The natural: Its meanings and functions in the history of linguistic thought
-
John E. Joseph
Abstract
Attempts at distinguishing one part of language from another on the basisof naturalness, or certain other criteria that recapitulate the dichotomy of something that is grounded versus something that is not, can be regarded as normative, and ultimately tautological. A historical continuity exists linking such attempts across the centuries, despite changes in terminology and shifts in the balance of the sometimes contradictory conceptions of what in language is natural. This paper examines the history of eleven conceptual features traditionally associated with linguistic naturalness: mimesis, orality, physicality, rationality, simplicity, unplannedness, rusticity, musicality, purity, systematicity and efficiency. The aim is to uncover some of the underlying methodological and ideological assumptions of modern linguistics by examining how these concepts have been deployed. This offers a way forward beyond the limits which the implicit tautology has imposed upon our explanatory and analytic imaginations.
Abstract
Attempts at distinguishing one part of language from another on the basisof naturalness, or certain other criteria that recapitulate the dichotomy of something that is grounded versus something that is not, can be regarded as normative, and ultimately tautological. A historical continuity exists linking such attempts across the centuries, despite changes in terminology and shifts in the balance of the sometimes contradictory conceptions of what in language is natural. This paper examines the history of eleven conceptual features traditionally associated with linguistic naturalness: mimesis, orality, physicality, rationality, simplicity, unplannedness, rusticity, musicality, purity, systematicity and efficiency. The aim is to uncover some of the underlying methodological and ideological assumptions of modern linguistics by examining how these concepts have been deployed. This offers a way forward beyond the limits which the implicit tautology has imposed upon our explanatory and analytic imaginations.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements ix
- The natural: Its meanings and functions in the history of linguistic thought 1
- On grammatical gender as an arbitrary and redundant category 24
- Penser l'espace, penser l'espèce: Modélisation des affinités linguistiques 37
- On the origins of the participle as a part of speech 50
- Grammar as a liberal art in antiquity 67
- Priscian's pedagogy: A critique of the Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo 80
- L'horizon de retrospection du Mithridate de Conrad Gessner (1555) 89
- Montaigne's view of skepticism and language in the Essais 103
- Competing models for a 17th century universal language: A study of the dispute between George Dalgarno and John Wilkins 112
- La notion d'unité sonore dans les grammaires françaises des 17ème et 18ème siècles 120
- Une "Grammaire générale et raisonnée" en 1651 (1635?): Description et intérpretation d'une découverte empirique 131
- 'Analogy': The history of a concept and a term from the 17th to the 19th century 156
- Une écriture de l'histoire: La Lettre à M. Pinglin sur l'histoire de la science grammaticale 169
- Quels facteurs (linguistiques ou historiques) considérer dans l'accord en français? Étude de certains cas dans le Journal de la langue française (1784) d'Urbain Domergue 183
- Nicolas Beauzée: La clé inexploitée de la phonétique française 197
- Colonialism, scientific expeditions and linguistics in 19th century Brazil 212
- The concept of civilization in historic Brazilian linguistics 228
- The European linguistic tradition and early missionary grammars in Central and South America 236
- Steinthal and the limits of etymology: The special case of Chinese 252
- An epistemological assessment of the Neogrammarian movement 262
- Privileged languages and others in the history of historical-comparative linguistics 274
- The nationalist turn: Dutch linguistics and German philosophy in the 18th and early 19th centuries 288
- Représentations de l'autre: L'italien et les Italiens dans quelques dictionnaires bilingues des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles 308
- L'utile et l'agréable dans les méthodes familières et autres ouvrages utilisés pour l'apprentissage du français aux Pays-Bas (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles) 321
- La reformulation dans la lexicographie des XVIe-XIXe siècles: L'emergence de la syntaxe française 333
- Words and concepts for child language learning in late 19th versus late 20th century America 344
- La lexicologie, un savoir scolarisable? 356
- Aspects de la linguistique prescriptive: Les perceptions des vocabulaires de specialité à travers des dictionnaires français (XIXe et XXe s.) 372
- Semantique et analogie dans la tradition grammaticale arabe: La valeur des formes verbales 386
- Meaning by collocation: The Firthian filiation of corpus linguistics 404
- Kristeva on the encyclopedists: Linguistics, semanalysis, and the epistemology of Enlightenment science 416
- La preuve de Gaifman: Réflexions sur la méthode de construction des grammaires catégorielles 432
- Name index 441
- Subject index 447
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements ix
- The natural: Its meanings and functions in the history of linguistic thought 1
- On grammatical gender as an arbitrary and redundant category 24
- Penser l'espace, penser l'espèce: Modélisation des affinités linguistiques 37
- On the origins of the participle as a part of speech 50
- Grammar as a liberal art in antiquity 67
- Priscian's pedagogy: A critique of the Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo 80
- L'horizon de retrospection du Mithridate de Conrad Gessner (1555) 89
- Montaigne's view of skepticism and language in the Essais 103
- Competing models for a 17th century universal language: A study of the dispute between George Dalgarno and John Wilkins 112
- La notion d'unité sonore dans les grammaires françaises des 17ème et 18ème siècles 120
- Une "Grammaire générale et raisonnée" en 1651 (1635?): Description et intérpretation d'une découverte empirique 131
- 'Analogy': The history of a concept and a term from the 17th to the 19th century 156
- Une écriture de l'histoire: La Lettre à M. Pinglin sur l'histoire de la science grammaticale 169
- Quels facteurs (linguistiques ou historiques) considérer dans l'accord en français? Étude de certains cas dans le Journal de la langue française (1784) d'Urbain Domergue 183
- Nicolas Beauzée: La clé inexploitée de la phonétique française 197
- Colonialism, scientific expeditions and linguistics in 19th century Brazil 212
- The concept of civilization in historic Brazilian linguistics 228
- The European linguistic tradition and early missionary grammars in Central and South America 236
- Steinthal and the limits of etymology: The special case of Chinese 252
- An epistemological assessment of the Neogrammarian movement 262
- Privileged languages and others in the history of historical-comparative linguistics 274
- The nationalist turn: Dutch linguistics and German philosophy in the 18th and early 19th centuries 288
- Représentations de l'autre: L'italien et les Italiens dans quelques dictionnaires bilingues des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles 308
- L'utile et l'agréable dans les méthodes familières et autres ouvrages utilisés pour l'apprentissage du français aux Pays-Bas (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles) 321
- La reformulation dans la lexicographie des XVIe-XIXe siècles: L'emergence de la syntaxe française 333
- Words and concepts for child language learning in late 19th versus late 20th century America 344
- La lexicologie, un savoir scolarisable? 356
- Aspects de la linguistique prescriptive: Les perceptions des vocabulaires de specialité à travers des dictionnaires français (XIXe et XXe s.) 372
- Semantique et analogie dans la tradition grammaticale arabe: La valeur des formes verbales 386
- Meaning by collocation: The Firthian filiation of corpus linguistics 404
- Kristeva on the encyclopedists: Linguistics, semanalysis, and the epistemology of Enlightenment science 416
- La preuve de Gaifman: Réflexions sur la méthode de construction des grammaires catégorielles 432
- Name index 441
- Subject index 447
