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It is the editors' Introduction to the vol. Insights into the History of Linguistics. Selected Papers from ICHoLS XV ((Milan, 23 – 27 August 2021)

This volume collects a selection of papers concerning the history of linguistics spanning the centuries from the 17th to the 20th. These contributions were presented and debated at ICHoLS XV (Milan, 23 – 27 August 2021). The essays focus on various contexts across the modern and contemporary ages in Europe, Asia, and the United States. This collection offers an accurate exploration of linguistic topics and metalinguistic traditions across diverse historical and geographical settings.

C’è una vulgata sulla “latitanza” della sintassi nello strutturalismo, in particolare europeo, e più ampiamente nei modelli europei di teoria linguistica che merita di essere vagliata nella sua attendibilità. Tra la fine dell’Ottocento e i primi del Novecento, soprattutto in ambiente germanofono, la sintassi venne infatti lungamente scrutata o avvistata come cruciale,a partire da più ambiti disciplinari, spesso fra loro irrelati e ben al di là dell’incipiente strutturalismo: dalla psicologia, dalla logica, dalla filosofia, dalla grammatica, tramille distinguo e un forte impegno di categorizzazione. Se l’obiettivo in Bühler è il monitoraggio del pensiero nel suo nascere, tra i praghesi l’intento è quello di osservare da vicino (modello del codice) le diverse risorse offerte da lingue diverse per l’organizzazione inequivoca e quanto più possibile libera dell’espressione, così come di monitorare (modello della comunicazione) l’esito compiuto dell’avvicendarsi dei pensieri nello scambio dialogico. Si lascia dunque narrare una progressione di indagini coltivate in più sedi, ma certamente spesso ambientate tra Vienna (Miklosich, Brentano, Bühler) e Praga (Marty, Zubaty, Mathesius, Funke, Carnap). Quasi si potrebbe illustrare, anche a proposito di sintassi, la sua semiosi ora propriamente simbolica di relazioni in re, ora più unilateralmente sintomatica, espressiva dell’Erlebnis dei parlanti – l’erlebte Rededi letteraria memoria, ad esempio – ora più intenzionalmente appellativa, quasi indice puntato alla volta dell’interlocutore. Quindi, sì, una semiotica della sintassi, inclusiva – ovviamente – di una semantica della stessa sintassi, che non ne teorizzi né l'estraneità alla lingua né l'autonomia dalle lingue

A thorough inter-reading through the 150 years of AGI’s lifetime allows firstly a systematic overview of the programmatic texts which open and guide its development: from glottology, philology, dialectology to begin with (1873), along the two-fold articulation in romance studies and IE inquiries, and secondly to the signpost to literary language and culture (1910). The language issue and the newly established Italian political culture hint at the observation that scientific work is a sort of civil obligation. Neogrammarians and Neolinguists are the main terms of comparison up to WW2. Focus is then placed on American and general linguistics, but the main topic remains historical linguistics, which does not only mean the history of comparative grammar. Contemporary theories, with their own principles and methods, are welcome to be tested or applied to language facts. Where, then, is philosophy? In the epistemological contributions, in semantics, terminological investigations regarding key words in philosophy and language sciences, in their own philosophy of science. Theory of language, rather than philosophy, is present and readily recognisable. We do not simply confront an overturning of positivism, idealism, realism or cognitivism, as fashionable trends, but provide a serious treatment with broad, remote areas of linguistic expressions, which resists oversimplification and is now eager to host relevant sources of inspiration. A highly estimable mutual exchange.

Transitioning from a thematic webinar to a publication containing its contributions requires not only a different explanatory approach, but also an accurate comprehensive documentation of sources and methodological and instrumental resources. This article arses precisely from this, and is both a presentation of an ongoing work and a proposition for a demanding turning point toward an interdisciplinary encounter between the philosophy of language and the history of philosophy. The author believes it is time to move explicitly from the theory of meaning to the treatment of the language of philosophy, both to that for which there is an established history and to that of the ongoing work. A task that requires a metalinguistic undertaking (including corpus linguistics) and a decomposition into a unity of research of different origins and objectives, to ensure that the task possesses sustainable continuity and paves the way for a new historiographic and theoretically pertinent approach.

The essay is focused on Maria Corti's contribution to the study of Dante, as an author of poetry - especially La divina Commedia - but also as "father of the Italian language", in his De vulgari eloquentia and certainly not there only. Many different levels of Dante's works are considered: his language, his various metalinguistic contributions, mainly on grammar at its different stages - on metaphor, on what can just be suggested or merely alluded, eventually his tremendous culture and originality

The centenary of Brentano’s death provides the opportunity to witness the leading position carved out by his thought within the centennial history of «Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica», seeking to point out in what extent Brentano’s philosophy can be still considered ‘contemporary’. Specifically, most of the contemporary studies addressed to Brentano’s philosophy clearly show that the role of utmost importance he played, and still plays, within the history of philosophy is not only due to his introduction and discussion of the notion of intentionality. In the last decades indeed, specific attention has been payed (a) to Brentano’s ethical theory, (b) to his overall assessment of philosophy and (c) in arguing for the idea that psychology should to be considered in the same manner as a rigorous science. This paper is aimed at outlining the plan of this special issue devoted to Brentano’s thought, briefly presenting the themes addressed in the essays submitted by expert scholars. Thematically speaking the topics addressed in the papers clearly mirror, on the one hand, the fruitfulness of Brentano’s ethics and, on the other, they shed light on a set of themes that support a more accurate consideration of his account of philosophy.

From thinking of god to talking to Him. The paper shows the path which goes from common to proper nouns, from the 3rd to the 2nd person.. Distinguishes referring. and co-referring, focussing consequently on appealing and listening.. Silence and talk are variously intertwined. In the conclusion, half a Century of Philosophy of Religious Language in Italy is reviewd.

The issue dedicated to the philosophy of Franz Brentano explores both central and less inquired topics: emotions and acts of will, perception and temporal topologies, optimism, method and the history of philosophy. The first Italian translation of "The four phases of philosophy" is published.

The paper lists the seven published translations of Buehler's Sprachtheorie, from German into Spanish, Italian, Japanese, English, Russian, Polish, French. Not only it specifies for each of them the translators, either individual or in-team, but also explains the cultural environments and the contextual conditions which promoted or inhibited for a long time a wider dissemination of Buehler's main work. Some interviews with translators are also included.

First, we aim to place Bühler's axiomatics in its own spatial-temporal context — along the temporal line which connects his works, that originate at the latest from 1927, and possibly even from 1903, up to 1960, as well as in the Central-European zone which connects two of Europe's major capitals of culture, the two cities close to Bühler's professional life, Vienna and Prague, especially in the inter-war years. While doing so, another temporal line will be identified, which begins at the First International Congress of Linguists at the Hague in 1928, and continues, beyond the well-known 1929 Prague Linguistic Circle Theses, as far as 1932, to the collective Prague Theses concerning language culture. In the background, the ‘axiomatizing trend’ permeates the epistemological project of the Vienna Circle in its founding years. Eventually, the question will arise as to if and how Bühler's epistemological move has been recognized, appreciated, and taken seriously in the further development of language sciences, including contemporary thought.