C. HISTORY OF LANGUAGE STUDY IN EUROPE.
The scientific study of language in Europe began with the Greeks, who, however, were not interested in language for its own sake so much as for the light its study threw on other fields of knowledge. Plato investigated etymology because he hoped thereby to learn something of the nature of material things. Aristotle, who studied language as an acces sory to logic and dialectics, investigated es pecially the relations between thought and the forms of words. His main contribution was the definition of some of the parts of speech and some of the categories of the noun and the verb. He is justly regarded as the founder of systematic grammar. The Stoic philosophers extended and supplemented his definitions till they covered practically the whole field of grammar. Unfortunately the domination of their thought by logical theory led them into some errors. The work of the Greeks was summed up in two grammars (that of Dionysius Thrax in the 1st century B.C. dealing with sounds and inflections, and that of Apollonius Dyscolus in the 2d century A.D. dealing with syntax), which have served as models for the thousands of systematic gram mars since composed in Europe. The Roman grammarians added practically nothing to the achievements of the Greeks, contenting them selves with translating their words into Latin and adapting them to the Latin language. (See DONATUS ; PRIOGIAN). The Scholastic philos ophers (from the 12th century on) did positive harm by completely subjecting grammar to logical theory. Grammar became practically (see Nortitis). The last rep resentative of this school was the German Gottfried Hermann (1772-1848), who, however, endeavored to combine the older ideas with the Kantian categories. Some slight influence was exerted in Europe by Arabic grammarians by way of Spain. In addition the Hebraist Reuchlin (1455-1522) introduced the idea of ((roots,* that has played so important a part during the last 150 years.
A new era in language study begins with the development of the "historical-philosophi cal)) school in the earlier part of the last cen tury. The change was determined chiefly by the growth of Romanticism and the ((dis covery(' of Sanscrit. Language study was more
completely liberated from the domination of logic and speech came to be thought of rather as an historical develoment than as a static structure. The wonderful f enthusiasm for language study then prevalent was stimulated by such works as Schlegel's and Weisheit der Inder> and von Humboldt's 'Kawi Sprache.> Franz Bopp (1791-1867), starting out to investigate the nature of verbal endings, published a series of works which laid the foundations of Comparative Philology. Sir Wm. Jones had recognized Greek, Latin, Sanscrit and possibly Gothic and Celtic as re lated languages. Bopp added Zend (in 1816), Lithuanian and Old Bulgarian (1833-35) and Albanian (1855). He laid the foundations for the later work of Pott (in etymology), Fick (lexicography), Schleicher (critical phonology) and Schrader (prehistoric antiquities of the Aryan people). The books of Max Muller, professor in England, and William D. Whitney, American, have popularized the whole subject, which is summarized in Brugmann and Del briick's 'Principles of Comparative Philology of the Indo-European Languages) (7 vols., in German). Grimm's 'German Grammar) (VoL I, 1819) is the first great embodiment of the historical point of view. He directed his at tention mainly to the changes continually oc curring in the living spoken dialects of Ger many (instead of studying older literary re mains) and on the basis of a previously un paralleled collection of data, he deduced the famous statement of Indo-European con sonant changes known as Grimm's law. This and the similar work of other later scholars combined with the invention of instruments for the exact measurement of muscular move ments and air waves has led to the develop ment of the important field of Experimental Phonetics. Most important of all, however, is the fact that in language study the laws of psychology have replaced the laws of logic as the basis of the methods employed in all in vestigations. As a result of this, language study has taken its place beside jurisprudence, history, economics, etc., as one of the Human istic or _Psychological Sciences.
.