TY  - JOUR
A1  - McElvenny, James
T1  - Grammar, typology and the Humboldtian tradition in the work of Georg von der Gabelentz
JF  - Language & history : journal of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas
N2  - A frequently mentioned if somewhat peripheral figure in the historiography of late nineteenth-century linguistics is the German sinologist and general linguist Georg von der Gabelentz (1840–1893). Today Gabelentz is chiefly remembered for several insights that proved to be productive in the development of subsequent schools and subdisciplines. In this paper, we examine two of these insights, his analytic and synthetic systems of grammar and his foundational work on typology. We show how they were intimately connected within his conception of linguistic research, and how this was in turn embedded in the tradition established by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), especially as it was further developed by H. Steinthal (1823–1899). This paper goes beyond several previous works with a similar focus by drawing on a wider range of Gabelentz’ writings, including manuscript sources that have only recently been published, and by examining specific textual connections between Gabelentz and his predecessors.
KW  - History of linguistics
KW  - typology
KW  - language description
KW  - grammar
KW  - Humboldtian linguistics
KW  - Georg von der Gabelentz
KW  - H . Steinthal
KW  - Wilhelm von Humboldt
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/17597536.2016.1212580
SN  - 1759-7536
SN  - 1759-7544
VL  - 60
SP  - 1
EP  - 20
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -