History of Linguistics Volume II: Classical and Medieval Linguistics: Classical and Medieval Linguistics v. 2 (Longman Linguistics Library)

The aim with this group of books has been to produce a history of linguistic thought rather than an account of the development of linguistic science. For different societies and in different periods, the editor presents the prevailing attitudes towards language: its social, cultural, religious and liturgical functions, the prestige attached to different varieties, the cultivation of a standard, the place of language in education, the elaboration of lexical and grammatical descriptions, the knowledge of foreign idioms, the status of interpreters and translators, and so on.