| Year | Key figure | % do not recognize | % recognize, but can't ID | % recognize and can ID | % recognize (with or without ID) | ||
| 500 BC | Panini | 69 | 8 | 23 | 31 | ||
| 429 BC | Plato | 2 | 64 | 34 | 98 | ||
| 384 BC | Aristotle | 3 | 71 | 26 | 97 | ||
| 116 BC | Marcus Terentius Varro | 90 | 5 | 5 | 10 | ||
| 300 AD | Aelius Donatus | 93 | 6 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 804 AD | Sibawayh | 93 | 2 | 5 | 7 | ||
| 1612 AD | Arnauld, Antoine | 91 | 6 | 3 | 9 | ||
| 1632 AD | Locke, John | 6 | 76 | 18 | 94 | ||
| 1709 AD | Johnson, Samuel | 50 | 28 | 22 | 50 | ||
| 1714 AD | Condillac, Etienne Bonot de | 94 | 5 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 1736 AD | Horne Tooke, John | 94 | 5 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 1744 AD | Herder, Johann Gottfried | 89 | 10 | 1 | 11 | ||
| 1767 AD | von Humboldt, Wilhelm | 54 | 34 | 13 | 47 | ||
| 1772 AD | von Schlegel, Wilhelm F | 66 | 31 | 3 | 34 | ||
| 1785 AD | Grimm, Jakob | 26 | 18 | 55 | 73 | ||
| 1823 AD | Müller, Max | 60 | 35 | 6 | 41 | ||
| 1824 AD | Broca, Paul | 31 | 9 | 61 | 70 | ||
| 1827 AD | Whitney, William Dwight | 83 | 10 | 7 | 17 | ||
| 1837 AD | Murray, James | 85 | 12 | 3 | 15 | ||
| 1845 AD | Sweet, Henry | 71 | 16 | 13 | 29 | ||
| 1849 AD | Brugmann, Karl | 74 | 22 | 4 | 26 | ||
| 1857 AD | Saussure, Ferdinand de | 11 | 13 | 76 | 89 | ||
| 1860 AD | Jespersen, Otto | 50 | 34 | 16 | 50 | ||
| 1881 AD | Jones, Daniel | 82 | 8 | 10 | 18 | ||
| 1884 AD | Sapir, Edward | 17 | 10 | 73 | 83 | ||
| 1887 AD | Bloomfield, Leonard | 28 | 34 | 38 | 72 | ||
| 1890 AD | Firth, J. R. | 72 | 22 | 6 | 28 | ||
| 1896 AD | Vygotsky, Lev | 61 | 17 | 22 | 39 | ||
| 1896 AD | Jakobson, Roman | 31 | 30 | 39 | 69 | ||
| 1899 AD | Hjelmslev, Louis | 83 | 11 | 6 | 17 | ||
| 1911 AD | Austin, John | 78 | 10 | 12 | 22 | ||
| 1912 AD | Pike, Kenneth | 72 | 20 | 8 | 28 | ||
| 1913 AD | Grice, H. P. | 40 | 7 | 53 | 60 | ||
| 1915 AD | Greenberg, Joseph H. | 55 | 17 | 28 | 45 | ||
| 1926 AD | Foucault, Michel | 29 | 40 | 32 | 72 | ||
| 1926 AD | Halliday, M. A. K. | 56 | 26 | 18 | 44 | ||
| 1927 AD | Labov, William | 12 | 14 | 74 | 88 | ||
| 1928 AD | Chomsky, Noam | 0 | 3 | 97 | 100 | ||
| 1932 AD | Searle, John | 56 | 24 | 20 | 44 | ||
| 1934 AD | Hale, Kenneth | 49 | 28 | 20 | 48 | ||
| 1938 AD | McCawley, James | 80 | 14 | 6 | 20 | ||
| 1942 AD | Lakoff, Robin | 30 | 27 | 43 | 70 | ||
| 1945 AD | Jackendoff, Ray | 42 | 29 | 28 | 57 | ||
| 1958 AD | Cameron, Deborah | 76 | 9 | 15 | 24 | ||