Keith Allan is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Monash University. His books include Linguistic Meaning (two volumes, Routledge 1986), Natural Language Semantics (Blackwell, 2001), and The Western Classical Tradition in Linguistics, Second edition (Equinox, 2010). He is co-author with Kate Burridge of Euphemism and Dysphemism (OUP, 1991) and Forbidden Words (CUP, 2006) and co-editor with K. M. Jaszczolt of the Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics (CUP, 2012).

In this outstanding book leading scholars from around the world examine the history of linguistics from ancient origins to the present. They consider every aspect of the field from language origins to neurolinguistics, explore linguistic traditions in east and west, chronicle centuries of explanations for language structures, meanings, and usage, and look at how it has been practically applied.

The book is organized in six parts. The first looks at the origins of language, the invention of writing, the nature of gesture, and sign languages. Part II examines the history of the analysis and description of sound systems. Part III considers the history of linguistics in China, Korea, Japan, India, and the Middle East, as well as the history of the study of Semitic and Afro-Asiatic. Part IV examines the history of grammar and morphology in the west from the classical world to the present. Part V surveys the history of lexicography semantics, pragmatics, and text and discourse studies. Part VI looks at the history the application of linguistics in fields that include the language classification; social and cultural theory; psychology and the brain sciences; education and translation; computational science; and the development of linguistic corpora. The book ends with a history of the philosophy of linguistics.

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics makes a significant contribution to the historiography of linguistics. It will also be a valuable reference for scholars and students in linguists and related fields, including philosophy and cognitive science.