History of Ideas on Language
Linguistics Tripos Part II: Paper 12
MML Tripos Part II: Paper Li.12
This paper will be suspended in the academic years 2012/13 and 2013/14
Paper Coordinator: Professor Wendy Bennett (wmb1001@cam.ac.uk)
Past and specimen exam papers, examiners' reports, full reading lists and lecture handouts are available from the Linguistics Resources on CamTools.
Aims of the course
- To consider the description and analysis of language and languages, situating this within the broader cultural and intellectual history of the period, including its Classical foundations
- To discuss methodological issues and what it means to do the history of linguistics
Scope of the course
- Focus on the period c.1500-1900, broadly from the Renaissance to Saussure
- History of ideas on language in Western Europe, concentrating predominantly on England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy
- Students to work with source documents, reading the material in the original language whenever possible, but good translations of key texts and anthologies and readers are readily available.
Proposed lecture schedule
The lecture schedule will include the following topics:
- Approaches to the history of linguistics: methodological and theoretical issues
- The Classical background
- Early vernacular grammars
- Language planning and standardisation
- Universal grammar
- Lexicography
- Theories of the origin of language
- The birth of comparative and historical linguistics
Teaching
There will be sixteen lectures in total, eight in Michaelmas Term and eight in Lent Term. All students will be offered three supervisions in the Michaelmas Term, four in the Lent Term and a revision supervision in the Easter Term. Supervisions will be organised centrally.
Examination
This course is assessed through a three-hour written examination. Past examination papers are available from the Linguistics Resources on CamTools. The paper is divided into two sections: students are required to answer three questions, at least one from Section A and one from Section B.
Preliminary Reading
- Allan, K., The Western Tradition in Linguistics, London: Equinox, 2007.
- Robins, R. H., A Short History of Linguistics, 4th edition, London: Longman, 1997.
- Seuren, P. A. M., Western Linguistics. An Historical Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
Go to other Part II Linguistics papers:
- Linguistic Theory (Linguistics Tripos Part IIB only)
- Phonetics
- Phonology and Morphology
- Syntax
- Semantics and Pragmatics
- Historical Linguistics
- History of the French Language
- First and Second Language Acquisition
- Psychology of Language Processing and Learning
- Language Typology
