An outline of the history of linguistics
An outline of the history of linguistics
• Hindu Tradition o Had its origins in the 1st millennium BC o Stimulated by changes in Sanskrit o Panini (c. 500 BC) is the best known grammarian o Panini’s grammar of Sanskrit covered phonetics and morphology • The Greek Origin o The Greek tradition of linguistics developed in response to
Homer’s epics. The Greeks founded the European tradition. o IMPORTANT THEMES IN THE GREEK TRADITION INCLUDE:
The origin of language
Classification of words (parts of speech)
The relation between language and thought
The relation between two aspects of word-signs (whether form and meaning are connected by nature or by convention. 1
o Plato (c. 429-347 BC) distinguished between Nouns and Verbs.
He favored nature over convention. o Aristotle’s (384-322 BC) main contributions to linguistics are as follows:
• He divided words into Nouns, Verbs, and
Adjectives.
• He divided the sentence into two parts, SUBJECT and PREDICATE.
• He classified GENDER into masculine, feminine, and neutral.
• He was the first to distinguish between the different types of TENSE a verb carries. o Thrax (100 BC) produced the first complete grammar of Greek.
He concluded that Greek words fell into just eight classes, which we call the parts of speech. Thrax’s description of Greek has become the basis of all grammatical description in Europe until the 20th century.
2
• Roman Tradition o After the Roman conquest of Greece in the mid-2nd century BC,
Roman scholars learned of the Greek work, and they began to apply the same analysis to their own language, Latin. o One of the most influential Roman grammarians is Priscian, who wrote in the 6th century AD. Priscian’s description of Latin is still what we find in most school textbooks of Latin today.
• Arabic Tradition
The oldest Arabic grammarian is Abu-Alaswad al-Du'ali, who established diacritical marks and vowels for Arabic in
• Hindu Tradition o Had its origins in the 1st millennium BC o Stimulated by changes in Sanskrit o Panini (c. 500 BC) is the best known grammarian o Panini’s grammar of Sanskrit covered phonetics and morphology • The Greek Origin o The Greek tradition of linguistics developed in response to
Homer’s epics. The Greeks founded the European tradition. o IMPORTANT THEMES IN THE GREEK TRADITION INCLUDE:
The origin of language
Classification of words (parts of speech)
The relation between language and thought
The relation between two aspects of word-signs (whether form and meaning are connected by nature or by convention. 1
o Plato (c. 429-347 BC) distinguished between Nouns and Verbs.
He favored nature over convention. o Aristotle’s (384-322 BC) main contributions to linguistics are as follows:
• He divided words into Nouns, Verbs, and
Adjectives.
• He divided the sentence into two parts, SUBJECT and PREDICATE.
• He classified GENDER into masculine, feminine, and neutral.
• He was the first to distinguish between the different types of TENSE a verb carries. o Thrax (100 BC) produced the first complete grammar of Greek.
He concluded that Greek words fell into just eight classes, which we call the parts of speech. Thrax’s description of Greek has become the basis of all grammatical description in Europe until the 20th century.
2
• Roman Tradition o After the Roman conquest of Greece in the mid-2nd century BC,
Roman scholars learned of the Greek work, and they began to apply the same analysis to their own language, Latin. o One of the most influential Roman grammarians is Priscian, who wrote in the 6th century AD. Priscian’s description of Latin is still what we find in most school textbooks of Latin today.
• Arabic Tradition
The oldest Arabic grammarian is Abu-Alaswad al-Du'ali, who established diacritical marks and vowels for Arabic in