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Nickname | PhilSoc |
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Formation | 1842 |
Founder | Edwin Guest [1] |
Type | learned society |
Registration no. | 1014370 |
Legal status | charity, limited company |
Purpose | Education |
Headquarters | London, England |
Fields | Linguistics |
Membership (2019) | 641 [2] |
President | Lutz Marten |
Publication | Transactions of the Philological Society |
Website | www |
The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language as well as a registered charity. [3] The current Society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promote the study and knowledge of the structure, the affinities, and the history of languages". [4] The society publishes a journal, the Transactions of the Philological Society , issued three times a year as well as a monographic series.
The first Philological Society, based in London's Fitzroy Square, was founded in 1792 under the patronage of Thomas Collingwood of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. [5] Its publication was titled The European Magazine, and London Review . [6]
The Philological Society is a member organisation of the University Council of General and Applied Linguistics. [7]
The Society's early history is most marked by a proposal in July 1857 to create an up-to-date dictionary of the English language. [8] This proposal, issued by Richard Chenevix Trench, Herbert Coleridge, and Frederick Furnivall, members of the Unregistered Words Committee, and an article by Trench, entitled On Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries, [9] eventually led the Society to formally adopt the idea of creating a comprehensive new dictionary on 7 January 1858. [10] : 107–8 Coleridge, and later Furnivall, led the project by compiling quotations, submitted by volunteer readers, illustrating the usage of words. [11] In 1879, Oxford University Press agreed to publish the dictionary which would become known as the Oxford English Dictionary , with Society member James Murray being appointed editor that year. [11] [12]
In 1952, the Society hosted the seventh Congress of the International Congress of Linguists in London. [13]
At a later date, the Society was instrumental in the early stages of the Survey of English Dialects conducted by Harold Orton between 1950 and 1961, helping to develop, amongst other things, a questionnaire for use in gathering data. [14]
The society holds seven regular meetings each academic year; traditionally, four take place in London at SOAS University of London, the other three in Cambridge, Oxford, and at another university outside of South East England. Most meetings consist of hour-long academic papers being presented by one or more scholar. Occasionally, round table or panel discussions are organised. [15] Every two years, together with the British Academy the Society organises the Anna Morpurgo Davies Lecture, named in honour of its former president. [16]
Once every two years, the Society awards the R. H. Robins Prize for an article on a subject within the Society's area of interest; the prize bears the name of a former president of the Society. [17] Every year, the Society further awards a limited number of bursaries valued at up to £15,000 each to students embarking on taught postgraduate programmes in all areas of linguistics or philology. [18]
The Society is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, having been incorporated on 2 January 1879. The Society is governed by its trustees, consisting of the President (appointed at an Annual General Meeting for a period of three years, with the option to renew for one further year), the vice-presidents (appointed for life at an Annual General Meeting; usually former presidents), the other Officers, and up to twenty ordinary members of Council, who are elected annually at an Annual General Meeting. [2]
As of February 2021, the Officers of the Society are: [19]
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The following list is based on the sporadically occurring statements concerning membership of the Society's Council as printed in the Transactions of the Philological Society of the relevant years.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a comprehensive resource to scholars and academic researchers, as well as describing usage in its many variations throughout the world.
Richard Chenevix Trench was an Anglican archbishop and poet.
Frederick James Furnivall was an English philologist, best known as one of the co-creators of the New English Dictionary. He founded a number of learned societies on early English literature and made pioneering and massive editorial contributions to the subject, of which the most notable was his parallel text edition of The Canterbury Tales. He was one of the founders of and teachers at the London Working Men's College and a lifelong campaigner against injustice.
Henry Bradley, FBA was a British philologist and lexicographer who succeeded James Murray as senior editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Zoo.
Herbert "Herbie" Coleridge was an English philologist, technically the first editor of what ultimately became the Oxford English Dictionary. He was a grandson of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Richard Morris, was an English philologist and priest of the Church of England.
John Chadwick, was an English linguist and classical scholar who was most notable for the decipherment, with Michael Ventris, of Linear B.
The Early English Text Society (EETS) is a text publication society founded in 1864 which is dedicated to the editing and publication of early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes contain editions of Middle English or Old English texts. It is known for being the first to print many important English manuscripts, including Cotton Nero A.x, which contains Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and other poems.
Richard Chenevix was an Irish chemist, mineralogist and playwright who also wrote on a range of other topics. He was known for his sharp cynicism and for engaging in combative criticism.
Events from the year 1807 in Ireland.
Robert Henry Robins, FBA, affectionately known to his close ones as Bobby Robins, was a British linguist. Before his retirement, he spent his entire career at the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London.
Francis Chenevix Trench (1805–1886) was an English divine and author.
The International Congress of Linguists (ICL) takes place every five years, under the governance of the Permanent International Committee of Linguists (PICL) / Comité International Permanent des Linguistes. The 19th ICL was held in Geneva, Switzerland in 2013. The 20th ICL was held in Cape Town, South Africa from 2–6 July 2018 on the topic of "The Diversity of Language". The next (21st) ICL was originally planned to take place in Kazan (Tatarstan), Russia) from 25 June to 2 July 2023. However, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the venue was changed and the Congress moved by one year. It is now planned to take place in Poznań at the Adam Mickiewicz University, 8-14 September 2024.
Leonard Robert Palmer was author and Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of Oxford from 1952 to 1971. He was also a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. Palmer made some significant contributions to the study of Classical languages, and in the area of historical linguistics.
Anna Elbina Morpurgo Davies, was an Italian philologist who specialised in comparative Indo-European linguistics. She spent her career at Oxford University, where she was the Professor of Comparative Philology and Fellow of Somerville College.
Eugénie Jane Andrina Henderson was a British linguist and academic, specialising in phonetics. From 1964 to 1982, she was Professor of Phonetics at the University of London. She served as Chair of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain from 1977 to 1980, and President of the Philological Society from 1984 to 1988.
Lutz Marten is a German linguist and africanist. He is currently professor of general and African linguistics at SOAS University of London. Between 2020 and 2024, he was the editor of the Transactions of the Philological Society. As of June 2024, he serves as the president of the Philological Society.
Cornelius Beach Bradley was an American English-language scholar. He served as professor of rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and also extensively studied the Thai language.