Jürgen Trabant is professor of French and Italian linguistics at the Free University Berlin. His main fields of research are the history of linguistics and language philosophy, semiotics, especially semiotics of literature and language politics. Sean Ward is a writer and translator. He lives in Arlington, Virginia and is co-editor, with Jürgen Trabant, of New Essays on the Origin of Language (2001).

• Foreword by Donald Phillip VereneTranslator's PrefaceReferences, Editions, Abbreviations, AcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Mr Vico, Renato and Philology2. Vico's Discovery: Poetic Characters3. Gestures and Objects (sémata), Words4. The Common Mental Dictionary5. Speaking by Writing (Derrida -- Rousseau)6. Speaking by Singing (Herder)7. Memoria-fantasia-ingegno8. Vico and Humboldt on Imagination and LanguageWorks CitedIndex