Language or dialect? the history of a conceptual pair / Raf Van Rooy.

Author/creator Van Rooy, Raf
Other author Oxford University Press.
Format Electronic
EditionFirst edition.
Publication InfoOxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press 2020.
Descriptionxvi, 349 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Supplemental ContentFull text available from Oxford Scholarship Online
Subjects

Summary This book provides a historiographic study of the distinction between language and dialect, a puzzle which has long fascinated linguists and laypeople alike. It offers a comprehensive account of the intriguing and complex history of the language-dialect pair, and shows that its real origins can be found in sixteenth-century humanist scholarship. The book begins with a survey of the prehistory of the language/dialect distinction in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Raf Van Rooy then provides a detailed investigation of the emergence, establishment, and development of the conceptual pair during the early modern period, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, when linguistic diversity was first studied in depth. Finally, the much-debated and ambiguous fate of the language/dialect opposition in modern linguistics is explored: although a number of earlier ideas were adopted by later scholars, many linguists today question the notion of a seemingly arbitrary and subjective distinction between language and dialect.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages [303]-332) and index.
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2020288936
ISBN9780198845713 (hardcover)
ISBN0198845715 (hardcover)

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