Book contents
- Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics
- Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Americas
- Part II The Early Lives of Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt
- Part III Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Americanist Linguistics
- Part IV Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Impact on Americanist Linguistics and Anthropology
- Part V Wilhelm von Humboldt as an Americanist Linguist and Anthropologist
- 13 Summary
- 14 Conclusions
- Book part
- References
- Index
14 - Conclusions
from Part V - Wilhelm von Humboldt as an Americanist Linguist and Anthropologist
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2024
- Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics
- Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American Linguistics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Americas
- Part II The Early Lives of Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt
- Part III Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Americanist Linguistics
- Part IV Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Impact on Americanist Linguistics and Anthropology
- Part V Wilhelm von Humboldt as an Americanist Linguist and Anthropologist
- 13 Summary
- 14 Conclusions
- Book part
- References
- Index
Summary
Humboldt not only offered a theoretically much more diverse program of Americanist linguistics than conventionally recognized, ranging from fundamental analytical issues, historical problems, and sociohistorical descriptions to comparative studies, typological questions, innovative notions, and programmatic statements across much of Middle and South America and eventually eastern North America; significantly, the present book also covers a longer historical period, from the early nineteenth century through the years after World War I, during which he exerted direct and indirect influences on four generations of linguists and anthropologists. Although the present discussion does not address the developments of the twentieth century, it answers a question that half a century ago Dell Hymes raised in wonderment about the continuous reinvention of Humboldtian notions: American Humboldtians then offered a long, sociohistorically diverse and rich platform for a broadly defined comparative linguistics to reinvent itself in various forms.
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- Information
- Wilhelm von Humboldt and Early American LinguisticsResources and Inspirations, pp. 296 - 301Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024