Study Guide N 2

The History of Linguistics

Read all the copies related to the History of Linguistics:

An Outline of the History of Linguistics,

The History of Linguistics by Frederick Newmeyer,
Panini to Chomsky and After by Fromkin, V. (only pages 5 and 6)
Chapter 7: The Saussurean Dichotomies and Chapter 8: Chomskys Influence from
Bauer, L (2007) (E-books)
Chapter 65: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.
Chapter 4: The History of Linguistics (The handbook of Linguistics by Aronoff in the
E-books).

Then, answer the following questions:

1- What were linguists devoted to during much of the 19 th century?
2- What happened at the beginning of the 20 th century? Did the focus of attention change?
3- Read about and summarize the contributions made to the field of Linguistics by ...
a) The Greeks (Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics)
b) The Romans (Varro, Donatus, Priscian, etc)
c) The Indians (Panini)
4- What happened during the Middle Ages? Which developments were made?
5- Was there any progress in Linguistics during the Renaissance? If so, comment on these
developments.
6- Read and make a conceptual framework, a diagram or a scheme based on the
contributions made by the following figures:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)

Ferdinand de Saussure
Franz Boas
Edward Sapir
Leonard Bloomfield
John Rupert Firth
Roman Jakobson
Louis Hjelmslev
Daniel Jones
Noam Chomsky