History of Linguistics, 1996: Traditions in linguistics worldwide

Book excerpt: The papers in this volume present a colourful picture of the range of research currently being undertaken in the field of the history of linguistics, with contribution both from established scholars and from younger researchers. The volume is organised on a geographical basis, with sections devoted to a number of different traditions in linguistics world-wide. The opening section is concerned with a number of general and methodological topics — ranging from the notion of 'revolution' in linguistic historiography to the history of the study of ape language. The second section is devoted to 'missionary linguistics', an umbrella category for the early contacts of Europeans with non-European languages. Subsequent sections address individual traditions in linguistics: III. The Celtic Tradition; IV. The Chinese Tradition; V. The Georgian Tradition; VI. The Hebrew Tradition; VII. The Japanese Tradition; VIII. The Persian Tradition; IX. The Russian Tradition; X. The Tamil Tradition.