pragmatics are described in the first part of the book.
The second part of the book looks at pragmatic insights made between
1830 and 1880, when they were once more relegated to the philosophical
and linguistic underground. The main stage was then occupied by a
fact-hunting historical comparative linguistics on the one hand and a
newly spiritualised philosophy on the other.
In the last part the period between 1880 and 1930 is presented, when
pragmatic insights flourished and were sought after
systematically. This was due in part to a new upsurge in empiricism,
positivism and later behaviourism in philosophy, linguistics and
psychology. Between 1780 and 1930 philosophers, psychologists,
sociologists and linguists came to see that language could only be
studied in the context of dialogue, in the context of human life and
finally as being a kind of human action itself.

LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND. SELECTED ESSAYS 1982-1994.
Vivian Salmon (Keble College, Oxford)
1996 viii, 276 pp.  Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 77
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 613 X  Price: US$79.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 4564 9  Price: Hfl. 140,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: service at benjamins.com

This volume brings together twelve previously published articles, many
of them thoroughly revised, highlighting three of Professor Salmon's
most productive interests:
1. Surveys of 16th- and 17th-Century Linguistic Scholarship,
2. The Study of Universal and Individual Traits of Language,
3. Language Learning and Language Instruction.
The volume also contains a bibliography of Salmon's writings, 1988 -
1996, and is completed by an index of biographical names and an index
of subjects and terms.

DE LINGUA LATINA X. A NEW CRITICAL TEXT AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION WITH
PROLEGOMENA AND COMMENTARY
Daniel J. Taylor
1996  x, 205 pp.  Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 85
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 622 9  Price: $64.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 4573 8  Price: Hfl. 110,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: service at benjamins.com

De Lingua Latina X has never been so courageously edited nor so
daringly translated as in this long-awaited sequel to Taylor's
Declinatio (SiHoLS 2). The editor's intimate familiarity with both the
extant archetype and Varro's unique linguistic theory and practice
make this volume indispensable for an understanding of LL X, one of
the most important texts in the entire corpus of Latin grammatical
writings. The stimulating Prolegomena introduce Varro, his
revolutionary language science, book ten, and both the manuscript and
the editorial traditions, and the Commentary explains in absorbing
detail how and why the editor has set the text as he has. The world's
foremost Varro scholar of this day has successfully combined classical
philology and the history of linguistics to produce an inspired new
edition and novel translation of book ten of Varro's magnum opus.

- ------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony P. Schiavo Jr              Tel: (215) 836-1200
Publicity/Marketing                Fax: (215) 836-1204
John Benjamins North America       e-mail: tony at benjamins.com
PO Box 27519
Philadelphia PA  19118-0519

Check out the John Benjamins web site at
http://www.benjamins.com

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 -----------------------Publisher's backlists-----------------------

The following contributing LINGUIST publishers have made their
backlists available on the World Wide Web:

Blackwells:
	http://linguistlist.org/pubs/blackwell.html
Cascadilla Press:
	http://www.cascadilla.com/
Cornell University Linguistics Dept:
	http://linguistlist.org/pubs/cornell.html
CSLI Publications:
	http://csli-www.stanford.edu/publications/
John Benjamins:
	http://www.benjamins.nl
	OR
	http://www.benjamins.com
Kluwer Academic Publishers:
	http://kapis.www.wkap.nl/kapis/CGI-BIN/WORLD/hierarchy.htm?H+0+
	0+0+NOTHING+COMBINED
Lawrence Erlbaum:
	http://www.erlbaum.com/inform.htm
MIT Working papers in Linguistics:
	http://broca.mit.edu/mitwpl.web/WPLs.html
U. of Massachusetts Graduate Linguistics Association:
	http://linguistlist.org/pubs/glsa.html
Pacific Linguistics Publications:
	http://linguistlist.org/pubs/pacific.html
Summer Institute of Linguistics:
	http://www.sil.org/acpub/catalog/catalog.html

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LINGUIST List: Vol-8-635