In this new study, author David Paxman demonstrates that ordinary spatial concepts, together with the changing sense of the earth's space brought about by exploration, navigation, and mapping exerted a strong influence on linguistic thought. Paxman illuminates how our thinking about language as a whole, as well as our exploration of languages, developed in ways parallel to our thinking about and exploration of the space we live in, our planet. To the factors to which scholars have generally attributed language thought in the early modern period-the refinement of tools in phonetics, grammar and linguistic history, and the increasing exposure to diverse languages as the world was explored and colonized-Paxman here adds another: spatial exploration and the novel application of spatial concepts. He suggests that language was an unfamiliar space that Europe entered and navigated, facing challenges similar to those posed by terrestrial navigation. He argues that spatial experience influenced linguistic thought in two ways. First, ordinary spatial experience-terrain and boundaries, near and far, journeys and paths, etc.-provided conceptual structures, often novel or inventive, that guided those who investigated the properties of language. Second, expanding horizons, the sense of terrestrial space, and recognition of the difficulties of representing and navigating a spherical earth contributed directly to language thought by offering conceptual structures applicable to this different and equally challenging domain. While Voyage into Language does contribute to the history of linguistics, more broadly it is a treatment of intellectual and cultural history, and an application of cognitive science to language study of the past. As such, it holds appeal for historians and literary scholars as well as linguists.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This volume deals with the relation between pragmatics and the philosophy of mind. Unlike most of the books written on the subject, it does not defend the view that a specific form of dependence holds between language and thought, to the exclusion of all other possible relations. Taking pragmatics in its original sense of “that part of semiotics that is concerned with the users of a semiotic system”, the book analyses the nature of the mental processes and states mirrored in language use. Drawing on results from cognitive psychology, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of language, linguistics, etc., a unified view of the mental dimension in the use of language, both as an instrument of communication and as an instrument of thought, is offered. After offering a tour d'horizon of the relationship between language and mind, this volume deals with the way thought is manifested in language.

This bibliography of semiotic studies covering the years 1975-1985 impressively reveals the world-wide intensification in the field. During this decade, national semiotic societies have been founded allover the world; a great number of international, national, and local semiotic conferences have taken place; the number of periodicals and book series devoted to semiotics has increased as has the number of books and dissertations in the field. This bibliography is the result of a dedicated effort to approach complete coverage.

In a powerful and original contribution to the history of ideas, Hannah Dawson explores the intense preoccupation with language in early-modern philosophy, and presents an analysis of John Locke's critique of words. By examining a broad sweep of pedagogical and philosophical material from antiquity to the late seventeenth century, Dr Dawson explains why language caused anxiety in various writers. Locke, Language and Early-Modern Philosophy demonstrates that developments in philosophy, in conjunction with weaknesses in linguistic theory, resulted in serious concerns about the capacity of words to refer to the world, the stability of meaning, and the duplicitous power of words themselves. Dr Dawson shows that language so fixated all manner of early-modern authors because it was seen as an obstacle to both knowledge and society. She thereby uncovers a novel story about the problem of language in philosophy, and in the process reshapes our understanding of early-modern epistemology, morality and politics.

Professor Yolton delves into John Locke's most important work, the Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

Bound with the author's An alphabetical dictionary. London, 1668.