Jonathan Puntervold

About Jonathan Puntervold

Teaching

I teach courses such as grammar, reading comprehension, translation, sociolinguistics and academic writing. I have also taught Japanese history and the theory and philosophy of science for Asian studies. I also supervise student theses at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Research

My research is concentrated on the intellectual history of Japanese linguistics, i.e. the history of how the theories, methodologies and assumptions of Japanese linguistics as an academic discipline have developed and evolved over time. I specialise in the history of Japanese grammar writing and grammatical theory, both within and outside of Japan, from the late 18th century until the early 20th century, as well as the establishment of academic linguistics in Japan from the late 19th century up until the Second World War. I am particularly interested in the interplay between academic linguistics and the broader ideological trajectories in society at large, and I strongly believe in the importance of contextualising scholarly works in the wider discourses of their respective historical time. In my work, I strive to apply a global perspective, which not only means to study Japan and the Japanese language in a comparative frame, but also to emphasise the role of non-Western actors and their contributions to intellectual history.