Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Humboldt's profound study is one of the classics of linguistic theory, a work of great insight and originality, of deep significance for the study of language and of human psychology and culture. His concept of linguistic forms and his ideas concerning linguistic creativiety are particularly fascinating and provocative, and of great contemporary interest." * Noam Chomsky *
"This treatise, in our open and covert pro and con, has ever since determined the course of all subsequent philology and philosophy of language. . . . Astounding, obscure, and yet continuously stimulating." * Martin Heidegger *
Table of ContentsNote to the Translation
Translator's Foreword
Preface by Alexander von Humboldt
Transliteration of Foreign Alphabets
Objective of the Present Treatise
1. The Course of Human Development
2. Effect of Exceptional Intellectual Power: Civilization, Culture, and Education
3. Cooperation of Individuals and Nations
4. A More Detailed Consideration of Language
5. Morphology of Languages
6. Nature and Properties of Language
7. The Phonetic System of Languages
8. Internal Linguistic Morphology and Structure
9. The Relationship of Phonemic Quantity to Intellectual Concept
10. The Linguistic Process: Etymology and Morphology
11. Isolation, Inflection, and Agglutination of Words
12 The Word Unit: The Incorporative Capacity of Language
13. Accentuation
14. The Incorporative System of Languages: Syntactical Sentence Components
15. Congruence of Phonetic Patterns of Languages with Grammatical Requirements
16. Structural Differences Between Languages
17. The Character of Languages
18. Independent Synthesis in Languages
19. A Review of the Present Investigation
20. Less Developed Linguistic Structure: The Semitic and Delaware Indian Languages
21. Less Developed Linguistic Structure: The Chinese and Burmese Languages
22. The Origin of Polysyllabic Structure
Notes
Bibliography
Index
