Review article
Traditions, innovations, and connections in writing the history of linguistics

Toon Van Hal
University of Leuven
Table of contents

Among historians of linguistics, the thirteenth International Conference of the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS XIII) in Vila Real (Portugal) will be recalled as a well attended and splendidly organized conference. This edition of the triennial event resulted in two substantial volumes with selected papers, a SIHoLS volume as well as a Nodus volume, both of which were published only two years after the conference. Anyone taking on the task of reviewing ICHoLS proceedings is immediately confronted with the immense breadth of our field, which calls for modesty on the reviewer’s part. The contributions included (60 in total) are highly diverse, not only in terms of topics, languages and periods dealt with or approaches chosen, but also (although less significantly) in terms of quality. It is fair to say that a small minority of the contributions lack sufficient depth of analysis, or fail to refer to secondary sources other than previous scholarship written by the same author. On the other hand, it would be absurd to pretend that I could critically evaluate the essays in these two volumes with any great expertise. Instead of spelling out any weaknesses I might detect in fields that happen not to be too remote from my own ‘comfort zone’, I will mainly limit my evaluative remarks to taking a critical look at the shape of our field in its entirety as reflected in these volumes. As a matter of fact, both volumes elicit a different kind of review, in that they invite the reader to reflect on the state of, and trends within, the present-day historiography of linguistics.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Armitage, David & Jo Guldi
2015 “For an ‘Ambitious History’”. Annales Histoire, Sciences Sociales 70.367–378. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Betti, A. & H. van den Berg
2016 “Towards a Computational History of Ideas”. Proceedings of the Third Conference on Digital Humanities in Luxembourg with a Special Focus on Reading Historical Sources in the Digital Age.. Available at: https://​research​.vu​.nl​/en​/publications​/towards​-a​-computational​-history​-of​-ideas [Acessed March 4, 2019].
Coseriu, Eugenio & Reinhard Meisterfeld
2003 Geschichte der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft: von den Anfängen bis 1492. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
David G. Butt
2008 “Whiteheadian and Functional Linguistics”. Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought, ed. by Michel Weber and Will Desmond. Frankfurt & Lancaster: Ontos Verlag, vol. II, 21–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davidse, Kristin
2018 “A tribute to M. A. K. Halliday (1925–2018)”. Functions of Language 25.205–228. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Edelstein, Dan
2016 “Intellectual history and digital humanities”. Modern Intellectual History 13.237–246. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Färber, Michael, Basil Ell, Carsten Menne & Achim Rettinger
2015 “A Comparative Survey of DBpedia, Freebase, OpenCyc, Wikidata, and YAGO”. Semantic Web 1:1–5.1–26. Available at: http://​www​.semantic​-web​-journal​.net​/system​/files​/swj1141​.pdf. [Accessed November 12, 2019].
Grotsch, Klaus
1982 Sprachwissenschaftsgeschichtsschreibung. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik und zur historischen und methodologischen Selbstvergewisserung der Disziplin. Göppingen: Kümmerle.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guldi, Jo & David Armitage
2014 The History Manifesto. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://​www​.cambridge​.org​/core​/what​-we​-publish​/open​-access​/the​-history​-manifesto.
Hammarström, Harald, Robert Forkel, Martin Haspelmath & Sebastian Bank
2016 Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Available at: http://​glottolog​.org
Haßler, Gerda
2020 “The Functional-Communicative Approach to Language of the Potsdam School in the German Democratic Republic: The Genesis and Demise of a Paradigm”. History of Humanities 5.1. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haßler, Gerda & Cordula Neis
2009 Lexikon sprachtheoretischer Grundbegriffe des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hüllen, Werner
ed. 1990 Understanding the Historiography of Linguistics. Problems and Projects. Münster: Nodus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell
1983 “Notes toward a History of Linguistic Anthropology.” Essays in the History of Linguistic Anthropology, ed. by Dell Hymes, 1–57. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klifman, Harm
1982 “De geschiedschrijving van de taalkunde als methodologisch probleem, toegepast op de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taalkunde”. Leuvense bijdragen 71:1.105–124.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koerner, E. F. K.
ed. 1989 Practicing Linguistic Historiography. Selected Essays. (= Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 50.) Amsterdam: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008 Universal Index of Biographical Names in the Language Sciences. (= Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 113.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004 “On the Place of Linguistic Historiography within the Sciences of Language, Again.” Essays in the History of Linguistics, ed. by E. F. K. Koerner, 3–17. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kukenheim, Louis
1951 Contributions à l’histoire de la grammaire grecque, latine et hébraïque à l’époque de la Renaissance. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Law, Vivien
2003 The History of Linguistics in Europe. From Plato to 1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiltz, Michael, Frederik Truyen & Hans Coppens
2007 “Cutting the Trees of Knowledge. Social Software, Information Architecture and Their Epistemic Consequence”. Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology 89.94–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmitter, Peter
1982 Untersuchungen zur Historiographie der Linguistik. Struktur – Methodik – theoretische Fundierung. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmitter, Peter & Marijke J. van der Wal
eds. 1998 Metahistoriography. Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of the Historiography of Linguistics. Münster: Nodus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmitz, H. Walter
Sprachwissenschaftler und die Historiographie ihrer Wissenschaft”. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 20.1–16.
Schreyer, Rüdiger
2000 “Conference report [What’s Wrong with the Historiography of Linguistics?]”. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 10.205–208.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simone, Raffaele
1975 “Théorie linguistique et l’histoire de la linguistique”. Historiographia Linguistica 2.353–378. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swiggers, Pierre
2010 “History and Historiography of Linguistics; Status, Standards and Standing”. Eutomia. Revista de Literatura e Linguística 6. Available at: https://​periodicos​.ufpe​.br​/revistas​/EUTOMIA​/article​/view​/1702​/1288. [Accessed November 12, 2019].
2017 “Linguistic historiography: a metatheoretical synopsis”. Todas as Letras Revista de Língua e Literatura 19. Available at: http://​editorarevistas​.mackenzie​.br​/index​.php​/tl​/article​/view​/10471​/6605 [Accessed July 25, 2019].
Swiggers, Pierre, Piet Desmet & Lieve Jooken
1998 “Metahistoriography Meets (Linguistic) Historiography.” Metahistoriography. Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of the Historiography of Linguistics, ed. by Peter Schmitter & Marijke J. van der Wal, 29–59. Münster: Nodus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tavoni, Mirko, John L. Flood, Pierre Lardet, Gerda Hassler et al.
eds. 2009 Renaissance Linguistics Archive (1.0). Online Publication of the Bibliographic Repertorium of Secondary Literature (1870–1999). Potsdam: Universitätsverlag Potsdam. Available at: http://​opus​.kobv​.de​/ubp​/volltexte​/2009​/3206/
Taylor, Daniel J.
2011 “Rewriting the History of the Language Sciences in Classical Antiquity.” History of Linguistics 2008, ed. by Gerda Hassler, 109–128. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue