The History of Language
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When asked by Mr. Dent to write an introduction to the principles of Comparative Philology for his series, I willingly consented, not only because I had the necessary materials ready to hand, but also because I felt there was still room for an addition to the already large literature of the subject; a subject which, however, admits of being approached from so many different points of view that any competent treatment of it is sure to have some special merits of its own.
The first part of this book deals with the definition of the science of language, its scope (p. 20) and methods, and the life of language generally. In this part I have aimed at clearness of statement and adequate illustration, and have tried to avoid truisms and superfluous generalizations on the one hand, and over-abstraction and linguistic mysticism on the other.
In order to give greater definiteness and concreteness to the reader's impressions I have added a second part, consisting of a brief sketch of the structure of that family of languages to which English belongs - the Aryan or Indogermanic - together with a discussion of its affinities to other families of languages, which last will serve both to widen the reader's linguistic horizon and to prepare him to follow problems which cannot be ignored much longer.
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