‘Father D’Arcy…has made a valuable contribution to an important theme and readers both Catholic and Protestant may find much Christian wisdom in his book.’ L. G. Champion, Baptist Quarterly.
Introduction: A Brief History of Linguistics 1. The Origin and Nature of Language 2. Logic and Universality in Language 3. Law or Free Choice? 4. Monogenesis or Polygenesis? 5. Language, Race, Nationality and Religion 6. Classification 7. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Comparative Method 8. Descriptivism vs Historicism 9. Linguistics: A Physical or Social Science ? 10. Esthetics in Language 11. Languages in Contact 12. Meaning in Language 13. Authority vs Usage 14. The Spoken vs. the Written Language 15. The International Language.
Mario Pei was Professor of Romance Philology at Columbia University, USA.