Amanda's Notes: Historical Linguistics and Philology

The book that I chose to read was Historical Linguistics and Philology, edited by Jacek Fisiak. The book is basically a group of essays discussing linguistics and philology and the application of each using various languages. The following are a few notes that I took while reading this book:

1. The article "The missing line: the role of the lexicon," written by Jean Aitchison, gives another definition of philology: "science (esp. historical and comparative) of language(s); study of literature; love of learning and literature" (p 11). I especially liked the inclusion of the word learning, because not only does reading slowly help us appreciate the words of the literature, but it also helps us learn. We read slowly and study literature because we want to learn, we want to get the most knowledge and wisdom out of the literature that we can.
   
2. Another essay that I read talked about the formulas of letter writing, which reminded me a lot of Watkins. The author, Frances Austin, pointed out various uses of the old formulas of letter writing while analyzing letters between two friends. As I thought of Watkins and his Indo-European formulas that we still find in our literature today, I wondered how many other formulas that we use that we may not even realize. One humorous "formula" that I thought of (dealing with the formulas of letter writing) was the "art" of writing Dear John letters. Many of the letters follow the same basic formula. I know that there are many more examples, but this is one that came to mind first.
   
3. The article "Linguistic searchlights and philological buckets: a case study of their interdependence," written by Hans-Jurgen Diller, gives a description of a philologist that I rather liked. He said that the philologist "sails those seas which he knows from experience to be promising and, what is more, he charts them" (p 144). I liked this imagery.