
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
James McElvenny
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Top 10 History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences Episodes
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Podcast episode 19: Meaning and British linguistics – Firth, Malinowski and the context of situation
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
10/31/21 • 0 min

Podcast episode 30: Interview with Andrew Garrett on Alfred Kroeber
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
11/30/22 • 34 min
In this episode we talk to Andrew Garrett about the life, work and legacy of American anthropologist Alfred Kroeber. Kroeber achieved a number of firsts in American anthropology: he was Boas’ first Columbia PhD and the first professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. But Kroeber is not only of historical interest. The recent “denaming” of Kroeber Hall at UC Berkeley illustrates the clash of the past with our present-day social and political concerns.
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References for Episode 30 Primary sourcesDixon, Roland, and Alfred L. Kroeber. 1913. New linguistic families in California. American Anthropologist 15:647-655.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1907. Shoshonean dialects of California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 4:65-165.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1907. The Washo language of east central California and Nevada. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 4:251-317.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1907. The Yokuts language of south central California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 2:165-377.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1917. The superorganic. American Anthropologist 19:163-213.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1919. On the principle of order in civilization as exemplified by changes of fashion. American Anthropologist 21:235-263.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1923, 2nd edition 1948. Anthropology. Harcourt, Brace.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Smithsonian Institution.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1952. The nature of culture. University of Chicago Press.
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1976. Yurok myths. University of California Press.
Kroeber, Alfred L., and George William Grace. 1960. The Sparkman grammar of Luiseño. University of California Press.
Kroeber, Theodora. l961. Ishi in two worlds. University of California Press.
Kroeber, Theodora. 1970. Alfred Kroeber: A personal configuration. University of California Press.
Secondary sourcesBuckley, Thomas. 1996. “The little history of pitiful events”: The epistemological and moral contexts of Kroeber’s Californian ethnology. In Volksgeist as method and ethic: Essays on Boasian ethnography and the German anthropological tradition, ed. George W. Stocking, Jr. and George W. Stocking, pp. 257-297. University of Wisconsin Press.
Darnell, Regna. 2021. Genres of memory: Reading anthropology’s history through Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction and contemporary Native American oral tradition. In Centering the margins of anthropology’s history, ed. Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach, pp. 201-217. University of Nebraska Press.
Garrett, Andrew. 2023. The unnaming of Kroeber Hall: Language, memory, and Indigenous California. MIT Press, in press.
Jacknis, Ira. 2002. The first Boasian: Alfred Kroeber and Franz Boas, 1896-1905. American Anthropologist 104:520-532.
Kroeber, Karl, and Clifton Kroeber, eds. 2003. Ishi in three centuries. University of Nebraska Press.
Le Guin, Ursula K. 2004. Indian uncles. In The wave and the mind: Talks and essays on the writer, the reader, and the imagination, pp. 10-19. Shambala.
Transcript by Luca DinuJMc: Hi, I’m James McElvenny, and you’re listening to the History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences Podcast, online at hiphilangsci.net. [00:20] There you can find links and references to all the literature we discuss. [00:24] In this episode, we continue our exploration of Amercanist linguistics in general and the Boasian school in particular through a conversation with Andrew Garrett, who’s professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. [00:40] Andrew is going to talk to us about Alfred Kroeber.
Kroeber achieved a number of notable firsts in American anthropology. [00:49] He received the first doctorate in anthropology from the program that Boas set up at Columbia University, which we discussed back in episode 28, and he was the first professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. [01:03] Kroeber’s not only famous in the world of anthropology, but also fame-adjacent in the real world. [01:10] His daughter was none other than the acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin — the K stands for Kroeber. [01:19] And Kroeber is a figure o...

Podcast episode 20: Interview with Jacqueline Léon on Firth, Malinowski and the London School
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
11/30/21 • 0 min

Podcast episode 13: Interview with John Joseph on Saussure
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
02/28/21 • 0 min

Podcast episode 4: Interview with Jürgen Trabant on Wilhelm von Humboldt
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
03/30/20 • 0 min

Podcast episode 10: Neogrammarian critics – Hugo Schuchardt and Karl Vossler
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
10/31/20 • 0 min

Podcast episode 15: Roman Jakobson, Prague Circle structuralism and phonology
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
05/31/21 • 0 min

Podcast episode 7: Interview with Clara Stockigt on missionary grammars in Australia
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
06/29/20 • 31 min
In this interview, we talk to Dr Clara Stockigt about missionary grammars in Australia and their links to the academic linguistic scholarship of the time.
https://hiphilangsci.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/hiphilangsci_007_int.mp3
Download | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google PodcastsArchive DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4767849
References for Episode 7 Primary SourcesBleek, Wilhelm H. I. (1858), The Library of His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B Philology, Australia, Vol. II, Part I, Australia, London: Trübner and Co.
Flierl, J. (1880), Dieri Grammatik [Comparative grammar of Diyari and Wangkangurru], unpublished ms., Lutheran Archives, Adelaide, Box 22 Immanuel Synod–Bethesda Mission, 306.510.
Gabelentz, Hans Conan von der (1861), ‘Über das Passivum: Eine sprachvergleichende Abhandlung’, Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der Königlich-Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 8, pp. 449–546.
Grey, George (1839), Vocabulary of the dialects spoken by the Aboriginal races of South-Western Australia, Perth: The author.
(Repr. London: T & W. Boone, 1840).
Grey, George (1841), Journals of two expeditions of discovery in North-West and Western Australia: During the years 1837, 38, and 39, 2 Volumes, London: T & W. Boone.
Grey, George (1845), ‘On the languages of Australia, being an extract from a dispatch from Captain G. Grey, Governor of South Australia, to Lord Stanley’, The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 15, pp. 365-367. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1797917
Kempe, F. A. H. (1891), ‘A grammar and vocabulary of the language spoken by the Aborigines of the Macdonnell Ranges, South Australia’, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 14, pp. 1–54.
Leonhardi, Moritz von (1901), Letter to C. Strehlow 10/09/1901 written in Germany, Strehlow Research Centre, Alice Springs, 1901-1-2, The NT Interpreter and Translator Service.
Lepsius, Karl R. (1855), Das allgemeine linguistische Alphabet: Grundsätze der Übertragung fremder Schriftsysteme und bisher noch ungeschriebener Sprachen in europäische Buchstaben, Berlin: Wilhelm Hertz.
Lepsius, Karl R. (1863), Standard alphabet for reducing unwritten languages and foreign graphic systems to a uniform orthography in European letters, London: Williams & Norgate.
Meyer, Heinrich A. E. (1843), Vocabulary of the language spoken by the Aborigines of the southern portions of the settled districts of South Australia, ... Preceded by a grammar, Adelaide: James Allen.
Müller, Friedrich (1867), Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859: Linguistischer Theil, Abteilung III, Australische Sprachen, Vienna: K.-und-K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, in commission bei K. Gerold’s Sohn, pp. 239–266.
Müller, F. (1882), Grundriß der Sprachwissenschaft, Vol. II: Die Sprachen der Schlichthaarigen Rassen, Theil 1: Die Sprachen der Australischen, der Hyperboreischen und der Amerikanischen Rasse, Vienna: Hölder.
Müller, F. Max (1854), Letters to Chevalier Bunsen on the classification of the Turanian languages, London: A & G. A. Spottiswoode.
Pott, August Friedrich (1884–1890), ‘Einleitung in die allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft’, Internationale Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Leipzig: F. Techmer.
(Repr. 1974. E. F. K. Koerner, ed., Einleitung in die Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft [1884-90], with Zur Litteratur der Sprachenkunde Europas [1887], Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Prichard, James C. (1847), Physical History of Mankind, Vol V., London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper.
Royal Geographical Society (Aug., 1885), ‘System of Orthography for Native Names of Places’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, 7, pp. 535–536.
Schürmann, Clamor W. (1844), A vocabulary of the Parnkalla language spoken by the natives inhabiting the western shores of Spencer Gulf. To which is prefixed a collection of grammatical rules hitherto ascertained by C.W. Shürmann [sic], Adelaide: George Dahane.
...
Podcast episode 2: Comparative-historical linguistics – Bopp and Grimm
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
01/31/20 • 20 min
In this episode, we look at the emergence of comparative-historical grammar, focusing on the work of Franz Bopp and Jacob Grimm.
https://hiphilangsci.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/hiphilangsci_002_epx.mp3
Download | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google PodcastsArchive DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4767805
References for Episode 2 Primary SourcesBopp, Franz (1816), Über das Conjugationssystem der Sanskritsprache in Vergleichung mit jenem der griechischen, lateinischen, persischen und germanischen Sprache, Frankfurt am Main: Andräische Buchhandlung. archive.org
Bopp, Franz (1820), Analytical Comparison of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Teutonic Languages, shewing the origingal identity of their grammatical structure, Annals of Oriental Literature, 1, pp. 1–64. Google Books
Bopp, Franz (1833–1852), Vergleichende Grammatik des Sanskrit, Zend, Griechischen, Lateinischen, Lithauischen, Gothischen und Deutschen, 6 vols, Berlin: Dümmler. Google Books: All vols.
(2nd ed. 1857–1861, Vergleichende Grammatik des Sanskrit, Send, Armenischen, Griechischen, Lateinischen, Litauischen, Altslavischen, Gothischen und Deutschen, 3 vols.)
(English trans.: Edward B. Eastwick, 1845–1853, A Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German, and Sclavonic Languages, London: Madden and Malcolm, 3 vols. Google Books: Vol. 1 [2nd ed., 1856], Vol. 2, Vol. 3 [2nd ed., 1856].)
Grimm, Jacob (1819), Deutsche Grammatik, vol. 1, Göttingen: Dieterich’sche Buchhandlung.
(2nd ed. 1822–1837, Deutsche Grammatik, 4 vols., Göttingen: Dieterich’sche Buchhandlung. Internet Archive: vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 4)
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm et al., eds. (1854–1960), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel (et al.). Online version
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812–1815), Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 2 vols., Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung.
(Six editions in the Grimms’ lifetimes, until 1858.)
Schlegel, August Wilhelm (1847 [1815]), Review of Altdeutsche Wälder, ed. by the Brothers Grimm, in August Wilhelm von Schlegel’s sämmtliche Werke, ed. Eduard Böcking, Leipzig: Weidmann. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital
Schlegel, August Wilhelm (1832), ‘Grammatischer Unterschied’, ‘Literarische Scherze’, Museumsalmanach für das Jahr 1832, ed. Amadeus Wendt, p. 321, Leipzig: Weidmann. Google Books
Secondary SourcesBeiser, Frederick C. (2011), The German Historicist Tradition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. See Chap. 5.
Ginschel, Gunhild (1989 [1967]), Der Junge Jacob Grimm: 1805–1819, Berlin: Stuttgart: Hirzel.
Jendreieck, Helmut (1975), Hegel und Jacob Grimm: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wissenschaftstheorie, Berlin: Erich Schmidt.
Kuhn, Thomas (1962), The Str...

Podcast episode 27: Interview with Peter Trudgill on sociolinguistic typology
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences
07/31/22 • 29 min
In this interview, we talk to Peter Trudgill about how the structure of speaker communities may influence the structure of languages.
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References for Episode 27Aronoff, Mark. 1994. Morphology by itself: stems and inflectional classes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dahl, Östen. 2004. The growth and maintenance of linguistic complexity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dediu, Dan, & Stephen Levinson. 2013. On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences. Frontiers in Psychology 2013 1-17.
Derbyshire, Desmond. 1977. Word order universals and the existence of OVS languages. Linguistic Inquiry 8, 590-599.
Dixon, R.M.W. 2010. Basic linguistic theory II: grammatical topics.
Dryer, Matthew. 1989. Large linguistic areas and language sampling. Studies in Language 13, 257-292.
Evans, Nicholas, & Hans-Jürgen Sasse (eds.) 2002. Problems of polysynthesis. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Fortescue, Michael. 1992. Morphophonemic complexity and typological stability in a polysynthetic language family. International Journal of American Linguistics 58: 242–48.
Givón, Talmy. 1979. On understanding grammar. New York: Academic Press.
Givón, Talmy. 1984. Syntax: a functional-typological introduction. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Givón, Talmy & Philip Young. 2002. Cooperation and interpersonal manipulation in the society of intimates. In M. Chibatani (ed.) The grammar of causation and interpersonal manipulation.Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 23-56.
Graeber, David & David Wengrow. 2021. The dawn of everything: a new history of humanity. Toronto: Signal, McClelland & Stewart.
Hassan, Fekri. 1981. Demographic archaeology. New York: Academic.
Joseph, John E. 2021. Why does language complexity resist measurement? Frontiers in Communication https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.624855
Lass, Roger. 1997. Historical linguistics and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McElvenny, James. 2021. Language complexity in historical perspective: the enduring tropes of natural growth and abnormal contact. Frontiers in Communication https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.621712
Rice, Keren. 1999. Review of Leonard Faltz (1998) The Navajo verb: a grammar for students and scholars. Linguistic Typology 3, 393-400.
Sampson, Geoffrey, David Gil & Peter Trudgill (eds.) Language complexity as an evolving variable. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 125-140.
Trudgill, Peter. 2011. Sociolinguistic typology: social determinants of linguistic complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Trudgill, Peter. 2015. Societies of intimates and linguistic complexity. In Rik De Busser & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.). Language structure and environment: social, cultural, and natural factors. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 133-147.
Trudgill, Peter. 2017. Sociolinguistic typology. In A. Y. Aikhenvald & R. M.W. Dixon (eds.) The Cambridge handbook of linguistic typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 124-150.
Trudgill, Peter. 2017. The anthropological setting of polysynthesis. In Nicholas Evans, Michael Fortescue, & Marianne Mithun (eds.) The Oxford handbook of polysynthesis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 186-202.
Trudgill, Peter. 2020. Sociolinguistic typology and the uniformitarian hypothesis. In Mily Crevels & Pieter Muysken (eds.) Language dispersal, diversification, and contact: a global perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 44-57.
Trudgill, Peter. 2020. The uniformitarian hypothesis and prehistoric sociolinguistics. In Peter Trudgill Millennia of language change sociolinguistic studies in deep historical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 7 – 16
Wohlgemuth, Jan. 2010. Language endangerment, community size, and typological rarity. In Jan Wohlgemuth and Michael Cysouw (eds.). Rethinking universals: how rarities affect linguistic theory. Berlin: De Gruyter, 255-277.
Wohlgemuth, Jan, & Michael Cysouw (eds.). 2010. Rara and rarissima: documenting the fringes of linguistic diversity<...
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History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences currently has 59 episodes available.
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The average episode length on History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences is 20 minutes.
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The first episode of History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences was released on Dec 30, 2019.
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