Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages: Reconfigurations of Vernacularity in the Early Modern Period

The project examines the influence of foreign language learning on the formation of (vernacular) linguistic knowledge in the early modern period by analysing the changing dynamics of the transfer of different languages and of grammatical and pragmatic knowledge in early modern foreign language manuals. The results will be interpreted against the background of the changing functions and significance of vernaculars in different early modern domains of power. Comparison with selected historical descriptions of non-European languages will provide new insights into the development of conceptualisations of ‘language’ in general.