Linguistic Structures and Linguistic Laws

This monograph has as its objective to give a critical survey of the development of the theories concerning the essence, the function, and the most characteristic (determining) features of language, and to explore and evaluate the motive forces responsible for this development. The author explains mainly the progressive elements of the theoretical foundations and methodological procedures of different times and schools (trends), and places them in the process which presents the course of development of linguistic theory as an organic whole. He deals in detail with the foreign (mainly American).

LINGUISTIC STRUCTURES and LINGUISTIC LAWS; Title page; Copyright page; Table of contents; INTRODUCTION; I. THE AUTONOMY OF LINGUISTICS; II. LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM. STRUCTURE OP THE LINGUISTIC SIGN; 1. THE THEORIES OF THE ESSENCE OF LANGUAGE; 2. FUNCTION AND IMPORTANCE OF THE LINGUISTIC SIGN; 3. SIGN AND MEANING; III. THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF MEANING; 1. PSYCHOLOGISM AND ANTIPSYCHOLOGISM; 2. SIGN, MEANING, NOTION, CONCEPT; 3. MEANING AS A KIND OF REFLECTION; 4. MEANING AS CONCEPT; 5. MEANING AS A RELATIONSHIP OR NETWORK OF RELATIONSHIP; 6. MEANING AS A COMPLICATED STRUCTURE

7. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRAGMATIC ASPECT OF MEANING8. AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF SEMANTIC CHANGE; 9. CONCLUSIONS; 10. THE FORMALIZATION OF SEMANTIC THEORY; 11. CONCLUSIONS; IV. THE RELATION BETWEEN CONTENT (MEANING) AND (LINGUISTIC) FORM; 1. PRE-SAUSSUREAN THEORIES; 2.SAUSSUREAN ""UNITY""; 3. CRITIQUE OF THE SAUSSUREAN CONCEPTION; 4. THE VARIOUS FORMAL METHODS; 5. DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS; V. ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF THE LINGUISTIC LAWS; 1. GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF LINGUISTIC LAW; 2. RECEPTION OF THE IDEA OF LINGUISTIC LAW IN HUNGARY; 3. THE CONCEPT OF SYSTEM CHARACTER

4. THE ""AFTER-LIFE"" IN HUNGARY…