History of the Language Sciences / Geschichte Der Sprachwissenschaften / Histoire Des Sciences Du Langage. 1. Teilband

This undertaking represents the first dedicated attempt at a complete coverage, both geographically and chronologically, of all linguistic traditions, from the earliest beginnings in the Near East of the third millennium B.C. to present-day discussions in cognitive linguistics . This means that every effort is made to go far beyond the traditional Eurocentric accounts which, for instance, include the work of Indian grammarians because (and only so far as) they have become of interest to the discovery of the Indo-European language family, or which at times include a small chapter on classical Arabic linguistics as an alibi rather than because an honest effort is made to break through the Western (claim to) hegemony. Similarly, when non-Western traditions have been incorporated in recent years into general histories of linguistics, the emphasis has usually been on a few selected figures, such as P ntini (for Indic) or S| ~bawayhi (for Arabic). To remedy this situation the editors have decided to include all linguistic traditions, both major and minor ones, in an effort to offer a picture that is as complete as possible of all different forms the study of language has taken throughout the centuries. Detailed indexes of subjects and terms as well as of biographical names will render this 3-tome handbook the most complete, thorough, and up-to-date research and reference tool in the history of the language sciences.