Introduction

Debates about the legacy of colonialism in the academy are not new. In linguistics, however, critiquing and interrogating the history of the discipline and its status as being part of the practices and epistemes of colonialism, which continue into the here-and-now, have only been carried out reluctantly. This chapter introduces the reader to key themes in critical research on the historical foundations of linguistics. It is concerned with the contexts in which data has been and is produced, the ways in which analysis is carried out, and how expert knowledge is formed.