This essay was written in 1878 by I. Goldziher, who is considered one of the founders and greatest masters of Islamic studies in Europe. He examines the origin and early history of Arabic grammar and some features of its later development with special regard to the cultural historical apsects of the question. Goldziher draws a picture of the most important trends and attitudes in the Arabic linguistics of the Middle Ages. The author's comprehensive historical approach enables him to integrate small, seemingly unconnected pieces into a whole system, fitting into our knowledge of other fields of Islamic culture and science. That is why his work may interest not only specialists of Arab linguistics but also historians of general linguistics and historians of Islam. Although a century and a quarter elapsed since its publication in Hungarian Goldziher's essay still has not become outdated, since no similar work has been published. The original text has been supplemented with amendments and explanations, a comprehensive and updated bibliography has also been added, together with an appendix (the original texts of the citations) and two indices.

This volume presents papers given at the second Symposium on the History of Arabic Grammar (Nijmegen, 1987). The subject has many aspects and invites many different approaches, which might roughly be categorized into three main groupings, viz. treatments of individual grammarians, examinations of particular grammatical topics, and analysis of medieval concepts from the perspective of contemporary linguistics.

The present volume brings together the author's most recent thinking on the tasks and methods of linguistic historiography and his critical assessment of the legacy of a number of major 20th-century scholars. Some of the chapters are revisions of previously published articles, which together with new materials have been welded into a coherent volume.

Leading scholars examine the history of linguistics from ancient origins to the present. They consider every aspect of the field from language origins to neurolinguistics, explore the linguistic traditions in different parts of the world, examine how work in linguistics has influenced other fields, and look at how it has been practically applied

Grammatical description and instruction have left their enduring imprint on European scholarship and culture. For more than twenty centuries, grammar has been the cornerstone of humanist education, and has been transmitted continuously, albeit in changing - chronologically, geographically, politically, and institutionally - contexts. The papers in this volume document the transmission, adaptation and re-elaboration of grammar, since Antiquity, by focusing on its foundational concepts and techniques. The vectors of these processes of transmission and adaptation are texts, and behind these texts, we can reconstruct networks of interaction: between teachers and students, between scholars and models of description, and - as the overarching dynamics - the dialogue between the members of the "virtual community" interested in the study of language. The seventeen papers of this volume have been arranged into six sections: "Grammar: The Fate of a Cultural Discipline"; "The Origins of Linguistic Reflection in Ancient Greece"; "Ancient Greek grammar: Theorization and Practice"; "Latin Grammar in Antiquity and the Low Middle Ages: Heritage and Innovation"; "Renaissance Grammar and Rhetoric: The Encounter between Classical Languages and the Vernaculars"; "Philological Deposits of Ancient Latin Grammars"). The volume is rounded off with detailed indices (Index of names; Index of Greek, Latin, and Latinized technical terms; Index of concepts).

Beginning with the anthropological linguistic 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: * The sources of the 'Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis' * Leonard Bloomfield and the Cours de linguistique générale * The 'Chomskyan Revolution' and its Historiography * 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.

This volume offers a ground-breaking investigation into women's contribution to the description, analysis, and codification of languages across a wide range of linguistic and cultural traditions. The chapters explore a variety of spheres of activity, from the production of dictionaries and grammars to language teaching methods and language policy.

Francisco Varo's "Arte de la Lengua Mandarina," completed ca. 1680, is the earliest published grammar of any spoken form of Chinese and the fullest known description of the standard language of the seventeenth century. It establishes beyond doubt that this "Language of the Mandarins" was not Pekingese or Peking-based but had instead a Jiang-Huai or Nankingese-like phonology. It also provides important information about the nature and formation of pre-modern standard forms of Chinese and will lead to revisions of currently held views on Chinese koines and their relationship with regional speech forms and the received vernacular literature. Finally, it provides a wealth ot information on stylistic speech levels, honorific usage, and social customs of the elite during the early Qing period.The book provides a full translation of the 1703 text of the "Arte," an extensive introduction to the life and work of Varo, an index of Chinese characters inserted into the translation, and an index of linguistic terms and concepts. It should be of interest to a diverse readership of Chinese historical, comparative, and descriptive linguists, students of Qing history and literature, historiographers of linguistics, and specialists in early Western religious and cultural contact with China.