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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 29:1/2 (2002) ► pp.165–190

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The legacy of J. R. Firth

A report on recent research

 | London
Published online: 15 August 2002
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.29.1.11reb
Summary
The present paper is a report on research on the British linguist John Rupert Firth (1890–1960) carried out in Britain during the academic year 2000–2001. It sketches some characteristics of Firth’s personality, scholarly life and thinking based on two kinds of different sources: the testimonies of people who were close to him and recently found historical documents. The main contribution of this paper is to furnish fresh data about Firth’s biography with particular reference to the question of how he became interested in the science of language.
Résumé
Le présent article est un rapport de recherche dont le sujet est la vie et l’oeuvre du linguiste britannique John Rupert Firth (1890–1960). On présente les résultats de la recherche que l’auteur a menée en Grande Bretagne pendant l’année académique 2000–2001. Quelques caractéristiques de la personnalité de Firth, aussi bien que de sa vie et de sa pensée scientifique sont esquissées. Deux sources sont à la base du présent rapport: les témoignages des personnes qui l’ont connu et des documents récemment retrouvés. La contribution principale de ce rapport est d’ajouter de nouvelles données à la biographie de Firth, et en particulier, à l’intinéraire intellectuelle de Firth qui l’a amené à la science du langage.
Zusammenfassung
Der Beitrag ist ein Bericht über Nachforschungen zu Leben und Werk des britischen Sprachwissenschaftlers John Rupert Firth (1890–1960), die während des akademischen Jahres 2000–2001 in Grossbritannien durchgeführt wurden. Im wesentlichen wird Firths Persönlichkeit und Werdegang auf Grundlage von zwei unterschiedlichen Quellensorten skizziert: Zeugnisse von Personen, die Firth nahe standen, und erst kürzlich aufgefundene Schriftstücke. Das Hauptanliegen dieses Beitrags ist es, neue Fakten zu Firths Biographie zu liefern, und zwar insbesondere unter der Fragestellung, wie sich Firths Interesse an Sprache und Sprachwissenschaft entwickelt hat.
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Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Senis, Angela
2023. Anthropology and linguistics in Great Britain: Bronislaw Malinowski and John Rupert Firth. Histoire Épistémologie Langage 44-2 ► pp. 101 ff. DOI logo
Stanlaw, James
2020. Firth, John Rupert. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Legallois, Dominique
2012. La colligation : autre nom de la collocation grammaticale ou autre logique de la relation mutuelle entre syntaxe et sémantique ?. Corpus :11 DOI logo
Léon, Jacqueline
2008. Aux sources de la « Corpus Linguistics » : Firth et la London School. Langages n° 171:3 ► pp. 12 ff. DOI logo
Coleman, John
2006. ‘The Phonetic Structure of a Cypriotic Dialect’: A Rediscovered Paper by J. R. Firth1. Transactions of the Philological Society 104:3 ► pp. 297 ff. DOI logo
Plug, Leendert
2004. The Early Career of J. R. Firth. Historiographia Linguistica 31:2-3 ► pp. 469 ff. DOI logo
Plug, Leendert
2008. J. R. Firth: a new biography1. Transactions of the Philological Society 106:3 ► pp. 337 ff. DOI logo

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