Publisher's Synopsis
The aim with this group of books has been to produce a history of linguistic thought rather than an account of the development of linguistic science. For different societies and in different periods, the editor presents the prevailing attitudes towards language: its social, cultural, religious and liturgical functions, the prestige attached to different varieties, the cultivation of a standard, the place of language in education, the elaboration of lexical and grammatical descriptions, the knowledge of foreign idioms, the status of interpreters and translators, and so on.;This volume examines the Greek, Roman and medieval European traditions which between them developed the grammatical and syntactical models which are at the basis of our inherited linguistic assumptions. The volume is divided into two sections, the first analyzes the main texts of the Graeco-Roman world and the second section looks at medieval linguistics and grammar and the philosophy of language. The book offers a discussion of language study from the end of the sixth to the end of the 14th century.
