Timeline of Linguistic Theory Evolution
Apollonius Dyscolus (2nd Century BC)
The Greek Grammarian establishes himself as the ‘founder of scientific grammar.’
Panini WritesTreatise on Sanskrit (5th Century BC)
Panini became famous for his work on Sanskrit, performed in the 5th Century BC, specifically his account of place and manner of articulation in his treatise on Sanskrit and his founding of the Subset Principle. The Subset Principle states that specific rules (where the conditioning environment is a subset of another environment) must be applied before more general rules.
Plato Pens his "Meno" (380 BC)
Plato wrote his Socratic dialogue, “Meno.” In this play, “Plato’s Problem” (a term coined by Noam Chomsky) is demonstrated, which was an important influence on Chomsky and his works on linguistics. “Plato’s Problem” refers to the problem of a lack of input, the difference between what one knows and one’s lack of experience as input. In linguistics, this problem is referred to as the Argument from the Poverty of the Stimulus (APS).
Sir William Jones Proposes "Indo-European"
Sir William Jones proposed “Indo-European” common ancestry of Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin.