ABSTRACT
Although John Rupert Firth helped to found linguistics in Great Britain, he published no major theoretical book. Firth held 'the first chair in general linguistics' in England, which 'was established in the University of London in 1944 at the School of Oriental and African Studies'. Unlike our other theorists, Firth salutes 'the importance of religion' 'in the history of Western linguistics' alongside 'science', notably Christian missions like the 'Sacra Congregatio de "Propaganda Fide" 'and the 'Summer Institute of Linguistics' that 'rains missionaries'. Still, Firth thinks 'the great languages of older civilizations' were well served by grammarians, eg, Panini for Sanskrit, Dionysius for Greek, Priscian for Latin, or Al Khalil for Arabic. Firth hints that linguistics might reward investment by helping to unify the British Empire through language, and to ensure the worldwide pre-eminence of English. Firth recommends making 'an exhaustive collection of collocations' in 'a restricted language for which there are restricted texts'.
