Introduction to the Study of Language: A Critical Survey of the History and Methods of Comparative Philology of the Indo-European Languages (Classic Reprint) by Berthold Delbruck (Paperback / softback, 2015)
Excerpt from Introduction to the Study of Language: A Critical Survey of the History and Methods of Comparative Philology of the Indo-European Languages The character of the present work is mainly determined by the circumstances that it is intended by the author to facilitate the study of the Grammars which Breitkopp & Hartel are publishing, as well as the comprehension of comparative philology in its newest form. The field of this Introduction is broader than that of the above-mentioned Grammars. Wherever in the following pages language, language-development, phonetic laws etc. are discussed, Indo-European language, Indo-European language-development etc., must alone be understood. I have felt the less inclination to discuss questions which lie outside the Indo-European domain, as for example those suggested by universal philology, because in reality the influence of philosophical linguistic research upon the science founded by Bopp has always been of slight account, and is very trifling at present. In limiting myself to the departments of phonetics and inflection I have also followed the Grammars, but I must ackwledge that I should t, perhaps, have practised this self-denial if I had t just shown, in the fourth volume of my syntactical investigations (Die Grundlagen der griechischen Syntax, Halle, 1879), how in my opinion the comparative syntax of the Indo-European languages should be treated. The book here laid before the public is divided into a historical and an analytical part. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.