DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Humboldt: 'On Language'

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

Wilhelm von Humboldt author Peter Heath translator Michael Losonsky editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:9th Dec '99

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Humboldt: 'On Language' cover

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

This classic study of human language 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 and philosophical context.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.

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

ISBN: 9780521660891

Dimensions: 236mm x 159mm x 28mm

Weight: 630g

342 pages

2nd Revised edition