HISTORY OF

LINGUISTICS
PRESENTED BY :
MUH. ADNAN
ASTRI LESTARI
AGUSMIATI
INTRODUCTION
THE TERM LINGUISTICS IS A PRODUCT OF THE 19TH CENTURY, AS ARE THE ACADEMIC FIELD AND THE
FORM OF ENQUIRY THAT IT DESIGNATES. THIS ENQUIRY IS HOWEVER CONTINUOUS WITH MODES OF
ANALYSIS THAT DATE BACK TO ANCIENT TIMES, AS PRACTICED IN VARIOUS TRADITIONS IN ASIA
AND EUROPE (TOGETHER WITH THE AFRICAN PARTS OF THE ALEXANDRIAN EMPIRE). THE HISTORY
OF LINGUISTICS ITSELF HAS MID-19TH-CENTURY BEGINNINGS AND HAS TAKEN ITS SCOPE AS
RANGING OVER THE WHOLE OF THIS ANCIENT-TO-MODERN CONTINUUM. GIVEN THAT LANGUAGE
AND ITS ANALYSIS HAVE PLAYED A PART IN EVERY ACADEMIC AREA, AND THAT MODERN
LINGUISTICS HAS INTERESTS THAT OVERLAP WITH THOSE OF ANTHROPOLOGY, ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE, EDUCATION, INFORMATICS, LEGAL THEORY, LITERARY CRITICISM, PHILOSOPHY,
PSYCHOLOGY, SEMIOTICS, SOCIOLOGY, AND OTHER SUBJECTS, IT IS NOT OBVIOUS WHERE THE
BOUNDARIES OF THE HISTORY OF LINGUISTICS LIE, AND SCHOLARLY DISPUTES OVER WHERE TO
DRAW THEM ARE NOT UNCOMMON. THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY WILL FOCUS ON THE PROTOTYPICAL AREAS
OF LANGUAGE ANALYSIS, WHILE NOT EXCLUDING THOSE AREAS THAT, IF MORE PERIPHERAL, HAVE
NEVERTHELESS HAD A CONSIDERABLE IMPACT ON WHAT LINGUISTS THINK AND DO.
A. OLD ENGLISH (450-1100 AD)
OLD ENGLISH WAS NOT STATIC, AND ITS USAGE COVERED A PERIOD OF 700
YEARS, FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON SETTLEMENT OF BRITAIN IN THE 5TH
CENTURY TO THE LATE 11TH CENTURY, SOME TIME AFTER THE NORMAN
INVASION. WHILE INDICATING THAT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DATES IS AN
ARBITRARY PROCESS, ALBERT BAUGH DATES OLD ENGLISH FROM 450 TO
1150, A PERIOD OF FULL INFLECTIONS, A SYNTHETIC LANGUAGE. PERHAPS
AROUND 85% OF OLD ENGLISH WORDS ARE NO LONGER IN USE, BUT
THOSE THAT SURVIVED ARE THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF MODERN ENGLISH
VOCABULARY.
HISTORY OF OLD ENGLISH
THE HISTORY OF OLD ENGLISH CAN BE SUBDIVIDED INTO:
• PREHISTORIC OLD ENGLISH (CE. 450 TO 650); FOR THIS PERIOD, OLD ENGLISH IS
MOSTLY A RECONSTRUCTED LANGUAGE AS NO LITERARY WITNESSES SURVIVE
(WITH THE EXCEPTION OF LIMITED EPIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE). THIS LANGUAGE, OR
CLOSELY RELATED GROUP OF DIALECTS, SPOKEN BY THE ANGLES, SAXONS, AND
JUTES, AND PRE-DATING DOCUMENTED OLD ENGLISH OR ANGLO-SAXON, HAS
ALSO BEEN CALLED PRIMITIVE OLD ENGLISH.[10]
• EARLY OLD ENGLISH (CE. 650 TO 900), THE PERIOD OF THE OLDEST MANUSCRIPT
TRADITIONS, WITH AUTHORS SUCH AS CÆDMON, BEDE, CYNEWULF AND
ALDHELM.
• LATE OLD ENGLISH (CE. 900 TO 1170), THE FINAL STAGE OF THE LANGUAGE
LEADING UP TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND AND THE SUBSEQUENT
TRANSITION TO EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH.
The runic alphabet
used to write Old
English before the
introduction of the
Latin alphabet
B. MIDDLE ENGLISH (1100-circa
1500 AD)
MIDDLE ENGLISH (ABBREVIATED TO ME) WAS A FORM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPOKEN
AFTER THE NORMAN CONQUEST (1066) UNTIL THE LATE 15TH CENTURY. ENGLISH UNDERWENT
DISTINCT VARIATIONS AND DEVELOPMENTS FOLLOWING THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD. SCHOLARLY
OPINION VARIES, BUT THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY SPECIFIES THE PERIOD WHEN MIDDLE
ENGLISH WAS SPOKEN AS BEING FROM 1150 TO 1500. THIS STAGE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ROUGHLY FOLLOWED THE HIGH TO THE LATE MIDDLE AGES.
DURING THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD, MANY OLD ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL FEATURES EITHER
BECAME SIMPLIFIED OR DISAPPEARED ALTOGETHER. NOUN, ADJECTIVE AND VERB INFLECTIONS
WERE SIMPLIFIED BY THE REDUCTION (AND EVENTUAL ELIMINATION) OF MOST GRAMMATICAL
CASE DISTINCTIONS. MIDDLE ENGLISH ALSO SAW CONSIDERABLE ADOPTION OF NORMAN
FRENCH VOCABULARY, ESPECIALLY IN THE AREAS OF POLITICS, LAW, THE ARTS, AND RELIGION,
AS WELL AS POETIC AND EMOTIVE DICTION. CONVENTIONAL ENGLISH VOCABULARY REMAINED
PRIMARILY GERMANIC IN ITS SOURCES, WITH OLD NORSE INFLUENCES BECOMING MORE
APPARENT. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN PRONUNCIATION TOOK PLACE, PARTICULARLY INVOLVING
LONG VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS, WHICH IN THE LATER MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD BEGAN TO
UNDERGO THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT.
HISTORY OF MIDDLE ENGLISH
TRANSITION FROM OLD ENGLISH
TRANSITION FROM LATE OLD ENGLISH TO EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH OCCURRED
AT SOME TIME DURING THE 12TH CENTURY.
EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH
EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH (1150–1300) HAS A LARGELY ANGLO-SAXON
VOCABULARY (WITH MANY NORSE BORROWINGS IN THE NORTHERN PARTS OF
THE COUNTRY), BUT A GREATLY SIMPLIFIED INFLECTIONAL SYSTEM.
14TH CENTURY
FROM AROUND THE EARLY 14TH CENTURY, THERE WAS SIGNIFICANT MIGRATION
INTO LONDON, PARTICULARLY FROM THE COUNTIES OF THE EAST MIDLANDS,
AND A NEW PRESTIGE LONDON DIALECT BEGAN TO DEVELOP, BASED CHIEFLY
ON THE SPEECH OF THE EAST MIDLANDS, BUT ALSO INFLUENCED BY THAT OF
OTHER REGIONS.
LATE MIDDLE ENGLISH
THE CHANCERY STANDARD OF WRITTEN ENGLISH EMERGED C. 1430 IN OFFICIAL
DOCUMENTS THAT, SINCE THE NORMAN CONQUEST, HAD NORMALLY BEEN
WRITTEN IN FRENCH.
THE CHANCERY STANDARD, WHICH WAS ADOPTED SLOWLY, WAS USED IN
ENGLAND BY BUREAUCRATS FOR MOST OFFICIAL PURPOSES, EXCLUDING THOSE
OF THE CHURCH AND LEGALITIES, WHICH USED LATIN AND LAW FRENCH (AND
SOME LATIN), RESPECTIVELY.
C. MODERN ENGLISH (15th century AD – present)
MODERN ENGLISH (SOMETIMES NEW ENGLISH OR NE (ME) AS OPPOSED TO MIDDLE
ENGLISH AND OLD ENGLISH) IS THE FORM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPOKEN
SINCE THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT IN ENGLAND, WHICH BEGAN IN THE LATE 14TH
CENTURY AND WAS COMPLETED IN ROUGHLY 1550.
WITH SOME DIFFERENCES IN VOCABULARY, TEXTS FROM THE EARLY 17TH CENTURY,
SUCH AS THE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND THE KING JAMES BIBLE, ARE
CONSIDERED TO BE IN MODERN ENGLISH, OR MORE SPECIFICALLY, ARE REFERRED TO
AS USING EARLY MODERN ENGLISH OR ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH. ENGLISH WAS
ADOPTED IN REGIONS AROUND THE WORLD, SUCH AS NORTH AMERICA, THE INDIAN
SUBCONTINENT, AFRICA, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND THROUGH COLONISATION
BY THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
MODERN LINGUISTICS
MODERN LINGUISTICS EMERGED IN THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH
CENTURIES WITH THE SHIFT OF FOCUS FROM HISTORICAL
CONCERNS OF CHANGES IN LANGUAGES OVER TIME, TO THE IDEA
THAT A LANGUAGE CAN BE VIEWED AS A SELF CONTAINED AND
STRUCTURED SYSTEM SITUATED AT A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME.
THIS FORMS THE BASIS FOR STRUCTURALIST LINGUISTICS.
 Noam Chomsky and
linguistic theory since
1957

The main stream of linguistics

since 1957,the year inwhich
Chomskys ‘syntactic structures’
appeared hasbeen dominated by
Noam Chomsky.it is difficult
tooverestimate his impact on both
linguistics andcontemporary ideas
in general.
ANY QUESTIONS?
LIMITED TO TEN QUESTIONS ONLY
 THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION!
WASSALAMU’ALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAHI
WABARAKATUH