Humboldt: 'On Language'
On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species

A classic study of human language, its structures, and its relation to mind and culture.

Wilhelm von Humboldt (Author), Michael Losonsky (Edited by), Peter Heath (Translated by)

9780521667722, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 December 1999

344 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.3 cm, 0.545 kg

"The editor's introduction contains a fine summary of Humboldt'd career." Notes on Linguistics

Wilhelm von Humboldt's classic study of human language was first published in 1836, as a general introduction to his three-volume treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of the nature of language, exploring its universal structures and its relation to mind and culture. Empirically wide-ranging - Humboldt goes far beyond the Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclusions from comparative linguistics. This 1999 volume presents a translation by Peter Heath, together with an introduction by Michael Losonsky that places Humboldt's work in its historical context and discusses its relevance to contemporary work in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and psychology.

1. Distribution and cultural connection of the Malayan races
2. General consideration of the course of man's development
3. The same, continued
4. Effects of exceptional mental power
5. Conjoint action of individuals and nations
6. The same, continued
7. Transition to closer consideration of language
8. Form of languages
9. Nature and constitution of languages as such
10. Sound-system of languages
11. Inner linguistic form
12. Combination of sound with inner linguistic form
13. The procedure of language more fully explained
14. Isolation, inflection and agglutination of words
15. Verbal unity more closely examined
16. Accent
17. Incorporative system of languages
18. Congruence of sound-forms in languages with grammatical requirements
19. Main division of languages, according to the purity of their formative principle
20. Character of languages
21. Power of languages to evolve felicitously from one to another
22. Retrospect on the course of the inquiry so far
23. Nature and origin of less perfect language-structure
24. The Chinese language
25. Whether the polysyllabic language-structure has evolved from the monosyllabic.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of language [CFA], Linguistics [CF]