The year 1924 was the founding of the Linguistic Society of America, the year when linguistics in America was beginning to become professionalized and no longer the domain of philologists or amateur students of language. From an initial consideration of 17th century missionary study of indigenous languages, Toward a History of American Linguistics goes on to focus mainly on the ideas of scholars who dominated linguistic thinking post-1924. Beginning with the anthropological linguistics tradition associated primarily with the names of Franz Boas, Edward Sapir and their students and concluding with the work of Noam Chomsky and William Labov at the end of the century, this book offers a comprehensive account of essential periods and areas of research in the history of American Linguistics and also addresses contemporary debates and issues within linguistics. Topics covered include: on the sources of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis; Leonard Bloomfield and the Cours de linguistique generale; the Chomskyan revolution and its historiography; on the origins of morphophonemics in American linguistics; and William Labov and the origins of sociolinguistics in America.