Eight Decades of General Linguistics

The History of CIPL and Its Role in the History of Linguistics

Go to Online Edition

Edited by Ferenc Kiefer, Hungarian Academy of Science, and Piet van Sterkenburg, University of Leiden

Eight Decades of General Linguistics presents the key lectures delivered at the eighteen conferences organized by the Permanent International Committee of Linguists and also a history of the Committee itself. The contributions of outstanding scholars such as Otto Jesperson, Louis Hjelmslev, André Martinet, Uriel Weinreich, Noam Chomsky and many other linguists cannot be over-estimated. The majority of the papers address a radically new topic, each of which became one of the central issues in subsequent linguistic research. In addition to their empirical findings and/or the theoretical innovations presented in their papers, each contribution is still interesting and pivotal to the development of contemporary linguistics.

Biographical Note

• Ferenc Kiefer, Ph.D. (1965, University of Szeged), is research professor at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. He has published monographs and many articles on mathematical linguistics, morphology, semantics, pragmatics and cognitive linguistics.
• Piet van Sterkenburg, Ph.D. (1975, University of Nijmegen), is research professor of lexicology at the University of Leiden. He has published monographs and many articles on Dutch linguistics, lexicography and lexicology, including Een geschiedenis van woordenboieken van het Nederlands [History of Dutch Monolingual Dictionaries], (Scriptum. Schiedam, 2011) and Practical Guide to Lexicography (Benjamins, 2003).

Readership

Anyone interested in the history of general linguistics, especially how and to what extent research topics in linguistics have evolved since the founding of the Permanent International Committee of Linguists in 1928, will find this volume invaluable and enlightening.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Que Pensez-vous de l’Adaption d’une Langue Internationale?
   Otto Jespersen (2nd Congress, Geneva, 1931)
2. La Structure Morphologique (Types de Système)
   Louis Hjelmslev (5th Congress, Brussels, 1939)
3. Relative Frequency and Dynamic Equilibrium in Phonology and Morphology
   George Kingsley Zipf (6th Congress, Paris, 1948)
4. Speech Synthesis as a Research Technique
   Pierre Delattre, Franklin S. Cooper, Alvin M. Lieberman and Louis J. Gerstman (7th Congress, London, 1952)
5. Les « Laryngales » Indo-européennes
   Andre Martinet (8th Congress, Oslo, 1957)
6. Research Frontiers in Bilingualism Studies
   Uriel Weinreich (8th Congress, Oslo, 1957)
7. The Logical Basis of Linguistic Theory
   Noam Chomsky (9th Congress, Cambridge, Mass, 1962)
8. On the Methods of Internal Reconstruction
   Jerzy Kuryłowicz (9th Congress, Cambridge, Mass, 1962)
9. Linguistics in Its Relations to Other Sciences
   Roman Jakobson (10th Congress, Bucharest, 1967)
10. Numeral Classifijiers and Substantival Number: Problems in the Genesis of a Linguistic Type
    Joseph Greenberg (11th Congress, Bologna-Florence, 1972)
11. On the Use of the Present to Explain the Past
    William Labov (11th Congress, Bologna-Florence, 1972)
12. Basic Problems of Semantics
    John Lyons (12th Congress, Vienna, 1977)
13. Some Basic Principles of Functional Grammar
    Simon C. Dik (13th Congress, Tokyo, 1982)
14. Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Notion of Linguistic Creativity
    Robert H. Robins (14th Congress, Berlin, 1987)
15. Holistic versus Partial Typologies
    Bernard Comrie (14th Congress, Berlin, 1987)
16. On the Human Value of Local Language
    Ken Hale (15th Congress, Quebec, 1992)
17. Grandeur et Misère de la Typologie
    Gilbert Lazard (16st Congress, Paris, 1997)
18. Linguistic Universals and Particulars
    Emmon Bach (17st Congress, Prague, 2003)
19. Aspects of the Neural Representation of Spoken Language
    Grzegorz Dogil (18st Congress, Seoul, 2008)