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Why a Linguistic Society?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Students of language do not need to ask Why a linguistic society? but many laymen have asked this question. The answer, to be sure, lies really in our work and in its results; but, for this very reason, it is desirable that our motives be understood.

Information

Type
Letter
Information
Language , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1925 , pp. 1 - 5
Copyright
Copyright © 1925 Linguistic Society of America

References

1 Needless to say that that noblest of sciences, philology, the study of national culture, is something much greater than a misfit combination of language plus literature. It may be well to add in passing that the British use of “philology” for linguistics leaves no name for the former subject and ought not be imitated in this country; rather, the English would do well to adopt our usage.

2 See his biography in Who's Who.

3 As to foreign-language teaching, there are few schoolmen who realize that there is a large linguistic literature on this subject.