Linguistics [antikvár]

PrefaceThis volume would seem to need only a small preface, since the last chapter, that contributed by the editor, has been designed as an overview of the present state of language science in the United States and, at least in part, elsewhere. Yet it can be added here that the state of our science at the moment is one which particularly calls for two types of summaries and syntheses. First, the impact of linguistics on other activities, practical and theoretical, is great and growing and consequently calls for extended discussion. Second, the great upsurge of interest in theoretical linguistics has led on the one hand to great advances in knowledge and on the other to development of many varied schools and approaches. Synthesis of these various schools may be neither possible nor finally desirable, but it is certain that it will be accomplished, if at all, only by reasonable presentation and patient discussion. The writers represented in this book have, in spite of the varied views they hold, a common devotion to discussion and an ability to differ without excessive heat.It is true of this volume (from another point of view) that it is unique among books on linguistics in what is not in it as well as what is. Almost all books in this field necessarily exhibit the content and structure of the phenomenon studied - human language. This book does not. It substitutes a full and, one hopes, profitable discussion of what linguists of various kinds do when they are practicing their science. Thus, this book is essentially an answer to a query which every linguistic analyst has met, and been frustrated by: "VVIiat is linguistics, and what on earth is it good for?"The chapters in this l)ook stem from a scries of iccturcs broadcast by the Voice of America in its Forum series.November 1968Archibald A. Mill