Concise History of the Language Sciences: From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists

This book presents in a single volume a comprehensive history of the language sciences, from ancient times through to the twentieth century. While there has been a concentration on those traditions that have the greatest international relevance, a particular effort has been made to go beyond traditional Eurocentric accounts, and to cover a broad geographical spread. For the twentieth century a section has been devoted to the various trends, schools, and theoretical framework developed in Europe, North America and Australasia over the past seventy years. There has also been a concentration on those approaches in linguistic theory which can be expected to have some direct relevance to work being done at the beginning of the twenty-first century or those of which a knowledge is needed for the full understanding of the history of linguistic sciences through the last half of this century. The last section of this book reviews the applications of some of these findings. Based on the foundation provided by the award winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics this volume provides an excellent focal point of reference for anyone interested in the history of the language sciences.

...of enormous value given the diversity and complexity of the history of linguistic thought in this century, and the difficulty most scholars have in keeping abreast of all the developments taking place within the multiplicity of disciplines called linguistics...the remit is very wide for a single, manageable volume and all the sections are written in a concise yet scholarly fashion by acknowledged experts...the reader can rely on the book's contents with the utmost confidence.... The balance between brevity and detail achieved throughout the volume makes this a first class reference work...it may be necessary to wait at least ten more years before another one volume, multi-authored history of this calibre appears.
Historiographia Linguistica
Peter Schmitter
It is very welcome that E.F.K. Koerner and R.E. Asher have put together a selection of relevant articles on the history of the language sciences (from the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics) in a sinvole volume...the book deserves attention...a welcome supplement to (other) mutli-volume histories...it places emphasis on the 20th century which is not very well covered in (these) other works"
Beiträgezur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 6
The limited amount of space allowed book reviews makes it impossible to do full justice to Koerner and Asher's Concise History of the Language Sciences (CHoLS)...each article contained in this collection is marked by a praiseworthy lucidity of exposition coupled with an admirable degree of concision; such brevity, however, in no way precludes a noteworthy completeness of coverage...the present survey provides a comprehensive synthesis of developments in a variety of areas of language investigation. Furthermore, rather than fulfilling a merely adjunctive function, this study stands on its own as a very readable and exceptionally informative reflection on many facets of an evolving discipline, a tome which should be indispensable to anyone seriously involved with linguistics...the Concise History of the Langauge Sciences constitutes a remarkable achievement, and the scholarly world owes a debt of gratitude to all who took part in its creation.
Journal for the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Brigitte Nerlich
What distinguishes this history of linguistics...is its almost global coverage.... The contributions are all of a very high standard and written by specialists.... It is one of the great joys of reading this book to plunge into chapters that deal with remoter regions of the history of linguistics which are unfamiliar to the reader...this book should not only be read by those interested in the history of the language sciences. The 20th century section in particular should be read by all those studying contemporary linguistics in order to grasp the diversity of approaches that have been developed, that are currently being developed, and that still can be developed in the future.
Linguist list
Zivko Bojadžiev
....An excellent book - a comprehensive history of the language sciences, from antiquity through to the 20th century, with an invaluable bibliography!...Libraries of universities and departments that offer courses of any sort in linguistics ought to have this book on their reference shelves.
Contrastive Linguistics XX1
Mauro Fernandez
Useful as a reference book, to cover in the most efficient way the needs of those exploring the history of linguistics. ("...sirve, como libro de referencia, para cubrir de forma mas que suficiente las necesidades de quienes se aproximen a la historia de la linguistics").

Anuario Galego de Filoloxia
Benji Wald
...an informative and convenient volume for those interested in the origins and sources of current theoretical linguistics.
Language