Landmarks In Linguistic Thought Volume I: The Western Tradition From Socrates To Saussure

by Roy Harris, Talbot J. Taylor

By introducing the reader to the main issues and themes that have determined the development of the Western linguistic tradition, an evolution of linguistic thought quickly becomes apparent. Each chapter in this accessible book contains a short extract from a `landmark' text followed by a commentary which places the text in its social and intellectual context.The authors, who consider writers from Aristotle to Caxton to Saussure, have fully revised the original edition ofthis text. Complete with two new chapters on Bishop John Wilkins and Frege, a revised preface and updated bibliography, this book will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in the History of Linguistics, or the History of Western Thought.

Genres: Linguistics, Philosophy, Academia, Nonfiction

260 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 1989

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics in the University of Oxford and Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall. He has also held university teaching posts in Hong Kong, Boston and Paris and visiting fellowships at universities in South Africa and Australia, and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.

Reviews

[Gary Bruff · Rating 4 out of 5]

In today's science crazed academic world, one frequently runs into the ideology that all thinking that developed prior to the twentieth century is not worth a second look. Linguistics, as the most scientific (or is it scientistic) treatment of language we have, revels in the belief and hope that Chomsky's revolution will bestow on its creator the same mantle of science as was granted to Darwin and Copernicus. Landmarks of Linguistic Thought proffers the meek but irascible cry of 'Not So Fast!'

This work by Roy Harris and Talbot Taylor shows that numerous ideologies and prejudices of modern linguistics are not revolutionary but have in fact been a long time a-coming. Landmarks traces the uneven trajectory of philosophical, lexicographical, and anthropological linguistics as it evolved through the millennia of abstract writing and representation in Europe. The book stops at Saussure, the point at which most modern treatments of linguistics begin. Landmarks begins with the Greeks, a fascinating point of origin that is so often ignored by linguists. Throughout this newly rediscovered longue duree of linguistics, one sees consistent elaborations and recurrent anxieties about language. Echos of the Chomskian preoccupation with formal perfection can be discerned in the rhetoric and logic of past rhetoricians and logicians. Although not formalized as mathematically as today's syntax, semantics, morphology, or phonology, Landmarks makes it clear that the core idea of linguistic creativity (as a notion of how the analogical extension of language patterns creates a new matrix of thought) is as old as the hills. Also as with modern linguistics, there has always been in the study of language those who would seek to abolish the ragged edge of grammar which refuses to conform to the accepted pattern. Whereas today we might dispose of aberrant performance data as simply errors or as evidence of an impoverished stimulus, the desire to perfect language during the development of Western thought revealed the same sort of anxiety that the thing won't hold together, that language and its speakers are losing the battle for a sane consistency. Anybody who has ever overheard the speech of anonymous others ("Where you was at?") feels at once a twinge of shoolmarmishness over a linguistic system out of control as well as an appreciation for how pliant and supple--and therefore expressive--our languages can be.

I feel this could be an important book if any modern linguist felt compelled to see that what is past is prelude. Modern linguists might not be interested in this book however because of the lack of explicit tie-ins between how language was approached prior to a century ago and how these very same ideologies and anxieties about language still hold sway. It is clear that the authors of Landmarks are not pleased or impressed with the way things are going with linguistics, but I feel they might not be knowledgeable enough about how today's linguists reason. If they were knowledgeable about the tone and timbre of today's linguistics as a whole, it is conceivable that they could have made a tighter and more directed polemic about how the twentieth/twenty-first century linguistic revolution is in many (not immediately obvious) ways either conservative or reactionary.

I also wish that non-Western landmarks of linguistic thought were taken into consideration, for example the writings of Panini or Lao Tze.

[Mikael Lind · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really well-written introduction to Linguistic Thought for two reasons. First, it is lucid and interesting to read. The authors present each thinker with an interesting extract from an important text, and then present the thinker's main standpoint in a way that is neither too simplified nor too academic. Second, it successfully bridges the gap between linguistics and philosophy. Too often, philosophers of language don't bother to consider up-to-date linguistic thought, and likewise many linguists work within their own field and don't bother discussing their work from a philosophical viewpoint. An exception to this trend is of course Noam Chomsky, but his work is not discussed in this book. Both Chomsky and the influential Ludwig Wittgenstein (that I feel every linguist should try to read!) are presented in Volume II in this series, a book I have yet to purchase and read.

[Hesham Sheir · Rating 4 out of 5]

اسم الكتاب: أعلام الفكر اللغوي
الكاتب: روي هاريس- وتولبت جي تيلر
التقييم: 4/5

يستعرض الكتاب أبرز من ساهموا في دراسة اللغة وتطوير علم اللغويات، حيث يفرد الكاتب فصلاً لكل واحد من هؤلاء الأعلام. وقد أثار الكتاب اهتمامي في فصوله الأولى حيث يثير مسائل هامة حول أصل اللغات، وكيفية نشأة المفردات، وعلاقة اللغة بالفكر وأثر كل منهما في الآخر، وغير ذلك. ولكنني مع التوغل في الكتاب شعرت بصعوبة في الإلمام بما يعرضه من أفكار بشكل جيد. فأكملت قراءة الكتاب لأخذ فكرة عامة، وربما أعود إليه مرة أخرى إن توفرت لي الفرصة للتعمق في هذا الموضوع عن طريق مصادر أخرى.

وقد أحببت بعض المواضع في الكتاب؛ مثل الفصل الأول الخاص بمحاورة كراتيليس لأفلاطون التي تناقش طريقة إطلاق الأسماء على الأشياء، ومثل المقارنة في الفصل الثالث بين قصة الإنجيل التي ترجع إلى آدم إطلاق الأسماء على الأشياء وبين "صانع الأسماء" التخيلي الذي افترضه أفلاطون. كما أعجبتني طريقة العرض حيث يبدأ كل فصل باقتباس لأحد المساهمين في تطوير الفكر اللغوي، وغالباً ما يبرز هذا الاقتباس الاتجاه الرئيسي لأفكار هذا المفكر الذي يتناول الفصل إسهاماته في هذا المجال. واعتمد الكاتب على عرض مقتطفات مختلفة من كتابات هؤلاء المفكرين مع توضيحها وشرحها. وأعتقد أن تلك الطريقة مناسبة لمن لديه خلفية عن الموضوع. ولكن لأنني لم أكن أملك تلك الخلفية فلم أتمكن في كثير من المواضع من متابعة الأفكار ووضعها في موضعها الصحيح.

النسخة التي قرأتها صادرة عن دار الكتاب الجديد المتحدة بلبنان، وقام بالترجمة د. أحمد شاكر الكلابي، وهو باحث عراقي متخصص في علم اللغة التطبيقي، والترجمة ممتازة.

[Nathan Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a history of linguistics and the philosophy of language from ancient Greece to the 1900's, told through critical analysis and exposition of important texts from different periods of time. The writing is fairly dry and the chapters aren't really linked together via a narrative, so it was hard for me to get through it. The content, however, is still fascinating, and I think must-read for a linguist, and this carried me through to the end.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

fuck I hate sasudde but he has such a point

[Dougald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Landmarks in Linguistic Thought: The Western Tradition from Socrates to Saussure was written by Roy Harris and Talbot J. Taylor. Roy Harris is Professor Emeritus of linguistics at Oxford University. Talbot J. Taylor is a professor at William & Mary University in Virginia.

As the subtitle suggests, this work is a historical survey of linguistic ideas from Plato to Ferdinand de Saussure, the father of 'structuralism'; a term he never personally used to describe his approach.

Each chapter of this work is dedicated to one particular individual (or group) and explains their understanding of language and how it works. Each chapter also summarizes the major advances (or regressions) in linguistic thought for each individual quite nicely.

Sometimes, this summary also involves interaction by the authors as well. This leads some chapters, a minority for sure, to be unclear as to which view is being set forth. Is the subject of the chapter and his views? Or,is it the author of the chapter? Most chapters are not written in this style and are very helpful, especially for those who have never been introduced to linguistics before.

While reading this work I can imagine that some might wonder about the selection of each of the linguists by Harris and Taylor. However, once one arrives at the final chapter all will become clear as the reader should have an adequate view of how linguistics developed over the centuries and Saussure's "Copernican revolution" of linguistics.

There are two other volumes in this "Landmark" series. The second should be quite similar to this one, with the exception that the subject of that volume is allocated to figures in the 20th century only (minus Saussure). The third and final volume only deals with Arabic grammarians (a volume I am greatly looking forward to reading).

One must also not overlook the recommended reading as it gives excellent resources for surveys of the history of linguistics.

[Dougald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second read through. A pretty good introduction to major players in the area of linguistics. The last chapter on Saussure is probably the best out of the whole lot. But maybe that's because I am more familiar with Saussure than others.