La linguistica ottocentesca fra speculazione, storia e tipologia

Abstract

In the 19th century of the past millennium not only did linguistics become a historical science, it also began to lay the foundations of the theoretical and synchronic investigation that in the later century would gain a pre-eminent position amongst researchers. The directions of research that linguists took in that century are therefore so many and varied that it is definitely difficult to give a detailed account of them in a single paper. Neither is it easy to find and follow a connecting thread that allows coherent, exhaustive treatment of the matter. Things standing as they are, the author starts arbitrarily from the first of the nine lessons that F.M. Müller gave on the science of language at the Royal Institution in London in 1861. This choice allows him to discuss both the main themes of research and the different positions of the linguists of that century.