Latin as the Language of Science and Learning

Latin as the Language of Science and Learning
Author: Philipp Roelli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 659
Release: 2021-11-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110745836

This book investigates the role of the Latin language as a vehicle for science and learning from several angles. First, the question what was understood as ‘science’ through time and how it is named in different languages, especially the Classical ones, is approached. Criteria for what did pass as scientific are found that point to ‘science’ as a kind of Greek Denkstil based on pattern-finding and their unbiased checking. In a second part, a brief diachronic panorama introduces schools of thought and authors who wrote in Latin from antiquity to the present. Latin’s heydays in this function are clearly the time between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries. Some niches where it was used longer are examined and reasons sought why Latin finally lost this lead-role. A third part seeks to define the peculiar characteristics of scientific Latin using corpus linguistic approaches. As a result, several types of scientific writing can be identified. The question of how to transfer science from one linguistic medium to another is never far: Latin inherited this role from Greek and is in turn the ancestor of science done in the modern vernaculars. At the end of the study, the importance of Latin science for modern science in English becomes evident.

Word Origins

Word Origins
Author: John Ayto
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 983
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1408101602

The average contemporary English speaker knows 50,000 words. Yet stripped down to its origins, this apparently huge vocabulary is in reality much smaller, derived from Latin, French and the Germanic languages. It is estimated that every year, 800 neologisms are added to the English language: acronyms (nimby), blended words (motel), and those taken from foreign languages (savoir-faire). Laid out in an A-Z format with detailed cross references, and written in a style that is both authoritative and accessible, Word Origins is a valuable historical guide to the English language.

The Routledge Linguistics Encyclopedia

The Routledge Linguistics Encyclopedia
Author: Kirsten Malmkjaer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 763
Release: 2009-12-04
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1134103719

An encyclopedia covering the major and subsidiary areas of linguistics and applied linguistics. It includes the seventy nine entries providing coverage of the topics and sub-topics of the field. It is suitable for specialists and non-specialists alike.

Questioning Linguistics

Questioning Linguistics
Author: Naomi Knight
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2009-05-27
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 144381220X

QUESTIONING LINGUISTICS brings together different perspectives on language studies and applications into a single volume and allows readers to examine how linguists of diverse traditions study and use this expert knowledge of language. By doing so, this volume invites us to reconsider the nature and focus of the field of study and questions a number of current thoughts about language theory, application, and use. In effect, the nature of linguistics, linguistic theory, and languages are called into question, as are the methods that we as linguists may take for granted in our developed research traditions. Scholars and researchers from within linguistics and beyond will find this volume both accessible and engaging, as it gathers the thoughts and opinions of experts in the field alongside new theorists in an open forum for discussion that diminishes the borders between these diverse threads.