Book review
Last Papers in Linguistic Historiography. By E. F. K. Koerner (Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 128).
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2020. 214 pp. ISBN 9789027207364 € 105,00 (HB) DOI logo

Reviewed by Cristina Altman
University of São Paulo
Table of contents

It is a tradition that from time to time the great John Benjamins editor E. F. Konrad Koerner puts together a selection of his previously published papers, in many cases significantly extended, and assembles them in a single volume. This was the case with Koerner 1978a, 1989, 1995, 1999, 2004, and it is the case now: 2020 Last Papers is the most recent member of this cast. It follows the general organization of its predecessors, methodological and epistemological considerations about the discipline precede individual scholars’ studies. The first part, “Positions and problems in the History of Linguistics” (1–93), reviews issues underpinning Historiography of Linguistics (HoL) both as a scientific project and as an autonomous discipline. It also projects HoL into the future: new lines of research could expand interest in the discipline, notably those related to language and ideology. The second part, “Studies concerning the work of individual scholars” (95–210), revisits Koerner’s old passions, here including both his favourite heroes as well as his favourite enemies: August Schleicher (1821–1868), Baudouin de Courtenay (1845–1929), Hermann Paul (1846–1921), Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and, to the surprise of those who know his preferences, Mikhail Mikhajlovič Bakhtin (1895–1975), alias Baxtin. As always, extensive and valuable bibliographies go along with each text, the solid basis on which Koerner built his well-deserved reputation of an accurate researcher, a respectable (and demanding) editor and the incredible serial author of hundreds of papers and books throughout fifty years of professional activity, if we consider as the starting point his 1971 thesis on the origins and developments of Saussurian Linguistics (v. Koerner 1973 [1971]).

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