The volume is published on the occasion of the birth centennial of Eugenio Coseriu (1921-2002). It is the first collective volume to appear in English in which various scholars present a variety of perspectives on Coseriu's scholarly work and discuss its continuing relevance for the language sciences. Coseriu's international reputation has suffered from his commitment to publish in languages such as Spanish, German, French, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese, to the detriment of English. As a consequence, his work is less well-known outside Romance and German linguistics. The volume aims to raise the general awareness of Coseriu's work among linguists around the world, in accordance with Coseriu's own adage that it takes a constructive mindset (acknowledging "accomplishments and limitations") to do justice to all scholarly work in the humanities. The articles are organized into three major thematic clusters: 1) philosophy of language, 2) history of the language sciences and 3) theory and practice of "Integral Linguistics". The volume is essential reading for anyone working in these fields and for those seeking to gain deeper understanding of Coseriu's goal to develop a unitary approach to language which takes as its point of departure the "activity of speaking".

This volume consists of twelve studies thematically grouped into three parts: (1) Linguistics and Philosophy of Language, (2) Hermeneutics and Text Linguistics, and (3) Lexicology and Phraseology. The phrase "tradition and innovation" characterizes almost all the texts included here, since tradition and innovation are present both at the level of the object (language) and at the level of its research (linguistics). The dominant theoretical perspective is the "Coserian" one, since the author borrowed from Eugenio Coseriu's linguistic theory a series of essential concepts and distinctions regarding language and culture.