Tenchini, Maria Paola & Savina Raynaud, ed. 2024. Insights Into the History of Linguistics. Selected Papers From ICHOLS XV. Sesto San Giovanni: MIM Edizioni Srl (Literature/Language, 4). 194 p. ISBN 9788869774553
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This volume collects a selection of papers concerning the history of linguistics spanning the centuries from the 17th to the 20th. These contributions were presented and debated at ICHoLS XV (Milan, 23 – 27 August 2021). The essays focus on various contexts across the modern and contemporary ages in Europe, Asia, and the United States. This collection offers an accurate exploration of linguistic topics and metalinguistic traditions across diverse historical and geographical settings.
Häberlein, Mark & Andreas Flurschütz da Cruz, ed. 2024. Die Sprachen der Frühen Neuzeit Europäische und globale Perspektiven. Köln: Böhlau. 674 p. ISBN 978-3-412-53081-5
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Die Frühe Neuzeit war in sprachlicher Hinsicht von komplexen, mitunter gegenläufigen Entwicklungen geprägt. Der Hochschätzung der alten Sprachen in Bildung und Gelehrsamkeit stand der Aufstieg der modernen Sprachen gegenüber, die sich in Kanzleien, Korrespondenzen, diplomatischen Beziehungen und schließlich auch in der Wissenschaftskommunikation durchsetzten. Die Verfestigung nationaler Identitäten stand in einem Spannungsverhältnis zur weiten Verbreitung von Multilingualität. Das Erlernen lebender Fremdsprachen war lange kein allgemeines Bildungsziel, wurde jedoch aus standes- und gruppenspezifischen Motiven rege praktiziert. Sprachlicher Prestigewettstreit sowie Bemühungen um sprachliche Vereinheitlichung gingen mit umfangreichen Übersetzungsleistungen einher. Als Ergebnis der 14. Arbeitstagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Frühe Neuzeit im Verband der Historikerinnen und Historiker Deutschlands präsentiert der Band aktuelle Forschungen zu Sprachgebrauch, Sprachwandel und Mehrsprachigkeit vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert.
Lehmann, Christian. 2024. Ten Lectures on Grammaticalization. An Introduction. Leiden: Brill (Distinguished Lectures in Cognitive Linguistics, 33). 208 p. ISBN 978-90-04-69270-1
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On the basis of analyzed examples from many languages, basic concepts of grammaticalization theory are explained. Grammaticalization is delimited against other types of variation and change. Degrees of grammaticalization are assessed by well-defined criteria and parameters. Many well-documented cases from different functional domains are analyzed in depth. Issues of directionality are settled on a theoretical basis. The cognitive bases of grammaticalization are identified.
Minervini, Laura & Frank Savelsberg, ed. 2024. New Perspectives on Judeo-Spanish and the Linguistic History of the Sephardic Jews. Leiden: Brill (Brill’s Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture, 41). 350 p. ISBN 978-90-04-68506-2.
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At the intersection of Jewish studies and linguistic research, the essays assembled in this book approach the topic of the languages of Sephardic Jews from different perspectives, spanning chronologically from the Middle Ages to the present day. Drawing on diverse sources – from medical glossaries to inquisition archives, from rabbinic responsa to recordings of today’s speakers – the scholars collaborating on this project have endeavoured to reconstruct fragments of a complex and elusive linguistic reality, which over the centuries has been shaped by the historical experience of its speakers. An innovative collection of rigorously conducted synchronic and diachronic studies that contributes to expanding our knowledge and opening new perspectives on crucial issues, such as the effects of contact on the linguistic structures, the possibility of a norm for polycentric languages, the relationship between the lexicon of a language and the vitality of its speech community.
Érasme de Rotterdam, Désiré. 2024. De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione dialogus. Édition, traduction et commentaire. Édition par Christine Bénévent, Geneviève Clerico, Bernard Colombat & Colette Nativel. Traduction par Jacques Chomarat. Paris: Droz (Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance, DCLVIII). 488 p. ISBN 978-2-600-06541-2
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« Ah ! si le genre humain tout entier pouvait ne parler que deux langues ! », à savoir le grec et le latin, soupirent les deux interlocuteurs du De recta pronuntiatione, un lion et un ours particulièrement érudits. Sous couvert d’un dialogue animalier, Érasme aborde des enjeux cruciaux aussi bien en son temps qu’aujourd’hui : comment faire du latin et du grec des langues toujours vivantes, des langues qui permettraient à tous les hommes de bonne volonté de communiquer ensemble, quelle que soit leur origine ? Il faut pour ce faire restaurer une prononciation correcte – celle que l’on qualifie, encore aujourd’hui, d’« érasmienne ». Le dialogue entre Leo, désireux que son lionceau ait « l’air d’un véritable petit d’homme », et Ursus est un prétexte à une réflexion plus vaste sur l’éducation, mais aussi à un panorama amplement informé des prononciations nationales contemporaines. Sous des dehors techniques, se révèlent des enjeux profondément éthiques, mais aussi un témoignage exceptionnel sur les pratiques orales de la Renaissance.
Neis, Cordula, ed. 2024. Language and Language Awareness in the History of Linguistics — Sprache und Sprachbewusstsein in der Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft. Münster: Nodus Publikationen. 440 p. ISBN 978-3-89323-031-0
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This volume emerged from a conference on “Language and language awareness in the history of linguistics”, which took place from 8th-11th June 2022 at the Europa Universität-Flensburg (Germany). As can be seen from this collection of contributions, a broad spectrum of topics is covered, ranging from studies on the linguistic heritage of antiquity to those dealing with current issues, focusing primarily on the European language area and to a smaller extent the non-European language area. Among the variety of topics observed, linguistic apologetics of various epochs in the context of linguistic discourse as well as the impact of foreign language teaching on language awareness or the use of certain linguistic forms in relation to linguistic awareness will be taken into consideration.
Hamans, Camiel & Hans Henrich Hock, ed. 2024. Language, History, Ideology. The Use and Misuse of Historical-Comparative Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 384 p. ISBN 9780198827894
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This volume presents twelve in-depth case studies that critically examine the ways in which historical linguistics and language change interact with ideology. These varying interactions have been present since the birth of historical-comparative linguistics as a field of study. Work in historical linguistics may be appropriated or rejected for ideological reasons, most notably in the debates surrounding the Indo-European homeland; it can also by influenced by ideological biases, as in the ‘alternative’ histories that have been proposed for Moldovan and Maltese. The development of linguistically-defined nation states may itself fuel linguistic change, for instance through the suppression of minority languages or the division of existing languages to mirror political divisions, as occurred in the Balkans; or it may lead to the formulation of pseudo-histories designed to give a nation a more prestigious past. The book will be of interest not only to historical linguists but also to anthropologists, historians, and all those interested in language policy.
Sampson, Geoffrey. 2024. Structural Linguistics in the 21st Century. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 262. p. ISBN 978-1-0364-1259-3
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This book is a sequel to Geoffrey Sampson’s well-received textbook Schools of Linguistics. Linguistics changed around the millennium; the advent of cheap air travel and the internet meant that geographical distance ceased to be a barrier to scholarly interaction, so new developments are no longer grouped into separate “schools” located in different places. Consequently, the best way to show how linguistics is flowering in our time is through a sampler displaying individual examples of recent advances. Sampson offers such a sampler, describing two dozen of the most interesting innovations in the subject to have emerged in the present century. And he includes a few looks back at how the approaches described in Schools of Linguistics panned out in the closing years of the old century, before they evolved into—or made way for—today’s more realistic and more diverse linguistics.