Language - by Leonard Bloomfield (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Perhaps the single most influential work of general linguistics published in the twentieth century, Leonard Bloomfield's Language is both a masterpiece of textbook writing and a classic of scholarship. Intended as an introduction to the field of linguistics, it revolutionized the field when it appeared in 1933 and became the major text of the American descriptivist school.

The book quickly became the primary text for the American descriptivist school of linguistics. Bloomfield's clear, systematic methodology and focus on observable language data laid the groundwork for a new era in linguistic theory. His work, which covers a wide range of topics, from phonology and morphology to syntax and semantics, provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how language functions as a structured system.

Through twelve detailed chapters, Bloomfield explores topics such as the sounds of language, the structure of words, and the organization of sentences. His emphasis on structuralism and the empirical study of language has had a profound impact on the discipline, making Language an essential reference for anyone interested in the history and development of linguistic theory.

As both an introduction for newcomers and a resource for more advanced students, Language continues to be a crucial text in understanding the scientific study of language and its ongoing evolution.

Review Quotes

"Language is by far the most widely used and the most widely quoted linguistics textbook that has ever appeared. It is a book that anyone who wants to call himself a linguist absolutely must read. In it, Bloomfield made a coherent whole out of the approach to linguistics that had been forming in this country in the first third of this century, thereby greatly accelerating the maturation of that school of linguistics. American descriptivist linguistics, which is of great importance both for much of the research done in it and for the roots it later provided for the development of Chomskyan transformational linguistics, is with much justice generally called "Bloomfieldian linguistics."--James D. McCawley "University of Chicago"

"Certainly one reason why this book Language has become a classic is that later writers have only seldom succeeded in improving on its exposition. This does not mean that linguistics has not advanced beyond Bloomfield - of course it has - but the facts of language are the same now as they were then, and to the extent that those facts were known to Bloomfield, his presentation remains unexcelled. His book continues to be the source of his greatest influence."--John T. Waterman "Perspectives in Linguistics"

About the Author

Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949) was professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago and Yale University.