Linguistics

The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) via Wikipedia

Linguistics is the study of language, including its elements, character, structure and modifications.

While much has been said in academic circles about recent structural and poststructural analyses of language, critical thinking about language is not a new phenomenon.

In ancient Greece, for instance, several major philosophers discussed some of the many issues arising around logos (speech, account, reason, definition, rational faculty, proportion) and onoma (name).¹

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¹ Definitions of Greek terms are from F. E. Peters, Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon (New York: New York University Press, 1967, pp. 110, 144), where further discussion of this topic is available.

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