Languages writing history. The impact of language studies beyond linguistics (1700-1860)

Before the study of language was institutionalized, and concentrated, in the discipline of linguistics in the 19th century, languages were central to understanding mankind and, therefore, to scholarship in the humanities. Once historical and linguistic knowledge came to be collected, systematized, categorized, codified, and transmitted in institutionalized disciplines, boundaries arose between the new disciplines. This project aims to focus precisely on the no man’s land between the boundaries of traditional disciplines, with a special focus on the interplay between history and linguistics. Apart from investigating how the transition from the instrumental status of language studies in the Early Modern period to its present autonomy was reflected in scholarly discourse, this project also aims to assess the impact which the broadening of the scope of linguistics had on the study of the humanities in general: to what extent did arguments of a linguistic nature become pivotal in historical and ethnological scholarship and how did they contribute to shaping a comparative mind-set as well as shaking traditional religious beliefs? Finally, the project will also examine what 'got lost' in the process of turning linguistics into a discipline. From a methodological perspective, the project will adopt some experimental approaches to "computational history", operationalizing techniques and insights from both linguistics and history.