William Dwight Whitney, a commanding figure in 19th-century philology, may be considered the most important and wide-ranging precursor of modern linguistic theory. The selections in this book (covering the years 1861-1892) represent his pioneer work in linguistics and are relevant in the most urgent sense to the debate on the nature of language and linguistics shaping up once again between students of rationalist grammar and students of culture. Whitney was one of the first to stress the "cultural" nature of language in modern terms, and Dr. Silverstein remarks, "what impresses us most about this material is its fundamental sanity."  A long essay by the editor and an autobiographical sketch from the Williams College Record of the class of 1845 precede Whitney's own studies. Dr. Silverstein has made no attempt to analyze selections but has chosen representative essays that show the range of Whitney's linguistic interests and accomplishments, and which present the linguistic thought of his time. All of the essays appear in their original form except for the first and longest extract, which has been condensed from Language and the Study of Language. Purely descriptive studies of Sanskrit or of Hindu literature and astronomy have been excluded, although Whitney's narrowest professional interest is represented by the beautiful studies of accent in Sanskrit and the statistical treatment of imperfect and perfect tense formations.  The twelve essays are arranged by area of interest. The first group takes up general topics such as the "institutional" nature of language, psychology and the origin of language, and the difficult question of linguistic mixture. It is followed by an enigmatic piece of syntactic analysis of grammatical categories, several phonetics studies, the unified theory of vowel and consonant, the universal transcriptional system and articulatory phonetics, and the notion of phonetic economy. The book concludes with the Sanskrit studies and a trenchant criticism of the grammarians of the period.

Selected Writings of William Dwight Whitney

Reference

Whitney, William Dwight

Words, Language & Grammar

Mit Pr

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, Vol. 6 of 10: A Work of Universal Reference in All Departments of Knowledge, With a New Atlas of the World (Classic Reprint)

Forgotten Books

Excerpt from Essentials of English Grammar: For the Use of SchoolsEnglish grammar can in this way be made to pay back, with interest, the debt which it owes to Latin. It must be for practical use to show how far the endeavor to reach these ends is successful, in the work here put forth.I have wished to give the main facts of the English lan guage just as they are in themselves, not importing into them anything that belongs to other languages. With this in view, certain subjects have been treated in a somewhat new way, but one which will, I hope, commend itself to general approval by its reasonableness. The ordinary method with gender in nouns, for example, which was really an imposition upon English of a system of distino tions belonging elsewhere, has been abandoned in favor of one that is both truer and far simpler. The sharp distinction, again, of the verb-phrases or compound forms from the real verb-forms seems to me a matter of no small importance, if the study of the construction of sentences is to be made a reality.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Essentials of English Grammar: For the Use of Schools (Classic Reprint)

History

World

Essentials of English Grammar

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Franklin Classics

The Roots, Verb-forms, and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language. A Supplement to his Sanskrit Grammar

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Roots, Verb-forms, And Primary Derivatives Of The Sanskrit Language: A Supplement To His Sanskrit Grammar

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Language and the study of language;: Twelve lectures on the principles of linguistic science

AMS Press

The Life And Growth Of Language: An Outline Of Linguistic Science

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Life and Growth of Language: An Outline of Linguistic Science

Wentworth Press

Life and Growth of Language: An Outline of Linguistic Science, The

Life and Growth of Language: An Outline of Linguistic Science

Dover Pubns

As Latin is key to the study of Western classics, so Sanskrit is the gateway to understanding ancient Indian literature. One of the few Sanskrit grammars currently available, this meticulously researched and thoughtfully assembled guide to the language’s basics will prove valuable to students of Indian culture and history. Focusing on the fundamentals of Sanskrit as revealed in literary classics, the text follows the forms and constructions of the older language, as exhibited in the Veda and the Brahamana. It begins with an introduction to the Sanskrit alphabet, followed by a treatment of the accent — its changes in combination and inflection, and the tone of the individual worlds. Succeeding chapters discuss declension, conjugation, parts of speech, and formation of compound stems. A helpful appendix, Sanskrit index, and general index conclude the text.

Sanskrit Grammar (Dover Language Guides)

Dover Publications

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