An Introduction to the Study of Language

384 Pages·1983·15.497 MB·

by  Leonard Bloomfield

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series II - CLASSICS IN PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Advisory Editorial Board
Ursula Bellugi (San Diego);John B. Carroll Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Robert Grieve (Perth, W.Australia);Hans Hormann (Bochum)
John C. Marshall (Oxford);Tatiana Slama-Cazacu (Bucharest)
Dan I. Slobin (Berkeley)
Volume 3
Leonard Bloomfield
An Introduction to the Study of Language
LEONARD BLOOMFIELD
AN INTRODUCTION
TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE
New edition
with an introduction by
JOSEPH F. KESS
University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1983
FOR CHARLES F. HOCKETT
© Copyright 1983 - John Benjamins B.V.
ISSN 0165 716X
ISBN 90 272 1892 7 (Pp.) / ISBN 90 272 1891 9(Hb.)
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint,
microfilm or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
For permission to reprint Leonard Bloomfield's book, An Introduction
to the Study of Language (New York, 1914) I would like to thank the publisher
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, and Ms Mary McGowan, Manager, Rights and
Permissions Department.*
Thanks are also due to my colleague and friend Joseph F. Kess for having con
tributed an introductory article to the present reprinting of Bloomfield's first
book, and to Charles F. Hockett of Cornell University, for commenting on an
earlier draft of my Foreword, suggesting substantial revisions of content and
form. It is in recognition of his important contribution to a re-evaluation of
Bloomfield's oeuvre that the present volume is dedicated to him.
Ottawa, Easter 1981 Konrad Koerner
* Contrary to my earlier observation (see footnote 10 of the Foreword), I was lucky enough, during
my sojourn at the Newberry Library in Fall 1982, to locate a photograph of Leonard Bloomfield as a
man in his thirties at the University of Chicago. I would like to express my thanks to Mr. Daniel
Meyer - of the Library Archives for having provided me with a copy on which the present picture is
based. - Prof. C.F. Hockett kindly furnished the photocopy for the reproduction of Bloomfield's
signature.

CONTENTS
Foreword by the Editor ix
Introduction by Joseph F. Kess xvii
Leonard Bloomfield: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
LANGUAGE v, 1

FOREWORD
In the foreword to the first volume of ''Classics in Psycholinguistics" writ
ten four years ago,1 I remarked that research in the history of psycholinguis
tics demands not only dual expertise in psychology and linguistics but also
mastery of German, since the bulk of the classic material that should be made
available again is in that language, which in matters of science held a position
until the First World War comparable to English today. Currently, specialists
with that particular combination of skills seem fairly rare, something which
may explain the slow growth of the present series in comparison to all the four
others combined under the umbrella title of "Amsterdam Studies in the
Theory and History of Linguistic Science".
Because of this situation, it was a stroke of good fortune that I was able to
persuade Professor Joseph F. Kess to supply the historical background to the
volume here reprinted, and to indicate the importance of certain intellectual
traditions to present-day research. In addition to the skills already men
tioned , Professor Kess approaches the subj ect free from bias — he has no ax to
grind, but is concerned solely with keeping the record accurate; and this he
has done, in my opinion, not just competently but with a certain charm. We all
owe him a debt of gratitude.
It is entirely compatible with that gratitude for me to hold certain views
differing from Professor Kess's on a few points of detail.
Thus, it seems to me quite well established that Albert Paul Weiss (1879-
1931) had a profound influence on Leonard Bloomfield during the 1920s,
when both were at the Ohio State University (1921-27). We have Bloomfield's
own extensive testimony for this, and we can trace the influence in the sort of
psychology Bloomfield admitted into his later linguistic thinking. In sharp
contrast, although the works of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and Emile
Durkheim (1858-1917) show certain superficial similarities, there is not a
1) See Albert Thumb & Karl Marbe, Experimentelle Untersuchungen iiber die psychologischen
Grundlagen der sprachlichen Analogiebildang, new ed., with an introduction by David J. Murray
(Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1978), v-viii. (Please note that on page v of that book, end of the sec
ond paragraph, "2 vols." is a misprint for "20 vols.").