The history of Linguistics

By Lense
  • 600 BCE

    Panini

    Wrote a grammar of Sanskrit
  • 100 BCE

    Dionysius Thrax "Téchne Grammatiké"

    Wrote the first surviving grammar of an European language. Treated phonetics and morphology
  • 110

    Apollonius Dyscolus

    Described Greek sintax
  • 500

    The Romans

    Continued studying the themes of interest to Greek linguistics. The primary interest was in morphology.
  • 500

    Saint Jerome - The theory of translation

    Suggested a sense for sense translation instead word for word.
  • Apr 18, 1300

    The Renaissance (15th -17th Centuries)

    Grammatical descriptions were written for several European languages. The Bible was translated into many different languages.
  • Apr 18, 1400

    Manuel Chrysoloras

    Produced the first grammar book of Greek Western Europe.
  • Apr 18, 1500

    Pierre Ramée

    Argued that all languages should be appreciated in their own right.
  • Port Royal Grammarians

    Took a Rationalist approach to language; believed in language universals as evidenced by a common thought structure in people throughout the civilized world.
  • J.G Herder

    Believed that language and thought are inseparable.
  • Sir William Jones

    Wrote a paper to the Royal Asiatic Society in Calcutta about the historical connection between Sanskrit and Western European languages.
  • Wihelm von Humboldt

    Wrote the variety of human language structure, which was later hailed by Leonard Bloomfield as "the first great book on general linguistics"
  • Jacob Grimm

    Devised Grimm´s law which states that, "if there is found between two languages agreement in the forms of indispensable words to such an extent that rules of letter changes can be discovered for passing from one to the other, then there is a basic relationship between these languages"
  • Dane R. Rask

    Pioneer in historical/comparative linguistics. He worked out a methodology for historical/comparative linguistics.
  • Franz Bopp

    Worked further on classification of genetic relations among the Germanic languages.
  • August Schleicher

    Indicated that contemporary languages had gone through a process in which simpler Ursprachen had given rise to descendent languages that obeyed natural laws of development.
  • The grammar - translation method

  • Roman Jacobson

    Developed Saussre´s ideas and the product was formalism.
  • The direct method

    This method is based on the idea that second language must be an imitation of first language learning
  • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

    Saw language as intimately connected with the way of life and thought of its speakers.
  • Ferdinand de Saussure

    Developed the idea that languge is a system of arbitrary signs, and his conceptualization of the sign has been highly influential
  • The oral approach

    The key feature of the approach was that new language points were introduced and practised situationally
  • The audiolingual method

    Under this method students listen to or view recordings of language models
  • The silent way

    In this method, the teacher is usually silent, leaving room for the students to talk and explore the language
  • Chomsky: Generative Grammar "Syntactic Structures"

    Introduced the idea of transformational generative grammar. This was an all-formal approach to syntax. This method uses phrase structure rules. These rules break down sentences into smaller parts. Chomsky aimed to "generate" all grammatical sentences of a given language.
  • Chomsky: "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax"

    Chomsky wrote a book called "Aspects of The Theory of Syntax" and presented a deeper formulation of transformational generative grammar (TGG).
  • Desuggestopedia

    Georgi Lozanov thought that the brain could process great quantities of material if given tha right conditions for learning. Music was central to this method
  • Total physical response

    Students respond to commands that require physical movement
  • Community language learning

    It's method that is based on English for communication and is extremely learner-focused
  • The natural approach

    This method emphasizes the idea of exposure and the lowering of affective or emotional barriers to learning
  • The communicative language teaching

    Emphasized interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language
  • Chomsky: Lectures on "Government and Binding"

    He states that the words and ideas are conneced to each other by binding
  • The lexical approach

    States that being able to understand and produce lexical phrases as chunks
  • Chomsky Principles and Parameters

    Principles and parameters is a framework within generative linguistics in which the syntax of a natural language is described in accordance with general principles (i.e. abstract rules or grammars) and specific parameters (i.e. markers, switches) that for particular languages are either turned on or off.
  • Chomsky: Minimalist Programme

    In minimalism, Chomsky attempts to approach universal grammar from below—that is, proposing the question "what would be the optimal answer to what the theory of i-Language should be?"
  • Task based learning

    It focuses on the use of authentic language and on asking student to do meaningful tasks using the target language
  • CLIL

    It envolves teaching a curricular subject through the medium of a language other than that normally used