William Dwight Whitney and the Science of Language: 123 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)

Alter, Stephen G

ISBN 10: 0801880203 / ISBN 13: 9780801880209

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: William Dwight Whitney and the Science of Language: 123 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801880203
• ISBN 13: 9780801880209
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Linguistics, or the science of language, emerged as an independent field of study in the nineteenth century, amid the religious and scientific ferment of the Victorian era. William Dwight Whitney, one of that period's most eminent language scholars, argued that his field should be classed among the social sciences, thus laying a theoretical foundation for modern sociolinguistics.

William Dwight Whitney and the Science of Language offers a full-length study of America's pioneer professional linguist, the founder and first president of the American Philological Association and a renowned Orientalist. In recounting Whitney's remarkable career, Stephen G. Alter examines the intricate linguistic debates of that period as well as the politics of establishing language study as a full-fledged science. Whitney's influence, Alter argues, extended to the German Neogrammarian movement and the semiotic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure.

This exploration of an early phase of scientific language study provides readers with a unique perspective on Victorian intellectual life as well as on the transatlantic roots of modern linguistic theory.

About the Author

Stephen G. Alter, professor of history at Gordon College, Massachusetts, is the author of Darwinism and the Linguistic Image, also available from Johns Hopkins.