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In 1746 Jean-Jacques Meynier, a native Frenchman active as a language teacher in Erlangen, published a reedition, with explanatory notes, of the Grammaire generale et raisonnée of Port-Royal. Meynier's edition, which also contains some exegetical notes by Andreas Elias Rossmann, testifies to the interest of 18th-century German scholars in general grammar. The comments by Meynier are of different types: while some are purely formal, others provide the reader with historical information on the French language or point to comparative data in German offering support to claims made by the Port-Royal authors. The most interesting comments are those in which Meynier addresses points of grammatical doctrine, specifically on nominal determiners and on verbal tenses. In his observations on the Port-Royal grammar Meynier sticks to a strictly grammaticographical point of view, without engaging in a properly linguistic analysis of language data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En 1876, Léon Clédat (1851–1930), archiviste-paléographe frais émoulu, est nommé à l’Université de Lyon ; il y restera toute sa vie. Chargé d’un enseignement « philologique », Clédat s’affirme d’abord comme historien de la langue et de la littérature françaises. En 1877, il fonde la Revue des patois, périodique dialectologique s’intéressant principalement aux domaines francoprovençal et occitan. Clédat, chargé de la préparation à l’agrégation, s’orientera progressivement vers l’étude du français moderne et s’érigera en « grammairien (du) français », par la publication de manuels grammaticaux, et en défenseur de la réforme de l’orthographe (en rapport étroit avec une réforme de l’enseignement grammatical, surtout de la syntaxe). Sa Revue – qui est rebaptisée en Revue de philologie (française et provençale // française et de littérature) – devient le forum des débats sur l’orthographe, mais, surtout à partir des années 1910, le lieu des interventions de Clédat en « grammaire synchronique ». Dans ses contributions, Clédat se manifeste comme un grammairien sémasiologue, qui veut comprendre (et faire comprendre) les formes et les structures de la langue. Sa démarche, entièrement axée sur l’analyse immanente de la langue maternelle, se caractérise par le recours constant à des reformulations, des paraphrases, des mises en contexte, des élargissements de phrases ou de formes relevées. Elle s’oppose – et conduit Clédat à s’opposer – à celle de Brunot dans La Pensée et la Langue : confrontation qui s’exprime dans une longue série d’articles « En marge des grammaires » (1923–1928). Au-delà de l’histoire personnelle de ce grammairien, de sa revue, de son enseignement, de son attachement à Lyon, il convient de récupérer les enjeux de ses combats : ▪ l’utilité/la nécessité/la réalisation pratique d’une réforme de l’orthographe ; ▪ le sort historique et le statut synchronique des formes en -rais ; ▪ le rapport entre langage et pensée.

Summary: In 1672, an Italian grammar written in Dutch was printed by Abraham Wolfgang (1634–1694) in Amsterdam. The author of the grammar, published anonymously, can be identified as Lodewijk Meijer (1629–1681). His work, the Italiaansche Spraakkonst, displays a particularly explicit methodical organisation, which is reflected in the rigid and systematic presentation of the grammatical material, a consistent use of bilingual (Latin–Dutch) terminology, a highly parallel description of the word classes, and a rigorous application of the principle of structural conformity (analogia in Latin, gelijkvormigheidt in Dutch). Written in the framework of general and philosophical grammar, the Italiaansche Spraakkonst is conceived as a particular grammar of the Italian language which, though based on bookish sources, provides a very complete and didactically adequate description. The word classes form the core of the grammar: they are defined and described according to their nature, their (formal and semantic) subcategorisation and their possible combinations. The theory of the parts of speech is organised around two word classes, the noun and the verb, in relation to which all the other classes are defined. This paper sketches the historiographical context of L. Meijer's Italiaansche Spraakkonst, followed by an analysis of the methodology and terminology used in this work. Next, we investigate the organisation of the grammar by giving a global overview of the word classes, before proceeding to a more detailed analysis of two particular classes, the article and the adnomen (Dutch: bynaam), the latter referring to all types of adjectival forms. The positing of the adnomina as an autonomous word class is one of the most remarkable contributions of Lodewijk Meijer, a philosopher and friend of Spinoza (1632–1677), and a figure representative of post-Cartesian rationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1801 Pierre-Roland-François Butet, a language scholar, scientist, and educator, published two comprehensive manuals to be used by students in the École polymathique. The two manuals deal with the study of the French lexicon, and are in full conformity with the educational program of the Idéologues, aiming at a philosophically-based cognitive instruction, in which theoretical and empirical knowledge are intrinsically related. As such, Butet's two manuals, dealing respectively with léxicologie and léxicographie, are complementary: whereas the handbook on 'lexicography' offers a methodical, systematic description of the processes involved in the constitution of the French lexicon, the manual on 'lexicology' supplies the didactic materials for the analysis. The overall aim of the two works is to show, and to understand, the principles through which French words are connected to their Latin ancestors. The present contribution focuses on Butet's manual for léxicographie, which provides the scientific basis for its didactic counterpart. In his léxicographie Butet, who was thoroughly acquainted with the history of etymological studies, develops a systematic framework for the description and explanation of the historical changes (altérations) that have affected Latin words in their evolution to French. Contrary to traditional etymologists, Butet proceeds in a stepwise controlled way, adopting a 'decompositional' approach and observing a neat distinction between formal and semantic aspects. For the description of the evolutionary stages Butet elaborates a theory of possible changes, i.e. a closed set of hypothetical laws that have to be confirmed by the data. This research program thus corresponds to a procedure comparable to demonstration in geometry. Interestingly, Butet allows for variation within the lawlike evolution of language. Butet's project, which has received only limited attention from linguistic historiographers, is built on philosophical principles, but involves considerable empirical content, viz. an articulatory-phonetic component containing a detailed description of consonantal segments, and a language-historical component, testified to by the materials exemplifying the laws of alteration. Butet's revolutionary project is cast in a new, systematic and extensive, terminology. This contribution offers a study of the background, structure, theoretical and empirical tenets, and the metalanguage of Butet's léxicographie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the edition, with exegetical notes and a historiographical introduction, of the correspondence between Hugo Schuchardt (1842-1927) and Albert Sechehaye (1870-1946). The correspondence, which comprises nine letters sent to Schuchardt and two letters sent to Sechehaye, covers the years 1909-1926. In the letters various problems of general linguistics are touched upon: the subdivision of the science of language (the central topic of Sechehaye's Programme et méthodes de la linguistique théorique [1908]); the definition of «language» and the role to be attributed to the individual and the social in the approach of language; the tension between convergence and divergence in the history of (a) language; the ontogenesis of language and the development of a more complex sentence structure (a central topic in Schuchardt's «glottogenetic» investigations). In addition, the correspondence offers interesting biographical information, not only on the two correspondents, but also, more indirectly, on a possible meeting between Schuchardt and Saussure [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an analysis of the grammaticographical discourse found in the 14th-century Occitan text of the Leys d'Amors. The analysis focuses on the way linguistic categories are put into relationship with reality. The ontologization of grammar testified to by the Leys d'Amors fits within a global project, which places philosophical knowledge at the basis of the inventive activity of the troubadour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article offers a critical analysis of the notions of causality and conditioning of linguistic change as these were developed in the French functionalist school, most notably by Martinet (1955), and some of his followers (Haudricourt -- Juilland 1949, Hagège -- Haudricourt 1978). In the first section, we analyse the types of causality discussed in functionalist diachronic studies. We then discuss the teleological aspect associated with functionalist causal explanations. Finally, we analyse the distinction between internal and external factors in linguistic change. These issues are inextricably intertwined in diachronic functionalism, but French functionalists adopt different stands with respect to the nature, role and function of internal and external factors, and with respect to the explanation of 'actuated' linguistic change. From our critical analysis it appears that the concept of causality has not been fully elaborated by the functionalists, and that the notions of causality and conditioning remain vague. We argue that this is due to a more basic problem at the level of the theoretical conception of language, viz. the fact that Martinet is caught between three perspectives on 'language': (1) the linguistic system as existing independently of speakers; (2) the individual speaker and the idiolect as a supposedly homogeneous object of study; (3) the socially stratified and heterogeneous speech community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]