1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910828753403321

Titolo

History of linguistics 2008 : selected papers from the 11th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHOLS XI), Potsdam, 28 August-2 September 2008 / / edited by Gerda Hassler ; with the assistance of Gesina Volkmann

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia [Pa.], : John Benjamins Pub. Co., 2011

ISBN

90-272-8717-1

9786613059413

1-283-05941-X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (484 p.)

Collana

Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series III, Studies in the history of the language sciences ; ; v. 115

Altri autori (Persone)

HasslerGerda

VolkmannGesina

Disciplina

410.9

Soggetti

Linguistics - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

pt. 1. Methodological considerations, linguistics and philology -- pt. 2. Antiquity -- pt. 3. Renaissance linguistics -- pt. 4. Seventeenth and eighteenth century -- pt. 5. Nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Sommario/riassunto

This paper aims at presenting Harris' use of information theory as a specific case of transfer of mathematical concepts and methods into linguistics. First, it will show that distributional analysis had characteristics which made it particu­larly receptive to some aspects of information theory, such as the special status of repe­tition and the treatment of linguistic elements as physical events. Second, this paper will show how Harris gradually incorporated the notions of information theory and methods to address new issues in his own theory: from the identification and classi­fication of linguistic units to the analysis of redundant patterns in utterances and in discourses, and finally to the ultimate objective of developing an information grammar for the sublanguages of sciences. Thus, infor­mation, at first a pure quan­titative entity, underwent a semantic turn when Harris adapted it for linguistic ob­jec­tives.