The Philosophy and Science of Language

This volume brings together a diverse range of scholars to address important philosophical and interdisciplinary questions in the study of language. Linguistics throughout history has been a conduit to the study of the mind, brain, societal structure, literature and history itself. The epistemic and methodological transfer between the sciences and humanities in regards to linguistics has often been documented, but the underlying philosophical issues have not always been adequately addressed.

With 15 original and interdisciplinary chapters, this volume therefore tackles vital questions relating to the philosophy, history, and theoretical interplay between the study of language and fields as varied as logic, physics, biology, classical philology and neuroscience.

With a four part structure, questions of the mathematical foundations of linguistics, links to the natural sciences, cognitive implications and historical connections, take centre stage throughout the volume. The final chapters present research related to the linguistic connections between history, philosophy and the humanities more broadly. Advancing new avenues of research, this volume is exemplary in its treatment of diachronic and cross-disciplinary interaction, and will be of interest to all scholars interested in the study of language.

Auteur

Ryan M. Nefdt, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a visiting fellow at the Pittsburgh Center for the Philosophy of Science and has published numerous works in the philosophy of linguistics and language.

Carita Klippi, Senior Lecturer in French, Tampere University, Finland. She is a member of the laboratory Histoire des théories linguistiques in Paris, France, and has published on the history of linguistics and historical sociolinguistics.

Bart Karstens, Research Fellow at the Rathenau Institute, The Hague, and member of the Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Contenu

1. Introduction; Ryan M. Nefdt, Carita Klippi and Bart Karstens.- Part I. Linguistics and the Formal Sciences.- 2. The Complexities of Syntax; Jaroslav Peregrin.- 3. Negation in Dedekind Orderings and the Logic of Reciprocity; Terence D. Langendoen.- 4. Variations on Abstract Semantic Spaces; Katrin Erk.- 5. Mathematical Transfers in Linguistics: A Dynamic Between Ethos and Formalization as a Process of Scientific Legitimization; Adrien Mathy.- Part II. Linguistics and the Natural Sciences.- 6. Scientific Realism and Linguistics: Two Stories of Scientific Progress; Johannes Woschitz.- 7. Linguistic Change and Biological Evolution; Unni Leino, Kaj Syrjänen, Outi Vesakoski.- 8 Three Models for Linguistics: Newtonian Mechanics, Darwinism, Axiomatics; Esa Itkonen.- Part III. Linguistics and the Cognitive Sciences.- 9. The Role of Language in the Cognitive Sciences; Ryan M. Nefdt.- 10. Linguistics and Brain Science: (Dis-) connections in Nineteenth Century Aphasiology; Els Effers.- 11. Epistemic Transfer Between Linguistics and Neuroscience: Problems and Prospects; Giosuè Baggio.- Part IV. Linguistics and the Humanities.- 12. Linguistics Meets Hermeneutics: Reading Early Greek Epistemological Texts; Anna Novokhatko.- 13. On the History of Models in American Linguistics; Jacqueline Leon.- 14. Poetics and the life of language: Disciplinary Transfer in the Guise of Metaphor; Carita Klippi.- 15. Linguistics and Philosophy: Break up Song; Kate Stanton.