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Page 1: History of Linguistics 2002 - … · AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE general Editor E.f. KonrAD KoErnEr Zentrum für …
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History of Linguistics 2002

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AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY ANDHISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE

general EditorE. f. KonrAD KoErnEr

Zentrum für Allgemeine sprachwissenschaft, typologie und universalienforschungschützenstrasse 18/11, D-10117 Berlin

series iii – stuDiEs in tHE History of tHE LAnguAgE sciEncEs

Advisory Editorial Board

cristina Altman (são Paulo); Lia formigari (rome)gerda Haßler (Potsdam); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh)

Barbara Kaltz (Aix-en-Provence); Douglas A. Kibbee (urbana, ill.)Hans-Josef niederehe (trier); Emilio ridruejo (Valladolid)

otto Zwartjes (Amsterdam)

Volume 110

Eduardo guimarães and Diana Luz Pessoa de Barros (eds.)

History of Linguistics 2002 Selected papers from the Ninth International Conference

on the History of the Language Sciences, 27–30 August 2002, São Paulo – Campinas

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JoHn BEnJAMins PuBLisHing coMPAnyAMstErDAM/PHiLADELPHiA

Edited by

EDuArDo guiMArãEsUniversidade Estadual de Campinas

DiAnA LuZ PEssoA DE BArrosUniversidade de São Paulo

History of Linguistics 2002sELEctED PAPErs froM

tHE nintH intErnAtionAL confErEncE on tHE History of tHE LAnguAgE sciEncEs,

27–30 August 2002, são PAuLo – cAMPinAs

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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American na-tional standard for information sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Ansi Z39.48–1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

international conference on the History of the Language sciences (9th : 2002 : são Paulo-campinas) History of linguistics 2002 : selected papers from the ninth international conference on the History of the

Language sciences, 27-30 August 2002, sao Paulo-campinas / edited by Eduardo guimarães, Diana Luz Pessoa De Barros.

p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. series iii, studies in the history of the language sciences, issn 0304-0720; v. 110)includes bibliographical references and index.1. Linguistics--History--congresses. i. guimarães, Eduardo, 1948- ii. Barros, Diana Luz Pessoa de. iii.

title. P61.i57 2002410.9--dc22 2007015636isBn 978 90 272 4601 1 (alk. paper)

© 2007 – John Benjamins B.V.no part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

John Benjamins Publishing co. • P.o.Box 75577 • 1070 An Amsterdam • The netherlandsJohn Benjamins north America • P.o.Box 27519 • Philadelphia, PA 19118-0519 • usA

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CONTENTS

Part IFROM THE LATIN GRAMMARIANS TO THE IDÉOLOGUES

Some Problems in Transferring the Latin Model to the First French GrammarsVerbal voice, impersonal verbs and the –rais form ............................................ 3

Bernard Colombat

Un exemple du transfert du modèle latin aux premières grammairesdu français:l’analyse des temps du passé ......................................................... 17

Jean-Marie Fournier

Linguistic Ideas and the Discourse about Languages in earlyBrazilian History ............................................................................................... 27

Bethania Mariani

Grammaire générale et grammaire particulière:Les Méthodes de Claude Irson ................................................................. 41Simone Delesalle & Francine Mazière

Texts of Reference and Serial Texts in the Constitution of a Notional Paradigm:The example of the french idéologues .............................................................. 63

Gerda Haßler

Part IILINGUISTICS IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

The Brazilian Hyperlanguage Mark in the Traditional Grammarof the 19th Century ........................................................................................... 75

Marli Quadros Leite

Revista Ilustrada: un document sur le langage des Noirs à la findu XIXe siècle .................................................................................................. 87

Margarida Maria Taddoni Petter

The “Arrested Evolution”: Notion, theories, myth? ........................................ 93 Ekaterina Velmezova

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On the Defense of von Kempelen as the Predecessor of ExperimentalPhonetics and Speech Synthesis Research ...................................................... 101

Plínio A. Barbosa

Positivism and Neo-positivism in Linguistics and Language Philosophy ...... 107Paul Laurendeau

From Universal Languages to Intermediary Languages in Machine TranslationThe work of the Cambridge Language Research Unit (1955-1970) .............. 123

Jacqueline Léon

The Presence of Absence in Saussure’s Linguistic Theory .............................. 133T. Craig Christy

La création des cours de lettres au Brésil et les premières orientationsde la recherche linguistique universitaire ........................................................ 141

José Luiz Fiorin

The Portuguese Language in the Institutionalization of Linguistics .............. 149Suzy Lagazzi-Rodrigues

Humor and Language Acquisition: Anecdotal data and their route in thehistory of language acquisition studies .......................................................... 157

Rosa Attié Figueira

Part IIIPLENARY PAPERS

Reflexions sur l’experience grecque du langage ............................................. 171Maria Helena de Moura Neves

Johann Jacob Reiske (1716-1774): Leading Force in the Establishmentof Oriental and Classical Scholarship in Germany ........................................ 183

Kurt R. Jankowsky

The Context and Sense of Humboldt’s Statement that Language‘ist kein werk (ergon), sondern eine tätigkeit (energeia)’ ............................... 197

Hans Aarsleff

On the Notion of Structure and Structuralism in Brazil .................................. 207Eni P. Orlandi

Les avancées de notre discipline ..................................................................... 223Sylvain Auroux

CONTENTS

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INDEX OF NAMES ..................................................................................... 235INDEX RERUM .......................................................................................... 239

CONTENTS

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FOREWORD

The Ninth International Conference on the History of Language Sciences (ICHoLSIX), held from August 27 to 30, 2002, in Brazil, was an initiative of the Campinas StateUniversity (Unicamp) and the University of São Paulo (USP) Linguistic Departments.The interest in holding this Conference in Brazil was due to the existence of research onthe History of Linguistic Ideas in Brazil since the 1980s.

Altogether, one hundred and six regular papers were presented at the meeting,covering a wide variety of themes in the history of language studies. In addition, theconference organizers invited six plenary speakers.

Given the wide interest in the history of linguistics in Brazil, in addition to those whopresented the result of their investigations, a large number of professors and post-graduate students were in attendance. From the many presentations that were actuallymade by our Brazilian colleagues, we selected those that we thought represented bestcurrent historiographical research activities, especially those related to developments inBrazil. At the same time, given the diversity of the countries of the scholars from abroadand their varying research interests, ICHoLS IX provided a multiple and diversifiedcontact for those interested in the history of linguistic studies, always important in theprogress of good research projects, as can be seen in the works now brought togetherin this volume.

The papers presented at the Conference dealt with numerous domains of languagestudy, involving the history of linguistic studies from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, theRenaissance and more recent periods. Many presentations were devoted to the 19thand 20th centuries. Among others, papers were dedicated to the history of conceptsand terms, to aspects related to the history of the institutions, to language policies(including questions of prescriptive or normative attitudes). What was interesting abouta number of them was the utilization of different points of view and different methodologies,thus providing stimulating discussions following both a good number of regular papersand several of the plenary lectures.

This volume brings together a selection of the papers given at ICHoLS IX, organizedunder three headings. In the first part, papers are presented dealing with studiesranging from the Latin model in post-Renaissance grammars until new scientificpropositions at the turn of the 19th century; the second part carries articles devotedto a great variety of subjects; in the third section, are united five plenary presentationsranging from ancient Greek reflections upon language to developments in Brazilian

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linguistics beginning with the implantation of structuralist work by Joaquim MattosoCâmara (1904–1970) in the 1960s. In the concluding contribution, a survey of advancesin the history of the language sciences is offered.

A glance at the table of contents of this selection, made from the many paperspresented and discussed at ICHoLS IX, reflects quite adequately, we are inclined tobelieve, the diversity of topics that had been offered on the market of linguistic ideas.And those wanting to know more about developments in Brazil in linguistic science andits more recent state may also learn more from the altogether seven contributions byresearchers in this country.

Despite the roughly chronological organization of the papers in all three sections, it isobvious that a thematic arrangement might also have been possible, such as strictlygrammatical subjects, debates about language acquisition and language planning, generallinguistic theory and language philosophy, the practical — and technical — analysis oflanguage, and so forth. It is hoped that everyone interested in the history of the languagesciences will find something of interest to their own work.

At the General Assembly toward the end of the Conference, the University of Illinoisat Urbana–Champaign, with Douglas A. Kibbee as its director, was chosen as thevenue for ICHoLS X. (In the meantime, this very successful meeting was duly held on1–5 September 2005.)

Before closing, we would like to thank Unicamp and its Institute of Language Studiesand the University of São Paulo and its College of Philosophy, Letters and HumanSciences for their all-important logistic support as well as the agencies of FAPESP,CAPES and the CNPq for providing the necessary financial assistance, thus ensuringfor the successful realization of this internationally important Conference in Brazil.

January 2007Eduardo Guimarães, Campinas

Diana Luz Pessoa de Barros, São Paulo

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PART I

FROM THE LATIN GRAMMARIANSTO THE IDÉOLOGUES

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SOME PROBLEMS IN TRANSFERRING THE LATINMODEL TO THE FIRST FRENCH GRAMMARS

VERBAL VOICE, IMPERSONAL VERBS AND THE –RAIS FORM1

BERNARD COLOMBATEcole Normale Supérieure Lettres & Sciences Humaines

1. Introduction

The grammatical description of Latin has been used for elaborating linguistic descriptionsof many languages, especially for European vernaculars. What has been called the “Latinmould” or the “Latin model” was transferred to first descriptions of European and “exotic”languages, what Auroux (1994) has called “grammaire latine étendue”: we can say “extendedLatin grammar”. In this paper, I would like to study the transfer for two categories of Frenchverb: voice and mood, with a special look at two problems: the question of impersonalverbs, which is connected to voice, and conditional forms in -rais. I have selected a fewgrammars that are representative of the French grammatical tradition (see Bibliography),but I will not do an exhaustive examination. In particular, I have not studied French grammarsaimed at an English audience (about these grammars, see Kibbee 1979, 1991).The corpus is:– the first grammar of French: the Donait françois, written in England in 1409,– Palsgrave’s Eclaircissement de la langue française, considered a very important

grammar, but with little influence in France (1530),– A Grammatica Latino-Gallica written in Latin, by Sylvius (1531),– French grammars written in Latin for German pupils: Pillot (1550/1561), Garnier

(1558), Cauchie (1586), Serreius (1598/1623),– French grammars written in French: Meigret (1550), Estienne (1557), Ramus (1562/

1572), Bosquet (1586).I particularly would like to stress a few points:– the differences between both structures to study,– specific problems when grammarians wanted to use a Latin description for the French

language,– first solutions found by these early grammarians.1 I am grateful to Douglas Kibbee for advice and help in the translation of this paper.

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2. Latin heritage and problems for the French language

2.1 Latin heritage

In the past as now, grammarians link grammatical categories to parts of speech. Forexample, according to Riegel, Pellat & Rioul (1999:244-245), morphological categorieslinked with French verbs are: person, number, mood, tense, aspect, voice or diathesis.

The Latin tradition used the terms accidit, accidunt, accidens, ‘accidents’ of verb:we mention only – to simplify – two authors considered to be the most important by thelater tradition, that is Donatus and Priscian.

Donatus: seven accidents: qualitas (quality), coniugatio (conjugation), genus (gender),numerus (number), figura (‘figure’, that is composition), tempus (tense), persona(person): and Donatus subdivides qualitas into modus (mood) et forma (verbalsuffixation).Priscian: eight accidents: significatio uel genus (meaning or gender), tempus (tense), modus(mood), species (‘species’, that is morphological derivation), figura (that is composition),conjugatio (conjugation) et persona (person) cum numero (with number).

For general outlines, these models are still the same in Latin grammar of the sixteenthcentury: Donatus’ outline is rather more in Northern Europe (for example byDespauterius), and Priscian’s model is used by Italian grammarians (for examplePerotti).

Accidentia, ‘accidents’ that interest us here, are gender (or meaning), person (in particularimpersonal verbs) and mood.

‘Gender’For ancient grammarians, there are five distinct genders of verbs:

– active: ending in –o and capable of passive transformation (amo, ‘I love’), constructedwith an accusative or another case,

– passive: ending in –or and capable of active transformation (amor, ‘I am loved’),– neuter: ending in –o, but not suffering passive transformation (eo, ‘I go’),– common: criminor te ‘I accuse you’ and criminor a te ‘I am accused by you’,– deponent: passive form, active meaning; some can be constructed with the accusative

(sequor + accusative, ‘I follow’).

This classification is complex and combines three criteria, morphological, syntactic,semantic. In fact, there are semantic constraints: for example, according to Priscian(following Apollonius Dyscolus), aro ‘I plough’ is not an active verb, because it is not

BERNARD COLOMBAT

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possible to say aror ‘I am ploughed’, except per figuram, that is as a figure of speech.So, for Priscian, it is a neuter verb.

Voice and verbal construction are closely linked, but there are a lot of problems; forexample, sequor ‘I follow’ has passive form, but it has an active meaning, it is constructedwith an accusative, but cannot be transformed into a passive; uapulo ‘I am hit’ has anactive form, but a passive meaning.

For us, a same verb can be active or passive, and we have only three categories(active, passive, deponent), but for ancient grammarians, there are five distinct categories.And because the problem is complex, nowadays grammarians of Latin separate voice(for morphological features) and ‘diathesis’ (for semantic analysis).

Impersonal verbsIn the sixteenth century, grammarians of Latin distinguish two categories of

impersonal verbs:– impersonal actiuae uocis ‘with active form’: ex. pluit ‘il pleut’, ‘it is raining’,– impersonal passiuae uocis ‘with passive form’: ex. amatur ‘on aime’, ‘people love’.

MoodsAncient Latin grammarians have five moods, indicative, imperative, optative,

conjunctive (Donatus) or subjunctive (Priscian), infinitive (infinitiuus for Donat, infinitusfor Priscian). Optative, inherited from Greek grammar, is morphologicaly mixed upwith the subjunctive, but ancient grammarians (Serbat 1978:265-266) make a distinctionby associating the optative with utinam, the subjunctive with the conjunctions cum orsi. Moreover, the optative alone can form a complete sentence, but the subjunctivecannot (Serbat 1978:268). The form in -ero (for us today, future perfect of the indicative)is considered by ancient grammarians as a future subjunctive, because it always appearsin a subordinate clause (Serbat 1978:271).

2.2 Problems for French

‘Genera uerborum’ vs ‘voix’, voiceIn French, as in English too, nowadays, the category called genera uerborum

(genders of verbs) by ancient grammarians is called ‘voix’ in French, ‘voice’ in English,and in French, we have two or three voices, that is: ‘voix active’, active voice; ‘voixpassive’, passive voice; ‘voix pronominale’, pronominal voice. But, since 1975, thenew official term has been “tournure pronominale” (see Riegel, Pellat & Rioul 1999:245).

Impersonal verbIn French, we have:

PROBLEMS IN TRANSFERING THE LATIN MODEL

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– an impersonal, as in Latin: il pleut, similar to the Latin impersonal verb with activeform pluit,

– and an expression with on, similar, for the translation, to the impersonal with passiveform in Latin: on aime = amatur.But nowadays, for French speakers, on aime is never felt as impersonal nor as

passive, on “renvoyant à une personne ou à un ensemble de personnes d’extensionvariable, que le locuteur ne peut ou ne veut pas identifier de façon plus précise” (Riegel,Pellat & Rioul 1999:197).

MoodsWe will stress only one problem: the disappearance of the optative and the

appearance of a ‘conditional’. Nowadays, neither in French grammar nor in Latingrammar, grammarians recognize an optative mood, but, in French, we have specificforms for a ‘conditional’ (present: -rais: past: -rais + past participle). For a very longtime, these forms were considered as a specific mood, but today, most grammariansconsider the form in –rais as a tense of the indicative (Riegel, Pellat & Rioul 1999:315-316).

We can see that the differences between both languages are big enough to allowgrammarians to elaborate different, and even conflicting descriptions.

In grammars of the XVIth Century, the presentation of features in terms of ‘accidents’ isgeneral. In the Donait françois, a general treatment of ‘accidents’ precedes treatment ofparts of speech. Sylvius follows Donatus’ model, but the other grammarians generally followPriscians’ presentation.

A very important distinction for grammarians is the distinction between personalverbs and impersonal verbs: it is usually the first distinction. Most grammarians givespecific paradigms for impersonal verbs.

Two very important verbs, être (to be) and avoir (to have) are given at the beginning.I guess (but I am not sure) that Pillot is the first grammarian (in the French grammaticaltradition) to call these verbs ‘auxiliary verbs’.

3. Verbal voice

We will stress particularly general features and selected options.

1. The general distinction is between three ‘genders’ out of the five genders of theLatin tradition: active gender, passive gender, neuter gender. For example, at the end ofthe treatment of accidents, in the Donait françois:

BERNARD COLOMBAT

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Quantz geners est il des verbes? — Trois. — Qelx? — Le actif, c’est a dire faisant, come ‘jeayme’: le passif, c’est a dire seuffrant, come ‘je suys amé’: le neutre, c’est a dire ne le un nel’autre clerement, sicome ‘je dois’. (Donait françois:f.318vb)

Sylvius, who wanted to write a Latin-French grammar (the tittle of his book isGrammatica Latino-Gallica), thinks that French has three genders, that is three meanings:active, passive, neuter, “or, as Greek people say, middle (mediam)” (1531:115). Heremarks, quite correctly, that these genders are distinguished, not by form (uox), but bymeaning (significatio). Actually, French has, unlike Latin, no specific endings for passive.

He examines verbs known as neutropassiua: for example exulo, uapulo, and saysthat “they keep the same meaning in French”: ge sui banni, batu. But he doesn’t noticethat these verbs, in French, are normally passive.

Meigret, following Priscian, stresses the importance of the opposition between active andpassive: “La signification consiste proprement en action ou passion” (1550:H.23.1). He accuratelyremarks that, although aller and venir are conjugated with être, they are not truly passive.

The tripartition into active, passive, neuter is generally well-admitted: we find itby Pillot (1561[1550]:72), R. Estienne (1557:32), who distinguishes three ‘sortes’[sorts] (sic) of verbs: active, passive, neuter, plus substantive verb, and Bosquet(1586:78).

2. The previous presentation doesn’t allow one to deal with pronominalconstructions. On the contrary, Palsgrave’s triple distinction into actyves, meanes,passyves, with his analysis of pronominal verbs as meanes “middle” (ed. Baddeley2003:345, 348-350, 455-456, 460), allows him to solve this problem (see Stéfanini1962:23 sq.):

The acte of the mean verbes passeth nat from the doar, but retourneth to the doars selfagayne, or is done within the parsone of the doars selfe. (Palsgrave 1530, Introductyon ofthe Authour to his seconde boke, f.C.iiv, ed. Baddeley 2003:(66)/349)

3. Others grammarians keep only two genders of the verb. Garnier says:

Genders, moods, tenses, numbers and persons of verbs are exactly the same in Latin and inFrench, except that French people have not passive verbs. (Garnier 1558:44-45)

It is not false if we consider that the sentence means that “French [unlike Latin] hasno specific morphological marks to form the passive”.

Ramus (1562) only keeps two sorts of verbs: the active verb can form an entirelypassive participle: the neuter cannot:

PROBLEMS IN TRANSFERING THE LATIN MODEL

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Lê verbê neutrê e’ sêlui ci nê peut former un partisipê entierêment passif, comê Aler, Vênirformêt seulêment Alant, Venant: Car Ale e Vênu, nê son’ point entierêment pasifz, combienc’ilz en eiêt lê semblant. (Ramus 1562:51)

The formulation is more elliptical, but clumsier in the 1572 edition:Le verbe neutre cest celuy qui ne peult former vng participe preterit: comme Rire, Dormir,Mentir, forment seulement Riant, Dormant, Mentant. (Ramus 1572:79)We don’t know how Ramus would analyse the forms ri, dormi, menti.Serreius in the 1598 edition says that there are two genders, active and neuter.

Passiuum non habemus sed circumscribere per verbum substantiuum & praeteriti perfectivocem cogimur, quae uariatur iuxta casus, genera & numeros. [...]Neutrum verbum est quod vnicum format participium in ant: vt, dormir, dormant: aller,allant: venir, venant. Quae licet formare videantur participia allé, venu: tamen quia accessionesubstantiui nulla passio significatur, actiua non habentur. Nam cum dicis, Ie suis venu, iesuis allé, participia vera non sunt, sed praeteriti temporis verba, nata ab infinitis aller, venir.(Serreius 1598:61)

“We have no passive, but we are forced to express it by circumlocution with the substantiveverb and the form of perfect past, which varies according to case, gender and number. [...]Neuter verb is one which forms only a participle in ant, for example dormir, dormant:aller, allant: venir, venant. In fact, although they seem to form participles allé, venu, yet,because no passion is expressed by the adjunction of the substantive verb, they are notconsidered as active verbs. In fact, when you say Ie suis venu, ie suis allé, there are notreal participles, but verbs at the past tense, born from the infinitives aller, venir.”

4. Last position: to exit out of verbal gender Cauchie (1586:f.34r-35v) considersthat, except for the verb être, all verbs express an action. Variation of this action (transitive,reciprocal, absolute) allows a more syntactical subdivision of verbs into transitiua,reciproca, absoluta et uariè accepta.

But there is no passive verb in French, just a specific use of the verb withcircumlocution:

In uocem passiuam nostra uerba non mouentur, sed illam periphrasticè explicamus, quodetiam quibusdam temporibus Latini Graecique factitant. (Cauchie 1586:f.35v)“Our verbs are not moved to passive voice [form], but we explain this <form> bycircumlocution, what Latin and Greek people often use to do at certain tenses.”

Maupas talks, without other explanation, of ‘disposition’ of verbs: this dispositioncan be active, reciproquee, ou reflechie, neutre (Maupas 1618:f.98; see Stéfanini1962:39 sq.). A very important idea is that the same verb can have differentdispositions: there are not strict categories. There is another frame which will allowthe creation of a syntax for the French verb.

BERNARD COLOMBAT

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4. Impersonal verb

4.1 Dat

[1] Donait françois 320va-b: “L’autre maniere [du verbe] est appellé verbe impersonel,pour ce qu’il n’a point de nominatif case du quel il prendroit nombre et personne. Et sçachézqu’il y a deux paires de verbes, c’est assçavoir actif et passif. Mais le actif aura devvant luyou aprés un de ces deux seignes ‘l’en’ ou ‘on’, sicome ‘l’en dit’, ‘on dit’: ou ainsi: ‘dit l’en’,‘dit on’. Et le passif impersonel aura devant luy ou aprés cest seigne ‘il’, sicome ‘il est dit’, ouainsi ‘est il dit’. Aussi cest seigne ‘il’ peut estre actif, sicome ‘Il fait sçavoir que il y a grandejoie en paradis’, et ainsi ‘fait’ et ‘a’ sont devant mis pour cest verbe ‘est’.”

[2] Palsgrave 1530 (Seconde boke, f.xxxviir; ed. Baddeley 2003:(138)/460): “Verbesimparsonalles be suche as through al theyr tenses have but the thyrde parson singularonely.”

[3] Sylvius 1531:113: impersonal is not a mood, but a verb: it is expressed by hom orl’hom: curritur = hom ceurt.

[4] Meigret 1550 (H.23.7) remarks that we can express passive by active with‘réciproque’: le vin se boêt, so that there are ‘indeterminate passive’ verb (‘passifsindéterminés’), equivalent to the construction with an ‘indeterminate subject’ (‘surposéindéterminé’) as on: on boêt le vin. In chapter 7, devoted to person (H.28.6): impersonalverbs “are all of third person and have il or on for their subject” (“sont tous tiercespersonnes: et ont il ou on pour leur surposé”).

[5] Pillot 1561[1550]:72: “Impersonale rursum duplex, Actiuae uocis, cuius nota est Il[...]. Passiuae uocis verbi impersonalis nota est On.”“The impersonal verb has two forms, of active voice, whose mark is Il […]. The markof impersonal verb of the passive voice is on.”

[6] R. Estienne 1557:32: “[Les impersonnels] sont de deux sortes en Latin: les unsfinissent en t, pour lesquels expliquer & rendre en François, on prepose il, commeOportet, il fault [...]. Les autres se terminent en tur. a tels pour les exposer en François,on prepose on: comme, Amatur, on aime.”

[7] Garnier 1558:77: “Habent [...] Galli etiam verba impersonalia, eáque duplicia,actiuae vocis scilicet & passiuae, quemadmodum apud Latinos. Actiuis semperpraeponimus hanc particulam il, passiuis verò on.” “French people […] haveimpersonal verbs, and they are of two sorts, that is of active voice and passive

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voice, exactly as for Latin people [sic]. Before the active <impersonal verbs>, wealways put this particle il, and before the passive, <we put> il.”

[8] Ramus 1562:50: the impersonal is conjugated only in the third person singular:Faut, çaut. 1572:78: idem. Syntaxe, 1562:107-108, 1572:170: “Le verbe Latinimpersonnel de voix [1562: voes: 1572: voe / voix] actiue est explicque par Il, et devoix passive par, On.”[9] Bosquet 1586:68 [sic, for 72]: “De quantes sortes est l’impersonnel? De deuxsortes, à sçauoir Actif (lequel a pour note, & indice-Il) comme il conuient. Et le Passif,ou passionné (quy aussy a sa notte-on) comme on chante.”

[10] Cauchie 1586:f.65v: “Impersonalia tertiae personae singu. terminationem sequuntur,sed de certa persona non dicuntur. Sunt autem duplicia, Primitiua quorum nota est il, &Deriuatiua, quorum nota est on.”“Impersonal <verbs> follow the ending of the third person singular, but they are notused for a specific person. There are two sorts, Primitive, for which the mark is il, andDerived, for which the mark is on.”

[11a] Serreius 1598:116: “Duplicia Gallis impersonalia sunt: actiua & passiua.Actiuis praeponimus voculam Il, vt Il faut, Il conuient: passiuis on vel l’on vton aime, on lit.”“French people have two categories of impersonal verbs, active and passive. Beforeactive impersonal verbs, we put the particle il, as Il faut, Il conuient: before passive<impersonal verbs> we put on or l’on as on aime, on lit.”

[11b] Serreius 1623:91: “Impersonalia vel sunt Activae significationis quibus in coniungandopraefigitur Il [...], uel Passivae significationis quibus praeponitur On uel L’on.”“Impersonal <verbs> are either of active meaning (in the conjugation of which il is putbefore the verb) […], or of passive meaning (in which case on or l’on is put before).”

[12] Maupas 1618:f.124r: “Nous avons deux natures d’impersonnels, l’une de senspassif, qui est fait de cette syllabe on ou l’on, appliquee devant toute tierce personnesingul. de quelque verbe que ce soit [...]. La seconde nature d’impersonnels, est devoix active, au moyen de cette particule il, preposee à plusieurs verbes, non pas àtous universellement comme la devant dite [...].”

4.2. Commentary

The question of the impersonal is considered important by all the grammarians, sothat some give complete paradigms, for both ‘voices’.

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The general position is to consider that the form with on, because it corresponds tothe Latin passive form in –tur, is of the passive form of the impersonal voice, whereasthere is nothing passive in on, at least morphologically speaking.

The forme with Il is considered as impersonal of the active form of the impersonalvoice, because il pleut corresponds to pluit. Pillot [5] and Garnier [7] have bothcommitted this mistake.

Bosquet [9] and Serreius 1598 [11a] don’t use the term uox, but say only ‘activeand passive impersonals’.

Serreius 1623 [11b] uses the terms Actiuae significationis ‘of active meaning’,Passiuae significationis ‘of passive meaning’, which avoids the unfortunate termuox, but the meaning of on aime is passive only if you have the Latin model inmind. Latin structure is always the reference, and most of these books are writtenin Latin.

Nevertheless, the presentation was exactly the opposite in Donait françois[1]: the form on dit is called active, and the form il est dit is called passive. Butil can be active too, as in the example: il fait [faut] savoir), so that criterion isnot distinctive.

Some grammarians were more skilful: Estienne [6] clearly separates Latin dataand French data and avoids using terms actif and passif. These terms are usedby Ramus [8], for qualifying voix — it’s probably one of the first occurrencesfor ‘voix active / passive’ in French —, but only for Latin verbs, not for Frenchverbs.

Cauchie [10] says only ‘impersonnels primitif et dérivé’, but he doesn’t justifythis terminology: perhaps because the form with on is considered a more recentdevelopment than the form with il, or because it is considered more remote from thecorresponding Latin form?

Maupas’ presentation [12] is interesting: Maupas uses active voice (voix active) foril, but he avoids the term voix for on, and instead uses the term sens (meaning). Hisformulation shows that, at the beginning of the XVIIth Century, grammarians felt thatusing the term voix is inappropriate when it would be used for something different froma form.

5. The – rais forms

We will take for example the paradigm of verb avoir [to have] whose conjugation isgenerally the first given in the books we are studying. We will choose books that giveclear paradigms, in a spelling that can be understood by a modern linguist.

In the sixteenth century, there are many spellings for the form of conditional -rais (-roi, -rois, -roy, -roye, and -rée [réè] by Sylvius and -roê by Meigret), but the form ofconditional and the form of the future (–rai, or –ray) cannot be confused.

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Many grammarians multiply forms and think that many forms are common forseveral moods. For example, Meigret thinks that “le subjonctif ou conjonctif [est],pour la plus grande part de ses temps, égal ou semblable à l’optatif” (1550: H.24.20),and he gives thirteen possible forms for the subjunctive, as Kibbee (1979:234-235)has noted.

Tenses of optative and con- / sub-junctive: habeo, avoir [to have].

Table 1: The situation in Latin, in the tradition inherited from Priscian

Table 2: Sylvius 1531:130-132

Table 3: Pillot 1561:76-82 (1550:f.22r-23v)

Table 4: Estienne 1557:38-40

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Table 5: Cauchie 1586:f.41r-42r

Table 6: Serreius 1623:55-57 (Serreius 1598 follows Estienne 1557 exactly)

1. When the -rais form is considered as an optative (bold type, underlined)

Sylvius [Table 2] isolates well the form g’ha(i)rée, but he does not have the formwith the past participle, perhaps because g’ha(i)rée seems to correspond exactly withhaberem, but j’aurais eu (that he would have written g’ha(i)rée heu) has nomorphological correspondence in Latin. Likewise Cauchie [Table 5] has j’aurois eu asa conjunctive, but not as an optative.

Pillot [Table 3] alone (with Garnier, who is not in our tables) doesn’t analyse the -rais forms as optative.

Estienne [Table 4] et Serreius [Table 6] show the optative meaning of the rais formby introducing them with O que volontiers. The -rais form is analysed by Sylvius,Cauchie and Serreius both as present and imperfect, but Estienne only considers it apresent. In fact, our conditional ‘present’ corresponds both with potential and unrealpresent. Grammarians could have connected with utinam sim, but nobody did.

By Cauchie [Table 5], there is a very interesting remark that the –rais form does notinevitably correspond with a wish: “sine optandi forma”, without form of wishing. Hegives as examples: “j’auroi tort de lui faire déplaisir sans occasion. Pourquoi auroi-jetant d’envieux que vous dites? je n’ai garde, pauvreté n’apporte point d’envie”, and hegives this explanation:

Cum optamus quippiam adiicitur voluntatis adverbium sic j’auroi volontiers, ich woltgern haben. (Cauchie 1586:f.41r)

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“When we wish, an adverb of wishing is added, as j’auroi volontiers, ich wolt gernhaben.”So, he prepares the analysis of the conditional as not being inevitably connected with awish.

2. When the -rais form is considered as a subjunctive or a conjunctive (bold type, notunderlined)

All the grammarians think that the -rais form can be a subjunctive or a conjunctive,and they analyse it as an imperfect introduced by quand [when]. Cauchie aloneconsiders this form as common to the present and to the imperfect: it’s a very goodintuition, because this form corresponds to that we call a conditional (potential orunreal), in a quite rare use of quand with a concessive value (quand j’aurais…, thatis quand bien même j’aurais..., même si j’avais…, ‘even if I had…’), alreadyattested at the time (Fournier 1998:356).

But this use is relatively rare, and we can ask ourselves why it was given as thegeneral example for the form in -rais. The only explanation that I can give is that theFrench form quand j’aurais seemed to correspond exactly to the Latin form cumhaberem, whose use was very frequent, but whose meaning was much broader thanthat of the French form.

6. Conclusion

It was a long road from the Latin tradition to the description of French grammaticalcategories today. The first French grammars are interesting because they show howdifficult the adaptation of the Latin model to another language was. Here we haveemphasized three points.

1. It was difficult to give up Latin verbal gender. Most grammarians have troubleanalysing the French periphrastic phrase être + past participle as a passive, because,for them, passive must be marked by a specific ending, as -or in Latin. The result is thatmany of them think that there are only two genders of verbs in French: active andneuter.

2. The invention of ‘voix verbale’ is certainly due to a misunderstanding. But thismisunderstanding is double: firstly, because French is without ‘voice’, that is without specificform (uox) to express diathesis: nevertheless, it is this term ‘voix’ which will be used. Andsecondly, because the use of the term ‘passive’ for the expression on aime wasinappropriate, since only Latin amatur is of passive form.

3. It was difficult to analyse forms of the conditional. At the beginning, the -raisform has been analysed only in two very limited uses: firstly, to express wishes, as anoptative, secondly, after concessive quand, that allows the use of conditional, butwhose frequency is very low. But the French conditional has many other uses.

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In grammar (as in other fields), the transfer of terminology is not so easy and, inthe sixteenth century, there are still much to do to provide a good description of theFrench language.

REFERENCES

Primary sourcesBosquet, Jean. 1586. Elemens ou Institutions de la langue françoise. Mons: Charles

Michel [Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1972.]Cauchie, Antoine Caucius, Antonius. 1586. Grammaticae Gallicae libri tres.

Argentinae [Strasbourg]: Bernhardus Iobinus [Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1968].See Demaizière 2001a.

Donait françois. See Städtler 1988.128-137 [DonatOxf] and Swiggers 1985.Estienne, Robert. 1557. Traicté de la grammaire françoise. [Genève]: L’Olivier de

Rob. Estienne [Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1972].Garnier, Jean. 1558. Institutio Gallicae Linguae, In usum iuuentutis germanicae.

Genève: Jean Crispin [Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1972].Maupas, Charles. 1618 [1607]. Grammaire et syntaxe françoise. Orléans:

O. Boynard & J. Nyon.Meigret, Louis. 1980 [1550]. Le Traité de la Grammaire française. Paris: C. Wechel

[Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1972]. See Hausmann 1980.Palsgrave, John. 1530. Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse. London: Richard

Pynson & Johann Haukyns [Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1972]. See Baddeley2003.

Pillot, Jean. 1561 [1550]. Gallicae linguae institutio. Paris: E. Groul[l]eau, A. Wechel.See Colombat 2003.

Ramus, Petrus. 1562. Gramerê. Paris: A. Wechel [Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1972].. 1572. Grammaire. Paris: A. Wechel [Reprint: Genève: Slatkine, 1972].

See Demaizière 2001b.Serreius, Jo(h)annes. 1598. Grammatica Gallica. Strasbourg: A. Bertram.

. 1623. Grammatica Gallica Noua [...] Editio sexta. Strasbourg: héritiersde L. Zezner.

Sylvius, Iacobus Ambianus. [Dubois, Jacques]. 1531. Isagùge and GrammaticaLatino-Gallica. Paris: R. Estienne. See Demaizière 1998.

Secondary bibliographyAuroux, Sylvain. 1994. La révolution technologique de la grammatisation. Liège:

Mardaga.Baddeley, Susan ed. 2003. John Palsgrave, L’éclaircissement de la langue française

(1530), texte anglais original, traduction et notes. Paris: H. Champion.Colombat, Bernard. 1999. La grammaire latine en France à la Renaissance et à

l’Âge classique: théories et pédagogie. Grenoble: Ellug.. ed. 2003. Jean Pillot, Institution de la langue française (1561), texte

latin original, introduction, traduction et notes. Paris: H. Champion.

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Demaizière, Colette ed. 1998. Jacques Dubois (Sylvius), Introduction à la languefrançaise suivie d’une grammaire (1531), texte latin original, traduction et notes.Paris: H. Champion.

. 2001a. Antoine Cauchie, Grammaire française (1586), texte latinoriginal, traduction et notes. Paris: H. Champion.

. 2001b. Pierre de La Ramée, Grammaire (1572), édition commentée.Paris: H. Champion.

Fournier, Nathalie. 1998. Grammaire du français classique. Paris: Belin.Hausmann, Franz Josef .1980. Louis Meigret, humaniste et linguiste. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.

. ed. 1980. Meigret, Louis, Le Traité de la Grammaire française (1550).Le Menteur de Lucien. Aux lecteurs (1548). Tübingen: Gunter Narr.

Kibbee, Douglas A. 1979. The Establishment of the French Grammatical Tradition,1530-1580. Thesis (Ph.D). Indiana University.

. 1991. For to Speke Frenche Trewely. The French Language inEngland, 1000-1600, its Status, Description and Instruction. Amsterdam &Philadelphia: John Benjamins (SiHoLS 60).

Riegel, Martin, Pellat Jean-Christophe & Rioul, René. 1999. Grammaire méthodiquedu français. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Serbat, Guy. 1978. “Le ‘futur antérieur’ chez les grammairiens latins”. Varron,grammaire antique et stylistique latine ed by J. Collart et al., 263-272. Paris:Les Belles Lettres.

Städtler, Thomas. 1988. Zu den Anfängen der französischen Grammatiksprache.Textausgeben und Wortschatzstudien. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

Stéfanini, Jean. 1962. La voix pronominale en ancien et en moyen français. Aix enProvence: Publications des Annales de la Faculté des Lettres, Ophrys.

Swiggers, Pierre. 1985. “Le Donait françois: la plus ancienne grammaire du français,éd. avec introduction”. Revue des Langues Romanes 89.235-251.

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UN EXEMPLE DU TRANSFERT DU MODÈLE LATIN AUXPREMIÈRES GRAMMAIRES DU FRANÇAIS

L’ANALYSE DES TEMPS DU PASSÉ

JEAN-MARIE FOURNIERUniversité de Paris III

C’est une idée depuis longtemps établie et abondamment illustrée que les premiersgrammairiens qui s’efforcent de décrire le français, comme d’autres langues vernaculairesà partir de la Renaissance, procèdent en utilisant les catégories et les notions développéespar la tradition plusieurs fois séculaire des grammairiens du latin. La grammatisation deslangues du monde s’est opérée d’abord par le moyen d’un véritable transfert du modèleque constitue la tradition latine, et son application à des langues objets différentes.

Dans le domaine de la description et de la théorisation du temps verbal, comme enbeaucoup d’autres, les auteurs se tournent manifestement vers Priscien, et ils essaientd’appliquer au français le classement des temps, et la terminologie de l’Institutio linguaelatinae.

L’objet de cet exposé est de montrer comment s’opère ce transfert et quels problèmesémergent du fait du déplacement des notions élaborées pour le latin et de leur applicationà une langue objet différente. Il s’agit notamment de l’identification des tiroirs verbaux,et de l’émergence d’un problème linguistique dont l’histoire est aussi longue que latradition grammaticale française elle-même: la question des valeurs respectives du passésimple et du passé composé. Je retracerai les principales étapes de cette histoire jusqu’àla grammaire de Maupas (1607).

1. Le temps chez Priscien

L’analyse du temps linguistique qui apparaît dans le texte de Priscien correspond àun classement des formes verbales articulé en genres et espèces, distinguant deux niveauxde catégories. Le premier niveau comprend les trois temps fondamentaux que sont leprésent, le prétérit et le futur. Le second niveau identifie 3 autres catégories qui constituentdes espèces du prétérit: le prétérit imparfait, le prétérit parfait, et le prétérit plus queparfait. L’ensemble comporte donc au total 5 temps. Les définitions des trois espècesdu prétérit tendent à identifier un critère unique, sinon simple, susceptible de distinguerces trois sous-catégories. Ainsi, le preteritum imperfectum est défini comme le temps“dans lequel une chose commence d’être faite et n’est pas cependant achevée

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(perfecta); le preteritum perfectum, signifie un temps “dans lequel la chose est montréecomme achevée”, enfin le preteritum plus quam perfectum signifie un temps “danslequel une chose est montrée comme achevée depuis longtemps”.

Du point de vue terminologique, le terme central est celui de perfectum, à partir duquelsont formés les dérivés et composés imperfectum, et plus quam perfectum. Cettehomogénéité terminologique correspond à la tentative d’identifier un critère unique etdiscriminant, que nous pourrions appeler la ‘perfection d’action’. Notons qu’il ne s’agitpas pour Priscien d’un critère binaire (du type achevé/inachevé), mais qu’il comporte cequi semble fonctionner ici comme des degrés: ainsi le temps de l’imperfectum est celuide l’inachevé, mais il marque aussi l’action qui commence d’être faite (coepit geri); tandisque la valeur du plus quam perfectum cumule l’achèvement et l’éloignement dans lepassé. Dans les deux cas, il est clair que le trait binaire achèvement /inachèvement nefonctionne pas de façon pure, mais on pourrait dire que Priscien fait en quelque sortecomme si. L’objectif, me semble-t-il, est de conserver entre les différentes catégories detemps un même type de relation. Les catégories doivent être les unes à l’égard des autresdans un rapport de genre à espèce, l’identification des différentes espèces d’un genrereposant sur celle d’une différence spécifique.

2. La question chez les grammairiens français du 16eme siècle

Je vais examiner maintenant les systèmes adoptés par les premiers grammairiens quitentent de décrire le français, en me limitant pour l’essentiel à la question du classementet des critères mis en œuvre dans les définitions de différentes formes de passé.

2.1. Pillot. Institutio linguae gallicae (1550)

Le classement de Priscien est pris ici comme un point de départ, par rapport auquel ils’agit de situer le français. Pillot note en effet que si le latin a 5 temps verbaux, le français s’endistingue par le fait qu’il a deux preteritum perfectum. C’est là un point capital présentéd’une façon à peu près identique chez la plupart des auteurs. Tout se passe comme si lefrançais introduisait, dans une classification des temps partiellement identique à celle queprésente le latin, une distinction supplémentaire, constituant le preteritum en genre souslequel se rangent deux espèces. Il y a là l’émergence et la cristallisation d’un problèmelinguistique dont s’occupera la tradition grammaticale française sous une forme à peu prèsidentique: identifier la différence spécifique qui justifie l’identification de deux espèces au seindu preteritum perfectum, le choix des termes susceptibles de dénommer ces deux catégoriesétant lui même lié à l’interprétation théorique de cette différence.

Pillot propose de les dénommer respectivement, preteritum perfectum indefinitumet preteritum perfectum definitum.

La constitution du problème linguistique de la valeur des deux prétérits du français,l’un par rapport à l’autre, de la distribution de leurs emplois, est donc directement liée

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au transfert de la classification des temps de Priscien et à son application au français.Son émergence résulte d’une part du type de classement mis en œuvre, et d’autre partde la relation établie entre les formes du latin et leur équivalent, leur traduction enfrançais.

En quoi consiste la différence spécifique des prétérits parfait du français telle que laconçoit Pillot ? Le texte comporte l’amorce d’une définition. Le parfait indéfini signifie untemps indéterminé (tempus indeterminatum significat). Le parfait défini en revanchenote un temps “plus déterminé” (magis determinatum), et qui n’est pas passé depuisaussi longtemps (non adeo dudum praeteritum). Il s’agit donc, semble-t-il, d’un critèretemporel, non aspectuel, qui met en jeu une quantification de l’éloignement dans le passé.Ces définitions sont illustrées dans l’édition de 1550 par des exemples qui apportentplusieurs éléments nouveaux. On peut dire j’ai lu aujourd’hui l’Evangile, je lus hierl’Evangile, mais on ne peut pas dire j’ai lu hier l’Evangile, je lus aujourd’huil’Evangile. Ces exemples vont en effet un peu au delà de ce qu’énonce explicitement ladéfinition. Ils illustrent l’impossibilité d’établir une corrélation entre le passé simple etl’adverbe aujourd’hui, et entre le passé composé et hier. Autrement dit, il s’agit de lapremière mention de faits relatifs à ce que la tradition appellera la règle des 24 heures (cf.sur ce point Weinrich 1973; Y. Galet 1997).

2.2. Meigret (1550)

On trouve chez Meigret également l’idée selon laquelle l’analyse des temps et leurclassification relève d’une procédure de division des catégories, ce qui revient àmanifester des rapports d’inclusion entre espèces et genres. Ainsi, le passé, à la différencedu présent par nature indivisible, comporte en français plusieurs divisions:

– Le prétérit imparfait: “il ne dénote pas un accomplissement ne perfection d’uneaction ou passion passée mais tant seulement avoir été commencée”. (Meigret 1550:89)La formule est clairement une sorte de traduction du texte de Priscien.– Un autre prétérit qui dénote une action “un peu plus parfaite, duquel toutefois letemps n’est pas bien déterminé de sorte qu’il dépend de quelque autre comme jevis le Roi lorsqu’il fut couronné.” (Meigret 1550)On retrouve ici les critères énoncés par Pillot en termes de détermination et

d’achèvement. Mais la piste suivie par Meigret est différente. La détermination revêtune dimension syntaxique, ou anaphorique. Le passé simple est un temps déterminéparce qu’il n’est pas autonome syntaxiquement et référentiellement; la référencetemporelle d’un verbe au passé simple se construit toujours dans une relation avec uneautre marque temporelle, verbale comme dans l’exemple, ou autre.

– Enfin le système des temps du français comporte une troisième forme, decréation française, et qui répond à la nécessité où l’on est parfois de parler du

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passé de façon absolue, et “sans suite” (Meigret 1550.). Il s’agit du passécomposé.On peut noter que la question de la relation entre le parfait latin et les formes

françaises, est posée de façon un peu différente qu’elle ne l’est chez Pillot, puisqueMeigret semble souligner ici que le système des temps du français s’écarte dudispositif latin en ce qu’il comporte une forme supplémentaire, sans équivalentdans la langue ancienne.

Meigret signale en outre un peu plus loin que le français comporte encore troisautres prétérits; le plus que parfait, une autre forme de prétérit parfait et déterminé, j’aieu aimé, un autre encore, formé du prétérit parfait indéterminé, j’eus aimé. Tousimposent une corrélation avec une marque du passé, adverbiale, circonstancielle, ouconstituée par une autre occurrence verbale.

Meigret semble donc un peu plus libre à l’égard du modèle latin transposé. Laquestion des valeurs du passé simple et du passé composé est toutefois bien poséedans les mêmes termes, quoique la réponse apportée fasse intervenir des critères d’unordre très différent.

C’est cette interprétation de la détermination du prétérit défini que reprennentR. Estienne (1557) et A.Cauchie (1586). Chez le premier, la reprise est à peu prèslittérale. Chez Cauchie, elle est complétée d’observations qui viennent du texte dePillot. Il décrit le prétérit défini (ou déterminé et circonscrit) comme celui qui nesignifie pas le passé de façon absolue, mais dépend de quelque autre discours oucirconstances temporelles additionnelles. Ainsi, on ne peut pas dire je fis ceci,j’achetai cela, mais on dit en revanche j’ai fait ceci, j’ai acheté cela. C’est là unpoint déjà signalé par Meigret. En revanche, note Cauchie, le passé simple peuts’employer dans des constructions comme je fis avant hier ceci, j’achetai hiercela (Cauchie 1586: f°38). Ces exemples sont analogues à ceux donnés par Pillot,et reviennent à indiquer, partiellement et implicitement, des contraintes relativesaux corrélations verbo adverbiales normalisées par ce qu’il est convenu d’appelerla règle des 24 heures.

Les premières discussions explicites relatives à cette dernière apparaissent à la mêmeépoque. La plus ancienne est celle qui figure dans Le Traité de la conformité dulangage français avec le grec d’Henri Estienne, de 1569. Il écrit:

Nous avons aussi deux prétérits parfaits: desquels il m’a semblé autrefois que l’un sepouvait rapporter au temps que les Grecs appellent aoriste, c’est à dire indéfini et non limité.Car quand nous disons j’ai parlé à lui, et lui ai fait réponse, cela s’entend avoir été fait cejour là. Mais quand on dit je parlai à lui, et lui ai fait réponse, ceci ne s’entend avoir été faitce jour même, auquel on raconte ceci, mais au paravant: sans toutefois qu’on puisse jugercombien de temps est passé depuis. car soit que j’ai fait réponse le jour de devant seulement,soit qu’il y ait ja cinquante ans passés, ou plus, je dirai, je lui fis réponse, ou Alors, adonc,je fis réponse. Voilà comment par ce prétérit nous ne limitons point l’espace du temps passé.Ce qui autrefois m’a fait pensé que comme j’ai dit il avait accointance avec l’Aoriste grec.(H. Estienne 1569:54)

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Un peu plus loin, Henri Estienne nuance ce propos en même temps qu’il souligne lavaleur normative de la règle en rapportant les erreurs de locuteurs étrangers:

Mais depuis, ayant considéré de plus près la nature de cet Aoriste, et pesé les raisonsd’une part et d’autre, je me suis douté qu’il y avait quelque autre secret caché sous cetaoriste, quant à son naïf usage. Et confesse que jusques à présent je n’en suis point bienrésolu. Or ce qui principalement me garde de prendre quelque résolution est que sonusage commun n’est autre que du prétérit parfait. Et qu’ainsi soit, on trouvera souventde dans les bons auteurs qu’une chose qui aura été dite par le prétérit, sera répétée parl’Aoriste, ou au contraire. (H. Estienne 1569:54)(…)Ce nonobstant je penserais faire tort aux étrangers qui font profession de parler bonfrançais, si je ne les avertissais que c’est ici l’endroit par lequel ils sont le plus aisémentdécouvert, principalement par ceux qui les veulent épier au passage. Car c’est grand casque de cent à grand peine s’en trouvera il dix qui ne heurtent voire achoppent à cettedifférence de nos deux prétérits comme à une pierre qui serait au milieu de leur chemin. Etqui plus est sitôt qu’on leur aura donné la main pour se relever, on les y verra retomber.Je le sais pour avoir fréquenté avec plusieurs sortes d’étrangers, gens de bon esprit et debon jugement, lesquels au demeurant se tenaient si bien clos et couverts en leurs devis,que pour un peu de temps ils pouvaient passer pour Français: mais depuis qu’ils venaientà raconter quelque fait, c’était la pitié. Car d’un homme qui fût venu parlé à eux depuis undemi quart d’heure, voir depuis une minute de temps, ils eussent dit, il vint ici, il parla àmoi, je lui dis. Au lieu de il est venu ici, il a parlé à moi, je lui ai dit. (H. Estienne 1569:55)

Bosquet (1586), pour finir avec les auteurs du 16eme siècle, dans ses Elementsou institution de la langue française, introduit des distinctions un peu différentes.Le point de départ semble être encore une fois la classification de Pillot: trois prétérits,dont 2 prétérits parfaits. Le critère retenu est celui de la quantification de l’éloignementdans le passé. Bosquet oppose ainsi de façon binaire un temps qui dénote unévénement depuis longtemps passé, et un temps qui dénote un passé proche. On voitbien tout ce que doit cette option à la suggestion initiale de Pillot, qui est au fond icisimplement développée et en quelque sorte régularisée. C’est là un bon exemple dela façon dont procèdent les innovations dans l’histoire des textes grammaticaux.

3. La question dans les grammaires du 17eme siècle

Je limiterai dans cette partie le parcours à deux textes, dont l’apport me paraîtparticulièrement remarquable: il s’agit de L’exact acheminement à la langue françaisede Jean Masset (1606), et de la Syntaxe française de Charles Maupas (1607). J’aieu l’occasion de montrer comment, par la suite, ces questions sont traitées dans lecontexte théorique de la grammaire générale (Fournier 1991-1994).

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3.1. Jean Masset (1606)

Il s’agit d’un ouvrage qui occupe un volume assez mince et qui figure enaccompagnement du dictionnaire de Jean Nicot. Le classement est d’un type identiqueà ce que nous avons déjà vu: trois temps simples, et plusieurs espèces incluses dans lepassé, constituant ce qui est encore appelé des divisions du passé. Mais ici les formesprises en compte sont plus nombreuses et sont reliées par un réseau de relations trèsdifférentes:

Le passé comporte en effet quatre espèces de temps: l’imparfait, l’aoriste simple(je courus), le parfait (j’ai couru), et le plus que parfait. La terminologie employéeindique bien que l’organisation du système est pensée dans des termes différents.Passé simple et passé composé sont ici sur le même plan. En revanche, l’un et l’autresont associés à un temps composé: à l’aoriste simple (je courus) correspond unaoriste composé (j’eus courus), et au parfait (j’ai couru) correspond un parfait trèsparfait (j’ai eu couru).

Cependant les définitions sont clairement issues de celles de Meigret: ‘l’aoriste simpledépend “d’un discours précédent, narratif de ce qui se serait passé en ce temps”; “noususons de l’aoriste simple (…) en oraison bornée par adverbe de temps passé, ou autrecirconscription que ce soit de temps par laquelle nous définissons l’action indéfinie, à uncertain temps déterminé.” (Masset 1606:11)

Ces remarques sont complétées par une variante de la règle des 24 heures dontl’évocation est utile à notre propos: “observez que nous n’usons (de l’aoriste simple)jamais pour une action du jour auquel nous sommes, ni de la nuit précédente, nimême avec les adverbes de temps présent aujourd’hui, maintenant, à cette heure.”(Masset 1606.)

Le texte présente donc ce qui apparaît être une synthèse des différentes formes quela définition a prises. Y figure en effet le critère référentiel de l’éloignement de l’événementquantifié à 24 heures qui apparaît dans la règle énoncée par Henri Estienne, et le critèrecontextuel formulé par Meigret selon lequel le passé simple est un temps non autonomedans le discours, et dont la référence se construit par anaphore avec une autre marquetemporelle. Nous y trouvons enfin une réinterprétation de la valeur indéterminée dupassé simple (d’où l’usage du terme de temps indéfini) donnée comme la cause de sadépendance à l’égard d’une détermination contextuelle.

3.2. Charles Maupas (1607)

Le principe d’une classification des temps n’apparaît pas de façon nette chez cetauteur. Il semble avoir abandonné l’idée d’une division de la catégorie du passé endifférentes espèces. En revanche les définitions sont très développées et très sophistiquées.Je m’arrête rapidement sur trois questions:

- celle de l’imparfait:

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On est très loin de la simple paraphrase/traduction de Priscien qui prévalait jusquelà. Il apparaît d’abord que la relation entre l’imparfait et le parfait défini (passé simple)constitue ici un problème. Un problème nouveau, qui n’est pas hérité de la tradition, etdont Maupas justifie en quelque sorte la consistance par les fautes commises par lesétrangers dans le choix de l’un ou de l’autre.

La différence gist en ce que l’imparfait s’attache à une durée et flux de temps qui se faisaitlors dont on parle, et n’était encore parachevé. Le parfait au contraire s’arrête à l’acte fini etparfait, et ce en une fois. Car il concerne la fin, perfection, et final accomplissement de lachose un coup faite, sans avoir égard à la durée ou course du temps pendant lequel elle sefaisait, et n’estait encore faite. en un mot, l’imparfait parle du fieri. Et le parfait du factumesse. (Maupas 1607:270)

Sur le plan des innovations théoriques, il a déjà été remarqué (Nathalie Fournier,1998) que ce que décrit Maupas, c’est l’opposition aspectuelle (sécant/global) de cesdeux temps. C’est particulièrement net si l’on considère la définition de l’imparfait: cetemps “ramène et remet l’entendement de l’auditeur à l’instant courant lorsque la chosese faisait et n’avait pas atteint la fin et perfection”.

- les prétérits définis et indéfinisMaupas reprend à Masset l’idée que les prétérits marchent par deux avec leur

“redoublés”, c’est-à-dire la forme composée, respectivement surcomposée, forméesur le passé simple et le passé composé.

On a donc deux séries: les prétérits définis (passé simple et antérieur), et les prétéritsindéfinis (passé composé, et surcomposé). Leurs définitions empruntent une part deleur matériel à la tradition. Mais Maupas introduit plusieurs innovations. La plusconsidérable consiste à réinterpréter le critère référentiel, utilisé comme nous l’avonsvu sous une forme ou sous une autre dans les définitions ou à travers l’illustration desexemples depuis Pillot et Henri Estienne. Ce critère, chez Maupas, est conçu non commeun point, le repère des 24 heures institué par la règle, mais comme un intervalle deréférence. C’est la position de cet intervalle par rapport à l’instant de la parole quidistingue les deux catégories de prétérit.

En effet, les temps définis “infèrent toujours un temps piéça passé, et si bien accompliqu’il n’en reste aucune partie à passer. Et à cette cause requièrent toujours une préfixionet prénotation de temps auquel la chose dont on parle est advenuë, & c’est la raisonpour quoi je les appelle définis.” (Maupas 1607:273)

Tandis que les indéfinis “signifient bien un acte du tout fait et passé, mais le tempsnon encore si éloigné qu’il n’en reste encore quelque portion à passer”.[ibid.]

Dans les deux cas le temps dont il reste ou non une portion à passer n’est pas celuide l’événement, toujours entièrement passé et accompli, mais celui d’un temps, pourvud’une certaine étendue, et qui fonctionne ici comme référence.

Ces formulations seront reprises partiellement par la plupart des auteurs des 17ème

et 18ème siècles. On peut considérer toutefois que leur portée véritable ne sera

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comprise que par Girard et Beauzée qui en formalisent le contenu en introduisant lanotion de ‘période’ de référence.

Elle correspond à une analyse en termes aspecto-énonciatif des valeurs du passésimple et du passé composé: le passé simple représente un événement passé, inclusdans un intervalle de référence d’aspect global, l’instant de la parole étant lui-même endehors de cet intervalle. Le passé composé, représente un événement passé, inclusdans un intervalle de référence d’aspect sécant, autrement dit qui comprend égalementl’instant de la parole.

Conclusion

Le transfert du modèle de Priscien sert de point de départ à l’analyse des temps dufrançais et à leur classement. C’est aussi ce contexte qui favorise, ou même, pourrait-on dire provoque l’émergence d’un problème linguistique: l’analyse, et les règles d’emploides deux parfaits du français. Les pistes suivies pour identifier la différence spécifiquede ces deux espèces du prétérits parfaits ont été assez nombreuses. Mais ce quicaractérise la tradition française dans le domaine de l’analyse des temps, c’est la miseen place progressive d’une théorie du temps reposant sur des opérations de repérage,et, corrélativement, sur la valeur aspecto-énonciative d’intervalles de références, oudes événements eux-mêmes. L’essentiel de ces outils est déjà en place dans la grammairede Maupas. Les grammaires générales développeront et systématiseront ces analyses.

RÉFÉRENCES

Primary sources

Bosquet, Jean. 1586. Elemens ou Institution de la langue françoise. Mons: CharlesMichel [Slatkine reprints, Genève, 1972].

Cauchie, Antoine. 1586. Grammaticae gallicae libri tres. Strasbourg: B. Iobinus[Slatkine reprints, Genève, 1968].

Estienne, Henri. 1569. Traité de la conformité du langage français avec le grec.Estienne, Robert. 1557. Traicté de la grâmaire françoise. Paris [Slatkine reprints,

Genève, 1972].Masset, Jean. 1606. Acheminement à la langue française. Inseré dans le Thrésor

de la langue françoise tant ancienne que moderne auquel entre autres chosessout les mots de marine, vénerie et faulconnerie ed. by J. Nicot. Paris: DavidDeuceur.

Maupas, Charles. 1607. Grammaire et syntaxe française. Orléans: O. Boynard[Slatkine reprints, Genève, 1973].

Meigret, Louis. 1550. Le Tretté de la Grammere françoeze. Paris: C. Wechel [Slatkinereprints, Genève, 1972].

JEAN-MARIE FOURNIER

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Pillot, Jean. 1550. Gallicae linguae institutio, latine sermone conscripta. Paris:Stephanus Grouleau [Slatkine reprints, Genève, 1972].

Secondary bibliography

Colombat, B., éd. Jean Pillot: Gallicae linguae institutio, introduction, traduction etnotes par B. Colombat. Champion (à paraître).

Fournier, J.-M. 1986. “L’imparfait chez les grammairiens classiques, de Maupas (1607),à Restaut (1730)”. Points de vue sur l’imparfait: 13-30. ed. by Pierre le Goffic.Caen: Centre de publications de l’Université de Caen.

. 1991. “L’émergence des catégories aspectuelles dans la grammaire généralede Port-Royal à Beauzée.” Histoire, Epistémologie Langage, 13, II: 113-130.

. 1994. La théorie des temps dans la grammaire générale, Thèse pourle doctorat. Université Denis Diderot-Paris 7.

Fournier, N. 1998. Gramaire du Français Classique. Paris: Belin.Galet, Y. 1974, “Illustration de la théorie des niveaux d’énonciation”. Langue française,

21, 26-42.. 1977. Les corrélations verbo-adverbiales, fonction du passé simple et

du passé composé, et la théorie des niveaux d’énonciation dans la phrase françaisedu XVIIème siècle, Atelier de reproduction des thèses, Université de Lille III, 2 vol.

Weinrich, H. 1973. Le temps. Paris: Le seuil.

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LINGUISTIC IDEAS AND THE DISCOURSE ON LANGUAGES INEARLY BRAZILIAN HISTORY1

BETHANIA MARIANIUniversidade Federal Fluminense, CNPq

Linguistic ideas that were widespread in the European world, have turned intodiscourses not only due to the accounts of travelers and missionaries heading for theNew World. These ideas can also be inferred from the so-called historical treatisesthat, written on request in many instances, have carried out the task of building thehistory of Brazil. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, a set of such texts promoted thegradual elaboration of a historical discourse on the description of the colonizationprocess, allowing for the perception of different meanings attributed to the existinglinguistic heterogeneity in the colony. One may also infer from such texts the presenceof language policies, established with the arrival of European languages (Portugueseand Latin, as well as Spanish and French). The development of a corpus of knowledgeof the land and of indigenous languages, marked by European thought, is responsiblefor the maintenance of a particular direction of meanings for the languages in the colony.

Most of the colonization discourses did not have the intent of primarily discussinglinguistic issues, but rather of proclaiming the riches and potentialities of the recentlyfound land as well as describing the nature and customs of its different inhabitants. Suchdiscourses functioned as advertisement for the newly discovered land in order to stimulateits colonization.

For the present analysis, a corpus composed of nine chronicle writers of the Braziliancolony was selected. As can be observed from the list below, not all the texts from the16th and 18th centuries were made public in the century in which they were written.Some circulated in the form of manuscripts, gaining significant importance only aftertheir publication in the 18th and 19th centuries. What is worth noting is the discursivefunctioning of such writings, constituting a thread in a tapestry of voices that shaped thediscourse of colonization.

1) Pero de Magalhães Gândavo, História da província de Santa Cruz; written in1573 and published in 1576;

1. This study is part of a larger research project on the institutionalization of the Portugueselanguage in Brazil, and was finished while I was a visiting scholar at Stanford University in 2001working with Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, in the Departement of Comparative Literature. Some findingsof this research have already been published in Mariani 1998 and 2003.

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2) Padre Fernão de Cardin, Tratados da terra e gente do Brasil and Narrativa epistolarda missão jesuítica do Padre Cristóvão de Gouveia, both probably written in the late16th century, first edition in English, from the collection of Samuel Purchas, in 1625;

3) Gabriel Soares de Sousa, Tratado descritivo do Brasil, written in 1587, firstcomplete edition in 1825;

4) Frei Vicente do Salvador, História do Brasil, written in 1627, first completeedition in 1888;

5) Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão, Diálogos das grandezas do Brasil, written in1618, with partial edition in 1849 and complete edition in 1900;

6) Francisco de Brito Freyre, Nova Lusitania; história da guerra brasílica.Lisbon, printed by Joam Galram, 1675.

7) Sebastião da Rocha Pita, História da América Portuguesa, edited in 1730.8) Bernardo Pereira de Berredo. Annaes históricos do Estado do Maranhão,

written in the first half of the 18th century, first edition in 1749.9) Frei Gaspar da Madre de Deus, Memórias da capitania de S. Vicente hoje

chamada São Paulo do Estado do Brasil, written during the second half of the 18th

century, probably in 1797, first edition in 1789.In addition, accounts from travelers were also subject to comparison to the discourse

analysis of historians, such as Flecknoe (1649), Rouloux Baro (1651), Edward Barlow(1663), François Froger (1695) and John Nieuhoff (1703).

To summarize and systematize the results obtained from the analysis, performedaccording to the parameters of Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux, 1975; Orlandi, 1990;and Orlandi & Guimarães, 1998), I will present them under different topics.

1. Paraphrases and the image of precariousness of the indigenous languages

In the analized discourses of these nine writers there is a reiteration, a recovery ofinterpretations and comments on what was seen, heard or read. This addition or overlapof discourses takes place in the form of translations, paraphrases, explanations andcomparisons concerning the linguistic knowledge being acquired.

In the words of Pero Magalhães Gândavo, based on accounts by the Jesuit priestJosé de Anchieta, we come across one of the most frequently reproduced observationson Brazilian indigenous languages. In the chapter entitled “on the condition and customsof Indians of this land”, one can notice the eurocentric view that projected precarioussocial and religious conditions, ascribed to the Indians, upon the unknown languages:

(...) a lingoa deste gentio toda pella costa he hu’a, careçe de tres letras - S – não se achanella f, ne l, ne R, cousa digna despanto por ~q assy não tem fê ne lei, nem Rei, & destamaneira viue, sem justiça desordenadamente. (Gândavo 1576:181-183).

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[ (...) the language of all the indians along the coast [is one that] lacks three letters – S –there is no f, nor l, nor R, something that causes perplexity because here there is neitherfaith[FÉ] nor law[LEI], nor King[REI], and, in this way, they live without justice in adisorderly manner. (Translated and adapted from the original text)]

The statement by Gândavo is paraphrased in other works as we can note in theexcerpt by Gabriel Soares de Sousa below:

(...) [os tupinambás] Têm muita graça quando falam, mormente as mulheres; são muicompendiosas na forma da linguagem, e muito copiosas no seu orar; mas faltam-lhes trêsletras do ABC, que são F, L R grande ou dobrado, coisa muito para se notar; porque, senão têm F, é porque não têm fé em nenhuma coisa que adorem; nem os nascidos entre oscristãos e doutrinados pelos padres da Companhia têm fé em Deus Nosso Senhor, nemtêm verdade, nem lealdade a nenhuma pessoa que lhes faça bem. E se não L na suapronunciação, é porque não têm lei alguma que guardar, nem preceitos para segovernarem; e cada um faz lei a seu modo, e ao som da sua vontade; sem haver entre elesleis com que se governem, nem têm leis uns com os outros. E se não têm esta letra R na suapronunciação, é porque não têm rei que os reja, e a quem obedeçam, nem obedecem aninguém, nem ao pai o filho, nem o filho ao pai, e cada um vive ao som da sua vontade.(Gabriel Soares de Sousa 1587: 302)[(...)[theTupinambá indians] They have a special flair when they speak, especially thewomen; they are very brief and direct in their speech, and truly devoted in their prayers; butthree letters are not found in their alphabet, which are F, L and R, long or double, a verysignificant thing to be noticed because, once there is no F, this is due to lack of faith inanything they adore; not even those born among the Christians and preached by Jesuits ofthe Company [of Jesus] have faith in God Our Lord, they have no truth, no loyalty to anyperson who is kind to them. And if there is no L in their pronunciation, this is because theyhave no laws to be safeguarded, nor principles to govern them; and each one makes use oflaw in his own individual way, at will; without any rules among them through which theycan govern themselves, not even rules among each other. And if there is no letter R intheir pronunciation, this is because there is no king to rule them, and to pay obedienceto, there is no obedience toward anyone, neither from son to father, neither from father toson, and each one lives according to his own will.]

More than forty years later, after Gândavo and Anchieta had characterized theindigenous languages as precarious or poor languages, Ambrósio F. Brandão takeson the same theme, by means of similar words: “E por isso se diz geralmente queeste gentio do Brasil carece, na sua língua, de três letras principais, as quaessão F, L, R”. (Brandão, 1966:266). “And that is why it is generally acceptedthat the language of the people from Brazil lacks three major letters, whichare F, L, R”.

This point of view was supported by Friar V. do Salvador: “Mas nem uma palavrapronunciam com f, l ou r, não soh das suas mas nem ainda das nossas, (...) e opeor eh que tambem carecem de fé, de lei e de rei...” (Salvador 1627: 53). “But not

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in a single word do they pronounce f, l or r, (…) and the worst part is that theyalso have no faith, no law and no king…”.

In the same manner, Richard Flecknoe, in his account, simultaneously questioningthe imaginary of that period of time and reproducing ‘anthropological-linguistic’ ideasalready disseminated, comments on the Indians and their languages:

No tocante à ferocidade desses nativos, não acreditei em tudo o que me disseram. Creioser verdade que eles devoram uns aos outros, e que na sua língua não constam aspalavras deus, lei e rei. Contudo, se fossem de fato ferozes como contam os habitanteslocais, certamente não teriam entregado tão mansamente suas terras aos portugueses,nem permitiriam que estes desfrutassem delas sem qualquer transtorno. (Flecknoe inFrança 1999:40)[As far as the ferocity of these natives is concerned, I did not believe everything I was told.I believe it to be true that they devour one another, and that their language does notinclude the words god, law and king. Nevertheless, if they were in fact as ferocious as localinhabitants say, they would certainly not have given up their land so peacefully to thePortuguese, nor would they have allowed them to exploit the land without any disturbance.]

2. The construction of the image of the general language: unity andsmoothness

Without any doubt, Pero de Magalhães Gândavo (1576), Fernão Cardim (1584),Gabriel Soares de Sousa (1587) and Friar Vicente do Salvador (1627) produced thefirst descriptions of the indigenous languages, promoting the idea of a single language, a“major”, “general” indigenous language, spoken along the Brazilian coast and displayinglittle variation. To this so-called “Língual Geral” of the coast, the authors contrast thelanguages of other indigenous nations. Fernão Cardim, in the chapter On Diversity ofNations and Languages, describes the “many and various nations with different languages”found throughout the colony, always stressing which languages are related to one anotherand which of them are completely different. Yet, one of them, according to the author, “isthe major one.”

Em toda esta provincia ha muitas e varias nações de differentes linguas, porém huma é aprincipal que comprehende algumas dez nações de Indios: estes vivem na costa do mar, eem uma grande corda do sertão, porém são todos estes de uma só língua ainda que emalgumas palavras discrepão e esta é a que entendem os Portuguezes; é fácil, e elegante, esuave, e copiosa, a dificuldade della está em ter muitas composições; porém dos Portuguezes,quasi todos os que vêm do Reino e estão cá de assento e communicação com os Indios asabem em breve tempo, e os filhos dos Portuguezes cá nascidos a sabem melhor que osPortuguezes, assim homens como mulheres, principalmente na Capitania de São Vicente,e com estas dez nações de Indios têm os Padres communicação por lhes saberem a lingua,e serem mais domesticos e bem inclinados (Cardim 1584:121)

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[All over this province there are many and various nations with different languages. One,however, is the major language spoken in some ten nations of Indians: they live along thecoastline, and in a large area of the heartland, yet, they all speak a single language althoughsome words do not match and this language is the one the Portuguese understand; it iseasy, and elegant, and smooth, and varied, the main difficulty being its many compositions;yet, among the Portuguese, almost all of those coming from the Kingdom who have settleddown here and established communication with the Indians, learn it very quickly, and thePortuguese children born in the colony know it better than their parents; male and femalealike, mainly in the province of São Vicente, and Priests, once they know their language,communicate with these ten nations of Indians, due to their domestic nature and betterinclination]

Among the colonization discourses there is also the reproduction of another line ofthought, that places the Tupinambás, Portuguese allies, in opposition to the Tapuias,brave, enemy indians, whose languages, from this standpoint, are neither “easy, elegantnor smooth”. Father Cardim, Gabriel S. de Sousa and Friar Vicente say:

Todas estas setenta e seis nações de Tapuyas, que têm as mais dellas differentes linguas, sãogente brava, silvestre e indomita, são contrarias quasi todas do gentio que vive na costa domar, vizinhos dos Portugueses (...) D’estes [tapuias] ha muitos christãos (...) e somente comestes Tapuyas se pode fazer algum fructo; com os demais Tapuyas, não se pode fazer conversãopor serem muito andejos e terem muitas e differentes linguas difficultosas. (Cardim, 1584:121)[All these seventy six Tapuya nations, that speak the most different languages, are bravepeople, wild and savage, have quite different attributes as compared to the people who liveon the coast, neighbors of the Portuguese (…) Among these [Tapuyas] there are manyChristians (…) and only to these Tapuyas some good can be done; with the rest of theTapuyas, conversion is not possible since they are true ramblers and have many differentand difficult languages.]

Descendem estes aimorés de outros gentios a que chamam tapuias (...) e os que destesdescenderam, vieram a perder a linguagem e fizeram outra nova que se não entende denenhuma outra nação do gentio de todo este Estado do Brasil. E são estes aimorés tãoselvagens (...) a sua fala é rouca da voz, a qual arrancam da garganta com muita força(...). (Sousa 1587:79)[These Aimorés are descended from other people called Tapuias (...) and these descendedantsabandoned the original language and created a new one that no other nation of people allover the State of Brazil can understand. And these Aimorés are so savage(…) their speechis hoarse in voice, which they utter from their throat with great force (…).]

Os mais barbaros se chama in genere Tapuhias, dos quaes ha muitas castas de diversosnomes, diversas linguas, e inimigos uns dos outros. (...) comtudo todos falam um mesmolinguage e este aprendem os religiosos que os doutrinam por uma arte de grammaticaque compoz o padre Joseph de ancheta, varao santo da ordem da Companhia de Jesus.(Frei V. Do Salvador 1627:52).[The most barbaric are called, in genere, Tapuhias, among whom there are many castes ofvarious names, various languages, and they are enemies among themselves.(…) all speak

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the same language, learned by the clergy men who preach to them by means of an art ofgrammar developed by Father Joseph de Anchieta, worthy saint from the order of theCompany of Jesus.]

These are “linguistic” conceptions not only ratified but also made to circulatein a much more systematic way by the Jesuit missionaries, starting with the studiesby José de Anchieta in 1555, that resulted in the publication of a grammar bookentitled Arte da Gramática da língua mais usada na costa do Brasil (TheArt of the Grammar of the most widely spoken language on the coast ofBrazil) (1595).

3. Designations as a form of linguistic colonization

The voices of these “historians” echo the voices of administrators and colonists,and their effort to overcome resistances inherent in the Brazilian colony. This has to do,among various activities, with the establishment of commercial relations with the NewWorld. Such relations are intertwined with indigenous languages and the Portugueselanguage. There is a process of incorporating indigenous words into the Portugueselanguage, but these words, once incorporated, are inserted in a linguistic universeorganized in terms of the European intelligibility. Thus, the indigenous words used todesignate new “things from nature” are ultimately linked to the Portuguese language andtheir meanings are easy to grasp. If, on the one hand, it is not possible to assert that theprocess of making the unknown New World known among the Portuguese andEuropeans is deprived of some prior familiarity with European modes of elaboratingknowledge, on the other hand, it is not possible to ignore the influence of this newunknown world over the old European world.

On these terms, the act of colonizing implies a linguistic attempt to undo the opacityof the new land, making it transparent to the Portuguese and Europeans with regard todesignations, translations and the learning of unknown languages.

In this way, it becomes feasible to produce descriptions that start from“similarities”– that is, with explicit attempts to link the meaning that is constructedin the Portuguese America to whatever is already familiar in Europe, to a kind oftypology that will allow a new “object” to be fit into a recognizable type, to thebody of knowledge already found in the European world which, to some extent,pre-constructs the intelligibility of discourse as a whole. These “similarities” pre-configure actual interpretations, establishing a direction of meaning in relation towhich the “differences” are presented as a kind of complementation of a meaningalready configured. The act of designating, therefore, is a fundamental step in thisprocess of colonization and domestication of the unknown. It suggests an idea oflanguage transparency based on the presupposition of direct linkage between things

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and words, between the referent and the term that designates it2. Considering thatthe use of one or another language is not naïve, designations may render disputes,impositions and existing silences visible.

In Gândavo, it is possible to observe some elements of the flora and fauna, describedby him, that shape a recurring type of discursive functioning:

(...) e se tem pella milhor caça que ha no matto chamão lhes Tatûs são tamanhos comocoelhos e te um casco a maneira de lagosta como de cágado mas he repartido em muitasjuntas como laminas, pareçe totalmente hu’ cavallo armado, tem hu’ rabo do mesmocasco comprido o foçinho he como de leitaõ, e naõ bota mais fora do casco que a cabeça(Gândavo 1576:160)

[(...) and the best game there is in the woods people call them armadillos and they are thesize of rabbits and have a shell like that of a lobster, just like the one of a turtle but bandedon many joints like blades, they look exactly like armed horses, they have a long, shell-liketail, the nose of a pig, and only the head comes out of the shell.]

Hu’a fruita se dá nesta prouinçia do Brasil muito sabrosa e mais prezada de quantas hana terra. (...) que chamão lhes Ananâzes e depois de maduras tem hu’ cheiro m[ui]toexçellente (Gândavo 1576:165)[There is a certain fruit in this province of Brazil which is very tasty and more appreciatedthan all the others over the land. (…) that they call Pineapples and when they are ripe theyhave an excellent smell.]

Tambem ha hu’a fruita que lhe chamão banânas, pella lingoa dos indios pacôuas, ha naterra muita abundançia dellas (Gândavo 1576:169)[There is also a fruit that they call bananas, in the language of the Pacôua Indians]

In the fragments above, and in all the others under analysis, the designation of thingsfrom Brazil unknown in the European world is usually preceded by statements of theexistence of something already known. The statement of existence formulated with thePortuguese verb haver is followed by an adjective clause– que lhe chamãobanânas, que chamão-lhes ananâzes – which designates and inserts “the thing fromBrazil”– tatu, banânas, anânazes – in the generic category, already known in theEuropean world – game, fruit.

Thus, the process of giving transparency to designations such as – tatu, banânas,anânazes – is initially anchored to a field of previous ideas (Pêcheux 1975). The

2. The conception of transparency in language and literality of meanings, central to thinkers ofthat epoch, is the pioneering notion of the epistemics of the 16th century, according to Foucault(1966). By embracing another discourse standpoint, it must be mentioned that the question ofreference deals simultaneously with linguistically based questions (the many possible ways tospeak about) and historical ones (considering the restrictions imposed on the processes ofsignification by not so often visible social and legal designations that, by regulating the formsto speak, prevent one from attributing meaning to anything, from anywhere, at any time). Seealso Orlandi (1990).

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designation is then followed by detailed explanations formulated by means of adjectivalcomplementation, comparisons and analogies with what is already known, just as thecase of tatu in the first fragment. Designations are always followed by similaritiesand differences in the form of complements. Therefore, tatus (armadillos) aredescribed by means of similarities with whatever is familiar to Europeans – they arethe size of rabbits and have a shell like that of a lobster, just as turtle’s – andlater, differences are shown in the form of complements – but banded [the shell] onmany joint-like blades.

The very same discursive process can be found in the accounts by non-Portuguesetravelers. Through this linguistic attempt to produce a pictorial effect, the referents aregradually being constructed in discourse so as to come to life in thought. In other words,the search for a transparency in language is in accordance with the discursive constructionof the referent for the designated “thing”. In order to make sense out of words andthings, other meanings must be added to these designations.

As we clip passages from the accounts related to the theme foods that were notknown by Europeans, for example, we can easily observe the discursive process ofparaphrases, literal repetitions superposing discourses upon discourses. The excerptsbelow, written by different travelers, typically exemplify this discursive process:

O ananás é, sem dúvida, a melhor e a mais saborosa das frutas que o país produz. Elecresce como uma alcachofra, suas folhas são espessas e dentadas como as das sempre-vivas e seu caule e sua casca, escamosos. (...) (Flecknoe, in França 1999:37)[The pineapple is, with no doubt, the best and tastiest of all fruits the country produces. Itgrows like an artichoke; its leaves are thick and toothed like those of the evergreens and itsstalk and bark, scaled. (…)]

O ananás cresce como uma alcachofra e é parecido com uma grande pinha; suas folhassão longas, grossas, armadas com pequenos espinhos e em forma de coroa. Essa fruta é amelhor de toda a América. (F. Froger, in França 1999:53)[The pineapple grows like an artichoke and it resembles a large pine; its leaves are long,coarse, covered with little thorns and with the shaped like a crown. This fruit is the best inall of America.]

In the discourse functioning of the two fragments above we can notice: 1) vocabularyrepetition – artichoke –, which is 2) point of departure for the repetition of the comparativestructure grows like..., 3) synonymic substitution thick leaves instead of coarse leavesand 4) return to a superlative structure the best and tastiest of all fruits and the bestone in all of America..

This discourse functioning is the same as the one found in the writings of Portugueseauthors, constituting the previously mentioned intertwining of voices in the discourse ofthe colonization of Brazil and stressing a particular direction of meanings.

Indetermination and determination: who designates them?

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It is important to note that there is another recurring linguistic functioning, which isdetermination or indetermination in relation to the origin of the designation. There aretwo alternate discourse mechanisms: the explicitness of the indigenous origin of thedesignation – in the language of the Pacôua indians – and/or the use of a namewithout any specification concerning its origin – they call them Pineapples –, thisleaves us with a doubt: who calls them pineapples?

These alternations can be observed in the following excerpts, taken from the vastnumber of examples found in the other accounts under analysis:

Ha um rio entre Porto-Seguro, e os Ilhéos (...): traz muita copia de rezina que he omesmo anime, a que os Indios chamão Igtaigcica, e os portuguezes incenso branco,e tem os mesmos effeitos que o incenso.(Cardim 1584:42)[There is a river between Porto-Seguro and the Ilhéos (…): it brings in its own waters a lotof natural resin with arousing effects, which the Indians call Igtaigcica, and the Portuguese,white incense, and it has the same effects of incense.]

Há uma casta de mandioca que se diz manipocamirim, e outra que chamam manaibuçu,e há outras castas que chamam taiaçu, e duram estas raízes debaixo da terra semapodrecerem três, quatro anos. (...) (Gabriel S. Sousa 1587:174)[There is a kind of manioc called manipocamirim, and another kind called manaibuçu, andstill there are other kinds called taiaçu, and these roots last, under the ground withoutspoiling, three, four years…]

From the discursive functioning of the designations above, one can notice that thereis a variation between indetermination/determination on the part of the designator: onthe one side, indetermination of the grammatical subject, generally expressed inconstructions with ‘discendi’ verbs of the type: which they call…, whom they call…,what is said…, called…, which is called (a que chamam.., a quem chamam..., quese diz..., chamados..., que se chama...). On the other side, determination: the Indianscall..., the Indians and more people…, that the people call (os índios chamão..., osíndios e mais gentes..., que o gentio chama). Such alternations, depicted in the accountsof all the authors, point to the complex network of subject positions, pervasive throughoutthe colonial period. What is to be understood here as subject position is that the ima-ginary projection of the socio-historical place from where one speaks as well as theimaginary projection of one’s interlocutor are implied in the formation of this networkof imaginary projections. In some fragments, either the relevant subject positions areretrieved from the context or it is possible to clearly recognize the indigenous andPortuguese voices in many designations: some herbs that the Indians call jaborandiba,and the Portuguese, white incense. What calls our attention is that these voices arenot always explicitly expressed. In many cases, one may conclude that the absence ofthe grammatical subject, on the part of the designator indicates an ambiguity in relationto the position of the subject. In other cases, instead of an opposition indians vs the

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Portuguese, one is confronted with a view of the whole – and to take full advantageof these roots, the indians and more people – where we also find indetermination.After all, what would be the discursive referent for more people?

In the gap between the discourse practice that designates, as well as theimaginary projection of one’s interlocutor institutes a direction of meanings,allowing for visibility for things from/in Brazil, and the discourse practice that isdesignated, deprived of voice, there is a silence marked by the confrontationbetween meanings that convey power relations current at that time, imposed bythe metropolis, and movements of resistance originated in the lands of Brazil.The image of the Indians and mestizos, children born from the union between thePortuguese and the Indians, or from the Portuguese born in the colonized land, islinked and reduced to a set of designations.

Once we observe, among foreign travelers, the process of overlapping discourses,it is also possible to discuss a textual disclosure of the discourse positions in the colonywhich are left undetermined in the written treatises by Portuguese and Brazilian writers.Whatever is undetermined in the Portuguese language is disclosed in the foreign language.The question, however, lies in verifying to which extent this disclosure is actuallydisplaying, erasing or incorporating the differences among the previously mentionedpositions of the subject.

This is what one may start to observe in the excerpts by Rouloux Baro (1651),Rouloux Baro’s French translator, and John Nieuhoff (1703) transcribed below.

Au matin du dixieme les eaux s’étant retirées (...) quelques petites poissons que lessauvages nomment Paramiri, Acaramiri (...) le vingt-vniesme outre ce que i’auoird’hommes, i’en pris deux dans l’Aldée des Brasiliens, pour nous conduire de-là la riuiere(...) Là nous vuindasmes deux grands arbres pelins de miel sauuage, & chassans nous (...)d’vn gros serpent nommé Cascabilla, d’vn ieune oiseau, appellé Strus, & de deux Tatous(...) Le onzieme sur les dix heures du matin les Brasiliens du bas arriuerent en l’Aldée oùnous étions, les habitants de laquelle les receurent auec grands cris de ioye, & proposd’allegresse (In R. Baro 1651:199-208)

Remarques du Sieur Morisot sur le voyage de Rouloux Baro (...) Ils sont appellez d’aucunsTapuias, d’autres Tapoyos: mais comme cette terminaison n’est point Françoise letraducteurs les appelle Tapuies. (...) Il faut dire Cascauela, nom duquel les portugaisappellent le serpant nommé des Brasiliens, Boicininga, Boicinininga, Boitinga, &Boiquira, par les Tapuyes Aiugi, par les Hollandois Kaetel Slange. (...) Les Brasiliensappellent cet animal Tatu, & Tatupeda, les Espagnols Armadillo, les PortugaisEmcuberro. (In R. Baro 1651:247-262)

There are also several sorts of Serpents in Brasil. (...) The serpent of Boicininga, orBoicinininga, likewise called Boiquira, by the Brasilians, is by the Portugueses calledKaskaveda and Tangedor (..) That four-legg’d Creature, by the Brasilians called Ai, by thePortugueses Priguiza, and by the Dutch Luyaert (Lazy-back) from its lazy and slow pace,(...) The four Legg’d Creature, called by the Brasilians, Tatu and Tatupera, by the Spaniards,

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Armadillo, by the Portugueses, Ecuberto, and by the Dutch, Schilt-Verken, (Shield-Hog)because it is defended with Scales like as with an Armour, resembles in biness and shapeour Hogs. (In J. Nieuhoff 1703:15-20)

In the excerpts above, the images created in relation to the positions of the subject inthe colony are expressed in a very distinctive way. In the elaboration of the accounts, inorder to bring visibility to the translation of indigenous words, other European languagesare incorporated. In R. Baroux’s account, there is an opposition between the narrator,conveyed by the first person plural ‘we’, and one ‘they’, successively designated assauvages, Brasiliens and Tapuias. In fragment #18, the first person singular ‘I’ (Je croy)is opposed to different subjects in different languages: portugais, hollandois, brasiliensand espagnols. In fragment #19, the first person plural, marked in the expression ourpeople is also opposed to different subjects: Brasilians, Portugueses and the Dutch.

In this process of incorporation of other languages, there is a return and,simultaneously, a very peculiar reconstruction of the (discursive) functioning thatsuggests the insertion of an object to be described in a category previously known bythe European world. For instance, it becomes crucial to insert the words/namescascabilla, cascauela or kaskaveda in the previous idea d’un gros serpent or inthe image that in Brazil there are several sorts of Serpents. Nevertheless, equallyimportant is the indirect reference given to European languages by means of thedesignation of nationalities. These nationalities-languages function as the genericcategories of previous knowledge. There is an implied and previous recognition ofthe other European languages that promote the configuration of the nations of thesubjects that are mentioned. In the accounts under analysis, we have as irrefutableevidence, obvious proof, the fact that the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French havelanguages that are as much specific as different from each other, and this leads fromthe reference to nationalities to the necessary translation of unknown terms. Theseare languages that are already grammatically systematized (Auroux 1997) and usedby speakers whose identification is made through their respective national groups(the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the French).

In a parallel way, under the words brasiliens or brasilans the homogeneity ofthe indigenous languages is promoted, and their differences neutralized. In other words,these accounts show the gradual construction of a parallelism premised on the relation“one language-one nation”, product of the European world. However, once shiftedto the description of elements of the Brazilian colony, such relationship ultimatelyerases the linguistic diversity. At this point, it is worthwhile to look up in John Nieuhoff’swork and find out who the “brasilians” are:

The Inhabitants of Brasil may at present be divided into Free-born Subjects and Slaves,and these again consist of diverse Nations, both Natives and Foreigners. The FreeInhabitants of Brasil were the Dutch, Portugueses, and Brasilians, the last the Natives of

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the Country. (...) The Natives of Brasil consisted of diverse Nations, distinguished by theirProper Names, to wit; The Tubinambos [sic], tobajaras, Petiguaras and Tapuijas, orTapuyers, or Tapoyers. The three first use one and the same Language, and differ only inthe dialect; but the last are subdiveded into several Nations, differing both in manners andTongue. (In J. Niehuoff, 1703:15-20)

Brasilians, according to the author, are the natives of the Country, that is tosay, the Indians. They are part of the group of Inhabitants of Brasil, a group which,according to this view, is composed of free-born Subjects and Slaves. Whilespecifying who the free inhabitants are, Nieuhoff refers them to the Europeannationalities and includes on the listing the brasilians, the natives of the country.This task of designating the “Brazilians” (brasileiros), refers back to the divisionbetween tupinambás and tapuias and, at the same time, retains the image of amajor language opposing itself to a set of different languages from different indigenousnations. In a single act toward designation, there is, simultaneously, the recognition ofthe indigenous culture and the erasure of diversity. In the same way, with this designationof “Brazilians” the inter-ethnic result of two centuries of colonization is erased as wellas the existence of children of the Portuguese (and of the Dutch, the Spaniards andthe French) born in the colony. There is a complete loss of specificity regarding a‘different place’ in gestation throughout history.

Concluding, what we see here is an attempt to domesticate the indigenous language inthe same way one aims to domesticate the Indian, since for the Portuguese, as well as forother Europeans, it seemed only logical and necessary to have Tapuyas alreadydomesticated, as Bernardo Pereira de Berredo noted during the 18th century, referring tothe barbarians, imperfections of nature, savages (Berredo 1905:322). And it is preciselythis “domestication” – which is part of the linguistic colonization process that can be verified,after the topics discussed in the present study, not only in the attempt to create meanings inthe Portuguese America from a set of European references, but also in the creation of animage of flaw and precariousness of languages and peoples – that sustains colonization.

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Berredo, Bernardo Pereira de. 1905. Anais históricos do Estado do Maranhão, emque se dá notícia de seu descobrimento, e tudo o mais que nele tem sucedido

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Nieuhoff, John. 1703. Voyages and travels, into Brasil, and the east-indies:containing au exact description of the Dutch Brasil, and divers parts of theEast-Indes; their provinces, cities, living creatures, and products: the manners,customs, habits, and religion of the inhabitants: a most particular account of all theremarkable passages that happened during the Author’s stay of nine years in Brasil,especially, in relation to the Revolt of the Portugueses, and the Intestine war carriedon there from 1640 to 1649. Translated from the Dutch Original. London: printedfor Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater Noster Row.

Pita, Sebastião Rocha. 1850. Historia da America Portuguesa desde o anno de mile quinhentos do seu descobrimento até o de mil setecentos e vinte e quatro.Segunda edição revista e anotada por J.G. Goes. Lisboa: editor Francisco Arthurda Silva.

Salvador, Frei Vicente de. 1627 [1918]. Historia do Brasil, por Frei Vicente doSalvador. Nova edição revista por Capistrano de Abreu. São Paulo.

Sousa, Gabriel Soares de. 1587 [1938]. Tratado descritivo do Brasil em 1587.Edição castigada pelo estudo e exame de muitos codices manuscriptos existentesno Brasil, em Portugal, hespanha e França, e accrescentada de alguns commentariospor Francisco Adolpho de Varnhagem. São Paulo.

Secondary bibliography

Auroux, Sylvain. 1997. (dir.) Histoire des idées linguistiques. Tome 2 Ledéveloppement de la grammaire occidentale. Paris: Mardaga.

Foucault, Michel. 1971. L’Ordre du discours. Paris: Gallimard.Mariani, Bethania S.C. “L’institutionnalisation de la langue, de la mémoire et de la

citoyenneté au Brésil durant le XVIII siècle: le rôle des académies littéraires etde la politique du Marquis de Pombal.”: Auroux, Sylvain, Orlandi, E. P. andMazière, Francine (Éds.) Langages – l‘hyperlangue brésilienne. Número 130.Paris: Larousse, junho 1998: 84-97.

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. 2003. “L’État, l’église et la question de la langue parlée au Brésil.” InHistory of Linguistics 1999 – Selected papers from the eighth InternationalConference on the History of the Language Sciences, 14 – 19 September 1999,Fontenay – St. Cloud. ed. by Sylvain Auroux, 185-196 (=Studies in the Historyof the Language Sciences, 99). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Orlandi, Eni P. 1990. Terra à vista – discurso do confronto: velho e novo mundo. SãoPaulo, Campinas: Cortez & Editora da Unicamp.

. e Guimarães, Eduardo. “La formation d’un espace de productionlinguistique. La Grammaire au Brésil.” In: Auroux, Sylvain, Orlandi, E. P. and Mazière,Francine (Éds.) Langages – l‘hyperlangue brésilienne, 130:84-97. Paris: Larousse.

Pêcheux, Michel. 1975. Les vérités de la Palice. Paris: Maspero.

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GRAMMAIRE GÉNÉRALE ET GRAMMAIRE PARTICULIÈRELES MÉTHODES DE CLAUDE IRSON

SIMONE DELESALLE & FRANCINE MAZIÈREUniversité de Paris XIII Université de Paris XIII

On veut examiner ici les différences qui apparaissent entre les deux éditions de laGrammaire d’Irson (1656 et 1660), en les rapportant à la parution de la GrammaireGénérale et Raisonnée de Port-Royal (1660). Ce qui signifie: considérer le rapportentre développements techniques grammaticaux et luttes religieuses et politiques (ClaudeIrson semble à cette époque lié au mouvement janséniste); travailler les ajustementsnécessaires entre un ouvrage qui traite de la grammaire générale et une grammaire dufrançais; enfin s’interroger sur le va et vient des influences réciproques entre grammairegénérale, grammaire particulière et dictionnaire, l’œuvre d’Irson prenant place dans untemps fort de discussion sur la préparation d’un Dictionnaire de l’Académie.

1. Irson

Ce grammairien est souvent cité, surtout comme arithméticien, mais peu connu.Nous ne sommes pas arrivés à le situer complètement.

Il publie sa première grammaire au milieu des années 1650, années porteuses deprojets à visée politique, à l’heure où un Académicien comme Pellisson réfléchit au rôled’un dictionnaire et pense l’importance pour l’Etat d’une “langue commune” avant des’engager dans la tourmente aux côtés de Fouquet; à l’heure où Port Royal devientinquiétant pour le pouvoir, où se jansénise le clergé de Paris qui refuse la morale jésuite,pétitionne en faveur des Provinciales et ouvre des “écoles de charité” indépendantes del’autorité du Grand Chantre; où Antoine Arnauld défie les autorités de la Sorbonne et lesJésuites en diffusant en français des analyses de théologie et où Claude Lancelot ose uneMéthode d’apprentissage du latin rédigée en français et une Méthode d’apprentissage dugrec qui ne passe pas par le latin. Bref, dans une période de changements et d’affrontements,en particulier autour de l’affirmation de la langue française.

Cette langue n’avait inspiré que trois grammaires dans la première moitié du siècle:celle de Masset, Acheminement à la langue française, bilingue français-latin, insérée

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en 1606 dans le Thrésor de la langue française de Nicot, celle de Maupas,Grammaire et syntaxe française, en 1607, écrite seulement en français, et celle deOudin, en 1632, Grammaire française rapportée au langage du temps, qui comptera6 rééditions. Les titres montrent assez que l’autonomisation des règles du françaiscontemporain par rapport au latin et à l’état antérieur de la langue est la principale viséede ces ouvrages. Irson publie des méthodes d’apprentissage.

– 1656 Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement les principes et la pureté dela langue française

– 1660 Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement les principes et la pureté dela langue française

– 1662 Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement les principes et la pureté dela langue française(deuxième édition)

– 1667 (privilège en 1658) Méthode abrégée et familière pour apprendre en peu detemps à bien lire, à prononcer agréablement et à écrire correctement en français

Il faut considérer les dates d’édition. Nous avons volontairement répété trois fois lemême titre: la mention “seconde édition”, en 1662, jointe à quelques omissions del’édition de 1660 dans des fichiers et catalogues de bibliothèques de même que dansdes recensions d’ouvrages, avait conduit à considérer 1662 comme la réédition de1656. Il semblait alors suffisant de lire l’ouvrage de 1656 et d’en signaler la réédition.Or, la Méthode de 1660, rééditée en 16621, est profondément différente de celle de1656 . Entre temps a été publiée la Grammaire Générale et Raisonnée de Port Royal.C’est cette différence, et cette concomitance, que nous exploiterons dans l’article.

Si l’on s’attache au titre lui-même, on note que l’emploi du mot Méthode est nouveaupour le français, toute approche pédagogique se faisant alors par le latin, excepté àl’Oratoire, et à Port Royal. A Port Royal où, précisément, Lancelot s’en sert pourl’apprentissage du latin et du grec à partir du français:

– 1644: Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la languelatine.

– 1655: Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la languegrecque.

Lancelot poursuit, en 1660, avec des Méthodes pour l’italien et l’espagnol, aprèsavoir refusé de préparer une méthode pour le français, projet qui lui paraissait tropdifficile à réaliser.

La première méthode d’Irson sort donc en 1656. Elle suit immédiatement la méthodegrecque de Lancelot qui, exaspérant les Jésuites, servit de prétexte aux premières

1. C’est la version sur laquelle nous avons travaillé car elle existe en microfiches REF

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fermetures des Ecoles de Port Royal en mars 1656. Et l’on remarque que les pages detitre des trois ouvrages d’ Irson (y compris l’Abrégé puisque son privilège date de 1658)sont un calque parfait de ceux de Lancelot, à ceci près que dans la Nouvelle Méthoded’Irson apparaissent les principes et la pureté, donc les règles et l’usage, les préceptes etla norme: avec la langue française, nous sommes face à une langue en cours de stabilisation,encore sujette à des doutes, qui s’achemine vers son autonomisation.

Les dates de parution, le souci d’aller du plus simple au plus difficile2, la centralité dufrançais, langue-objet et métalangue, situent donc déjà Irson dans l’élaboration parPort-Royal d’une pédagogie raisonnée des langues particulières conduisant à uneréflexion sur une grammaire générale. Mais il pourrait ne s’agir que d’une coïncidencede titres et du simple souci d’un auteur de manuel de se placer dans le sillage d’unesérie prometteuse. En fait, l’examen des textes d’escorte permet d’être encore plusradical en ce qui concerne la parenté de ces textes.

A nouveau, un rappel de dates s’impose: c’est en avril 1659, en même temps quepour les Méthodes d’italien et d’espagnol, que sont obtenus les privilèges pour laGrammaire Générale et Raisonnée d’Arnauld et Lancelot, et la Logique d’Arnauld etNicole. Les deux ouvrages sont donc terminés à cette date, même si la Grammaire n’estpubliée qu’en avril 1660 et la Logique en 1662. Or c’est en 1660 qu’Irson rédige, pourla deuxième version de sa Méthode, une préface qui contient non seulement des notionsparallèles à celles de port Royal, mais également une citation mot pour mot, et sansmarque de discours rapporté, de la GGR ( texte en italique dans les extraits qui suivent).

Dans le chapitre premier de la seconde partie de la Grammaire, on lit ceci:

Il nous reste à examiner ce qu’elle [la parole] a de spirituel, qui fait l’un des plus grandsavantages de l’homme […] et qui est une des plus grandes preuves de la raison […].Ainsil’on peut définir les mots, des sons distincts et articulés, dont les hommes ont fait dessignes pour signifier leurs pensées.C’est pourquoi on ne peut bien comprendre les diverses sortes de significations qui sontenfermées dans les mots, qu’on n’ait bien compris auparavant ce qui se passe dans nospensées, puisque les mots n’ont été inventés que pour les faire connaître.

Et dans la préface d’Irson (1660):

C’est pourquoi nous pouvons assurer que la parole est un des plus grands avantages del’Homme raisonnable […]. C’est la Raison même qui règle et qui conduit les mouvements dela Parole […].La grammaire regarde la parole, la parole est une expression sensible de notre pensée, etnotre pensée est un mouvement de notre Ame […] C’est dans cette Raison seulement quenous pouvons trouver l’Encyclopédie des Sciences […] Qui ne voit que pour bien parler ilfaut bien penser, et que l’incertitude de la parole se réduit à la certitude de l’Intelligence. On

2. “J’ai suivi dans ce livre la Méthode de composition en commençant par les choses les plussimples pour parvenir aux plus difficiles et celles qui sont plus composées” Préface de 1656

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ne peut bien comprendre les diverses sortes de significations qui sont enfermées dans lesmots, qu’on n’ait bien compris auparavant ce qui se passe dans nos pensées, puisque lesmots n’ont été inventés que pour les faire connaître. C’est en ce sens que la Grammaire estuniverselle et qu’elle suppose la logique, au moins la naturelle, pour la définition de sestermes et pour l’explication de ses règles générales, qui sont infaillibles.

Ce texte en forme de manifeste a d’ailleurs un titre étonnant: “Préface dans laquellel’excellence de la parole et l’utilité de la Grammaire sont démontrées”. Parler dedémonstration, de Grammaire en général et du statut de la parole humaine, c’est sesituer, on le voit, bien au-dessus d’une entreprise de manuélisation des règles du français3

En 56, la préface était essentiellement un manifeste en faveur de l’enseignementnécessaire de la grammaire pour “bien parler”. “Je ne nie pas que l’usage ne soit legrand Maître des langues vivantes; mais l’on doit aussi demeurer d’accord que sans lacertitude des Règles, l’on ne peut jamais acquérir la perfection d’une langue”.

Il reprend ainsi point par point les thèses liminaires de la GGR, jusque dans laprécision de ses formules. S’il y a parfois raccourci et simplification, il y a manifestementadhésion à ces thèses. Ce que confirme le contenu du corps de l’ouvrage, qui en contientune exploitation immédiate. A preuve l’ajout, dans la version de 1660, de la connotationdans le traitement du nom adjectif.

L’engagement d’ Irson du côté des jansénistes est également sensible dans les épîtres.L’épître de 1656 est adressée à Santeul, un donateur pédagogue de la famille du

Santeul qui était poète et qui rédigera l’épitaphe d’Arnauld. Elle reprend à la lettre lespréceptes de Saint Cyran mis en œuvre par Lancelot. L’enseignement y est vu comme latâche de la plus grande charité et le moyen de sauver les enfants de la corruption dumonde, mais aussi d’en faire, par un enseignement avisé, des “philosophes”, des “personnesutiles au Public dans toutes sortes d’emplois et de conditions de la vie civile”. Objectif quin’est pas sans hardiesse puisqu’Irson propose un apprentissage du français à des élèvesqui ne connaissent pas le latin et doivent donc assimiler uniquement les Règles de leurpropre langue4. Le ton de cette première épître est serein, voire enthousiaste.

Ce n’est plus le cas en 1660. La Méthode est adressée, sur un ton presque dramatique,à “Monsieur Gaudin, Primat de l’Église gallicane, Docteur de la Société de Sorbonne etchanoine de Notre Dame de Paris”. Irson demande à Gaudin son “secours” au nom d’uneprécédente “protection” dont aurait bénéficié la parution de la première grammaire. Et en1667, la “Méthode abrégée”, dont le privilège est de 58, est précédée d’une épître quis’adresse ainsi à Monsieur le chantre de l’Eglise de Paris: “Vous n’ignorez pas, Monsieur,

3. En 56, la préface était essentiellement un manifeste en faveur de l’enseignement nécessairede la grammaire pour “bien parler”. “Je ne nie pas que l’usage ne soit le grand Maître deslangues vivantes; mais l’on doit aussi demeurer d’accord que sans la certitude des Règles, l’onne peut jamais acquérir la perfection d’une langue”.4. Préface: “L’ordre que j’ai observé dans cet ouvrage n’est fondé que sur la fin que je me suisproposée de soulager ceux qui, pour n’avoir pas appris le latin ni le grec, n’espèrent pas depouvoir jamais parler correctement soit dans les entretiens ordinaires, soit dans les lettres qu’ilsécrivent; d’où vient qu’étant persuadés de leur ignorance, ils se bannissent volontairement descompagnies les plus considérables, de crainte d’y servir de matière de raillerie […]”.

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5. Alors que Chiflet, grammairien jésuite dont les productions ne sont pas attaquées, cite Irsonnommément dans une grammaire qui paraît en 59. Irson ne parle ni de cet ouvrage ni de Chiflet dansson tableau des auteurs de 1660, alors qu’il accorde une place très importante aux écrits de PortRoyal, traductions comprises, et à Ménage.6. Ces traités intéressent les historiens des pratiques d’écriture arithmétique, mais eux non plus nesavent qui est Irson. Quant aux rivalités entre maîtres d’école, maîtres arithméticiens et maîtresécrivains, elles ne seront apaisées qu’à la fin du XVIIème siècle. Les deux activités d’Irson ont conduitcertains biographes, aussitôts démentis par d’autres, à parler de deux personnages, un père et un fils.7. Il est vrai qu’il s’agit d’une “école de charité”. Ces écoles sont liées à des paroisses, et sontsouvent rivales des écoles de grammaire soumises au Chantre; mais, à la différence des écoles dela “religion prétendue réformée, traitées de “buissonnières”, elles sont tolérées, à condition de nes’adresser qu’à des pauvres et de ne leur apprendre que des rudiments de lecture et d’écriture. Laparoisse est jansénisée et voisine l’abbaye de Saint Magloire qui favorisera à la fin du siècle ungrand développement du jansénisme.

que nous avons des gens qui nous traversent dans nos exercices et que nous avons besoind’appui pour nous opposer à leur entreprise” Il est bien probable que ces traverses ne sontpas apparues en 1667 mais dès 57-58, c’est à dire au moment de la demande du privilègede publication qui est également le moment des attaques contre les Petites Ecoles.

Il semble donc qu’on soit en droit de décentrer l’œuvre d’ Irson par rapport à la listecanonique des grammairiens français du 17eme siècle: Maupas/Oudin/Chiflet, pour lasituer dans la lignée des travaux de Port-Royal5.

On aimerait savoir d’où vient ce personnage, mais l’histoire est muette sur sa formation.Des bibliographies générales en font un bourguignon (Hœfer, Muteau), les archives de Dijonne le connaissent pas. Les archives de Port-Royal ne signalent ni ce nom ni ce pseudonymeet les études sur les pédagogues jansénistes ne le mentionnent jamais. Il n’est donc paspossible de savoir, en l’état actuel de nos recherches, quelles sont ses fréquentations quandil combat pour Descartes et Port Royal, puis quand il entre, plus tard, au service de Colberten tant que “Juré teneur de livres” dans une période d’apaisement entre Port Royal et le Roi,pour produire un Traité des changes, qui sera suivi de traités de comptabilité et d’arithmétique6 .

Même ses domiciles renseignent peu. A l’époque de la première publication de sa Méthode,il demeure “rue Bourg-l’Abbé à l’Ecole de Charité”, la page de titre l’atteste. On sait que lesmaîtres et eux seuls ont le droit et le devoir de résidence dans les écoles. Or le dépouillementdes archives de la paroisse de Saint Leu/Saint Gilles, aux Archives nationales comme àcelles de l’archevêché de Paris, ne livre pas le nom du “maître” de cette école paroissiale7,pourtant directement rémunéré par Santeul, son fondateur, comme le signale la Fabrique.

En 1667, nous savons par son Abrégé qu’il demeure dans le Cloître de Saint Jacques del’Hôpital, au Soleil d’or, rue Saint Denis. Il ne quittera pas le quartier puisque, dans lesmodèles de lettres figurant dans l’Abrégé, dans ses traités de comptabilité, et encore en1695 dans son Abrégé de l’Arithmétique pratique et raisonnée, il prend à titre d’exemplesa propre gestion en tant que “négociant” et déclare habiter le Cloître, bien qu’il possédâtpar ailleurs deux maisons où s’entreposaient ses marchandises.

Ce silence autour de la personne d’Irson amène à la limite à se demander s’il nes’agit pas d’un pseudonyme, d’autant que ce patronyme d’Irson, extrêmement rare(une seule entrée dans le catalogue de la Bibliothèque Nationale) pourrait faire penserà un anagramme; on pourrait par là penser à une opération de prête-nom, le véritable

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auteur étant alors Lancelot8. Mais on est obligé en fait de poser l’existence d’unpersonnage Irson, et ce pour plusieurs raisons:

Les traités d’arithmétique qui nous sont parvenus témoignent d’une continuité dansl’exposition pédagogique par tableaux et par modèles concrets (lettres de commandes,comptes du mois). Une même cohérence relie ses factums contre d’autres arithméticienset l’énumération de ses biens (des épices aux chandeliers et aux fourrures de renardblanc): à travers ces pièces se dessine un personnage qui a le goût du monde et ducommerce, de la chicane et de la réussite en affaires.

Surtout, son Abrégé de grammaire de 1667 constitue un jalon qui permet desaisir le virage qu’il opère: il quitte la théorie de la grammaire ( “la grammaire danstoute son étendue”) pour se cantonner dorénavant à un enseignement grammaticalélémentaire qui prolonge l’apprentissage de la lecture et débouche sur desconnaissances pratiques mettant en jeu autant les chiffres que les lettres (modèlesde lettres en tout genre, y compris des lettres de change, et modèles de livres decompte). Mais même si on le saisit, son virage est mystérieux, comme l’est cesilence autour de lui, et autour de son renoncement à des recherches réflexives,liées à un groupe à la fois attaqué et prestigieux, et par rapport auquel il existait entant qu’auteur d’une méthode de français. Dans l’ensemble de sa carrière, songoût de l’enseignement, lui, ne se dément pas, il l’affirme de manuel en manuel, touten évoluant vers un enseignement plus technique. Dès 1656 il était peut-être unpédagogue hors institution9, mais c’était surtout, à cette époque, un écrivain engagédans son siècle10. Ses travaux, jusqu’en 1662, prouvent qu’il fut un artisan de laconstitution des règles de traitement du vocabulaire d’une langue.

8. Nous réservons la question du rapport à Chaulmer, dont une texte d’éloge est inséré dansl’édition de 56.9. Gaudin serait intervenu pour “le protéger contre [ses]envieux, dans le dessein qu’il a d’instruireles personnes qui s’adressent à lui”. Il n’était donc pas simplement maître au service de la Fabrique.Etc’est un appel à élèves qu’il lance dans ses préfaces aux traités d’arithmétique: “Avis auxnégociants et aux autres gens d’affaires. M. Irson. pour donner une idée parfaite du commerce,enseigne,1/l’Arithmétique, avec ses applications aux Finances et au Négoce de Banque et deMarchandise; à l’Art Militaire et à la géométrie pratique. 2/Les Négociations que la France fait avecles places étrangères[…] 3/La Manière de tenir les Livres par parties Doubles, de faire des Promessesou Cédules[…]10. Il faudrait développer également la singularité de la liste des auteurs ayant écrit en français,liste placée en fin d’ouvrage et qui s’étoffe beaucoup entre 1656 et 1660. Les auteurs apparaissentdans un tableau qui suit “l’ordre naturel qu’on peut garder dans la lecture des livres”: grammairiens,critiques et traducteurs, historiens, philosophes (logiciens, moraux, jurisconsultes, politiques,physiciens, mathématiciens), orateurs (en prose et en vers), théologiens. Dans le développementdu tableau, Descartes est en tête des philosophes mathématiciens ( avec Roberval, Fermat,Pascal…) lui qui produit des travaux qui ne peuvent être goûtés que si l’on a “l’intelligence desmathématiques”. Dans cette même section de philosophie, l’étendue impressionnante des sujetstraités en français est un constat de la victoire en cours de cette langue sur le latin. Parmi lesgrammairiens et les critiques les auteurs jansénistes sont abondamment cités, tandis que Maupaset Oudin ont disparu et que Chiflet n’apparaît pas. En revanche, de nombreux travauxd’Académiciens sont retenus: Mézeray apparaît et Pellisson, avec son Histoire de l’Académie,reste une référence pour Irson qui connaissait sans doute son texte capital sur “le corps de lalangue” comme institution.

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2. Les deux Méthodes

En 1660, Irson n’écrit pas une Grammaire Générale mais une Grammaire du français,qui aménage en fonction de la GGR le texte paru en 1656. C’est parce que la Grammairene doit pas être enfermée dans des bornes étroites, c’est parce qu’elle mérite même lenom de science qu’il justifie l’extension de son dessein au delà de la stricte descriptiondes parties du discours et de l’étude de la syntaxe: “Je me suis trouvé insensiblementobligé de m’étendre plus que les autres grammairiens en donnant plusieurs traités qu’ilsont cru n’être pas de leur ressort”. Son travail sur le lexique français est ainsi englobédans cette extension, au même titre que sa liste d’auteurs, ses commentaires sur laVérité et la Beauté ou ses préceptes d’écriture. Et l’ensemble de la Méthode va bienau-delà du texte de 1656, qui correspondait à une méthode de français, parallèle auxméthodes de latin et de grec précédemment publiées par Lancelot: elle constitue nonseulement une illustration des principes de Port-Royal mais aussi une défense contredes ennemis disposés à les anéantir.

Cette deuxième Méthode prend donc de la hauteur de toutes les manières, tout engardant sa spécificité: en tant que grammaire d’une langue, elle traite du lexique, ce quen’a pas à faire la Grammaire Générale (exclusion de son champ de toute la dérivationdes mots et, par définition, du lexique français); d’autre part, et pour les mêmes raisons,elle ne suit pas les analyses de Port-Royal concernant le verbe et sa valeur fondamentalede copule affirmative; au contraire, elle s’attache à l’exploration des constructionsverbales ( les idiosyncrasies de la syntaxe de régime qui ne sont qu’évoquées dans lechapitre 24 de la GGR). Bref, elle s’inscrit dans une perspective résolument port-royaliste, mais c’est pour étudier une langue, avec ses mots, ses phrases, ses périodes,ses usages et son devenir.

En fait, on peut considérer l’ouvrage d’Irson comme un maillon méconnu dans leprocessus d’analyse qui relie les travaux de Port Royal à l’élaboration du Dictionnairede l’Académie (Delesalle & Mazière 1998) dans la mesure où, tenant à la fois de lagrammaire et du dictionnaire, il donne au lexique une place qui ne lui est pas habituellementreconnue.

Du côté de la grammaire, nous avons montré la parenté du travail d’Irson avec lesMéthodes de Lancelot; s’y ajoutent les principes et la pureté, arguments pour lapromotion de la langue française: deux notions essentielles et complémentaires entant qu’elles renvoient respectivement à la science et à la norme. Autrement dit, lefrançais a une structure qui lui est propre, et c’est cette structure qu’il faut étudier, ensuivant ce qu’il y a de meilleur dans son devenir. Dès la première édition de saMéthode, Irson essaie de tenir ensemble ces deux points, puisqu’il décrit nonseulement les règles de sa morphologie et de sa syntaxe, mais aussi l’usagecontemporain de ses mots et de ses phrases. Et dans la seconde édition, l’empreintede la Grammaire Générale et Raisonnée sur la Méthode se manifeste à travers latransposition à l’identique de certaines phrases et plus généralement dans le souci

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permanent qu’a Irson d’assurer un va et vient entre une théorie d’ensemble et sadescription d’une langue particulière.

Du côté du dictionnaire, n’oublions pas qu’au moment de la publication de laMéthode, il n’existe pas encore de grand dictionnaire français monolingue. Ce quiexiste, ce sont des Remarques, en particulier les Remarques de Vaugelas, qui étudientun certain nombre de mots et d’expressions en se prononçant sur leur validité. Irson adonc le champ libre et met à profit cette liberté pour travailler les mots de manièreplurielle en constituant des listes qui ne sont pas seulement – comme c’est le cas dans laplupart des grammaires – formées d’éléments qu’on n’arrive pas à faire entrer dans lesrègles instituées.

3. Le rôle des listes et leur évolution

3.1 L’économie des listes

Dès l’édition de 1656 ( désormais A), on peut saisir l’originalité de ces listes.Une première liste, Des mots et des phrases qui sont en usage, est suivieimmédiatement d’un recensement de quelques noms dont le genre est douteuxsous la forme de trois listes: Noms masculins, féminins, de commun genre. Vientensuite, aussitôt, la liste de quelques mots dont la prononciation est douteuse.Ces trois premières listes sont liées avant tout à la pureté de la langue alors que lesdeux suivantes tiennent à la fois à la pureté et aux principes: la première, qui sedédouble, énumère les mots commençant par une H aspirée et ceux qui commencentpar une H muette, cette différence étant justifiée par l’origine du mot. La secondeest constituée d’homophones non homographes, qu’il s’agit de ne pas confondrelorsqu’on écrit. L’auteur renseigne donc là le lecteur d’une manière précise sur lescodes oraux et écrits du français.

Enfin, une dernière liste intervient: Les Etymologies ou les origines et les dérivésde quelques mots français. Elle est distincte des autres dans la mesure où elle est unesource d’informations qui a deux caractéristiques:

1. elle n’est pas destinée à présenter les fautes que le lecteur pourrait faire en parlantou en écrivant, mais à l’instruire pour son plaisir en quelque sorte en lui donnant unsupplément de connaissance sur la langue qu’il parle (ou qu’il aspire à parler: au XVIIèsiècle, beaucoup de lettrés pratiquent le latin d’une part, la langue de leur province del’autre).

2. le domaine de cette liste est le lexique pris en lui-même, ce qui n’est pas courantdans une grammaire. On y trouve donc l’ examen d’un bon nombre de mots, dontcertains sont plus usuels que d’autres; ils sont considérés en ordre alphabétique, maissans contrainte d’exhaustivité en ce qui concerne la macrostructure et avec la plus

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grande liberté pour ce qui est de la microstructure. Il s’agit de voir d’où ils viennent, enrestant autant que faire se peut dans le domaine français, et l’évolution qu’ils connaissent,à l’époque contemporaine, en raison du jeu des processus de dérivation.

Cette dernière liste représente un effort original de systématisationlexicographique. Irson y travaille l’étymologie des mots prise au double sens quel’on trouvera ensuite développé de manière précise dans l’Encyclopédie (l’originedes mots d’une part, la productivité dérivationnelle dans une langue donnée del’autre), alors que dans les grammaires, l’étymologie – opposée à la syntaxe –recouvre habituellement l’étude des accidents spécifiques de telle ou telle partie dudiscours. Cette investigation lexicale est d’ordre historique autant que méthodiqueet touche aussi bien à la pureté de la langue (l’usage est sans cesse questionné)qu’à ses principes (les modes de la dérivation). De plus, loin d’être isolée dans letexte, cette liste rencontre les autres listes, plus grammaticales, par une série d’élémentsprécis qui permettent de croiser différents points de vue sur tel ou tel mot.

Prenons l’exemple de Grâces, traité deux fois, selon deux perspectives différentes.Dans la liste des mots et phrases en usage, on relève:Grâces pour faveurs se doit mettre au pluriel: car on dit gagner les bonnes grâces

de quelqu’un, et non pas la bonne grâce.Et dans le Traité des étymologies:Grâce faveur, gratifier, gratuiteent; regracier vieux mot qui signifie remercier et

rendre grâces.

3.2 L’évolution des listes entre 56 et 60

L’édition de 1660 (désormais B) fait évoluer l’ensemble de ces listes vers une visionde la langue de plus en plus maîtrisée: les listes ne sont pas exactement les mêmes11;dans celles qui sont communes aux deux éditions, les acceptions des mots sont reliés demieux en mieux à leur morphologie et à leurs emplois; enfin la liste des étymologiess’enrichit d’un certain nombre de développements d’ordre scientifique et religieux, etaffine les champs lexicaux élaborés dans la liste de la première édition.

Nous analyserons quelques exemples pris dans chacune des listes.

a) La liste des mots et des phrases qui sont en usageElle n’occupe pas la même place dans les deux éditions. Dans A, c’est dans le

chapitre Du style qu’on la trouve sur onze pages. Y figurent des néologismes ou des

11. Ainsi, la liste des homophones non homographes (sain, ceint,saint, etc...) disparaît. Cette disparitioncorrespond au changement de perspective de l’édition de 1660, qui prend de la hauteur et ne s’adresseplus à des lecteurs susceptibles de confondre des formes de ce genre. Cette liste n’était qu’uneénumération pure et simple, or Irson désormais explique et justifie de plus en plus.

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mots récents, tels que Féliciter, dont Irson précise à la fois la construction et le sens:Féliciter quelqu’un d’une charge qu’il a obtenue, c’est s’en réjouir avec lui.

On y trouve également des distinctions entre les formes différentes qu’a prises unmot en fonction soit du domaine d’emploi: Courir et courre se disent indifféremment:on doit néanmoins dire courre le cerf, le sanglier, le lièvre; courre fortune, laposte; soit des utilisateurs: Naviger se dit à la Cour, et les matelots disent Naviguer;ainsi que des réticences, voire des refus face à certaines tournures: Son monde pourses gens ou ses domestiques est une façon de parler très basse. Ou encore: Outrecela se dit et non pas outre ce.

Dans B figure une liste équivalente, mais qui comporte 20 pages et qui se situe dansla Syntaxe au chapitre intitulé: Des phrases. On y retrouve des mots qui figuraient dansA mais ils connaissent souvent un traitement plus développé. Ainsi l’article Féliciter,après un début identique, se poursuit ainsi: Ce mot Féliciter, qui est né depuis peu,est fort bien reçu. Comme aussi les suivants: conjoncture, intrépide, insidiateur,insidiatrice, insécurité, et plusieurs autres.

Même chose pour Courir et courre. Après se disent indifféremment, Irson ajoute:quoique le dernier soit mieux reçu pour signifier les exercices de la Noblesse; exemple,on dit en terme de chasse: courre le cerf, le sanglier, le lièvre, la poste, courre fortuneet non pas courir.

Nous reviendrons sur l’importance lexicographique de ces innovations.Par ailleurs, des entrées disparaissent. En général il s’agit de formules mal considérées,

telles que Outre ce ou Son monde. Et d’autres apparaissent, tels Mecredy (sic), dontIrson dit qu’il se dit mieux que Mercredy, quoique la raison soit pour ce dernier quiest dérivé de Mercure, ou Insidiateur, et insidiatrice. Ces mots sont en usage, notel’article, qui poursuit ainsi: M. d’Andilly en son admirable traduction de Saint JeanClimaque dit: La vaine gloire est une insidiatrice et une ennemie domestique, quiveut ravir le trésor de vos vertus. Le même auteur se sert aussi d’introductrice,d’exterminatrice, de coronateur.

Comme dans le cas de Féliciter, l’auteur part d’une remarque concernant un motpour aller vers des analyses lexicales plus larges. Ce procédé est amplifié dans le Traitédes étymologies que l’on aborde infra.

Les développements de cette liste de B renferment beaucoup de commentairessur la langue qui tendent à accroître les connaissances de lecteurs ayant déjà assimiléla norme, avec quelques ajouts religieux destinés à leur édification. De ce point devue, l’article Grâce est significatif. Nous avons déjà relevé le texte de A: Grâcespour faveur se doit mettre au pluriel: car on dit gagner les bonnes grâces dequelqu’un, et non pas la bonne grâce. Dans B, Dieu apparaît en même tempsque la précision grammaticale: Quand on parle de la grâce de Dieu, on peut direla Grâce ou les Grâces. Mais quand on parle des hommes, on ne peut dire labonne grâce; mais il a gagné mes bonnes grâces; il est entré dans mes bonnesgrâces.

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Parfois les différences entre les indications de l’usage apportent des renseignementstrès précis sur l’évolution de la langue dans les années 1660: on va de A Découvertedu Nouveau Monde se dit mieux que Découverture à B: On dit: il a fait laDécouverte du Nouveau Monde et non pas la Découverture. Cette précision prendencore plus d’intérêt si l’on compare le traitement de ces mots à celui qu’on en trouvedans l’Essai d’une parfaite grammaire du français de Chiflet, paru en 1659 et danslequel on peut lire: Découverte ou découverture des Indes sont tous deux bons.

Quoi qu’il en soit, qu’il s’agisse d’une édition ou d’une autre, on peut noter quedans cette liste, Irson regroupe sous le chef de l’usage les mots qui appartiennent àdifférentes parties du discours et qu’il se montre par là original par rapport à ungrammairien comme Chiflet, qui se contente de noter des observations de ce genre à lafin de chaque partie du discours. Par exemple, à l’intérieur des pages consacrées auxObservations des verbes, on trouve dans l’Essai d’une parfaite grammaire:Naviguer dites Naviger. Il s’agit là d’une imposition de prononciation etd’orthographe. En ce qui concerne la seule graphie, Chiflet note, dans les Observationsdes noms: Mercredy dites Mercredi. La comparaison entre les deux ouvrages montreà la fois des zones d’intertextualité (Parricide) et des dissonances éclairantes sur biendes points: pour Mercredy et Naviger, on se reportera au tableau de la page XXX(comparaison avec Vaugelas)

C’est en tout cas sur un élément précis de ces listes d’usage que se trouve la seuleallusion de Chiflet à la Méthode d’Irson de 1656, dans laquelle on trouve l’articleque voici (repris dans les éditions suivantes): Recouvert et recouvré ont deuxsignifications et deux usages différents, quoique du temps de M de Vaugelas onles ait confondus: car recouvert vient de recouvrir et recouvré vient de recouvrer,qui signifie retrouver. Dans les Observations des verbes Chiflet note: J’ai recouvertce que j’avais perdu; dites, j’ai recouvré, qui vient du verbe recouvrer et nonpas recouvrir(…) Ce mauvais usage, provenant de l’ignorance de quelquesdames et de quelques courtisans qui ne savaient point de quel mot latin naissaitce verbe recouvrer s’était tellement mis en vogue que M de Vaugelas, en sesRemarques, a soutenu que ce mot était assez autorisé. (…). Chiflet, dont on saitde quelle admiration il entoure Vaugelas, le critique cependant d’avoir cédé sur cepoint aux décisions de l’usage passager, en l’occurrence contraire à la raison et ditque Vaugelas a été “payé de sa monnaie” par le texte d’Irson, qui l’a fait rire: A ouïrce grammairien, diriez- vous- pas qu’il y a quarante ou cinquante ans que M deVaugelas est mort (…)Voilà une belle leçon pour apprendre à résister au mauvaisusage des ignorants, plutôt que de lui tendre les mains, et de l’autoriser par uneapprobation publique.12

12. Il convient d’indiquer l’embarras de Vaugelas qui disait devoir céder à l’usage (“car l’usage est le roides langues pour ne pas dire le tyran”), mais uniquement à la Cour, tandis qu’il dirait “recouvré avec lesgens de lettres pour satisfaire à la règle et à la raison, et ne pas passer parmi eux pour un homme quiignorât ce que les enfants savent”.

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Ces deux grammairiens sont confrontés, dans une diachronie très courte, àl’examen des variations en référence à l’usage et la raison. Irson a, par rapport àChiflet, une vision globale de l’usage: il dépasse, on l’a vu, le compartimentage desparties du discours; d’autre part il se situe au-dessus des querelles d’auteurs et depersonnes comme le montre l’hommage à Vaugelas de la fin de sa liste: M deVaugelas a fait des Remarques sur la langue française qui sont très curieuseset pleines d’érudition. On peut le consulter pour avoir une connaissanceparfaite de notre langue. (cf.infra tableau de comparaison p.XXX). Cette visionse confirme si l’on examine l’évolution de son traitement des mots d’un genredouteux.

b) L’évolution des listes traitant du genreDans A, ces noms se présentaient sous la forme de trois listes: les noms masculins,

les féminins, les noms de commun genre. Alors que B les introduit ainsi: Autre listecomprenant quelques noms dont le genre est douteux et lequel sera déterminétant par les articles que par les épithètes qui accompagnent les noms suivants.Ainsi, là où on trouvait en 1656 dans la liste des noms masculins espace, exemple,parallèle, période, etc… et à la page suivante les mêmes mots listés dans les nomsféminins, avec dans quelques cas une brève indication d’emploi, la liste unique de 1660va permettre de poser un seul vocable et d’analyser ses acceptions de manière à justifierson inscription dans un genre ou dans un autre.

Ce regroupement est évidemment beaucoup plus satisfaisant, de plusieurs pointsde vue.

1. Des éléments qui sont dans A répétés dans deux listes n’apparaissent qu’une foisdans B et y sont analysés d’une manière qui rend compte de la double assignation degenre que connaît un mot par la prise en compte de son environnement.

Ainsi de Parallèle et de Période. Parallèle. Dans A, ce mot figure dans la liste des féminins, et dans celle des masculins

avec cette seule précision: quand on s’en sert pour le sens figuré.Tandis que dans B, la liste unique contient cet article:

Parallèle: étant pris au sens figuré est masculin, comme le parallèle d’Alexandre etde César; c’est à dire la comparaison de l’un avec l’autre; mais il est du féminin dans sapropre signification; comme lorsque l’on dit une parallèle, on sous-entend ligne, donttoutes les parties sont également distantes de celles d’une autre ligne.

Période (A) est, dans la liste des noms masculins, suivi de “quand il sigifie la fin oula perfection de quelque chose” et, dans la liste des noms féminins, suivi de “pour partied’une oraison”.

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Période (B) signifiant la fin ou la perfection de quelque chose est du masculin;exemple, on dit le dernier période de la vie ou de la félicité; mais quand période estpris pour une partie d’oraison, qui exprime un sens achevé, il est du genre féminin,comme on dit fort bien une période quarrée: c’est à dire qui a quatre membres ouquatre parties, période nombreuse, mesurée.

On voit clairement à la faveur de ces exemples qu’à la simple séparation d’itemsidentiques, de type homonymique, s’est substituée une exploration de type polysémiqueavant la lettre, qui fait entrer en ligne de compte aussi bien la différence entre senspropre et sens figuré que les rôles des mots dans les syntagmes. Parfois est prise encompte la différence de domaine d’emploi ( il en est ainsi pour l’utilisation d’espace parles imprimeurs); ou encore, dans le cas d’amour, la différence d’ordre pragmatiqueentre les utilisateurs du terme.

2. Au contraire, des mots qui dans A n’apparaissent que dans une liste alors qu’ilsdevraient figurer dans les féminins et les masculins jouissent en B d’une véritable analyse.Par exemple, Amour, en A se trouve uniquement dans les masculins, avec ce commentaireun peu confus:

Ce nom est tantôt masculin et tantôt féminin. Quand on le prend en terme degalanterie, il est de l’un et de l’autre genre; comme il est plus élégant en parlant à unedame de lui dire: Madame, l’amour que je vous porte est bien grande. Les poètess’en servent indifféremment. Mais quand on parle de l’amour que nous sommes obligésde porter à Dieu comme à l’Auteur de tous les biens, il n’est jamais féminin.

Ce même mot se retrouve dans la liste unique de B pour être analysé d’une manièreplus cohérente:

L’amour est presque toujours masculin: Exemple, on dit l’amour divin, l’amour déréglédes créatures, et non pas amour divine, ni déréglée. Bien que la plupart des femmes lefassent féminin, quand elles s’en servent, ou pour exprimer leur tendresse envers leursenfants, ou pour signifier l’amitié qu’elles portent à quelqu’un.

Mais que l’on ait une ou plusieurs listes, on peut noter qu’Irson se montre toujourssoucieux de l’usage des mots et de leurs emplois. Ces problèmes du lexique, des frontièresentre homonymie et polysémie et du rapport entre sens et morphologie sont traités audébut de la Méthode alors que l’Essai de Chiflet les rejette à la fin dans les dernierstraités et comme des restes rebelles à toute règle.

c) Synthèse de cette double évolution et comparaison avec VaugelasPour illustrer non seulement les ajustements entre A et B mais aussi les transformations

profondes que connaît la langue à cette époque, nous proposons un tableau qui met enparallèle des “Remarques” de Vaugelas et des “Mots en usage” d’Irson, avec des liens auxlistes de genre. La deuxième colonne distingue donc UA (liste d’usage de A), UB (listed’usage de B) et listes de genre

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Le choix des entrées a privilégié les inventions dictionnairiques:

- la systématisation des introducteurs diatopiques (se dit à) comme pour bétail,naviger,

- les indicateurs diastratiques, comme “les exercices de la noblesse” dans courre,en B.

- le remplacement de la référence aux “bons auteurs” (Naviger), des jugements devaleur comme “meilleur” (Bétail, Matineux), ou des justifications (Parricide) que l’ontrouve dans Vaugelas, par une norme assumée: “est préférable” (Matineux A), “est enusage” (Matineux B), “se dit de” (Parricide)

- l’effacement des jugements de salon si nombreux dans Vaugelas: “il seraitridicule de dire” (Matineux), “si quelqu’un disait[…], on se moquerait de lui”(Courre)

Notons que, quand la Raison est par trop heurtée, Irson le signale, tout commeVaugelas. Le débat entre l’usage et la raison est toujours visible (Mecredy).

Cette comparaison permet de saisir chez Irson l’efficacité de sa méthoded’exposition et en particulier la systématisation des distinctions de domaines,accompagnée d’une métalangue pour la description des usages diastratiques etdiatopiques: se dit à, se dit de seront l’ossature des expositions dans les dictionnairesmonolingues de la fin du siècle.

Elle permet également, en conjuguant les listes d’usage aux listes de genre, dont on adit l’importance, d’observer la mise en place des traitements homonymiques (Parallèle,Amour)13.

13. Parmi les accidents du nom, c’est le genre qu’Irson a le plus systématiquement traité, peut-êtreparce qu’il réservait la question du cas en français au traitement de l’article.

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d) Les Traités des étymologies et leur évolutionEn ce qui concerne les mots en usage et les étymologies, l’édition de 1660 comporte

beaucoup d’éléments nouveaux, plus ou moins importants mais qui vont tous dans lesens d’une plus grande clarté et d’une plus grande précision. On passe de 52 à 68pages et Irson met en place une véritable organisation lexicale.

Dans la microstructure, on peut ainsi noter l’ajout de d’où dans l’article Aiguille:Aiguille vient d’aigu d’où aiguillette, aiguillon, aiguillonner. Le mot pris commeentrée s’inscrit ainsi à la fois dans son origine et dans un processus de dérivation. Autreexemple, celui de l’article Prest. (Prêt). Dans la première édition, Irson prend ce motcomme point de départ et se contente de noter deux de ses dérivés: Prester, Prébande.Dans l’édition suivante l’article est rédigé ainsi: Prest, prester, Prébande; parce quePraestare en latin signifie donner, d’où les Prébandes tirent leur nom à cause desdistributions que l’on donne aux Prébandés. Se manifeste ici le souci qu’a l’auteurd’être utile à ceux qui ne savent pas le latin; non pas en gommant l’impact de cettedernière langue, mais en explicitant son rôle lorsque c’est pertinent.

L’édition B comporte par ailleurs des améliorations significatives en ce qui concernela macrostructure, par exemple des ajouts d’article par dégroupement homonymique.Ainsi, en A on trouve un article Barbe ainsi constitué: Barbe cheval de Barbarie, d’oùces sortes de chevaux nous viennent. Barbe, barbet, petit chien velu, Barbeaupoisson, barbouiller, barbon. En B, on trouve non pas un article mais deux, ce qui estbeaucoup plus clair.

Au delà d’une recherche de clarté, ce Traité des étymologies, proche d’un dictionnairepar sa présentation, révèle un souci d’organiser le vocabulaire en champs lexicaux,sans préoccupation alphabétique, et au delà de la morphologie.

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Deux exemples suffiront à le montrer, Bachelier et Bègue. En A, on lit ceci:

Bacheliers, que l’on nommait autrefois Baciliers, comme on le peut voir dans les ancienstitres, à cause des bâtons que les jeunes Cavaliers portaient à l’Armée: & parce que cescavaliers étaient jeunes, on appelait un jeune homme bachelier, & une jeune fille bachelette.On a transporté ce nom de l’exercice des Armes à celui des Lettres, & l’on appelle bacheliersceux qui ont le premier degré de Théologie.

A noter l’explication par le changement de domaine, ainsi que la mention dubâton, objet d’origine. Puisqu’il existe une entrée Bâton le mot Bacheliers devraitfigurer dans l’article, ce qui est le cas: Bâton, bâtir, bâcler, fermer la porte endedans avec des bâtons: Bacheliers ainsi nommés à cause des bâtons qu’ilsportaient: Balay, balayer, à cause[…]

Mais en B, Irson allonge la fin de l’article Bachelier: On a transporté ce nom de l’exercice des Armes à celui des Lettres, & l’on appelle

Maîtres es Arts ceux qui savent les sept arts libéraux. Bacheliers ceux qui ont lepremier degré de Théologie. Licenciers ceux qui entrent en Licence.

Il ne s’agit donc plus ni de dérivation, ni de transfert de domaine. En donnant lavariation lexicale non prédictible Bacheliers/ Maître es Armes, Irson donne égalementle champ lexical obtenu par régularisation morphologique Bacheliers/ Licenciers. Eten posant cette régularité en synchronie, il libère la langue par rapport à ce qui estorigine: En 1660, Bacheliers ne figure plus dans l’entrée Bâton.

Quant à l’article Bègue et au champ lexical qui s’y dessine, il subit des changementsqui sont certainement dus à des réactions de lecteurs (ou de lectrices).

A. Bègue, bégayer, bégayement, &c. L’on remarque que la voix de l’homme ayantplus d’inflexion que celle des animaux, est exprimée diversement. Exemple on dit hucher,crier, bégayer, pour exprimer le cri des enfants; parler convient aux hommes qui usentde la droite raison; radoter aux vieillards; babiller et caqueter aux femmes; cajoleraux courtisans; baragouïner aux étrangers, &c.

Le caquetage des femmes, qui va avec leur babil, disparaît quatre ans plus tard,après on ne sait quels reproches:

“Exemple crier, bégayer servent proprement à exprimer le cri des enfants14;parler convient mieux à ceux qui raisonnent; radoter aux vieillards; babiller etcaqueter aux grands causeurs; cajoler aux courtisans; baragouïner auxétrangers, &c.”

Voilà une sociolinguistique qui moleste un peu la langue, puisque “ce grand causeurcaquette” est improbable, mais qui est politiquement irréprochable.

Par ailleurs, si l’on compare cette liste à celle des mots en usage, le travail d’Irsondans le domaine lexicographique apparaît de plus en plus cohérent d’une édition àl’autre comme le montre le traitement dans B de terroir et terre:

14. Hucher, sans doute vieilli, a disparu aussi.

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Liste des Mots en usage:Terroir, territoire et terrain ont une signification différente, en ce que le premier

signifie une terre qui produit des fruits; le second une juridiction, et le troisième un lieupropre pour la fortification.

Traité des Etymologies:Terre, terrier, terroir une terre qui produit des fruits, territoire juridiction d’une

terre, terrain, terme de fortification, enterrer, enterrement, déterrer.Dans la liste des mots en usage, les sens des trois mots sont examinés tour à tour,

à la manière de ce que l’on trouvera ensuite dans le dictionnaire des synonymes deGirard.Il s’agit là de cette sorte particulière de synonymie entre des mots de mêmeradical qui prennent, en fonction de leur suffixation différente, des sens spécifiques maisvoisins. Alors que dans le Traité des étymologies, c’est le mot Terre qui est mis enentrée, en tant que mot primitif, et ses dérivés sont énumérés: terrier, terroir, territoire,terrain, enterrer, enterrement, déterrer. Autrement dit, ici, c’est la dérivation dansson ensemble qui est considérée, sans qu’on se préoccupe du plus ou moins grandéloignement des sens desdits dérivés. En revanche, comme on le constate, desexplications, similaires à celles qui se trouvent dans l’autre liste, sont données pour lestrois mots à ne pas confondre: terroir, territoire, terrain.

e) L’organisation lexicale dans la grammaireIl est donc possible de parler d’une véritable organisation lexicale à l’intérieur de

cette grammaire.Irson ne dresse pas de frontière entre règles et listes de mots, parce qu’il vise l’

organisation des sens par la forme. D’où son originalité. Il donne rarement une définition.Le sens d’un mot est traité soit par une remontée vers l’origine, soit par l’énumération desdérivés qu’il produit, soit par les deux. L’étymologie au double sens que ce mot revêt àl’âge classique est donc toujours présente: à la fois un art et une science. Mais l’étymologie-science, étude des processus dérivationnels, l’emporte de beaucoup sur la recherche del’origine. C’est que l’auteur s’intéresse avant tout au développement de la langue françaisede son temps et que sa remontée vers l’origine s’arrête, sauf exceptions justifiées, aufrançais. Il est par exemple notable que dans l’article dont l’entrée est Cas, on trouve descascades et des cadences, mais aucun développement sur les cas grammaticaux.

Nous pouvons repérer quelques constantes dans cette organisation:Quand Irson donne l’origine seule, elle peut être montée comme incertaine:Cagnard (canal, canard, chien). Aquitaine (Ville de Aqs, très arrosée ou Aqua).

Les développements qui l’accompagnent doivent permettre non de justifier maisd’éclairer le sens du mot:

Arrérage vient de arrière parce que c’est un droit qui rappelle les dettes anciennesqui sont demeurées en arrière.

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Agacer: irriter, vient d’agace Pie, qui criaille toujours.Arlan: Cry de Soldats quand ils veulent piller. Ce mot est pris de la ville d’Arlem,

que Frédéric de Tolède traita cruellement.

La dérivation peut apparître seule, avec ou sans commentaires adjacents:Bal, baler, baladin, baladine.Nom, nommer, dénommer, renom, renommée, nomination, dénomination, auteur

anonyme, c’est-à-dire sans nom ou inconnu.Armes: armer, armure, armoiries, parce qu’on en mettait la figure sur le bouclier,

d’où vient que l’on dit il porte pour armes*** à cause qu’on les portait sur le bouclier;armoire, c’est le lieu où on gardait anciennement les armes et aujourd’hui est pris pourcelui où on met quelque chose.

Mais la plupart du temps, le mot est encadré par son origine et des dérivés.

- Soit des dérivés du mot lui-même:Aiguille: vient d’aigu, d’où aiguillette, aiguillon, aiguillonner.Avec, parfois, des données encyclopédiques, surtout lorsqu’il s’agit de noms propres:Bec, Abbaye, vieux mot normand qui signifie ruisseau d’où vient Orbec, Caudebec:

Kobec, Ville d’où viennent les chapeaux que l’on appelle Caudebec et Kobec.

- Soit des dérivés venant du mot-entrée et des dérivés venant du mot donnécomme origine:

Brigand: insigne voleur d’où brigander, brigandage, brigantin, vaisseau de piratedont les bords sont bas, brigantine, habillement, brigand vient de brigue, comme quidirait ceux d’une même brigue ou brigade: de là vient brigadier, chef d’une brigade.

A lire ce Traité, on a l’impression nette qu’Irson a une démarche qui n’est nisystématique, ni purement formelle, mais qu’il utilise les divers procédés à sa dispositionpour faire comprendre le plus efficacement possible à tous les lecteurs et particulièrementà ceux qui n’entendent pas le latin, la structure du lexique français. C’est en ce sensqu’il faut comprendre des extensions à son modèle, telles que:

- l’explicitation d’expressions couramment utilisées:Anglais: s’entend des créanciers rigoureux à cause des anglais qui exigeaient leur

dette avec inhumanité.- la séparation raisonnée des homonymes, fortifiée par la dérivation:Canne, cannule, canon d’artillerie à cause qu’il est droit et creux comme une canne.(….)Canon, règle: d’où canoniser, canonique (…)- des élargissements à des champs purement de sens et non de forme et qui passent

souvent par des comparaisons; qu’il s’agisse de métaphore:Carlet, Poisson ainsi nommé à cause de sa figure carrée; comme sole à cause de la

ressemblance qu’elle a avec la semelle d’un soulier que l’on appelle en latin solea, ainsique merlan des perles.

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ou qu’il s’agisse de métonymie:Bougie, vient de Bugie, ville d’Afrique parce que les marchandises prennent souvent

leur nom du lieu d’où elles viennent, comme brie, qui signifiait autrefois de la poix, vientde Brutie, fertile en poix; brésil, bois sec, vient du Brésil en l’Amérique.

Par ailleurs, notons que ce Traité, dans son édition de 1660, retient davantage determes scientifiques et techniques, et davantage de termes religieux et que lescommentaires s’étoffent dans ces deux mêmes domaines. Ainsi, en ce qui concerne ledomaine religieux, l’ajout de Assomption, Ascension ou de Pape. Dans le domainescientifique, les explications de Précipité ou d’Aimant.

Dernier point, lié à celui-ci: quelle que soit l’édition, ces listes étymologiques insistentsur le sens des préfixes ( appelés à l’époque “prépositions”) en remontant au latin etsurtout au grec: il faut donner: “l’explication de la force des prépositions qui ont étéexaminées dans la grammaire, lesquelles donnent une très grande intelligence des motsdérivés”. ) C’est là un point crucial puisqu’il s’agit de la formation du vocabulaire abstraitqui souvent, en fait, unit science et religion: ainsi d’antéchrist et de paranymphe.

4. Conclusion

Le traitement du lexique dans la Méthode d’Irson, et tout particulièrement l’ensembleformé par Les mots et phrases en usage et le Traité des étymologies peut être rapporté,en tant que complémentaire et contemporain, aux analyses de la Grammaire Généraleet Raisonnée et, en tant que parallèle et précurseur, à celles de la première édition duDictionnaire de l’Académie.

Lexique et grammaire vont de pair, rappelons-le, dans cette déclaration liminaire duTraité: “Il est en quelque façon nécessaire de connaître les mots primitifs et leurs dérivéspour entendre la force de leur signification et pour savoir le lieu et l’endroit où on lesdoit placer”. Par là sont liés sens des mots, dérivation et propriétés des parties dudiscours. Comme on l’a déjà souligné, c’est l’étymologie en tant qu’ étude des processusde l’évolution lexicale qui est ici concernée puisqu’ Irson s’en tient à “l’origine prochainedes mots”, qui “comprend le mot, lequel est pour l’ordinaire le plus simple” et ne signale“l’origine éloignée”, en remontant à d’autres langues, qu’occasionnellement et si celasert son propos. Pour les curiosités hasardeuses, il renvoie à Ménage15, Borel etBoxorius. Et du côté de la liste des mots et des phrases en usage, on voit bien qu’elleest conçue avant tout en liaison avec l’enchaînement des mots (dans la seconde éditionelle fait partie de la syntaxe). Irson l’établit pour remplacer “un grand nombred’observations”, qui, dit-il “s’entendront d’elles-mêmes par la seule lecture des motsusités et des phrases que cette liste comprend”. D’où son souci, de plus en plus net

15. Cependant Ménage insiste, dans son importante Epître à Dupuy de 1650, sur les fantaisiesrisibles des étymologistes qui ne connaissent pas, en plus de nombreuses langues mortes etvivantes, un certain nombre de dialectes et l’histoire des langues (bas latin, français ancien)

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d’une édition à l’autre, de prendre en compte l’usage commun en évitant les invectivescomme les effets de mode.

Irson a-t-il relayé une diffusion des idées de Port Royal et transmis des techniquesvers l’Académie ? Il n’est jamais cité, du moins sous ce nom, si ce n’est, une fois, parChiflet mais, à cause de l’intertextualité, on aimerait répondre positivement. En revenantsur l’époque, il faut rappeler que Chapelain, qui est très lié à Lancelot, a terminéalors l’élaboration de ce qui sera le plan du Dictionnaire de l’Académie, et quePellisson réfléchit alors à une fixation souhaitable de la langue par le dictionnaire,“une langue commune”, “l’indifférent de la langue”, qui serait le produit d’un apaisementdans les esprits entre usage et raison. L’Académie a la même évaluation qu’Irson dece qu’est l’usage admis et, si sa décision d’opérer dans son dictionnaire unregroupement raisonné de familles autour d’un concept primitif est un coup de force,ce coup de force prend appui sur les principes dérivationnels posés par Irson pour lalangue française. C’est pourquoi nous aimerions connaître mieux l’auteur de cetteœuvre, sa formation, ses fréquentations, son évolution, afin de cerner ce qui nousparaît être un jalon important dans le trajet qui relie l’école de Port-Royal à l’Académie,ou, si l’on préfère, l’exposition des principes de la raison via le langage à celle dulexique de la langue française via la raison.

Il y a nous semble-t-il originalité et invention dans l’œuvre de ce grammairien qui asu aller au delà de son domaine strict pour travailler dans une grande liberté les mots desa propre langue en choisissant autant ses points de départ que l’extension donnée àses analyses et à ses commentaires. Il mérite d’être reconnu comme un véritablelexicologue au sens où Pierre Larousse entendra ce terme quelque temps plus tard,c’est à dire comme un auteur qui a su, à une époque qui a connu des Remarquesdélibérément éparses et un Dictionnaire délibérément an-historique, relier le lexiquevivant de la langue française à ses Principes.

RÉFÉRENCES

Arnauld, A. & Lancelot, C. 1660. Grammaire générale et raisonnée. Introd. deM. Foucault. Paris: (Rééd. Paris: Republications Paulet, 1969).

. Nicole, P. La logique ou l’art de penser. Introd. de L. Marin, 1660-1683. (rééd. Paris: Flammarion, 1970).

Chapelain, Chiflet. 1659. Essai d’une parfaite grammaire du français.Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise, 1694. 2 vol. Paris: Vve J.-B. Coignard et J.-

B. Coignard.Girard (Abbé). 1736. Les Synonymes françois, leurs différentes significations et

les choix qu’il faut faire pour parler avec justesse. Paris: Vve d’Houry.Irson, C. 1656. Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement les principes et la

pureté de la langue française.. 1660. Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement les principes et

la pureté de la langue française.

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.1662. Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement les principes etla pureté de la langue française(deuxième édition).

.1667 (privilège en 1658) Méthode abrégée et familière pour apprendreen peu de temps à bien lire, à prononcer agréablememt et à écrire correctememten francais.

Lancelot, C. 1644. Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu detemps la langue latine.

.1655 Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de tempsla langue grecque.

Masset, J. Acheminement à la langue française, bilingue français-latin, insérée en1606 dans le Thrésor de la langue française de Nicot.

Maupas, Ch. Grammaire et syntaxe française, en 1607, écrite seulement en français,et celle de Oudin, en 1632, Grammaire française rapportée au langage du temps,Chapelain Ménage.

Nicot, J.1606. Thrésor de la langue françoyse tant ancienne que moderne auquelentre autres choses sont les mots de marine, vénerie et faulconnerie. Paris:David Douceur.

Oudin, C. 1627. Le Trésor des trois Langues, Espagnole, Française et Italienne.Genève: J. Créspin.

Pellisson, Olivet (d’). 1989. Histoire de l’Académie française (avec une introduction,des éclaircissements et des notes par M. C. L. Livet). Genève/Paris: SlatkineReprints.

Vaugelas, (C. Favre de). 1647. Remarques sur la Langue Française. Paris: A. Courbé& Vve Camusat. (Rééd. Champ libre, 1981).

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TEXTS OF REFERENCE AND SERIAL TEXTS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF A NOTIONAL PARADIGM

THE EXAMPLE OF THE FRENCH IDÉOLOGUES

GERDA HAßLERUniversity of Potsdam

The linguistic ideas of the idéologues (ideologists) have mainly been studied in relationto theories they took up and modified, as well as from the point of view of the continuationby later linguistic theorists. In this paper we will discuss whether the ideologists had reallybeen representatives of a transition in thought. Did they make possible the explication ofthe school grammar categories of the 19th and 20th centuries? Were they the starting pointand the background for several theoreticians, for example Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) and Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) for whom language was above all aninstrument of the articulation of thought?

1. Methodology of serial approach

For this purpose we propose a serial approach to the texts produced by theideologists. A series of texts is defined as a quantity of texts, printed or in manuscriptform, dealing with the same subject in the same epistemological frame or even withoutdeclared methodology, but with the same objective and under comparable conditions.

One example of the ideologists’ series of texts are the lectures and debates held atthe Ecole Normale. The school opened its doors in the third year after the FrenchRevolution and existed for only a few months in the winter of 1795. The school’s aimwas to teach students who were chosen by their fellow citizens and who already had abasic knowledge of the sciences they wanted to reinforce. The Ecole Normale playedthe role of a kind of theoretical laboratory in the harmonisation of teaching methods(Macherey 1992: 41).

Influenced by pragmatic circumstances, the lectures given by the professors andthe debates that followed constituted a series. Stenographers wrote everything down inshorthand (Séances 1800-1801 and Débats 1800-1801). The methodological basisof these texts is not coherent. But the courses of lectures given by Roch AmbroiseCucurron Sicard (1742-1822) on general grammar and by Dominique-Joseph Garat(1749-1833) on the analysis of human understanding complement each other in the

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analysis of the role of signs for human thinking, and the students tried to solve the sameproblems.

A letter of the Minister of the Interior dated the 20th of Fructidor of the year fiverequested all teachers of the Écoles Centrales to hand over a copy of the exercise booksthey had dictated to their pupils. This had given occasion to another series of texts whichcould be called “manuals of grammar and psychology dominated by the ideologists”. Thisseries was governed by the common objective of propagation of a method appropriate todevelop human understanding.

In the context of the reinforcement of knowledge, a prize essay competition wasannounced in 1799 which invited submissions on the topic of the influence of signs onthought. The announcement follows the tradition of European academic concourses ofthe 18th century, and it provoked a methodological series which shows the differencesin adaptation of the ideologists to the new situation.

It seems important to distinguish the social and cultural conditions and the constitutionof textual series. These conditions are reflected in the manner of quotation and in theintegration of a text in a tradition. The rewriting of rules and concepts is processed bysuccessive accumulations, which gradually leads to the elaboration of new concepts.

It seems possible to affirm that a text is situated at the intersection between a discoursetype and a series of texts, and that the researcher must study both of them to take intoaccount the individuality of a text. What we call reference text is a text which fordifferent reasons has become a typical representative of a series, and it is often consideredto be the starting point of a discourse. Following our approach, the ideologists’ referencetexts will be studied from the point of view of their reinterpretation in the sense of aparadigm which was being constituted.

2. The ideologists and their reference authors

In a paper on the idéologues’ reference authors, one is expected to emphasize theimportance of Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714-1780). And indeed, we will startwith this author and his readoption in a forgotten ideologist’s text which represents theaverage argumentation line:

Condillac qui le premier de tous a porté dans des recherches le flambeau de l’analyse et l’atoujours porté avec circonspection, Condillac s’est écarté de la regle qu’il s’était prescripte,de ne jamais expliquer que ce qui est expliquable, et s’est égaré lui-même en voulant expliquerles causes de la mémoire. (Gattel 1800: 23verso)

This quotation is from the Cours de Grammaire Générale by Claude Marie Gattel(1743–1812), French lexicographer, who was successively a professor of philosophyat the seminaries at Lyon and at Grenoble. He then taught general grammar at theCentral School of the Isère and was the head of the Grenoble lycée. While the Cours

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de Grammaire Générale remained a manuscript which is now available at the municipallibrary of Grenoble, the published works of Gattel are difficult to recognise as writtenby an ideologist.1

In his Logic, the first part of the Grammaire Générale, he uses Condillac’s ideasto explain analysis, abstraction and human perfectibility, referring to Jean-JacquesRousseau (1712-1778) for the latter. The second part, the incomplete Grammar,shows that Gattel did not know how to implement the ideologues’ epistemology. It isa traditional grammar on the parts of discourse which explains the elements of theclause to the pupils.

Gattel’s example is typical for the average ideologist in the way he deals with thereference texts: referring to Condillac is common in the exposition of the analytic method,but one takes little heed of the method’s coherence and application.

It is usual in the ideologists’ discourse that the authors do not attribute muchcontinuity to the theory of Condillac, they even stress their independence from allantecedent authors. This is an expression of a break with the mechanical educationwhich gave more attention to memory and imitation, a break which acknowledgesanalysis as its motto. Already in his lecture at the École Normale, Sicard called forthe development of thinking:

Il est tems enfin que l’homme pense, et qu’apprenant l’art de parler et d’écrire, il apprennesur-tout le grand art de l’analyse qui produit tant de miracles dans la recherche de la vérité.(Séances 1800-1801, vol.1: 122)

In the context of this break in favour of the analytic method, Sicard refers to Condillacand to César Chesneau Dumarsais (1676-1758), but he only gives them credit forinitiating a method which must be developed further:

Assez de livres élémentaires nous avaient tracés des règles; aucun ne nous avait donnéune méthode pour les développer. Tous nous offraient des résultats; Condillac et Dumarsaistout seuls, avaient essayé de faire usage de l’analyse: osons encore faire (Séances 1800-1801; Troisième Séance. 4 Pluviôse, vol.1: 129)

To continue developing this method, it is necessary to look for a simple language, alanguage of nature, where we can find the general principles which generate all languages:

[…] ces grands principes féconds qui jetteront sur les langues modernes une si grandelumière; c’est-là que nous trouverons cette grammaire générale, génératrice de toutes lesautres. (Séances 1800-1801; Troisième Séance. 4 Pluviôse, vol.1: 129).

1. Gattel is known as the author of a Dictionnaire universel portatif de la Langue Française avecsa prononciation figurée et l’étymologie de chaque mot (1797), and a Nouveau DictionnaireEspagnol-Français et Français-Espagnol (1803). Besides this he translated the works of the Marquisde Pombal.

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Another idea which circulated in the ideologists’ manuals was the relation betweenthe perfectibility of man and the use of language. For example, François Bernard Mongin(fl. 1803) affirmed that perfectibility comes from reason (raison) and the use of language(parole), without worrying about the relationship between the latter two:

Cette perfectibilité de l’homme tient à deux facultés générales et naturelles, dont lesdéveloppemens plus ou moins rapides donnent toutes les différences qu’on observed’homme à homme, de peuple à peuple, d’un siècle à un autre: on les a nommées raison etparole. (Mongin 1803: 13)

The Ecole Normale professors’ lectures were certainly written with the intention toproduce reference texts, the content of which should influence teaching at all centralschools (écoles centrales), and they actually became reference texts in that the debatestook place about them and the students used their terminology and their notionalinstruments. It is important to remark, nevertheless, that there are very few referencesto other authors in the conferences itself. Thus Garat, the professor of analysis ofunderstanding, gives only the name of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) for the invention ofanalysis, adding that this method had been continued in England, Germany, and Franceby brave and wise men (Garat, Séances 1800-1801; Troisième Séance. 4 Pluviôse,vol.1: 144). Furthermore, philosophers had discovered that man thinks because hespeaks, and that the improvement of languages would be the best means to improveour understanding:

Pour l’exécution d’un pareil ouvrage, il était nécessaire, et de perfectionner tous lesinstrumens dont on doit se servir: l’attention des philosophes dont je parle se fixa sur leslangues. Quel fut leur étonnement! En ne considérant les langues que comme des instrumensnécessaires pour communiquer nos pensées, ils découvrirent qu’elles sont nécessairesencore pour en avoir: ils assurèrent, et ils démontrèrent que pour lier ensemble des idées,que, pour en former des jugemens distincts, il faut les lier elles-mêmes à des signes; qu’enun mot, on ne pense que parce qu’on parle, que parce qu’on fixe et qu’on retient devantson esprit, par la parole, des sensations et des idées qui s’échapperaient et s’évanouiraientde toutes parts, et que l’art de penser avec justesse est inséparable de l’art de parler avecexactitude. (Garat, Séances 1800-1801; vol.1: 146/7)

To find a name for this new method, Garat uses the title of John Locke’s (1632-1704) Essay concerning Human Understanding. Charles Bonnet (1720-1793) andCondillac are only mentioned to reject the word psychology which had been proposedfor methaphysics. Rousseau, who appears under the paraphrase of auteur d’Emile,is mentioned for what he owes to Locke’s work on education (Séances 1800-1801;vol.1: 163). Finally Garat comes to Condillac and praises him for the beauty and theclarity of his works, as well as for his contribution to the perfection of the Frenchlanguage (Séances 1800-1801; vol.1: 165-165). Following Garat, the spirit of simplicity,the work of distribution of knowledge, and the description of a universal system give an

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important place to this author, but there is nothing in Garat’s lecture which would indicatethat he considered him as a school founder.

As the texts that were written by the stenographers and published immediatelythereafter show, it was common to reproach Condillac and the other founders of theanalytical method for having committed errors. These errors consisted in lacking anotional distinction which would be important for the description of human understanding,or in the reductive treatment for which the ideologists reproached Condillac very earlyand which mainly consists in having reduced all the faculties of the human soul to atransformed sensation (sensation transformée):

Ces distinctions paraissent déliées; mais c’est pour ne les avoir pas faites, que la multitudedes écrivains est tombée dans des erreurs si grossières, et que les Locke même, et lesCondillac, n’ont pu éviter le vague de certaines idées; c’est pour avoir négligé de faire cesdistinctions, qu’on a eu, sur l’imagination, des opinions si opposées; qu’on a regardécette faculté brillante de l’entendement, tantôt comme la folle de la maison, tantôt comme ladivinité; [...] (Garat, Séances 1800-1801; vol.1: 17)

Condillac a pensé que nous formons les idées physiques sur des modèles que nousprésente la nature, et les idées morales sans modèles. Je ne crois pas cette opinion deCondillac très exacte; je la mettrai à votre examen: vous jugerez si nos idées morales, c’est-à-dire les notions sur les vices et les vertus, n’ont pas de modèle dans nos diverses actionset dans leurs effets. (Garat, Séances 1800-1801; vol.1: 24)

There are other interpretations of Condillac which reduce all the philosophicaldifficulties which present a coherent sensualist system to a problem of denomination:

L’abbé de Condillac fait tout descendre comme moi de l’idée, mais qu’aussitôt qu’il a faitentendre le mot idée, il passe au mot attention, qui, selon lui, est l’idée plus ou moinsprononcée, et à son tour l’attention, plus ou moins prononcée, produit toutes les opérationsde l’esprit. Il ne peut y avoir deux opinions, deux manières de voir sur cet objet; il ne peuttout au plus y avoir que des mots différens: ainsi l’un dira que la source de toutes lesopérations intellectuelles, c’est la sensation, l’autre dira que c’est l’idée, l’autre que c’estl’attention; et tous les trois diront la même chose. (Sicard, Séances 1800-1801; vol.4: 139)

Among the reference authors there are some negative examples, and they are evenmore negative if their authority becomes inverted in the ideologists’ argumentation andif the disapproved theories are condensed into central notions which constitute a paradigmin contrast to the ideologists’. Thus Garat affirms that the innate ideas (idées innées)were a delirium of the genius inherent to Descartes.

Sometimes the students of the Ecole Normale were not satisfied with thereference authors quoted by their professors. For this reason Garat was invited togive an analysis of Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon’s (1707-1788) statue. A.Person de Teyssèdre (died 1857) even asked him to sketch a rapid and reasoned

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picture of René Descartes’ (1596-1650) opinions, especially of his methodologicaldoubt (doute méthodique) which would lead to the analysis of sensations:

Teyssèdre. Citoyen professeur, j’ai lu dans votre programme et dans votre première leçon,avec un grand plaisir, l’éloge que vous avez fait de Condillac, Locke et Bacon. J’ai renduhommage à ces grands analystes de l’esprit humain. J’ai regretté de n’y point trouver ungrand homme, qui a fait une révolution dans les sciences, et sur-tout dans la manière de lesétudier. Je veux parler de Descartes. Je crois qu’il eût été intéressant pour l’École Normalede connaître plus particulièrement les opinions, et même les erreurs d’un homme que lapatrie reconnaissante d’associer même aux défenseurs de la patrie. Je sais qu’il s’est souventégaré; je sais qu’il a voulu, trop présomptueux, poser les bornes du monde, et pour ainsidire, de l’esprit humain. Mais si son imagination l’a entraîné trop loin, son doute méthodiquenous conduit à l’analyse des sensations; ce doute me paraît mériter notre reconnaissance;il fait un pas de géant dans la carrière de la vérité. (Débats 1800-1801; vol.1:225/226)

This objection shows that people were aware of the authors who entered the paradigmthat was being built, as well of the necessity of exclusion of others. The notional core towhich the analysis of sensations (analyse des sensations) certainly belongs is alreadyclearly designed, but one seeks to construct a horizon of retrospection which should belarger and comprise more than empirical philosophy.

Besides this, there was fundamental criticism about the grammatical doctrine presentedby Sicard. A letter of a docteur H*** quotes authors like Locke, Johne Horne Tooke(1736-1812), Charles De Brosses (1709-1777), John Wilkins (1614-1672), JuliusCaesar Scaliger (1448-1558) and James Harris (1709-1780). The originality ofCondillac is largely contested, and if the reference text has already been considered asa divulgation of other authors, the question of legitimacy of a system, built on it, has tobe brought up:

Vous écrivez sur la grammaire, et vous n’avez point, dites-vous, la prétention ridicule dedevancer des grammairiens qui vous ont précédé? Des grammairiens, tels que Condillac.Que vous avez peu approfondi un pareil sujet, si vous croyez que l’abbé de Condillac aitfait autre chose que de répéter les opinions de tous ceux qui avaient écrit avant lui sur lagrammaire; aucune découverte qui lui appartienne. Rien n’est plus cavalier que la méthodede l’abbé de Condillac, lorsqu’il rencontre des difficultés qu’il ne peut se cacher à soi-même, et que trente ans d’études étymologiques ont à peine laissé entrevoir à des hommesqui ont fait l’unique objet de leurs recherches. (Débats 1800-1801; vol.2:148)Sicard’s answer is not only a defence of Condillac and a detailed criticism of Harris’ Hermes,but may well be the clearest description of what the ideologists owe to Condillac’s theory:

Condillac a enseigné, formellement, ce que Locke n’osa jamais dire; que c’est dansl’analyse de la pensée qu’il faut chercher l’analyse du langage: et en parlant ainsi, il arempli le vœu de celui qui n’a vu qu’une grammaire dans l’Essai sur l’entendement humain.[...] Ce que Condillac nous enseigne sur la liaison du langage d’action avec le langageartificiel; sur les rapports de l’un et de l’autre avec la génération de la pensée, si d’autres

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l’ont imaginé avant lui, n’a-t-il pas toujours l’avantage des vérités éternelles, qu’onpense avoir sçues la veille du jour où l’esprit les reçoit pour la première fois? J’avoue queCondillac n’a rien imaginé; mais on imagine avec lui: et les traits de lumières qui luiéchappent, ne manquent jamais d’agrandir l’horizon de ses jeunes lecteurs. (Débats1800-1801; vol.2:148)

It is possible to assume that this kind of texts constitutes a follow-up series to theexposition of the doctrine in the lectures which already had the objective of disseminationof knowledge on the theory of signs and human understanding. The new series which isconstituted by the contributions of the students and the answers of the professors showsthe work on terminology as well as the confirmation of what was already incontestablein the notional core of the doctrine.

3. A new way of conceptualisation of linguistic ideas

If we want to understand the production of texts at the Ecole Normale, it is importantto remember that it was a new form of communication in teaching at this school,creating a new relation between ideas (idées), discourse (discours), and speech(parole). This new relationship was not without consequences for linguisticconceptualisation:

Les professeurs aux Ecoles Normales ont pris, avec les Représentans du Peuple et entr’eux,l’engagement de ne point lire ou débiter de mémoire des discours écrits. Ils parleront; leursidées seront préparées, sans doute; leurs discours ne le seront point. Ni une science ni unart ne peuvent être improvisés; mais la parole, pour en rendre compte, peut l’être: ils ontpensé qu’elle devait l’être; en ce sens, tous improviseront. (Séances 1800-1801; vol.1: III,Avertissement).

It is from an already acquired linguistic capacity that children learn grammar and, bythis means, they will improve their reasoning:

Mais l’on ne peut apprendre la grammaire d’une langue quelconque, même celle de sonpays que quand on sait parler et causer. L’enfant qui sait parler et causer, prononcedonc sans cesse des jugemens, qui, revêtus de mots, forment des positions et des phrases.(Séances 1800-1801; vol.1: 130)

Oral communication, improvisation, and spontaneity correspond to the objectiveof the Ecole Normale, i.e. instructing citizens of a republic in which speech has anenormous influence and is even a powerful force (“des citoyens d’une république, oùla parole exercera une grande influence et même une puissance” Séances 1800-1801, vol.1, IV/V). It is no longer the written elaborated text which counts, but oraldiscourse which maintains traces of spontaneity even if it is written. At the notionallevel, this novelty can be found in Sicard’s first lecture on grammar:

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Un très grand nombre d’hommes, destinés à professer les diverses sciences, s’exercerontà ce talent de la parole, avec lequel seul le génie et les lumières des professeurs passentrapidement dans les élèves. Le style a plus que la parole, de cette précision exacte, sanslaquelle il n’y a point de vérité; et la parole a, plus que le style, de cette chaleur fécondante,sans laquelle il y a bien peu de vérités. L’organisation de l’enseignement dans les ÉcolesNormales, fournira peut être les moyens de corriger la parole par le style, et d’animer le stylepar la parole; et ces deux instrumens de la raison humaine, employés tour-à-tour etperfectionnés l’un par l’autre, seront tous les deux plus propres à perfectionner la raisonelle-même. (Séances 1800-1801; vol.1: 12)

Oral and spontaneous discourse are described as parole, while reflected andmostly written language use is called style, refunctionalising an old metalinguistic term.The conditions of communication at the Ecole Normale would allow correcting theparole by the style, and vivifying the style by the parole, both in the service ofreason. The parole is considered to be the faculty that marks a borderline betweenman and animals and that constitutes man. Sicard takes up this Cartesian idea withoutreferring to Descartes, but he gives it an important significance in the ideologists’sense: the exercise of the language faculty assures human perfectibility. Taking noregard to the sources of anthropological thought, the ideologists refer one to theother as authorities, albeit their notional system was not yet fixed. The same authoruses the term parole in a different way, when he speaks about the general possibilitiesman has to express his thoughts either by written or oral language or by gestures,signs of physiognomy, painted or articulated signs. Incoherence in the use of terms isanother consequence of the spontaneity of textual production. There were evencontributors who reproached the professors for having thought about their texts with“a clear head” (“à tête reposée”, Débats 1800-1801, vol. 3: 38).

Beginning with the first texts, the improvement of the intellectual capacities of manwas an important objective. Human capacities being as different as they are, this meansthat they are not used in an optimal way and that culture plays an important role.

One of the students, François-Joseph-Benoni Debrun (1765-1845), asked Sicardafter his lecture on abstraction which place he gave to anomalies of language and if heconsidered them to be irregularities (Séances 1800-1801; vol.4:18). In a laterdiscussion, the same student worried about anomalies in orthography. He demandeda reform which would deliver orthography from the constraints of etymology (Débats1800-1801; vol.1: 332).

4. Deception and prudence: the idéologie and the limits of the power ofsigns

The announcement of the lectures of the Ecole Normale of 1795 mark a direct linebetween the Enlightenment and Revolution, and the Revolution could not have beenachieved without the progress of Enlightenment (Séances 1800-1801, vol. 1, VII).

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The ideologists’ paradigm had been constituted with the objective to avoidreductionism of the last works of Condillac, but was implicated into a reductionism ofdiscourse which was based on the relations between fundamental concepts. The ideaof vulgarisation of knowledge by a just and simple method was always present.

Vous voyez avec un grand plaisir que la Convention s’occupe de ne vouloir excepter dubienfait de l’instruction, aucun individu: elle n’imagine pas que le gouvernement aitbesoin de ténèbres; elle ne croit plus l’ignorance nécessaire au bonheur public. Parconséquent, il faut apprendre à lire à tous les républicains français. (Sicard, Séances1800-1801; vol.1:362)

The moral consequences of a coherent sensationalism induced the ideologists tokeep their distance to it. But they were more “ideologist” reasons not to trust too muchin the power of signs. The improvement of languages was able to produce better meansfor the communication of knowledge, but the progress of science depended on therevision of the scientific methods themselves. And finally, the improvement of a languageof science does not dispense from its correct and attentive usage.

As we have seen, the relations between reference texts and series of texts are of aremarkable functional diversity. Serial texts can contribute to the trivialisation of anargument, to put it into oblivion or to surpass it by another explanation. At the sametime, serial texts can refunctionalise an important text and give it the chance to survive ina completely changed scientific context.

REFERENCES

Débats. 1800-1801. Séances des Écoles Normales, recueillies par des sténographes,et revues par les professeurs, 3vols. Nouvelle édition. Débats. Paris: à l’imprimeriedu Cercle-Social. An 9 de la République Française.

Désirat, Claude & Hordé, Tristan. 1975. “Les écoles normales: une liquidation de larhétorique? Littérature et grammaire dans les programmes de l’École normale del’an III”. Littérature, 18: 31-50.

Ganault, Joël. 1992. “Idéologie et organisation du savoir à l’Institut national. l’exempledu concours sur l’influence des signes”. Azouvi 1992: 63-81.

Gattel, Claude Marie. 1800. Cours de Grammaire Générale. Mr. Gattel an 8, à l’Écolecentrale du Département de l’Isère. Manuscrit. Bibliothèque Municipale de Grenoble.R 12347. 300ff.

Macherey, Pierre. 1992. “L’idéologie avant l’idéologie: l’École normale de l’an III”.Azouvi 1992: 41-49.

Mongin, François Bernard. 1803. Philosophie élémentaire, ou méthode analytiqueappliquée aux sciences et aux langues. Par le C. Mongin, Professeur de Grammairegénérale, à l’École centrale de la Meurthe. Nancy: Haener et Delahaye.

Séances. 1800-1801. Séances des Écoles Normales recueillies par des sténographeset revues par les professeurs, 10 vols. Nouvelle édition. Paris: À l’imprimerie ducercle social, An 9 de la République Française.

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PART II

LINGUISTICS IN THE19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

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THE BRAZILIAN HYPERLANGUAGE MARK IN THE TRADITIONALGRAMMAR OF THE 19TH CENTURY

MARLI QUADROS LEITEUniversidade Estadual de São Paulo

Our purpose in this paper is to analyze how the traditional grammar reveals certainmarks of Brazil’s empirical language. This means that we will focus on the issue of thegrammatical rule construction because, if a linguistic phenomenon imposes itself to agrammar by virtue of its use, it is forced to acknowledge it, even by means of remarksloaded with judgments of the type “one should not say…”, “the use of…is vicious”,etc. In fact, it is through these types of comments that one can become somewhatcloser to the linguistic reality of a community in the traditional grammar domain. Suchindications of the “prescriptive rule deviations” provide real clues on the languagepracticed by the users of a given synchrony.

Our theoretical starting point is the externalist empiricism (Auroux 1998), joinedto the linguistic hypothesis instruments and to the conception of hyperlanguage.The corpus is composed of four Brazilian grammar books that have a very importantposition in the scope of the Brazilian Portuguese language grammaticization history,particularly for renewing the theory and the examples or to introduce comments on theuse of the Brazilian Portuguese language. The analyzed grammar books are: Grammaticaportugueza, by Julio Ribeiro, whose first edition is dated from 18811; Grammaticadescriptiva, dated from 18942, by Maximino Maciel, and finally, Grammaticaportugueza – curso superior, by João Ribeiro, dated from 18873.

1. The Brazilian grammar books of the 19th Century

Julio Ribeiro is an important grammarian in the scenery of the Brazilian linguistic studies,for having been the Brazilian grammaticization initiator of the Portuguese language, whichmeans that he was the first one to consider the Brazilian hyperlanguage in the scope ofgrammar, even if under the form of annotations, remarks of familiar, ordinary, rural useand others. The first edition of his grammar book was published in 1881.

1. In this work, we have used the 6th ed., which is a reprint of the 2nd ed.2. We have used the 10th ed., of 1926.3. We have used the 21st ed., of 1925, entirely reviewed.

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Effectively, what does interest us is that the author was a real renovator, undertwo points of view: the work relative to some marks of the language really practicedin Brazil, and the grammatical theory renovation work. On the one hand, heintroduced remarks in the grammatical text relative to the use of the Portugueselanguage; on the other, he renovated the grammatical theory approach, accordingto the comparatist (Friedrich Diez), historicist and naturalist principles, making useof the ideas of some American philologists (Willian D. Whitney, Essentials ofEnglish Grammar, from which the definition of grammar has followed) andEuropean ones (M. Bréal, Mélanges de Mythologie et de Linguistique). On thissubject, he understood that the grammar did not make its rules, but limited itself topresenting the language fact in an organized manner. In addition, he introducedanother innovation in his doctrine, the grammatical division into lexicology and syntax,also borrowed from foreign authors. Finally, his grammar has become a model formany authors.

Ribeiro’s grammar contains many references to the hyperlanguage, relatively todialects and records, although he does not intend to study or to explain such uses.Thus, our task in this paper is to analyze some examples in which the author has madeexplicit references to the real use of the language in this reference to dialects and records.

First of all, we can observe, in example (1) a reference to the familiar and to theregional language, at the phonetic level:

(1) “There is still”:1) a diminutive in ebre – casebre

2) familiar diminutives, e.g..: of pae, papae, – of thio, titio – of senhor, sôr, sô and even seu –

of senhora, sóra, sia (Minas), nha (S.Paulo) – of soror, sôr.” (Ribeiro 1881: 97)

Next, in example (2) a reference is also made at the phonetic level, to the“caipira”[NTRustic] language in São Paulo:

(2) There are two more distinct sounds currently banned from use by refined people: dje, tche.

The “caipiras” in S. Paulo pronounce djente, djogo.. (Ribeiro 1881: 11)

In Ribeiro’s grammar there are also some references to the general use, which donot bring specifications as to the realization, if Portuguese or Brazilian, as we can observein examples (3) and (4). Although it is not possible to say if example (3) is particularlyrelated to the Brazilian use, example (4) is undoubtedly a remark on the manner oftalking of the Brazilian people, who always preferred to place the atonic pronoun at thebeginning of the phrase. We know that such problem of object pronoun placement inthe phrase has been the most discussed subject as to the Brazilian use of the Portugueselanguage. This time the author is in the domain of the morphosyntax.

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(3) “Many substantives are more generally employed in the plural; such as:1) (...)

2) the name of paired objects, ex.: bofes (lungs), bragas (breeches), calças (pants), ceroulas

(drawers), tesouras (scissors), ventas (nostrils), etc.

However, one says: grelha (grilles, treva (darkness), refém (hostage), calça (pant),ceroula (man’s drawer), tesoura (scissor), etc. and even in case of some of them,such as pant, man’s drawer, scissor, the use of the singular form is prevailing.”(Ribeiro s.d.:93)

(4) The object pronoun, the pronoun in relation to the adverbial objective and to the passive

rendered particle shall never begin the sentence: It would be incorrect to say: Me querem lá

(They me want there) – Te vejo sempre (You I see always) – Nos parece (Us it seems) – Vos

ofereço (You I offer) – Lhe digo (You I tell) – Lhes peço (You I ask) – Se contam coisas feias

(Uggly things told are) – Se diz que ele vai (Said it is that he goes), etc. One should say:

Querem-me lá (They want me there) – Vejo-te sempre (See you always) etc.” (Ribeiro s.d.: 255)

Example (4) presents a fact of syntax, the basic rule for the atonic pronoun placement,with a sharp remark on its use. Although the author did not refer explicitly to the Brazilianuse of such syntax, we do know that such remark is supported by the fact that Brazilianpeople prefer the initial placement in a phrase to update the atonic pronoun, and this isa feature of the Brazilian use of the Portuguese language.

1.1 A Grammatica Portugueza – curso superior, by João Ribeiro

In the grammaticization scenario of the Brazilian Portuguese language, the year 1887was marked by the remodeling of the preparatory program for the teaching of languages,vernacular and foreign ones. The task was given to professor Fausto Barreto who workedin Colégio Pedro II. According to Maciel (1926:499-508), the new program was importantbecause it emancipated the language teaching from the retrograde doctrines that wereused in Brazil up to that time.

Soon after the publication of this new program, the preparation of grammar booksthat were in line with the new guideline was necessary. Thus, some teachers, whosenames were already known as masters in the teaching of languages, undertook the chargeof writing new grammar books that would be followed in schools. Among these names,we find the one of João Ribeiro, who wrote a grammar book that has innumerable editionsand has remained as the textbook for the country secondary schools during many years.

The program reform regarded mainly the chance of epistemological orientation: oneshould abandon the philosophical orientation in order to adopt the naturalism and theexperimentation. Thus, the language begins to be conceived as a living organism that is

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born, grows and dies. It is within such a picture that the Brazilian philology has developedat the time João Ribeiro has prepared his grammar book.

João Ribeiro, like many other authors, but differently from Julio Ribeiro, sticks tothe literary language to make the exposition of his grammar rules. There are, however,some references to the Brazilian use of the Portuguese language, in spite of the factthat these are not sufficient to mark a position on the significant differences betweenthe Brazilian and the European use.

João Ribeiro’s concern in characterizing the Brazilian Portuguese language, inrelation to the Portugal one can be observed in his work “Prolegomena”. When hepresents his conception of grammar and its parts – Phonetics, Morphology and Classesof Words and Syntax -, he explains, as regards the Phonetics, that the “NormalPortuguese prosody is not followed in Brazil, because there is a national prosody inthat country, distinct from the European one.” When the author begins his descriptionof sounds and of their pronunciation, he explains the existing differences between theBrazilian and the Portuguese manner of speaking.

In relation to the realization of both – a, one central and open and the other onemedium (deep), which characterizes the European pronunciation, João Ribeiro discussesthe first characteristic of the Brazilian hyperlanguage. This is read in example (5):

(5) It is useful to observe that in the Brazilian phonetics certain varieties of timbre escapewhich are observable in the European Portuguese: the open a only appears in Indian voices(jácá, Párá) and it just distinguishes itself from the atonic a in the Portuguese voices: cása,

páta. At school it is usual to teach the deep prosody in mas (conj), para (preposition), a (article

distinct from a); such school distinctions do not correspond to the Brazilian pronunciation.

(João Ribeiro:19-20)

In this chapter the author also describes the prosodical differences between bothpronunciations as to the realization of other vowels and, as regards the diphthongs, hedoes not forget to mention a very important fact for the differentiation of the Portugueseregional varieties: the updating of the –em segment, which is pronounced [ãe] in Portugaland [ein] in Brazil. This is shown in example (6):

(6) Other times the subjunctive i intercalates itself, as in the Brazilian prosody: tem =

tein, vem = vein. In Portugal, this case has the sound of the diphthong ãe: também (inBrazil, tambein; in Portugal, tambãe). The Brazilian prosody was the same one as at the

time of Camões. (João Ribeiro:22)

The difference in the pronunciation is also explained by the thesis of naturalism,either biological or environmental and also ethnical. The example (7) shows thiscondition:

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(7) The prosodic differences between the Portuguese and the Brazilian way of speakingmust be referred in great part to the mesological factor in addition to the ethnical one.The

mesological action is especially deep in the biological domain. One should not put an exaggerated

emphasis to the influence of the climate on the mental work, but it is clear that the cerebellaractivity and the functions of the vocal apparatus depend immediately on the physiological state

of the organs that live under the continuing environmental action. (João Ribeiro:32)

In example (8) we can see an important remark on the Brazilian Portuguese language:the preference of placing as object a subject pronoun, a characteristic fact of the Brazilianhyperlanguage up to the present days. What we wish to underline is that the author hasrecognized such fact as ordinary, current in Brazil:

(8) In Brazil it is usual: vi ele “(I saw he)”, encontre ele “(Find he)” – archaic forms ofspeaking as it can be seen from examples of the ante-classical era, in documents of the 12th to

the 15th Century, a fact currently acknowledged by the Portuguese philologists themselves.

(João Ribeiro:90)

A typical linguistic choice in Brazil is the realization of the gerund for the indication ofa durative action, while in Portugal the preference is for the infinitive. João Ribeiro didnot fail to focus on that issue and made a very good remark of such fact of the Brazilianhyperlanguage, when he said in the example (9) that:

(9) It is excessive to condemn expressions like: un livro contendo orações. In French, the

gerund and present participle become mingled in the same way. In the Portuguese language,

the function of the present participle (ante, ente) has disappeared, for the benefit of thegerund that replaced it in the ordinary language.

Differential trace between the Brazilian Portuguese and the Portugal one:Está chorando está a chorar = he is cryingFicou escrevendo ficou a escrever =he is writing

Both constructions are Portuguese; however, the first syntax is more frequentand preferred in Brazil.” (João Ribeiro:292)

Even if João Ribeiro’s grammar is too traditional, there are some passages consideredfor the comments on the hyperlanguage, as it has already been previously seen, and thisevidences that the linguistic reality cannot be ignored, even in the prescriptive grammarbooks, whose main purpose is, as it is always asserted in the body of each grammar book,to provide the rules of utilization of a language according to the “good usage”, what nowadaysconcerns the literary written language, without any delimitation of time (or of space, incase the language is spoken in many countries) in relation to the choice of examples.

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1.2 The grammar books of Maximino Maciel

1.2.1 Grammatica Analytica (Analytical Grammar) – 1887The grammatical work of Maximino Maciel relates, above all, to both grammars:

the first one called Grammatica Analytica, dated from the year 1887, and the secondone, the Descriptive grammar, of 1984.

As the author explains in the introduction, the first grammar was written in 1885,when he was 20 years old. Maybe for this reason, but also because he touched andmodified the traditional model, upon its publication, his work was very much criticized.According to Maciel’s own opinion, expressed in the preface of the second edition ofGrammatica Descriptiva (Descriptive Grammar), the failure of his first grammar bookis attributable to three reasons: 1. the use of modern theories and the rupture with thetradition; 2. the epistemological transition period (from historicism to naturalism); 3. thelack of observation and of experimentation on the language. We may add to thesereasons the fact that Grammatica Analytica is not a school book, but a theoreticalbook in which there existed the intention of “systematizing” the linguistic phenomena,specially at the light of the biological laws.

It is interesting to notice that Maciel has created a “special” place where hefits certain Brazilian usages. Such space is the place of forbidden usages,regarding what “one should not say”, the place where the linguistic usages ofpeople who have no social prestige exist. However, we consider important thefact that the author has placed such linguistic usages in the scope of his grammarbook, because, this way, we may infer some traces of the linguistic reality ofthat time. As it could be verified in the precedent passages, there is the statementon the “value” of the mentioned uses. In the summary (10) Maciel exposes hisjudgment in relation to the usages as such in a very clear way, for example, bythe expression “vicious”, “popular use”, “people who have no instruction”.

(10) “BrazilianismAccording to the trends of the Portuguese language , the construction of the phrase

spoken in Brazil is called Brazilianism, for ex.: Vi ele “(I saw he)”, guardei ela “(Ikept she)”, instead of vi-o (I saw him), guardei-a (I kept her).

The use of subjective personal pronouns employed in an objective function currentlyconstitutes a Brazilian construction vice, used even by learned people.

Another Brazilianism of popular use is the usage of the pronominal formmim (me), instead of the subjective function eu ( I ) before reduced phrases withthe preposition para (to), ex.: “O livro é para mim ler” “(The book is for I toread).”

In phrases where the relative pronoun is preceded by a preposition, the uneducatedBrazilians place the preposition at the end of the phrase, and the personal pronounrules, accommodated to the meaning, ex.: O homem que eu estive com ele. O livro

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que precisei dele (The man who I was with him. The book that I needed it)”. (MaximinoMaciel 1887:263)

These are the comments about the language practiced in Brazil that Maciel registered inthis grammar book. Two facts are clear as to the author’s analysis on the Brazilianhyperlanguage: according to his opinion, the Brazilian variety is incorrect and this occursbecause there are factors determined by the society and by the human biology that rule thelanguage evolution, which is a living organism. From now on, we will observe what theauthor has verified on the Brazilian hyperlanguage and has added to this work of 1894.

1.2.2 Grammatica Descriptiva (Descriptive Grammar) – 1894In Grammatica Descriptiva, Maciel wanted to get rid of the criticisms that

have marked the precedent grammar. In order to avoid them, he affirms in thepreface that he has proposed changes in the doctrine, but that all of them weresupported by texts of the best authors, those whose philological theories are modernand also internationally acknowledged. In that which concerns the example, on theone hand, the author says he has chosen the best ones in the good Portugueseliterature and, on the other hand, that he has created very few examples.

In this grammar book, the “remarks” regarding the Brazilian Portuguese languageare not numerous, even if they outnumber the precedent one. In the chapter on thePhonology/Phonetics, for example, he did not make more than one remark on theBrazilian realization of the Portuguese language and did not mention differences betweenboth linguistic varieties: the whole description seems to refer to a homogeneous language.The vowel system is not explored, but only partially presented and just the followingvowels: the central /a/, the intermediary /e/ and /o/ and the high ones /i/ and /u/, withoutany reference to the opening, closing and nasalizing or to the several possibilities of theirachievements.

As we know, the lexicon is the domain in which the novelties are the mostevident ones. Thus, the author attempts to characterize the Brazilian Portugueselanguage mainly by the presence of aboriginal and African words. Therefore, toprovide the origins of the proper nouns, Maciel includes, among others, theaboriginal origin, as we verify in the example (11):

(11) “Lexicogeny of the proper nouns (1)The personative nouns may derivate from any language. Therefore we have:A) (...)H) Of aboriginal origin, mainly in Brazil: Moema, Coema, Jacy, Aracy, Iery.”1) Therefore, we designate the appertaining theory to the origin and formation of the

personative names. Maciel, 1894, p. 242.Also, in order to explain the general Portuguese lexicon formation, he adds the

aboriginal and African term’s heritage specific to the “Brazilian language”. Example(12) reveals this situation:

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(12) Secondary elements.A) (...)H) African ones: batuque, moleque, cangica, samba, lundú, cachaça, vatapá,

angú, inhame.I) Aboriginal ones: mandioca, caipira, caroba, pagé, sabiá, (1), goiaba, ingá,

pitanga, beiju, cará, mutum, araponga.1) The African element has spread throughout Northern Brazil and the aboriginal

one everywhere, because it reaches almost 6.000 words. This aboriginal lexiconpredominates in locative terms and in those appertaining to the plant and animal kingdom,for ex: Niteroy, Andaray, Paraná, Sergipe, Aracajú, Itabaiana, jucá, capim, abacate,caroba, cajú, goiaba, sabiá, onça, jaguar, nadú, maguary.” (Maciel 1894:260)

In relation to the syntax, Maciel has made two remarks regarding the Brazilian useof the Portuguese language. The first one, as to the pluralization of the verb haver(there to be) when it is impersonal; the second one, in relation to the employment of theverb ter (to have) instead of haver (there to be). It is interesting to note, in example(13), how the author leans over this point in order to explain and also justify it, sayingthat it is a form of use of educated people; however, in his first grammar book, this usehas been totally rejected. The summary in (13) presents the author’s new position:

(13) “In the Portuguese dialect formation, in the prosody of the Portuguese people, theverb haver (there to be), in the 3rd present of indicative appears followed by the ancientadverb hi (ahi), which followed it in the archaic Portuguese. Therefore, whenever we hear hahi agua, ha hi gente, ex..:

‘If plague was not, all my errorsThey would not know that ha there was’.{Si peste não fosse, todos meus errosNão conheceriam que ha havia’. (Camões, Não dos Amores)}

In the Brazilian dialect formation, there are two irregular and anomalous phenomena,relative to the usage of the verb haver (there to be):

1°The plurality attributed to it, even by somehow cultured people, who incorrectly usethe object as subject, for ex.: ‘Haviam pessoas, houveram festas’, instead of havia... houve...

As regards this syntax violation, there is always the resistance to the use of themonosyllabic form ha, because such form is never replaced by its plural hão, sincesuch construction would become aneuphonic.

2º Its replacement by the verb ter (to have), one of the most constant and generalphenomena, observable even among cultured people, ex.: ‘Na festa tem (ha)muito povo, ‘ At the party have (there are) many people’ ‘Tinha muita água na rua.’‘Have (there was) much water on the street’.

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Still in the formal language, if not approved, such extremely frequentreplacement of the verb haver (there is) by ter (have) constitutes one of themost characteristic features of our way of speaking if compared to that ofthe Portuguese people, in the familiar relations.

However this construction, marked as Brazilianism, was brought by thePortuguese people, who landed here at the colonization time.” (Maciel 1894:397)

In the passage designed to the “Syntaxiology”, that is, to the syntax studies, Maciel dealswith the dialects of the Portuguese language, which he defines as alterations or deviationsfrom a language in relation to another one, which is the “matrix”. In order to become harmonizedwith the theory he embraces, the author tries to position the idea of dialect formation in theframe of naturalism, asserting that the dialects are organic and structural transformations thatthe Portuguese language has suffered in Brazil’s tropical environment.

The dialectal difference between the Brazilian and the European Portuguese language,according to the author (Maciel 1894:451) is carried out “thanks to the following organiccharacteristics: the coexistence of our autochthonous words, the almost definitepopular or literary changes of the Portuguese word structure; the semanticalterations, that is, the acquisition of new meanings, truly ours, patriotically ours.

Indeed, Maciel admits a strong differentiation between the Portuguese variety andthe Brazilian one, and that the language unity can be made by the knowledge of thelinguistic tradition. This is what can be understood from example (14):

(14) “In relation to the language, sensitive divergences occur comparativelywhen we and Portuguese people have to speak it, so that if certain Portugueseindividuals had to talk to our “sertanejos” [TNRustic Inlanders] they would notunderstand each other, provided both were illiterates”. (Maciel 1894:453)

The author’s requirement is so harsh that he criticizes the cultured Brazilianpeople who “pronounce certain words in an incorrect and dialectal form”; thismeans that in Brazil, at this time, those people who wanted (or seemed) to beeducated should talk like the Portuguese people. Contradictorily, the author saysthat maybe the “lexical Brazilianism is amusing, showing the mental elaboration ofour people and attesting the aboriginal and African words, the ethnographic factors,inherent to our nationality” (Maciel 1894:445). However, in relation to syntacticfacts, Maciel is implacable and condemns them all. In order to clarify the issue, heenumerates them, and this can be verified in:

(15) “A) The employment of the pronominal forms ele, ela, and lhe (he, sheand to or for him/her/it) as direct objects (…);

B) The employment of the pronominal form mim (me) as subject of theinfinitive, ruled by the preposition para (to), instead of the subjective form eu ( I ),ex.: (…);

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C) The employment of the preposition em (in), instead of the preposition a (to,at, etc) after the verbs of movement, or when only denoting proximity, ao pé (at thefoot of), junto a (close to), ex.: (…);

D) Transfer into the relative pronominal preposition the prepositionappertaining to the relative one, giving them as complement the pronominal formsele, ela, eles, elas (he, she, it, they), ex.: (…);

E) The incorrect position of the pronominal forms – me, te, se, nos, vos, o, a,os, as, lhe, lhes (me, you, us, them, the, to him/her/it), in disagreement with the observedsyntax rules (...);

F) The employment of the verb ter (to have), instead of haver (there to be)under impersonal form (...).”(Maciel 1894:455-456)

It is interesting to observe that, in relation to this last point, F), the author still makesa significant commentary, which shows very well his ambiguous attitude in face of theBrazilian linguistic variation, because, as we have seen in the example (13), his commentwas not so unfavorable to the Brazilian use. This commentary also brings theacknowledgment that the use has the power of changing the language rule. In the followingexample, the author says:

(16) “This substitution of haver (there is) for ter (to have) constitutes one ofthe most ordinary Brazilianisms which, as it seems to us, will eventually triumph,waiting for the acknowledgement of our writers, because they only use it whentransporting the popular phrase to the literature, mentioning it directly, eg.: (...).” (Maciel1894:457)

As to the expression estar com (to be with) instead of the verb ter (to have),Maciel is contradictory, because he approves its employment, even being a Brazilianismlike the precedent one. Let us see what he affirms as regards the victory of the Brazilianform of speaking the Portuguese language in summary (17):

(17) “Thus, to the construction – estar com = ter (to be with = to have), such as‘estou com fome’ (I am hungry), ‘estava com frio’(I was cold), etc, there succeededthe more elegant one, more Brazilian than the one of the verb ter (to have) –tenho fome (I am hungry) teve frio (He was cold)TN. (Maciel 1894:457)

The impression that we have in Grammatica Analytica is that Maciel was not a grammarianconcerned with the exposure of the language facts. It seems to us that his purpose was to takethe philological theories that were fashionable at that time, abroad and in Brazil, and to applythem, with a view to the Portuguese language, but without effectively exploring the phenomenaof this language, neither relatively to the literature, nor to the linguistic reality. Maybe for this

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reason Elia said that Maciel “was more a grammarian in the sense of systematizing the languagefacts” than a didactic grammarian. And, Elia adds, Maciel’s classifications have been adoptedby the secondary course teachers during many years.

Final considerations

This look over some grammars of the 19th Century shows that, even if the traditionalgrammar does not aim at describing the effectively realized language, the linguistic reality,in its spoken and written modalities, it registers traces of such reality. Here we couldfeel that it is not easy for the grammar to deal with a language without making at least asmall reference to the linguistic practice, what can be explained by two reasons: first,because the grammarian is a language user too and the knowledge he has about itforces him to make comments about what he disagrees in relation to what is mostlyrealized; next because the grammarian is a kind of “guardian of the tradition of thelanguage” and, for this reason, he is taken to denounce everything that represents athreat, therefore, he records the uses he considers incorrect, vicious, ordinary, popular,etc, and this allows to trace a profile of the linguistic reality of the hyperlanguage.

Thus, the hyperlanguage is observable by two main types of comments: the complaintsabout the linguistic “bad use” practiced by uneducated people – which are more frequent;and the descriptive comments on the Brazilian way of speaking. These complaints andthe comments touch the problems relative to dialects as well as the language registers.

Finally, we can say that the Brazilian hyperlanguage is present in this linguisticinstrument called traditional grammar and that such fact allows, on the one hand, peopleto have an idea of the linguistic reality of a time and, on the other hand, researchers tostudy facts that initially look like deviations and then become normal, according to thetraditional perspective.

REFERENCES

Auroux, S. 1994. Remarques sur l’histoire philosophique du concept ‘norme’et surl’histoire des sciences du langage: éd. par Jean-Michel Kasbarian Genèse (des)normes linguistique(s), 295-301. Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence.

. 1998. La raison, le langage et les normes. Paris: PUF.

. 1998. Introduction. In: Langages, 120 – L’hyperlangue brésilienne.Par Sylvain Auroux, Eni Orlandi, Francine Mazière. Paris: Larousse.

Barros, D. L. P. de 2000. Conceitos e imagens da norma no português falado noBrasil: o discurso da gramática. Texte inédit.

Chevalier, J-C. 1993. La formation de la norme du français à la lumière de l’Histoire dela langue française de F. Brunot. éd. par Jean-Michel Kasbarian et le CentreDumarsais (Centre des sciences du langage). Genèse de la (des) norme(s)linguistiques. Actes de la 3ème Table ronde de L’Aprodelf, Aix – 18-19 juin.

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Maciel, Maximino. 1887. Grammatica analytica. Rio de Janeiro.. Grammatica descritiva. 1894 [1925]. 21ed. 1894. Rio de Janeiro:

Francisco Alves.Orlandi, Eni P. e Guimarães, E. 1998. La formation d’un espace de production

linguistique. La grammaire du Brésil. Langages – L’hyperlangue brésilienne, 120.Par Sylvain Auroux, Eni Orlandi, Francine Mazière. Paris: Larousse.

Ribeiro, Julio. 1881. Grammatica potugueza. (s.d.) 6ed. São Paulo: N. Falcone &Comp.

Ribeiro, João. 1887. Grammatica portugueza – curso superior. (1904) 11ed. Rio deJaneiro: Francisco Alves.

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REVISTA ILUSTRADAUN DOCUMENT SUR LE LANGAGE DES NOIRS À LA FIN DU XIXe SIÈCLE

MARGARIDA MARIA TADDONI PETTERUniversidade Estadual de São Paulo

Introduction

La presse s’est installée au Brésil au XIXe siècle, après l’arrivée de D.Jean VI etde la famille royale à Rio de Janeiro, en 1808. Vers les années 1850, la presse étaitclairement séparée: presse académique, presse politique, presse littéraire et presseféminine. La presse humoristique précéda la caricature, qui débuta en 1855, avecdes publications régulières. Parmi celles-ci on reconnaît les journaux illustrés, quidisposaient d’une liberté dont la presse politique, plus conservatrice, ne disposaitpas. Parmi ces journaux, la Revista Ilustrada (Revue Illustrée) ressort comme laplus notable publication. Cet hebdomadaire fut publié de 1876 à 1895, à Rio deJaneiro, par Angelo Agostini, qui la dirigea jusqu’à 1888. D’après Nelson WerneckSodré (1966) ce journal est la plus importante publication du genre à l’époque duSecond Empire et il représente l’histoire illustrée de cette période. Selon JoaquimNabuco il était “la bible de l’abolition de ceux qui ne savaient pas lire”, parce que lesscènes qui montraient la souffrance des esclaves ont dû certainement être plusconvainquantes que les discours des abolitionnistes.

La même opinion est partagée par Herman Lima (1963): “il n’y a pas eu, dansle passé de la presse brésilienne, une publication d’une position aussi nette ni deplus haute expression documentaire d’une époque de notre histoire, au point deconstituer d’une façon irrefutable l’une des sources les plus sûres et pondéréespour sa connaissance et son analyse”.

Monteiro Lobato reconnaissait la grande valeur artistique et politique d’Agostini.Lobato mettait l’accent sur la grande diffusion et circulation de la Revista Ilustrada,lue aussi bien en ville qu’à la campagne avec le même plaisir. Les gens admiraientl’art du dessein d’Agostini, un italien qui arriva au Brésil en 1859 et y resta jusqu’àsa mort en 1910. Il a introduit la caricature au Brésil et a été pour certains lecréateur de la bande dessinée (Cagnin 1994).

La Revista Ilustrada est un document où le langage visuel se combine avec lelangage verbal. La plupart des caricatures sont accompagnées d’un sous-titre ou

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d’un dialogue entre les personnages qui représentent les acteurs de la société del’époque. On y voit défiler les habitants du milieu rural et du milieu urbain, les hommeset les femmes, les riches et les pauvres, les Blancs et les Noirs, les Brésiliens et lesétrangers.

Nous nous proposons de démontrer, à partir de l’analyse des textes des dialogues,que cette revue est un document important aussi bien pour la représentation du langagedes Noirs que pour le portugais brésilien de l’époque, dans un genre de texte nonlittéraire: le journal illustré. Nous développons la suggestion présentée par Alkmim, surl’importance des charges (caricatures) comme représentation du langage des Noirs auXIXe siècle (2002: 383-402).

1. Langue écrite et langue parlée

Nous nous intéressons aux dialogues qui accompanent les caricatures parceque ces dialogues écrits peuvent être un moyen pour accéder à l’oralité de l’époqueconcernée. Ces dialogues essayaient de reproduire le langage parlée par lesdifférentes couches sociales et par les différents groupes ethniques. Il est vrai qu’ily a le risque de trouver des stéréotypes, mais ceux-ci sont importants pour l’analyse,puisqu’ils nous renseignent sur les représentations de la variation linguistique àl’époque.

Il convient de rappeler que les documents sur le langage des Noirs au Brésil sontrares. Il existe beaucoup de travaux sociologiques et historiques sur l’esclavage, lesconditions de vie des populations noires, les religions des Noirs, mais presque rien n’aété écrit sur leur langage. Au XVIe et XVIIe siécles il n’y a pas de références à celangage. Au XIXe s., il y a quelques indications dans les textes des historiens, desvoyageurs et des écrivains. Par contre, la pressse – les journaux illustrés surtout – nousoffre une opportunité singulière: celle de représenter le langage des noirs dans un contextede contestation de l’esclavage.

Dans ce sens, nous allons examiner des dialogues extraits de trois numérosde la Revista Ilustrada: le premier publié avant l’abolition de l’esclavage, en1886, nº 425, et les deux autres publiés après l’abolition, en 1888, les numéros499 et 510.

2. Les dialogues des caricatures

(i) 1886 – nº 425Le dessein nous montre un salon où il y a une jeune fille assise sur un canapé,

avec deux monsieurs assis à ses côtés. D’un côté il y a un vieillard, un chapeau à lamain droite et portant à la main gauche une boîte de bijoux; de l’autre côté il y a un

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jeune, le chapeau à la main et un mouchoir avec lequel il essaye de cacher deslarmes. Au fond de la scène il y a un rideau, derrière lequel se cachent deux filles,des jeunes esclaves.

Il y a un titre: A Nação Brasileira entre dois partidos políticos, no dia da eleição‘La Nation Brésilienne entre deux partis politiques, le jour des élections (le 15

janvier 1886)’

[Les deux partis politiques Lib. = libérateur; Cons.= conservateur]

(à esquerda) Cons. – Então, és minha, não é assim?

Nação – Que remedio tenho eu senão entregar-me ao Snr.! Eu antes queria o outro, mas elleficou desempregado e já não me pode sustentar...

(no centro) – Lib. – Ah, perfida!

(à direita) – Uê! E não é que a Sinhá aceitou o velho!– Chii! Não é tão cedo, agora, que nós fica forro.

“(à gauche) Cons. – Alors, tu es à moi, n’est-ce pasNation – Que puis-je faire sinon me livrer à vous? Jadis j’aurais préféré l’autre, mais il est au

chômage à présent et il ne peut plus m’entretenir...

(au centre) – Lib. – Ah, perfide!(à droite) – Uê! Et voilá que Sinhá (mademoiselle) a accepté le vieillard!

– Chii! Ce ne sera pas de si tôt, maintenant, que nous est [sommes] affranchi[es].”

Malgré l’impact du langage visuel, que malheureusement nous ne pouvons pasreproduire ici, il est évident que le message verbal donne des informations importantesque l’image ne peut pas transmettre: l’identité des personnages et le sujet de leurdiscours. Les dialogues reflètent les conflits entre deux groupes de personnages:ceux qui décident et ceux qui dépendent des choix des “maîtres”. Leur langagereproduit aussi ces différences sociales: la Nation et les deux messieurs s’exprimentdans un niveau de langue standard, très proche du portugais européen, marqué surtoutpar la place des pronoms clitiques (me). Le langage des servantes ne respecte pasles règles d’accord: nombre et personne, pour le verbe “ficar”- fica, au lieu deficamos; genre et nombre pour l’adjectif, masculin à la place du féminin, singulierpour le pluriel: forro à la place de forras. Le décor de la scène montre que tout sepasse dans un milieu urbain.

Après l’abolition

(ii) 1888- nº 499Dans la première page de la Revue: Un Noir déchaussé, la houe à la main, deux

hommes blancs à ses côtés, en montrant des billets et posant leurs mains sur les épauleset les bras du Noir.

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En bas il y a le titre et les commentaires du Noir:

A lavoura e os actuaes libertos. “Le labour et les actuels libérés.”– Uê ! Honte tanta lambada p’ra trabaiá, e hoje só dinhero e adulação. Eh! Eh!“– Uê! Hier quantité de coups de fouet pour travailler, aujourd’hui argent et flatteries seulement.Eh!Eh!”

Cette fois-ci la scène se passe en milieu rural où le Noir n’est plus exploité, mais ilest flatté et bien payé pour cultiver le champ. Cette caricature pourrait se passer dulangage verbal, mais celui-ci est important parce qu’il réitère le langage visuel et ajoutedes commentaires de l’ancien esclave sur le changement opéré par l’abolition. L’ex-esclave continue d’utiliser le portugais d’une façon particulière, comme le montrent cesécarts à la norme: la chute de la nasale finale (honte-)[ontem], l’iéisme – la latéralepalate devient [j], la chute de la finale [r] de l’infinitif “trabaiá” [trabalhar] et la réductionde la diphtongue [ej] “dinhero” [dinheiro].

(iii) 1888 – nº 510Il y a deux pages avec 4 caricatures sous le titre: A festa da Glória e alguns efeitos

da lei de 13 de maio – “La fête de la Gloire et quelques effets de la loi du 13 Mai” (ladate de l’abolition)

1ère caricature – montre une famille noire bien habillée (père, mère et deux enfants)avec le sous-titre:

Pai Zuzé Congo e sua Exma familia“Père Zuzé Congo et son excellentissime famille”

2e caricature – Il y a un Noir bien habillé, assis, les chaussettes et les chaussures àcôté, en massant ses pieds. Comme sous-titre il y a le commentaire du personnage:

– Liberdade é muito bom, mas cria callos que é o diabo!– “La liberté c’est très bien, mais cela fait des cors......c’est un enfer! “

3e caricature: Deux noirs bien habillés, debout, discutent, l’un d’eux tient leschaussures à la main. Comme sous-titre il y a le suivant commentaire du personnage:

– Fiquei com o corpo livre, mas estou com os pés no captiveiro!– Mon corps est devenu libre, mais j’ai (encore) les pieds en captivité!”

4e caricature: Un Noir bien habillé observe que la poche de derrière de son pantalonest vide. Comme sous-titre il y a le commentaire du personnage:

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– Roubado pelas gatunas ! Eis uma sensação que nunca tive antes da lei!“– Volé par des filous! Voilà une sensation que je n’ai jamais eue avant la loi!”

Toutes ces quatre caricatures montrent, avec ironie et humour, les Noirs du milieuurbain comme des personnes des classes moyennes: soit bien adaptés à leur nouvellesituation (caricature 1), soit critiques de cette nouvelle position sociale, remarquant lesinconvénients qu’elle apporte au corps et à la poche (caricatures 2,3,4). Leur langageaussi est bien (adapté) au milieu social, il ne s’éloigne pas de la norme. Il n’y a qu’uneforme déviante, dans le sous-titre du premier dessein, qui renvoie à la façon de parlerdes Noirs: ‘Pai’, “père” pour Monsieur, et le nom Zuzé pour José (Joseph, où le [z]prend la place de [Z] et la voyelle [o] en position non accentuée devient [u].

3. Analyse

Etant donné que la Revista Ilustrada fut publiée à Rio de Janeiro, les faits de langueobservés dans tous les textes analysés sont limités à leur contexte de production – laville de Rio de Janeiro. Par ailleurs, pour affirmer qu’il s’agit de la représentation d’uneexpression particulière à la population noire, les données doivent être mises en rapportavec d’autres représentations de langage non standard de la même époque, commecelles des étrangers et des paysans.

Les caricatures publiées avant l’abolition montrent le langage marqué de la populationnoire, caractérisé par des expressions stéréotypées. Le Blanc parle un portugais plutôt“européanisé”, très conforme à la grammaire portugaise, le Noir présente une expressiondifférente, “africanisée” peut-être. Après l’abolition, les caricatures nous montrent uneséparation entre les parlers ruraux et les parlers urbains associés à la situation économiquedes locuteurs noirs: le travailleur noir à la campagne parle comme un étranger, un Africain;en ville, le Noir, avec assez d’argent, parle comme un Blanc. Cette situation est le refletdu changement de la société brésilienne – un pays rural qui devient un pays urbain. En1900, 61% de la population vivait en milieu urbain (aujourd’hui 82%, 2000).L’urbanisation a eu comme corollaire linguistique l’effacement d’une variation régionaleen faveur d’une variation plutôt sociale, qui opposait des locuteurs de niveauxsocioculturels distincts, les couches les plus basses s’intègrant progressivement à lapopulation d’origine rurale.

En guise de conclusion

Le Noir libre, habitant le milieu rural, tel qu’il est présenté dans la Revista Ilustrada“parle comme un Blanc”. A partir du moment où il obtient sa liberté, et devient un citoyen,s’effacent tous les vestiges de son portugais marqué par le fait d’être africain. Cette“appropriation”/ aquisition rapide du langage standard, non marqué, est exceptionnelle

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dans la représentation du parler des Noirs dans la littérature en langue portugaise. Déjàau XVIème siècle, Gil Vicent, l’auteur portugais qui a introduit des Noirs dans son théâtre,nous montrait des personnages d’origine africaine incapables de bien parler le portugais.Dans son œuvre Frágoa d’amor (1524) il y a un personnage noir qui a son voeu exaucé– il devient Blanc. Le miracle, cependant n’est pas complet et le Noir se desespère, parcequ’il se rend compte que son expression en portugais n’avait pas “blanchi”, il continuait àparler comme un Africain, avec la même prononciation et la même syntaxe “fautives”.

La représentation du portugais marqué des Africains construite par Gil Vicente,le premier modèle de la représentation du langage des Noirs, a été très répanduecomme l’image du portugais des Noirs, de leur incapacité innée, viscérale debien parler le portugais.

Les Noirs du milieu urbain des caricatures d’Agostini sont moins marqués que ceuxde Gil Vicente. Cependant, ils gardent toujours une difficulté d’adaptation à leur nouvellecondition d’hommes libres, même s’ils parlent comme des Blanc. Il leur manque uneadaptation à la vie en société et qui les sépare des Blancs. Du point de vue de leurlangage, restent des formes indissociables de leur image: le remplacement des fricatives/Zð/ par /zð/, dans Zuão à la place de João et les expressions Pai (Père), Mãe (Mère)utilisées par les Africains pour s’adresser respectueusement à d’autres Noirs.

Les caricatures propagent les stéréotypes construits sur le langage des différentslocuteurs/acteurs de la société brésilienne. Malgré l’exagération, elles reflètent uneobservation attentive de plusieurs caractéristiques phonétiques et syntaxiques du langagede l’époque.

Les faits de langue observés – absence d’accord en nombre dans le syntagmenominal et dans le verbe, surtout – se sont conservés jusqu’à aujourd’hui dans lesdialectes ruraux et dans les variétés non standard du portugais brésilien.

RÉFÉRENCES

Alkmim, Tania Maria. 2002. Estereótipos lingüísticos: Negros em Charges do séc.XIX.In Alkmim, T. M (org.) Para a História do Português Brasileiro- volume III:Novos estudos. São Paulo: Humanitas/FFLCH/USP.

Cagnin, Antonio Luiz. 1994. Diabo Coxo: o primeiro jornal ilustrado de São Paulo.Leitura, 13: 149. Publicação Cultural da Imprensa Oficial do Estado S.S. – IMESP.

Lima, Herman. 1963. História da Caricatura no Brasil. 4 volumes. Rio de Janeiro:José Olympio.

Sodré, Nelson Werneck. 1966. A História da Imprensa no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro:Civilização Brasileira.

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THE “ARRESTED EVOLUTION”NOTION, THEORIES, MYTH?

EKATERINA VELMEZOVALausanne University (Switzerland)

Russian Academy of Sciences

Whenever the notion of arrested evolution is mentioned in linguistic works, it isnever clearly defined. That is why one should better speak of a simple word-combinationthan of a precise notion, or of a term. The majority of these works are those by theRussian and Soviet linguist N.Ya.Marr (1864-1934), his colleagues and pupils. Marr,the creator of the “new language theory” (novoe uc Ëenie ob jazyke), has always beenvery well-known in the Soviet Union, especially in his life-time. Between 1920 and1950, his linguistic theory (also known as “marrism”, a common noun derivative fromthe proper name of its author) was considered as the “official doctrine” in Soviet linguisticsand provoked all kinds of reactions, from disdain and mockery to recognition andrespect, except indifference. As one of his pupils said, the name of Marr “was if not themost famous, at least the most sensational and scandalous (šumnoe) in the history oflinguistics” (Abaev 1960: 90). Yet in 1950, during the public discussion in the Pravdanewspaper, it was disapproved by J.Stalin who had decided to participate personallyin the linguistic life of the Soviet Union. Subsequently, the immoderate praises for thebenefit of Marr were quickly replaced with anathema and numerous charges, particularlywith those accusing Marr’s theories of lack of any scientific value.

Let us note, however, that Marr has never had either accomplished or non-contradictory theories; he was always changing something, up to the key arguments, inhis doctrines, to the horror of his students and pupils (Zvegincev 1990: 9; Rafail 1930:161). Nevertheless here is a brief summary of his theories, presented by I.Mešc Ëaninov(1883-1967), one of Marr’s most loyal pupils:

1. all languages present various formulations in the process of the human languagedevelopment;

2. in their evolution, all languages are going through a number of stages, one afteranother in a determined succession;

3. these stages are determined by socio-economic features of the corresponding societies,resulting in a particular world vision;

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4. so constituted, all languages could be characterized with particular features and thusclassified as specific systems;

5. the typical features of both stages and systems are unstable. They are constantlychanging, as a result of which the whole equilibrium is lost, provoking the languages’passage from an inferior stage to a superior one (MešcËaninov 1929:138).

The majority of works by Marr and his pupils were written in Russia and in the SovietUnion in the first third of the XXth century and were evolutionist, par excellence. That is,they presented the language development as an evolution through several (four, moreprecisely) stages replacing one another successively. When a new stage is reached, theformer one does not disappear completely, but continues to exist without any changes,i.e. it stops in its development – that is why the linguists in the Soviet Union used theexpression of arrested evolution.

In particular, in the early 1930s Soviet linguists distinguished three stages of languagedevelopment which could be classified as stopped in their evolution. They spoke of:

1) the first stage languages (Chinese, a number of African languages);2) the second stage languages (Turkish, Mongolian, the Finno-Ugrian languages);3) the third stage languages, called “Japhetic” at that time (the Caucasian and Semiticlanguages, as well as the languages of unknown origin, as Basque).4) as to the fourth language stage (i.e. the languages which continued to evolve), itincluded mainly the Indo-European languages (Marr 1928: 405; see also C Ë ikobava1985: 16).

According to the marrists, each of these stages corresponded to one particular typeof social relations which, in their turn, reflected the level of development of the means ofproduction (Marr 1924b: 4). This thesis could be compared with the marxist idea onthe interdependency in the development of basis and super-structure. In particular,Marr supposed that the Indo-European languages presented just a specific form of theresult of language hybridization (Marr 1924b). In fact, another idea by Marr was thatlanguages developed from a primary multitude towards unity: he turned upside-downthe comparativists’ traditional pyramid which represented the opposite direction oflanguage evolution, that is, from unity – the ancestor language, parent language or proto-language – to variety (see for instance Marr 1926). As to the Indo-European languages,in accordance with Marr they owed their origin to the new forms of social relations,arisen thanks to the discoveries of metallurgy and the use of metals in the production ofvarious kinds of tools (Marr 1924b: 4).

One can see in this marrist conception of language evolution by stages a certainnumber of points of intersection with the linguistic ideas of the Schlegel brothers and ofW.von Humboldt. It allowed some historians of linguistics to consider the works by

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Marr and his pupils as nothing but a weak and faint echo of the German linguists of theXIXth century (Alpatov 1991: 121; Alpatov 1999: 113-115).

Is it really so? Even if one particular work or one particular theory seems to resemblecertain old ideas, de facto it will always reflect, in one way or another, the epoch of itsappearance. That is why the resemblance of this kind, which can be striking at first sight, isvery superficial, while a closer analysis of the corresponding theories leads to the discoveryof their specifity. In its turn, the latter is very often a mirror of the corresponding epoch, of itsdominating paradigms or of its air du temps.

In the 1930s, the problem of the speed of language evolution (or, as in our specificcase, its zero speed) was not only discussed by as “exotic” linguists as Marr and hiscolleagues. In his article “Mysli ob indoevropejskoj probleme” (“Thoughts on the Indo-European Problem”), written in 1936, Nikolaj Trubetskoy compares the evolutionaryspeed of two families of languages, the Indo-European and the Altaic languages.According to him, during the so-called prehistoric age, the Indo-European languages,unlike, in particular, the Altaic ones, had failed to pass beyond their inflexional grammaticalstructure. At the same time, they had been striving for an agglutinative structure, atwhich the same Altaic languages had finally arrived. That is why Trubetskoy supposesthat at present the Indo-European languages continue to develop in the same directionand to change much more quickly than the agglutinative languages, i.e. languages with arelatively stable organization (Trubeckoj 1987: 59).

As we can see, in the 1930s the problem of the language evolution speed wasdiscussed in the works of such antagonists as Marr and Trubetskoy. Let us recall thatwhile commenting upon Marr’s theories in his letter to Roman Jakobson, Trubetskoywrote that they were more closely related to psychiatry than to linguistics (Trubetskoy1975:74-75). As to Jakobson, answering this letter he called Marr’s ideas “sheernonsense of a paranoia-patient” (Trubetskoy 1975: 75). And yet the same problemwas raised in the works of these two linguists-antagonists. But for Marr the Indo-European languages presented the top of language evolution, while for Trubetskoy theirinflexional structure was a striking illustration of their backwardness, compared withthe development of agglutinative languages.

The Schlegel brothers were the first to put forward, in the early XIXth century, adistinction between amorphous languages (called isolating, at present) and agglutinativeand inflexional languages. They were inclined to interpret this difference in thegrammatical structures of languages as reflecting various stages in the developmentof human thought.

On the other hand, von Humboldt distinguished four stages in language evolution,among which the first three ones corresponded to the isolating, agglutinative andinflexional grammatical structures. According to him, this difference in the structure oflanguages was related to the stages in the evolution of human thought.

Thus the resemblance of Marr’s theories with those of the German linguists is rathersmall and it seems that nothing repeats itself in the history of ideas.

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For the German linguists of the XIXth century, the boundaries between the differentstages in the evolution of language were exterior to language. Taken at one particular moment,every language could be defined as belonging to one – and only one – certain stage.

This idea counted partially for the theories of Russian and Soviet linguists. It wasthe arrested development of Chinese which they discussed most often. In particular,Esperantist Andrej Andreev said that the Chinese language had stopped in itsdevelopment before Jesus Christ, because the social life in China had been organizedaccording to the Confucius principles, i.e. rather strict and rigid doctrines resisting tothe idea of evolution (Andreev 1930: 36).

This theory presupposes that the language follows the development (or, in our case,rather the absence of any development) of the corresponding society. On the other hand,these ties are reciprocal, and if the peculiarities of social life determine the nature of thecorresponding language, the opposite is also right. It allowed Marr to affirm: as Chinesehad stopped in its development, the Chinese people “stay far behind in the general worldevolution” (Marr 1927: 135).

Yet if the economic situation in China at that time permitted him to put forward suchideas, other languages and peoples could sometimes cause him problems. For instance,up to the end of his life he could not explain why in Japan, a country with highly developedindustrial technologies, an agglutinative language was still spoken, a language which,according to him, had no longer developed for several centuries.

At the same time, Marr and his pupils could also draw boundary-lines between thedifferent stages of language evolution inside the languages, unlike the German linguistsof the XIXth century, for whom these boundaries were always exterior, with respect tolanguages. Marr argued that in every language, at every stage of its evolution, one coulddiscern at several levels certain elements of its previous stages, the “strata of differentstages”. On the phonetic level, in particular, it was the possibility to trace all the wordsin all modern languages to the “four primary elements” which, as Marr supposed, hadreplaced the sign language of gestures and constituted the origin of sound language (sal,yon, ber, roš), originally representing the language of the ruling caste of magicians. “Thepenetration into the very middle of linguistic stages is practically impossible without the“element analysis”, said one of Marr’s pupils in 1935 (Bašindz Ëagjan 1935). All wordsin all languages, according to Marr, are derived from these elements or from theircombinations. For instance, it was the roš element which gave birth to such words askrasnyj ‘red’ and russkij ‘Russian’ in Russian, rouge and rot ‘red’ in French in German,correspondingly (Marr 1924a: 115-116).

Yet Marr supposed that phonetic traces of ancient language stages could be mosteasily discovered in the proper names of tribes (“There are no words which are notderived from the names of tribes” [Marr 1926: 207]), which had originally been thegods’ names and become geographic terms. It means that serving as striking illustrationsof the previous stages in language evolution, the proper names change much slower thatthe common nouns.

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As to the syntactic level, impersonal constructions in modern languages could beconsidered as traces of the past, of the stopped language evolution.

In the early 1930s, Marr analyses the verbal system in Georgian (Marr 1932). Inparticular, he treats the “impersonal verbs” in the Georgian language as descendants offormer personal (from the semantic point of view) constructions. A totem, a geniusserved as a semantic subject in the corresponding propositions. According to Marr, inthe pre-historic age the “personal sense” did not lack in the constructions corresponding,for instance, to the French propositions Il fait froid (‘It is cold’), Il fait chaud (‘It ishot’): it was “a general or collective person”, that of a totem, which had not beendifferentiated yet (Marr 1932:316).

Thus the French construction J’ai froid (‘I am cold’) in Georgian means literally ‘Ilme fait froid’ (‘It makes me cold’), where ‘il’ (‘it’) is “a totem, or an implicated genius”(Marr 1932:315).

In the same spirit, Marr discusses certain constructions called impersonal in hisarticle of 1931 “Jazyk i myšlenie” (“Language and Thought”) (Marr 1931). He saysthat in the propositions Il fait chaud or Es ist warm (‘It is hot’) the ‘God of the Sun’is meant as a semantic subject; in the propositions Il pleut or Es regnet (‘It rains’) it isthe question of the ‘God of the Rain’, while in the Russian construction Menja lixoradit(‘I am in a fever’) – that of the ‘God of the Illness’ (Marr 1931:91-92). Though hedoes not refer to the notion of animism, highly appreciated by the representatives of theBritish anthropological school (E.Tylor, J.Frazer) at the end of the XIXth century, defacto he discusses it. The theory of animism presupposed that primitive people saw“spirits” and “genii” in all phenomena of nature. So Marr remains true to his convictionsand analyses even facts of modern languages from a pre-historic point of view.

In time, Marr supposes, there is a semantic evolution: the former subject of action(for instance, the ‘cold’ in the case of the French structure Il fait froid) becomes anobject of action, while the former object (‘me’) takes the role of subject (‘I’). Soinstead of ‘Le froid (il) me fait froid’ (‘The cold [it] makes me cold’) we get ‘J’ai froid’(‘I am [‘I have’] cold’), at the semantic level. At the same time, the whole verbalconstruction (probably because of the conservative nature of language and the arrestedevolution principle) does not change.

In accordance with Marr, the impersonal verbs in modern languages are descendantsof the “verbs of action”, while the impersonal structures could be considered asarchaisms, “vestiges”, the “traces of the past” in the languages – among many otherarchaisms, typical of every modern language (Marr 1931: 91-92).

After Marr’s death, this style of thinking was taken over by his pupil I.I.MešcËaninov.In particular, comparing the French construction Il fait froid with the proposition havingthe same sense in the Nemepu language (one of the North American Indians’ languages)Hi-yawtsana, MešcËaninov considers the French structure a “vestige” which had oncebeen a norm for the whole language – in the “pre-historic” age, when the ‘cold’ (in this

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case) was still thought about as a subject (MešcËaninov 1941). At the same time,MešcËaninov supposed the Nemepu system more archaic than that of French, as,according to him, in Nemepu this verbal construction differs neither in its form nor in itssense from all other structures. It allows him to ascertain that there are no abstractimpersonal propositions in this language. Though speaking of the “cold” in the functionof subject MešcËaninov does not use the term of “totem” (highly appreciated by Marr),he utilizes the ideas and conceptions of his teacher.

The notion of arrested evolution in linguistics had its analogies in the social sciencesand in biology, where it concerned the stopped development of an individual. Let usremember the theory of monstrosity. It was in the XIXth century that the scientificexplanations of monstrosity were elaborated and the teratology was born at the crossingof comparative anatomy and embryology. Meckel le Jeune explains certain types ofmonstrosity with stops of development, and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire replaces the notionof “late” with that of “stopped”, “arrested”. According to him, monstrosity is nothingbut a stop of the development of a particular organ at the stage which is passed beyondby the others. That is a survival of a transitional embryonic form. For an organism ofone certain species, a today’s monstrosity was a normal state in the past. And if wetake a series of species in order to compare them, it could happen that the monstrousforms of certain of them would be quite normal for others (see Canguilhem 1992: 179).

The arrested evolution has also some analogies in the social sciences – that is theconception of societies’ late development in the works of Engels. Let us recall an extractfrom the Family’s Origins, where he says that various societies go through differentstages in their social and economic development at different speeds, which is determined,first of all, by their geographic position and the available minerals. For instance, Engelsexplains the arrested development of the American autochtons with the absence ofpotentially domestic animals in the Western hemisphere. That is why, according to Engels,the American Indians were far behind the Greeks (Engels 1948: 117).

Conclusions

The arrested evolution expression appears frequently in the works of the Russian andSoviet linguists in the first third of the XXth century. Despite its certain resemblance with thetheories of German linguists of the XIXth century (von Humboldt and the Schlegel brothers),it is the problem of boundaries which remains crucial and differently interpreted in the twocases. If for the German linguists the boundaries between various stages in the developmentof languages are exterior to the languages, the Soviet linguists saw them inside the languages.

We should not forget that the problem of boundaries was very often discussedin Russia and in the Soviet Union during the first third of the XXth century.Boundaries “disappeared” between the languages (this tradition comes from thenotion of Sprachmischung by H.Schuchardt [1922]), as well as between the literary

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genres: literary critic A.N.Veselovskij spoke of the absence of boundaries between thepoetic genres in ancient societies (Veselovskij 1939), while M.M. Bakhtine thoughtthat certain works of Dostoevskij could not be described within the framework of thetraditional repartition of genres (Bakhtine 1963).

The phenomenon of the disappearance of boundaries has touched even biology:proposed in the early 1920s by the Soviet biologist L. Berg, the model of “convergenceevolution” presupposed a possibility to mix various vegetal species.

On the other hand, Marr’s ideas on the arrested evolution of languages had certainpoints of intersection with the ideas of the French anthropological school with respect toboundaries between various types of human thought. In particular, according to L.Lévy-Bruhl, logic thought does not completely replace the original forms of thinking (pre-logicthought), which can be proved by a great number of prejudices and superstitions existingeven in modern societies: pre-logic does not mean anti-logic (Lévy-Bruhl 1910: 455).This time, it concerned the illustrations of the arrested evolution of human thought.

In general, our analysis of the expression of arrested evolution in the works of Russianand Soviet linguists allows us to see that very often, linguistic theories have more in commonwith the ideas appearing in other disciplines at the same epoch, than with the linguisticconceptions of previous epochs, despite their resemblance, seeming striking at first sight.

And if the influence of the dominating ideology on language has never been proved,its influence on the linguistic theories seems quite evident.

REFERENCES

Abaev, V.I. 1960. “N.Ya.Marr (1864-1934). K 25-letiju so dnja smerti”: [N.Ya.Marr(1864-1934). To the 25th Anniversary of his Death]. Voprosy jazykoznanija, N1.

Alpatov, V.M. 1991. Istorija odnogo mifa. Marr i marrizm. [The History of OneMyth. Marr and Marrism]. Moskow: Nauka.

. 1999. “Dissidenty indoevropeizma”: [The Dissidents of Indo-Europeanism]. Alpatov, V.M. Istorija lingvisticËeskix ucËenij. Moskow: Jazyki ruskojkul’tury.

Andreev, A.P. 1930. Jazyk i myšlenie. Opyt issledovanija na base materialisticËeskojjafeticËeskoj teorii. [Language and Thought. Investigation Based on the MaterialistJafetic Theory]. Moscow: CK SESR, Internacional’naja 39-ja tipografija“Mospoligraf”.

Bakhtine, M.M.1963. Problemy poetiki Dostoevskogo. [The Problems ofDostoevsky’s Poetics]. Moscow: Sovetskij pisatel’.

Bašindz Ëagjan, L.G. 1935. “ZacËem nuz Ëny cËetyre elementa?”: [Why do We Need theFour Elements?]. Akademija nauk SSSR akademiku N.Ya.Marru. Moskow-Leningrad.

Canguilhem, G. 1992. “La monstruosité et le monstrueux”. Canguilhem, G. Laconnaissance de la vie. Paris: Vrin.

CË ikobava, A.S. 1985. “Kogda i kak eto bylo?”: [When and How it was?]. Yez Ëegodnikiberijsko-kavkazskogo jazykoznanija, XII.

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Engels, F. 1948. L’origine de la famille, de la propriété privée et de l’état. Paris:Alfred Costes.

Lévy-Bruhl, L. 1910. Les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures. Paris:Félix Alcan.

Marr, N.Ya. 1924a. “Iz jafeticËeskix perez Ëitkov v russkom jazyke”: [On Japhetic Vestigesin the Russian Language]. Marr, N.Ya. Izbrannye raboty, I-V. Vol.V. 1935.Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe social’no-ekonomicËeskoe izdatel’stvo.

. 1924b.“Ob jafeticËeskoj teorii”: [On the Japhetic Theory]. Marr, N.Ya.Izbrannye raboty, I-V. Vol. III. 1934. Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoesocial’no-ekonomicËeskoe izdatel’stvo.

. 1926. “O proisxoz Ëdenii jazyka”: [On the Language Origins]. Marr, N.Ya.Izbrannye raboty, I-V. Vol. III. 1934. Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoesocial’no-ekonomicËeskoe izdatel’stvo.

. 1927. “Jazyk”: [The Language]. Marr, N.Ya. Izbrannye raboty, I-V.Vol.II. 1936. Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe social’no-ekonomicËeskoeizdatel’stvo.

. 1928. “PocËemu tak trudno stat’ lingvistom-teoretikom”: [Why is it SoDifficult to Become Linguist-Teoretician]. Marr, N.Ya. Izbrannye raboty, I-V. Vol.II.1936. Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe social’no-ekonomicËeskoe izdatel’stvo.

. 1931. “Jazyk i myšlenie”: [Language and Thought]. Marr, N.Ya. Izbrannyeraboty, I-V. Vol. III. 1934. Moscow-Leningrad. Gosudarstvennoe social’no-ekonomieskoe izdatel’stvo.

. 1932. “BezlicËnye, nedostatocËnye, sušcËestvitel’nye i vspomogatel’nyeglagoly”: [Impersonal, Insufficient, Substantive and Auxiliary Verbs]. Marr, N.Ya.Izbrannye raboty, I-V. Vol.II. 1936. Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoesocial’no-ekonomicËeskoe izdatel’stvo.

MešcËaninov, I.I. 1929. Vvedenie v jafetidologiju. [Introduction to the Japhetidology].Leningrad: Priboj.

. 1941. “GlottogonicËeskij process i problema stadial’nosti” [The“Glottogonic” Process and the Problem of Stages]. Izvestija Akademii nauk SSSR.Otdelenie literatury i jazyka. 1941, N3.

Rafail, M. 1930. “Marksizm i jafeticËeskaja teorija”: [The marxism and the JapheticTheory]. Novyj Vostok, 28. Moscow.

Schuchardt, H. 1922. “Sprachmischung”: Hugo Schuchardt-Brevier. Ein Vademekumder allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft. Als Festgabe zum 80. Geburstag desMeisters zusammengestellt und eingeleitet (Leo Spitzer, ed.), Halle: MaxNiemeyer.

Trubeckoj [Trubetskoy], N.S. 1987. “Mysli ob indoevropejskoj probleme”: [Thoughtson the Indo-European Problem]. Trubeckoj, N.S. Izbrannye trudy po filologii.Moscow: Progress.

Trubetskoy, N.S. 1975. Letters and Notes. The Hague: Mouton.Veselovskij, A.N. 1939. Izbrannye stat’i. [Selected Articles]. Leningrad:

XudozËestvennaja literatura.Zvegincev, V. A. 1990. “CË to proisxodit v sovetskoj nauke o jazyke?”: [What is Happening

in the Soviet Linguistic Science?]. Jazyk i social’noe poznanie. Moscow:Proizvodstvenno-izdatel’skij kombinat VINITI.

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ON THE DEFENSE OF VON KEMPELEN AS THEPREDECESSOR OF EXPERIMENTAL

PHONETICS AND SPEECH SYNTHESIS RESEARCH1

PLÍNIO A. BARBOSAUniversidade Estadual de Campinas

1. Introduction

Several accounts of von Kempelen’s machine, book and legacy are available in theliterature, such as those by Ondrejovi (1996), Pompino-Marschall (1991), Dudley &Tarnoczy (1950), as well as the introduction by Brekle & Wildgen (1970) for thefacsimile edition of the referred book.

This paper recalls the nature of von Kempelen’s contributions and examines the usehe made of his sources to build the speaking machine, without forgetting the twentyyears of trials before arriving at the final version.

By insisting on the role of modeling for acquiring knowledge, we claim that it isindeed the XVIII century – and not the XVII, as Fagyal (2001) sustains – that led tothe invention of the (automatic) speaking machine, which determines this century as the“legitimate birthdate of text-to-speech synthesis” (Fagyal 2001:290).

2. A XVIIITH Century model of speech – sound production

Wolfgang von Kempelen (Kempelen Farkas in Hungarian) was a lawyer, an engineer,an automata builder and an artist in his time, who built some devices which made thelives of Eastern Europeans easier – one of them was a press machine for Maria TheresiaParadis, a blind musician (Pompino-Marschal 1991; Ondrejovi 1996). In 1769 hestarts building his machine, which he will finish only in 1791, even though he had presentedprevious versions during a European tournée between 1783 and 1785 (see Pompino-Marschall 1991 for contemporary reports). The machine and the steps for building itare detailed in the fifth part of Kempelen’s book, Mechanismus der menschlichenSprache nebst Beschreibung einer sprechenden Maschine where, after an introductionon the nature of language, he continues by giving a 456-page account of language origin

1. This work was partially financed by a research grant (n° 350382/98-0) from CNPq. It is integratedto the Fapesp project number 01/00136-2: “Integrating Continuity and Discreteness in ModelingPhonic and Lexical Knowledge”.

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in chapter two, language functioning (including several aspects related to speechproduction and perception) in chapter three, and pronunciation and spelling of Europeanlanguages in chapter four. The publication of the 195 copies of his book was consideredan important event in his time, with the presence of important personalities (Pompino-Marschal 1991; Ondrejovi 1996; Dudley & Tarnoczy 1950).

Figure 1: A picture of von Kempelen’s machine (in the Deutsches Museum of Munich),reproduced from the site <http://www.ling.su.se/staff/hartmut/kemplne.htm> with Hartmut

Traunmüller’s permission.

In his book, Kempelen synthesizes in a masterly way what is needed to build amodel of the speech apparatus: “Zu einer Sprechmaschine braucht man also weiternichts, dacht ich, als eine Lunge, eine Stimmritze, und einen Mund” (Kempelen1791:398). He recognizes what today is identified by the three subsystems of speechproduction: respiratory (for which the lungs are the crucial organ), laryngeal (the vocalfolds, which define the glottis, are the main structures), and supra-laryngeal (the mouthand the nasal tract are the relevant units).

By the manually-controlled operation of its structures, Von Kempelen’s machinesimulates the final stage of the speech production mechanism: the articulation forproducing sound. This operation can be described as follows (refer to figure 1). Bythe cadenced action of the right elbow, the (trained) operator ensures that the bellows(attached to the right end) produce a series of puffs of air. The fingers of the righthand control the levers to yield plosive sounds. Two fingers can also close or leaveopen the holes visible in Figure 1 to respectively produce oral or nasal sounds. Bythese manual actions, the machine is able to produce several fricative, plosive andnasal sounds (circa twenty sounds). The vowels were not so intelligible, but theircontrast is obtained by shaping, with the left hand, the resonator at the left end ofFigure 1 (Dudley & Tarnoczy 1950; Tillmann 1994).

3. Speaking machines’ witnesses and legacy

The twenty years spent in building the machine were rewarded by a spectaculartechnical achievement: the machine in Figure 1 is still operational (Traunmüller 2000

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witnesses that he operated it in 1997, and that he was surprised by its good conditionsand by the feminine – almost childish – voice of the machine). Another enthusiasticaccount can be found in the Journal de Sçavans, 1783 edition (p. 629-630), whichreports:

Mais on voit chez lui [Kempelen] une autre machine qui n’a pas moins de mérite: c’est unemachine qui parle & qui articule assez distinctement: Maman, aimez moi, allons à Paris, &c.Nous avons rendu compte du Mémoire qui a remporté le Prix de l’Académie de Pétersbourgen 1780, par M. Kratzenstein, sur la manière d’exprimer les sons des voyelles par des tuyauxd’orgues: mais on n’éttoit pas encore parvenue à imiter l’articulation des consonnes, &cette enterprise de M. de Kempelen annonce un talent également singulier; il est à désirerqu’il publie bientôt les moyens (apud Pompino-Marschall 1991:199)

The von Kempelen speaking machine continued to cause sensation for a centuryand a half. In the XIX century, the reproductions by the British physicist Sir CharlesWheatstone and by the Swiss mathematician Joseph Faber (Dudley & Tarnoczy 1950,Traunmüller 2000) attracted the attention of several scholars.

Faber’s machine, Euphonia, for instance, finished in 1835 and demonstrated inLondon in 1846, could be operated with a keyboard. A pedal allowed the control ofthe “laryngeal” tone (see Figure 2) (Flanagan 1972).

Figure 2: Euphonia, reproduced from the http://mambo.ucsc.edu/psl/smus/smus.html withpermission of D. Massaro.

Du Moncel reports on the Euphonia

On s’est étonné que la machine parlante qui nous est venue, il y a quelques annéesd’Amérique, et qui a été exihibée au Grand-Hôtel fût d’une extrême complication, alorsque le phonographe résolvait le problème d’une manière si simple: c’est que l’une de cesmachines ne faisait que reproduire la parole, tandis que l’autre l’émettait, et l’inventeurde cette dernière machine avait dû, dans son mécanisme, mettre à contribution tous les

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organes, qui dans notre organisme, concourent à la production de la parole (Moncel 1880apud Köster 1973).

In the above passage, two methods for reproducing (speech) sound can beidentified. The first, realized by the phonograph, records the acoustic signal withoutreference to articulation. The second, realized by Faber’s machine (and vonKempelen’s), simulates the movement of the speech organs. The two modernmethods of doing Speech Synthesis, acoustic (concatenative and parametric) andarticulatory, can be recognized in this report.

In the XX century, the first electric speech synthesizers were (acoustic andarticulatory) models of the speech sound production (see Dudley & Tarnoczy 1950and Flanagan 1972 for details).

4. Kempelen’s sources and legacy of the mechanismus

Fagyal (2001) defends the idea by which the knowledge of musical sound productionthat can be found in the third volume of Sorel’s La Science universelle (1667 [1641])or in Mersenne’s Harmonie Universelle is consistent enough to consider both authorsas predecessors of the speaking machines, and justify that the XVII century which “ledto the invention of the speaking machine”. If the XVII - century episteme was so wellestablished and the simulation of sound in pipes was universally known, why did askilled engineer such as von Kempelen spend twenty years to build his machine? Toshed some light on this matter, it is important to examine his sources.

Two of his most important sources for the building of the machine, as well as forbecoming acquainted with speech physiology were the works by the French physiologistDenis Dodart (1703) and by Albrecht von Haller (1766), apud Brekle & Wildgen(1970:XIII), both published in the XVIII century. These works can be consideredstarting points for the building of his machine, since the spectacular performance of themachine can only be attributed to Kempelen’s skills as an automata builder (and as askilled operator) as well as to a long-standing phase of trials with previous demonstratedversions (see section 3). A detailed description of the machine’s building is given in thefifth chapter of Mechanismus, together with ten figures depicting the parts of the machine,which certainly were fundamental for the subsequent reproductions mentioned above.

The previous versions of the machine were responsible for its final achievement,which is clear evidence that theory and modeling were interrelated during the wholeprocess. This trivial relation justifies the fact that his machine was considered unique inhis time, without predecessors (Brekle & Wildgen 1970:XVI).

Mechanismus, on the other hand, benefited from Kempelen’s experience withthe machine. Its importance as a theoretical book was sustained by Ernst Brücke,who considered it one of the best books on physiology and “an der freilich später

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mancherlei ergänzt und bisweilen auch gebessert worden ist, die aber so festbegründet war, dass sie den sicherten Unterbau für allen ferneren Forschungengegeben hat und geben wird.”2 (Brücke 1876:7 apud Brekle & Wildgen 1970:XXI).His book is also considered to have launched the very foundations for a theory ofvowel acoustics (Ungeheuer, 1962: 4 apud Brekle & Wildgen 1970:XXI). AlsoRobert Willis benefited from reading it, as can be attested from his own testimony:“Willis gibt an zwei Stellen seines für die Entwicklung der Phonetik wichtigenBeitrages zu, von Beobachten von Kempelens ausgegangen zu sein.”3 (Brekle &Wildgen 1970:XX).

These arguments are solid enough to consider von Kempelen and the XVIII century as the bases for the later speaking machines, and for Experimental Phonetics

research.

REFERENCES

Brekle, Herbert E. & Wildgen, Wolfgang. 1970. Introduction to Kempelen’s.Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache: VII-XLV. Stuttgart: Frommann Verlag.

Brücke, Ernst. 1876. Grundzüge der Physiologie und Systematik der Sprachlautefür Linguisten und Taubstummenlehrer. Vienna.

Dodart, Denis. 1703. “Mémoires sur les causes de la voix de l’homme et de ses différentstons”. Histoire de l’Académie royale des Sciences. Paris: Année 1700.

Dudley, Homer & Tarnoczy, T. H. 1950. “The Speaking Machine of Wolfgang vonKempelen 151-166”. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 22 (2).

Fagyal, Zsuzsanna. 2001. “Phonetics and Speaking machines: on the mechanicalsimulation of human speech in the 17th century”. Historiographia Linguistica.XXVIII (3): 289-330.

Flanagan, James L. 1972. “Voices of Men and Machines”. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 51,1375-1387.

Haller, Albrecht von. 1766. “Elementa physiologiae corporis humani”. Lausanne, 1757-1766.Bd. III: Respiratio, vox.

Kempelen, Wolfgang von. 1970. [1791]. Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache nebstder Beschreibung seiner sprechenden Maschine. Facsimile of the Vienna edition withan introduction by Herbert E. Brekle and Wolfgang Wildgen. Stuttgart: Frommann Verlag.

Ondrejovi, Slavomír. 1996. Wolfgang von Kempelen and his “Mechanism of HumanSpeech”. Available: www.slovakradio.sk/kultura/expstudio/kempe.html. Accessedon June 4th, 2001.

Pompino-Marschall, Bernd.1991. “Wolfgang von Kempelen und seine Sprechmaschine”.Forschungsberichte des Instituts für Phonetik und Sprachliche Kommunikationder Universität München. 29, 181-252.

2. Even though later on the book was certainly completed and, from time to time improved, it wasso well - founded that it launched the very foundations of later research.3. Willis confesses in two moments the important contributions of Kempelen’s observations forthe development of Phonetics.

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Tillmann, H. G. 1994. “Phonetics, early modern, especially instrumental and experimentalwork”. Asher, R. E., Simpson, J. M. Y. (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Languageand Linguistics, v. 6, 3082-3095. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Traunmüller, Hartmut. 2000. Wolfgang von Kempelen’s and the the subsequent speakingmachines. Available: www.ling.su.se/staff/hartmut/kemplne.htm. Accessed on June4th. 2001.

Ungeheuer, Gerold. 1962. Elemente einer akustischen Theorie der Vokalartikulation.Berlin: Springer Verlag.

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POSITIVISM AND NEO-POSITIVISM IN LINGUISTICS ANDLANGUAGE PHILOSOPHY

PAUL LAURENDEAUYork University

Some in their discourse desire rather commendation of wit,in being able to hold all arguments, than of judgement, in discerning what is true; as

if it were a praise to know what might be said, and not what should be thought.Bacon, Francis, “Of Discourse”, in The Essays.

1. Positivism, the philosophical fetishization of Science, emerges out ofScience, but is not Science

For the purpose of the present topic, Linguistics is the description of languages anddialects in a non-normative perspective, whereas Language Philosophy is a specificphilosophical framework characterized by the feature of defining language as a determiningcategory of knowledge and/or existence. In that perspective, it is considered that thecore of current Language Philosophy is a linguisticist deviation of onto/gnoseologicalPhilosophy. We then assert that such a stand in Language Philosophy is inspired bypositivist views, since that stand is a tendency to import the objects and patterns ofapplication of a certain discipline into another. In its fundamental sense, Positivism isan attitude claiming explicitly that the methods and procedures of Natural Sciences areintegrally valid in Social Sciences. Fascinated by the power and prestige of NaturalSciences (also called Positive Sciences), Positivism spares them from their own specificepistemology, and becomes a mere scienticism in other spheres, under the form ofmethodological generalization. In Knowledge and human interest, Habermas explainsin what way Positivism is a non-epistemological scienticism:

Positivism certainly still expresses a philosophical position with regard to science, for thescientistic self-understanding of the sciences that it articulates does not coincide withscience itself. But by making a dogma of the sciences’ belief in themselves, positivismassumes the prohibitive function of protecting scientific inquiry from epistemological self-reflection. Positivism is philosophical only insofar as is necessary for the immunization ofthe sciences against Philosophy. For methodology by itself does not suffice, it must alsoprove itself as epistemology or, better, as its legitimate and reliable executor. Positivismstands and falls with the principle of scienti[ci]sm, that is that the meaning of knowledge isdefined by what the sciences do and can thus be adequately explicated through the

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methodological analysis of scientific procedures. Any epistemology that transcends theframework of methodology as such now succumbs to the same sentence of extravaganceand meaninglessness that it once passed on metaphysics. (Habermas 1972: 67)

These developments reached an almost caricatural level in the fetishization of NaturalSciences by Social Sciences. For primitive Positivists (like for instance, Saint Simon, seeMarcuse 1996: 332), society was to be treated like nature. Positivism in Sociology leadto a doctrine of society as a “branch of physics”. One can also quote the biologism ofBehaviourist Psychology as an example of that phenomenon of crude triumphalist Positivism.In a second phase of development, when Natural Sciences required an increase of themathematization of their methods and procedures, traditional Positivism (exemplified,say, by the rigid and unilateral promotion of the experimental method) started to losefocus, as mathematization and formalisation became the new fetishes. The new speculativemodel of Neo-positivism compensated that sharp decline of Positivism as an empiricalsource of inspiration. Neo-positivism is fundamentally a logic and linguistic theory ofknowledge. There is a clear continuity between the general frame of mind of Positivismand the one of Neo-positivism. In fact, when their internal evolution forced Natural Sciencesto mobilize the procedures of mathematization and formal abstraction, the positivistsensitivity had to pursue on its path of the imitation of the framework of Natural Scienceswithin Social Sciences and Philosophy. The hypertrophy of logicism and mathematization,the sacralization of their scientific virtues, in Social Sciences and Philosophy, is nothingother than that second phase of Positivism, namely Neo-positivism. The blatant lack ofempirical grounding for Neo-positivism generated the intellectual context that allowedLinguisticism to kick in, in Philosophy and even in certain Natural Sciences. The will toproduce a theoretical discipline joined with the undermining of “metaphysics” causes ageneral escape from all empirical and mental categories. Linguistic categories (and theirnumerous look-alikes: the “formal” categories, the “syntactic” models, the “languages”)are the only remaining tools for the non-metaphysical theory aimed at. These tools will bethoroughly used in the general framework of Neo-positivism.

Let us begin with the most general principles of the neo-positivist school, the so-calledVienna Circle, which are intended to provide us the foundations of an “anti-metaphysical”logic. These principles, as expounded by W.H. Werkmeister, may be summarized as follows.1. Knowledge is knowledge only in its form; in any cognition, only the form is important,while all the rest is inessential (Moritz Schlick).2. A proposition has meaning only to the extent that it can be verified (Schlick), and toverify a proposition means only to find out whether or not it accords with the rulesestablished to govern the connections of that proposition in a given language.3. Knowledge is always empirical, based on that which is given directly (Schlick); moreover,the sense-data of sensation, which lie at the foundation of the edifice erected by thisschool (the fundamental architecture of which was devised by Ernst Mach), are affordedby protocol propositions – primary, or elementary, propositions that are not debatable.

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4. The logical analysis of language demonstrates that all metaphysical propositions arepseudo-propositions wholly devoid of meaning (Carnap).5. All fields of research are based on a single science: physics (Neurath, Carnap); hencethe doctrine of physicalism.6. The propositions of logic are tautologies (Wittgenstein). Hence: ‘In logic, process andresult are equivalent. (Hence the absence of surprise.)’ And: ‘Proof in logic is merely amechanical expedient to facilitate the recognition of tautologies in complicated cases.’[Quoted from Wittgenstein Tractacus logico-philosophicus, 6.1261 and 6.1262 – P.L.]7. Mathematics is a logical method (Wittgenstein); all mathematical concepts can be derivedfrom the fundamental concepts of logic (Carnap).The logic embodied in these principles has been theorized especially by Bertrand Russell,Alfred Tarski, and Carnap, who have given it perhaps its most extensive development.(Della Volpe 1980: 247-248, see also Phillips 1979: 55-64)

As Positivism before it, Neo-positivism spreads, and leads to the formalization andmathematicization of Social Sciences “from outside”. The promotion and generalizationof statistics in Social Sciences was the first step of that new development. Fanned by theprestige of Mathematics, Logic and Formal Physics, the influence of Neo-positivismcompletely reshuffled the epistemology of the Social Sciences. That new “epistemologicalshift” favoured the emergence of one of the Social Sciences most susceptible to profitfrom a linguisticist treatment of reality: Linguistics itself, the cherished child of structuralism,the so-called pilot-science of the 1960’s. But, the “shift” that brought Linguistics to theforefront at the peak of its momentum was actually far more superficial than it may seem.

It is not certain that the human sciences have really changed their ‘nature’ by changing theirname and their methods. The relations that are currently being established between theliterary disciplines are proof of that: the systematic mathematicization of a number of disciplines(economics, psychology, sociology); and the ‘application’ of disciplines manifestly moreadvanced in scientificity to others (the pioneering role of mathematical logic and especiallyLinguistics, the equally intrusive role of psycho-analysis, etc). Contrary to what has occurredin the natural sciences, in which relations are generally organic, this kind of ‘application’remains external, instrumental, technical and therefore suspect. The most aberrant contemporaryexample of the external application of a ‘method’ (which in its ‘universality’ is followingfashion) to any object whatsoever is ‘structuralism’. When disciplines are in search of auniversal ‘method’, we may wager that they are a little too anxious to demonstrate theirscientific credential really to have earned them. True sciences never need to let the worldknow that they found the key to becoming sciences. (Althusser 1990: 96)

More than rationalization or systematization, what Positivism and Neo-positivismprovided to Linguistics (and other Social Sciences) was rather a new set of self-legitimating rhetorical reflexes, which could be summarized in the following motto:Mathematics does it, so let’s do it too. Saussure – to quote one example amongmany – argues that the shift from diachronic Linguistics to synchronic Linguistics, onwhich the whole development of Structuralism is based, is grounded, as follows:

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An absolute state is defined by lack of change. But since languages are always changing,however minimally, studying a linguistic state amounts in practice to ignoring unimportantchanges. Mathematicians do likewise when they ignore very small fractions for certainpurposes, such as logarithmic calculation.(Saussure 1983: 100)

Nothing in the internal logic of the object studied is required to legitimate themethodological options displayed here. Its foundations are automatically consideredsolid and reliable; the minute similarities between it and a Positive Science arespelled out. With Saussure, the 20th century scienticist scholasticism is born inLinguistics. Let us now meet two of its children: Bloomfield and Chomsky. Bothhave several points in common. One of them is that they are both linguisticisttheoricians. As previously mentioned, you are a linguisticist (or a glottocentrist)when you claim that language is a key factor in knowledge and/or existence. Youusually tend to do so when your discipline and your inquiry within that disciplineattempt at the same time to be non-empirical and non-speculative. The importanceof praxis and of generalization is suddenly replaced by the importance of... language.Bloomfield:

Language plays a very important part in science. A typical act of science might consist ofthe following steps: observation, report of observation, statement of hypothesis,calculation, prediction, testing of predictions by further observation. All but the first andlast of these are acts of speech. Moreover, the accumulation of scientific results (the“body” of science) consists of records of speech utterance, such as tables of observeddata, a repertoire of predictions, and formulas for convenient calculation.The use of language in science is specialized and peculiar. In a brief speech the scientistmanages to say things which in ordinary language would require a vast amount of talk. Hishearers respond with great accuracy and uniformity. The range and exactitude of scientificprediction exceed any cleverness of everyday life: the scientist’s use of language is strangelyeffective and powerful. Along with systematic observation, it is this peculiar use of languagewhich distinguishes science from non-scientific behavior.[...]

In scientific procedure we mean by deduction the purely verbal part of an act of sciencewhich leads from the report of observation and the hypotheses to a prediction. If wereplace the report of observation by arbitrarily invented postulates, the discourse makesno pretense to validity in the sphere of handling actions. Deductive discourse of thiskind is produced in logic, mathematics, and the methodology of science. It is made to fitsome type of observational data, or else it exists for its own sake, in readiness for theemergence of observational data to which it may be applied. Until modern times, Euclidiangeometry was viewed as an “a priori” system: the underlying everyday observationsabout the spatial character of object were viewed as inborn and unquestionable truths.Today the same system, apart from the correction of flaws, is treated as purely verbaldiscourse of deduction from postulates. It is especially useful because these postulates,by virtue of their historic origin, are such as to make the discourse applicable to theplacing of objects, as this placing is observed in the first approximation that is customary

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in everyday handling. We have learned, however, that astronomical magnitudes makesensible the error in these postulates, and they accordingly demand a different discourse,based upon other postulates which, in turn, will be chosen so as to fit the new observations.(Bloomfield 1965: 1-12)

It seems impossible to abandon a conceptual generalization without becominglinguisticist. And of course, it is even easier to be a linguisticist “scientist” if you are ascienticist linguist. Then, the old Humboldtian idea of the determination of thought bylanguage surfaces easily in the views of such a scienticist linguist. Bloomfield:

I shall not presume to enter here upon the epistemology [sic] problems in which linguisticconsiderations must play a part. Far more of our experience than one generally assumesis shaped by the linguistic habits in which we live. The apparatus of logic, more especially,depends upon the language we speak: the logical forms, in other words, must develophistorically with the language. Not only our more abstract concepts, but also those ofqualities and actions are due to linguistic forms, or rather, are the subjective phase oflinguistic forms, which have been evolved in the course of time. Much of our philosophy,in consequence, moves captive in the plane of its author’s language, which it should, forfreedom, transcend, – as it can only through the study of language.(Bloomfield 1983: 324)

Now on the linguisticist stand, Chomsky is, at first sight, in total opposition toBloomfield’s views:

[According to Humboldt:] Speech is an instrument of thought and self-expression. It playsan “immanent” and “constitutive” role in determining the nature of man’s cognitive processes[...]. Although languages have universal properties, attributable to human mentality assuch, nevertheless each language provides a “thought world” and a point of view of aunique sort. In attributing such a role in the determination of mental processes to individuallanguages, Humboldt departs radically from the framework of Cartesian Linguistics, ofcourse, and adopts a point of view that is more typically romantic. Humboldt does remain within the Cartesian framework, however, in so far as he regardslanguage primarily as a means of thought and self-expression rather than as an animal-likefunctional communication system... (Chomsky 1966: 21)

But is that opposition as fundamental as commonly believed? Humboldt remainsa major inspiration to Chomsky. And most of all, the linguisticist dimension of Neo-positivism culminates in the fascination for formal language-like models as supremedescriptive and explicative devices. Hence, with Chomsky this conception reachedsummits previously unattained in a discipline like Linguistics. We propose that thePositivist and Neo-Positivist inspiration is what Bloomfield and Chomsky have incommon. We even suggest that the passage from Bloomfield to Chomsky is nothingother than the passage from Positivism to Neo-positivism in the specific developmentof Linguistics.

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2. Bloomfield: observations, trial and error, and the hypertrophy of the empirical datum

Positivism is the philosophical stand of the ones who believe that they can ridthemselves of philosophical issues. In the direct line of that so-called anti-metaphysicalstand of Positivism, Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949) claims, in broad epistemologicalterms, that Mentalism is non-scientific:

It is the belief of the present writer that the scientific description of the universe, whatever thisdescription may be worth, requires none of the mentalistic terms, because the gaps whichthese terms are intended to bridge exist only so long as language is left out of account. Iflanguage is taken into account, then we can distinguish science from other phases of humanactivity by agreeing that science shall deal only with events that are accessible in their timeand place to any and all observers (strict behaviorism) or only with events that are placed inco-ordinates of time and space (mechanism), or that science shall employ only such initialstatements and predictions as lead to definite handling operations (operationalism), or onlyterms such as are derivable by rigid definition from a set of everyday terms concerningphysical happenings (physicalism). These several formulations independently reached bydifferent scientists, all lead to the same delimitation, and this delimitation does not restrict thesubject matter of science but rather characterizes its method. It is clear even now, with sciencestill in a very elementary stage, that, under the method thus characterized, science can accountin its own way for human behavior – provided, always, that language be considered as afactor and not replaced by the extra-scientific terms of mentalism. (Bloomfield 1965: 13)

That anti-mentalist option is clearly in conformity with the positivist program. Seenthe old-fashion way, a “Science” is actions, observations and manipulations leading toempirical statements. The second point of Bloomfield’s axiomatic is that Semantics isnothing other than a mere manifestation of subjectivist mentalism. Bloomfield is in harmonywith the views of the character, which he designates here as: the mechanist:

Adherents of mentalistic psychology believe that they can avoid the difficulty ofdefining meanings, because they believe that, prior to the utterance of a linguisticform, there occurs within the speaker a non-physical process, a thought, concept,image, feeling, act of will, or the like, and that the hearer, likewise, upon receiving thesound-waves, goes through an equivalent or correlated mental process. The mentalist,therefore, can define the meaning of a linguistic form as the characteristic mentalevent which occurs in every speaker and hearer in connection with the utterance orhearing of the linguistic form. The speaker who utters the word apple has had amental image of an apple, and this word evokes a similar image in a hearer’s mind. Forthe mentalist, language is the expression of ideas, feelings, or volitions. The mechanist does not accept this solution. He believes that mental images, feelings, andthe like are merely popular terms for various bodily movements...[...]

Although this difference of opinion plays a decisive part in our views about the fundamentalsof language, as of other human activities, and although mentalists lean heavily upon their

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terminology in all discussion of meaning, the dispute has really very little to do with problemsof linguistic meaning. The events which the mentalist designates as mental processes and themechanist classifies otherwise, affect in every case only one person: every one of us respondsto them when they occur within him, but has no way of responding to them when they occurin anyone else. The mental processes or internal bodily processes of other people are knownto each one of us only from speech-utterances and other observable action. (Bloomfield1966: 142-143)

The logical conclusion of all that mechanics is then unavoidable: the grasp of thesemantic facet of language is (so far, and possibly forever) external to its scientificdescription. The solution to the problem of meaning can come only from otherSciences:

The meanings of speech-forms could be scientifically defined only if all branches of science,including, especially, psychology and physiology, were close to perfection. Until that time,phonology and, with it, all the semantic phase of language study, rests upon an assumption,the fundamental assumption of Linguistics: we must assume that in every speech-communitysome utterances are alike in form and meaning.[...]

“The statement of meanings is therefore the weak point in language-study, and will remainso until human knowledge advances very far beyond its present state. In practice, wedefine the meaning of a linguistic form, whenever we can, in terms of some other science.Where this is impossible, we resort to makeshift devices. One is demonstration.(Bloomfield 1966: 78, 140-141)

Clearly, for Bloomfield, Semantics is the “metaphysics” of language. It is subjective,non-empirical, uncertain, “demonstrative”, and fluctuating. A definition in terms of someother science is unavoidable to address it. Therefore, meaning cannot be consideredas part of the linguistic datum. This datum is to be investigated in its formal combinationsand distributions, in an activity of trial and error blind to the semantic dimension. Sothe program of Linguistics is then easy to state: like the good “Science” we want to be,let’s stick closely to our empirical datum, our “concrete entities”: the linguistic forms!

A workable system of signals, such as language, can contain only a small number ofsignaling-units, but the things signaled about -in our case, the entire content of the practicalworld- may be infinitely varied. Accordingly, the signals (linguistic forms, with morphemesas the smallest signals) consist of different combinations of the signaling-units (phonemes),and each such combination is arbitrarily assigned to some feature of the practical world(sememe). The signals can be analyzed, but not the thing signaled about. (Bloomfield 1966:162)

And there you have it: primitive Positivism in Descriptive Linguistics sticking to themateriality of language to spare itself from the dangers of speculative distortions. Betterto destroy the internal logic of the object and turn its study to some absurd set of

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manipulations than admit for it a specificity that would deviate from the path of PositiveScience. Such was the Bloomfield of 1933, the hegemonic one. Yet that was not theBloomfield of 1914 (in An Introduction to the Study of Language). Both had incommon a joint venture with psychology (actually two opposed schools of psychologyfrom one version of his fundamental treatise to the other) but the epistemologicaldimension of that specific situation was exaggerated. The real motivation of Bloomfield’soption in Descriptive Linguistics was the positivistic eagerness to be... scientific. Onlythe champion of Neo-positivism in Descriptive Linguistics will manage to bump theBloomfieldian hegemony away.

3. Chomsky: formalization as “abstraction”, and the fascination for“explanation”

Indeed, Chomsky claims to bring back Cartesianism and Humboldtianmentalism. He is the anti-Bloomfield, and poses as such. The fact that he is rathera mentalist than a behaviourist makes him the most outspoken opponent toprimitive Positivism in Linguistics:

Behavioral science has been much preoccupied with data and organization of data, andit has even seen itself as a kind of technology of control of behavior. Anti-mentalism inLinguistics and in philosophy of language conforms to this shift of orientation. As Imentioned in my first lecture, I think that one major indirect contribution of modernstructural Linguistics results from its success in making explicit the assumption of ananti-mentalistic, thoroughly operational and behaviorist approach to the phenomena oflanguage. By extending this approach to its natural limits, it laid the groundwork for afairly conclusive demonstration of the inadequacy of any such approach to the problemsof mind.

More generally, I think that the long range significance of the study of language lies inthe fact that in this study it is possible to give a relatively sharp and clear formulation ofsome of the central questions of psychology and to bring a mass of evidence to bear onthem. What is more, the study of language is, for the moment, unique in the combinationit affords of richness of data and susceptibility to sharp formulation of basic issues.(Chomsky 1972: 65-66)

This is clear. But despite that very explicit anti-behaviourist stand, the semanticfacet of language is (still) external to its scientific description, according to Chomsky.Consequently, Chomsky and Bloomfield ended up working together to build asolid tradition, which gives its specificity to American Structuralism: themarginalization of Semantics. Chomsky:

Linguistic theory has two major subdivisions, syntax and semantics. Syntax is the study oflinguistic form. Its fundamental notion is “grammatical”, and its primary concern is to

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determine the grammatical sentences of any given language and to bring to light theirunderlying formal structure. The goal of syntactic study is to show that the complexity ofnatural language, which appears superficially to be so formidable, can be analyzed intosimple components; that is, that this complexity is the result of repeated application ofprinciples of sentence construction that are in themselves quite simple. Semantics, on theother hand, is concerned with the meaning and reference of linguistic expressions. It is thusthe study of how this instrument, whose formal structure and potentialities of expressionare the subject of syntactic investigation, is actually put to use in a speech community.Syntax and semantics are distinct fields of investigation. How much each draws from theother is not known, or at least has never been clearly stated. The subject of investigation inthe following pages will be syntactic structure, and we shall study it as an independentaspect of linguistic theory. In part, our decision to place no reliance on meaning in systematic developments ismotivated by a feeling that the theory of meaning fails to meet certain minimum requirementsof objectivity and operational verifiability. We need not enter into this question, however,since a much more important motivation is that semantic notions, if taken seriously, appearto assist in no way in the solution of the problems that we will be investigating. (Chomsky1975a: 57)

With Syntax as an independent aspect of linguistic theory, and despite the strongopposition formulated against Bloomfield by Chomsky, Semantics does not come back.Why does Chomsky entertain such an inconsistency with his own fundamental neo-mentalist views? Why is he suddenly so Bloomfieldian, with all these requirements ofobjectivity and operational verifiability? The answer is that the rejection of Semanticsis not consistent with the rest of Chomsky’s stand, neither as a Language Philosophernor as an epistemologist of Linguistics. The rejection of Semantics is not an internalfeature of Chomsky’s vision. It is actually held from outside, as the result of thecompulsive imitation of a bundle of Neo-Positivist logicist formalism, emanating fromseveral science-like theoricians, among which the logician Carnap is a main figure.Through these external influences on Chomsky, the heart of the problems ends up beingsimply that Mathematics have a highly sophisticated syntax, but do not happen to havesome Semantics similar to the one specific to Natural Languages. To imitate Mathematics,(and later Computing) being the cardinal priority, the features of Natural Languagesthat are most mathematic-like are given an automatic “epistemological” priority. Thecontradiction of Chomsky with himself becomes more obvious when one is given theopportunity to observe that, despite a clear rejection of Semantics in the generativeprogram, the promotion of so-called idealization is present, solidly grounded in themodel of Science.

Opposition to idealization is simply objection to rationality; it amounts to nothing morethan an insistence that we shall not have meaningful intellectual work. Phenomena that arecomplicated enough to be worth studying generally involve the interaction of severalsystems. Therefore you must abstract some object of study, you must eliminate thosefactors which are not pertinent. At least if you want to conduct an investigation which is

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not trivial. In the natural sciences this isn’t even discussed, it is self-evident. In the humansciences, people continue to question it. That is unfortunate. When you work within someidealization, perhaps you overlook something which is terribly important. That is acontingency of rational inquiry that has always been understood. One must not be tooworried about it. One has to face this problem and try to deal with it, to accommodateoneself to it. It is inevitable.There are no simple criteria that provide the correct idealization, unless it is the criterion of obtainingmeaningful results. If you obtain good results, then you have reason to believe that you are not farfrom a good idealization. If you obtain better results by changing your point of view, then you haveimproved your idealization. There is a constant interaction between the definition of the domain ofresearch and the discovery of significant principles. To reject idealization is puerile. (Chomsky1998:57-58)

Clearly opposed to primitive Positivism, the promotion of idealization as the only“rationalist” solution is to be associated with the idea of model, as well as with the willof promoting Explanation over Description in Linguistics. With that “next task” ofLinguistics -Explanation- around the corner, the Chomskyan epistemological myth ofthe progress of the Linguistic Science kicks in.

The next task is to explain why the facts are the way they are, facts of the sort we havereviewed, for example. This task of explanation leads to inquiry into the language faculty. Atheory of the language faculty is sometimes called universal grammar, adapting a traditionalterm to a research program somewhat differently conceived. Universal grammar attempts toformulate the principles that enter into the operation of the language faculty. The grammar ofa particular language is an account of the state of the language faculty after it has beenpresented with data of experience; universal grammar is an account of the initial state of thelanguage faculty before any experience. It would include, for example, the principle that rulesare structure dependent, that a pronoun must be free in its domain, that there is a subject-object asymmetry, some of the principles mentioned in the preceding lecture, and so on.Universal grammar provides a genuine explanation of observed phenomena. From its principleswe can deduce that the phenomena must be of a certain character, not some different character,given the initial data that the language faculty used to achieved its current state.”(Chomsky 1988: 61-62)

With the formal notion of the UG, the goal is now to constitute a “genuine explanatorytheory”... as they did in Physics! Chomsky’s stand is simply that Bloomfield’s Linguisticswas empiricist whereas his is scientific...

Recall the logic of Descartes’ [sic] argument for the existence of a second substance, rescogitans. Having defined “body” in terms of contact mechanics, he argued that certainphenomena lie beyond its domain, so that some new principle was required; given hismetaphysics, a second substance must be postulated. The logic is essentially sound; itis, in fact, much like Newton’s, when he demonstrated the inadequacy of Cartesian contactmechanics for the explanation of the motion of the heavenly bodies so that a new principle,the principle of gravitational attraction, had to be postulated. The crucial difference

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between the Cartesian and the Newtonian enterprises was that the latter offered a genuineexplanatory theory of the behavior of bodies, whereas the Cartesian theory offered nosatisfactory account of properties such the creative aspect of language use [sic] that liebeyond mechanical explanation in Descartes’ view. Therefore Newton’s conceptionscame to be the “scientific” common sense of later generations of scientists, whileDescartes’ fell by the wayside. (Chomsky 1988: 146-147)

Chomsky says nothing other than: the same way my Linguistics is similar to Newton’sPhysics, my abstraction is similar to scientific abstraction... and the language structure isa “physical structure”.

In what sense is language a physical structure? We do not know for certain, but webelieve that there are physical structures of the brain which are the basis for thecomputations and the representations that we describe in an abstract way. Thisrelationship between unknown physical mechanisms and abstract properties is verycommon in the history of science. So, for example, in the nineteenth century, chemistsconstructed abstract diagrams that were supposed to represent a complex molecule withcarbon and hydrogen and oxygen attached in some fashion. But that’s a completelyabstract representation. For example, the chemist couldn’t say what the particular partsof the diagram referred to in the physical world. In fact, it wasn’t clear whether there werethings corresponding to the parts of the diagram. Even now that we know better whatcarbon is, we recognize that it is something abstract. So, you can’t hit carbon. In fact, it’sa very abstract concept. But the point is that the chemist’s descriptions were part of anexplanatory theory. They were part of a theory from which you could predict what wouldhappen if you sent an electric current through some physical object, for example. Now those theories of the chemist are similar to a linguist’s theory of the computationsof the brain. In each case the abstract theories pose a further question for the physicalscientist. The question is, [sic] find the physical mechanisms that have theseproperties. In the early part of the twentieth century, physicists began to discoverthe physical entities that had the properties that had been described by the chemists.In fact, until the early part of the twentieth century, many scientists weren’t convincedthat there were even such things as molecules. The thought this was just an abstractidea, an abstract computational idea. In the early part of the twentieth century, evidenceaccumulated showing that there really are things that have these properties. Now physics could not have developed the structure of the atom and the molecule ifnineteenth-century chemistry hadn’t provided the abstract theories. That’s what told thephysicists what they should look for. They had to look for things which had the verycomplicated properties described in the abstract theories. And the brain sciences are in thesame state today. They have to ask the linguist or the psychologist what are the abstractstructures that human possess for which we have to search for the physical basis.”(Chomsky 1988: 185-186)

Let us suppose that we discover a domain of intelligence where human beings excel. Ifsomeone has developed a rich explanatory theory in spite of the limitations of availableevidence, it is legitimate to ask what the general procedure is that has permitted this

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move from experience to knowledge – what is the system of constraints that has madepossible such an intellectual leap.The history of science might provide some relevant examples. At certain times, richscientific theories have been constructed on the basis of limited data, theories that wereintelligible to others, consisting of propositions linked in some manner to the nature ofhuman intelligence. Given such cases, we might try to discover the initial constraints thatcharacterizes these theories. (Chomsky 1998: 64-65)

Loud and heavy references to Positive Sciences are made to build credibility to whatChomsky envisions as being a linguistic theory. He is in all shape and form a theorician. Thatfetishization of theory is a crucial element in Chomsky’s conception of Formal Linguistics.And during the hegemonic period of Generative Grammar, this ideological influence gotheavier and heavier on the rest of Descriptive Linguistics. In time, Chomsky has more andmore to deny playing Neo-Positivistic “games”, and to explain that all this is... theory!

There has been some discussion recently as to whether the linguist “plays mathematicalgames” or “desc[r]ibes reality” in linguistic analysis of particular languages, where thephrase “playing mathematical games” often appears to refer to the conscious developmentof a theory of linguistic structure for use in constructing and validating grammars. If by“describing reality” is meant meeting the external conditions of adequacy, then in orderto give content and significance to the requirement that the linguist must describe reality,it is necessary to give independent (i.e. outside the particular grammar) characterizationsof these conditions e.g., for sentencehood, by constructing informant response tests todetermine the degree of acceptability or revocability of sequences. But within whateverbounds can be clearly set independently, the linguist’s goal can only be to construct foreach language a simple grammar related to other grammars in such a way as to lead to arevealing general theory of which all are exemplifications. There seems to be no reason toconsider the constructs established in pursuit of these goals as being in some senseinvalid. If the methods developed with these goals in mind lead to unacceptable results,it is important to show this. But the alternative to ineffective methods is not abandonmentof theoretical inquiry. (Chomsky 1975a: 81-82)

Neo-Positivist statements of that nature are the foundations of Chomsky’sspontaneous epistemology. It is obviously more important to Linguistics to “be a Science”and pose as such than to simply do its work, whatever this may be. After almost fortyyears of this nonsense, can Linguistics simply go back to work before completelycollapsing under the weight of its positivist scholasticism?

4. A “logic” for Language Sciences?

Let’s not argue about it. Let’s go study it...Captain James T. Kirk, USS Enterprise,

A piece of the action, teleplay by David P. Harmon and Gene L. Coon, Paramount, 1968.

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Social Sciences are seeing more and more clearly that Logical Positivism and itsgadgets don’t work. Galvano Della Volpe:

The major difficulty in arriving at a proper comprehension and complete critical assessment ofthe modern formal (or rather, formalized) logic championed by logical positivism lies in its dualcharacter as theory of thought and of language. Once the theory of thought is examined, andits inability to serve as a valid logic, philosophical or otherwise, is demonstrated (for, as weshall see, it leaves the problem of scientific law unresolved), there remains the theory oflanguage, particularly of semiotics, associated most closely with the name of Rudolph Carnap.Excessively abstract and partial, this theory, with its peculiar obsession with ‘correct’ language,or the language of ‘truth’ turns a merely technical language (or a mathematical type) into adogma and thus fails as a general, truly philosophical theory of semiotics (or semantics).(Della Volpe 1980: 247)

Then what are the other options in our disciplines? First, we have to look intothe specificity of our object, into what makes it so different from the object ofPositive Science. Bloomfield, in one of his few non-positivist moments, gives ussome hint:

Language has been developed in the interchange of messages, and every individual who haslearned to use language has learned it through such interchange. The individual’s language,consequently, is not his creation, but consists of habits adopted in his impressive intercourse withother members of the community. The result of this is the individual’s inability to use languageexcept in the form in which the community as a whole uses it: he must speak as the others do, or hewill not be understood. As a matter of fact, he does not, in normal cases, try to speak otherwise, butunquestioningly follows his and his fellow-speakers’ habits. The change which occurs in languageis thus never a conscious alteration by individuals, but an unconscious, gradual change in thehabits of the entire community. The motives which cause it are not individual reflectiveconsiderations of the result, but new associative tendencies or new conditions of innervations[sic] due to some change in the circumstances of life affecting the community. As we examine moreclosely the different aspects of language, we shall again and again find the samecharacteristics: as the individual speaker receives his habits from the community, individualmotives do not come into play, but only causes affecting the community as a whole.(Bloomfield 1983: 17)

Language is at the same time social and mind-dependant. It cannot even begin to besampled as carbon or viruses can be. Consequently, we have to completely review themethod of approach of that object, even if that review leads to a quite drastic tabularasa. Will we have the modesty to admit that we lost ourselves in the forest of externalmodels? Well, Chomsky, in one of the rare non-scienticist moments – where he dropsall the Neo-Positivistic flimflam and speaks his heart, has it:

As for my own methods of investigation, I do not really have any. The only method ofinvestigation is to look hard at a serious problem and try to get some ideas as to what mightbe the explanation for it, meanwhile keeping an open mind about all sorts of other possibilities.

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Well, that is not a method. It is just being reasonable, and so far as I know, that is the onlyway to deal with any problem, whether it is a problem in your work as a quantum physicistor whatever.There are certain fields like psychology where people do carry out extensive study ofmethods of investigation. There are other fields like physics where you do not studymethods of investigation. So at MIT the physics department does not have a course inexperimental methods, but many psychology departments spend a lot of time on what theycall methodology. Well, there is a lesson there, but I won’t draw it. (Chomsky 1988: 190)

Here Chomsky is closer to Althusser than anywhere else. And, we have to admit it.In our teaching as in our research, our hypertrophy of “methodology” proves more thananything else that we still have a lot to do in terms of genuine method. Physics is supposedlyfree minded about all this. Why aren’t we? Because, we imitate Science, instead ofsimply doing it. Let us not argue about what our object should be, or which methodwould be the best to borrow from the Sciences. Let us simply study our object and pullour method out of its own specific logic.

REFERENCES

Althusser, L. 1990. Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists –and other essays. London & New York: Verso.

Bloomfield, L. 1965. Linguistic Aspects of Science, International Encyclopedia of UnifiedScience, Volume 1, number 4. University of Chicago Press & University of TorontoPress.

. 1966. Language. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

. 1983. An Introduction to the Study of Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, Classics in PsychoLinguistics.

Chomsky, N. 1966. Cartesian Linguistics – A Chapter in the history of RationalistThought. New York & London: Harper & Row Publishers, Studies in Language.

. 1972. Language and Mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

. 1975a. The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory. New York &London: Plenum Press.

. 1975b. Reflections on Language. Pantheon Books.

. 1986. Knowledge of Language – Its Nature, Origin, and Use. Praeger,Coll. Convergence.

. 1988. Language and Problems of Knowledge. CambridgeMassachusetts: The MIT Press.

. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge Massachusetts: The MITPress.

1998. On Language. New York: New Press.Della Volpe, G. 1980. Logic as a Positive Science. London: NLB.Habermas, J. 1972. Knowledge and Human Interests. Boston: Beacon Press.

. 1989. On the Logic of the Social Sciences. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

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Marcuse, H. 1996. Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory.Atlantic Highland, N.J.: Humanities Press International, Humanities PaperbackLibrary.

Phillips, D.L. 1979. Wittgenstein and Scientific Knowledge – A SociologicalPerspective. London: The MacMillan Press.

Saussure, F. de. 1983. Course in general Linguistics. London: Duckworth.Wittgenstein, L. 1981. Tractacus logico-philosophicus. London: Routledge & Kegan

Paul.

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FROM UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES TO INTERMEDIARY LANGUAGESIN MACHINE TRANSLATION

THE WORK OF THE CAMBRIDGE LANGUAGE RESEARCH UNIT (1955-1970)

JACQUELINE LÉONUniversité Paris 7, CNRS

Introduction

The Cambridge Language Research Unit (CLRU), founded in 1955 to start experimentsin Machine Translation (MT), gathered many different and remarkable personalities:Margaret Masterman (1910-1986), the director of the group and a Wittgenstein’s pupil;R.H. Richens (who died in 1984), a biologist specialist of plant genetics; and linguists suchas Martin Kay and MAK Halliday; computer scientists, among them Yorick Wilks whobecame one of the first researchers on Natural Language Understanding. The originalityof the CLRU is that it is the only MT group, besides the Russians, to develop a method ofMachine Translation using intermediary language.

The most striking aspect of their work is that the construction of this intermediarylanguage stems directly from the 17th-century universal language schemes.

1) The universal language Nude, conceived by Richens, is widely inspired byDalgarno’s Ars Signorum (1661) and Wilkins’ Essay (1668)1.

2) The CLRU also makes use of the Thesaurus published in 1852 by Roget, one ofWilkins’ continuators (Salmon 1979a).

It may seem strange that the universal language issue was considered seriously byscientists two centuries later whereas these schemes, at their time, came to almostnothing. To enlighten this point one may assume that the issue of the feasibility of MT inthe 1950s raised questions comparable with those raised by philosophers in the 17th

century2.In my paper, I will address these issues by examining the various versions of MT

methods using intermediary languages proposed by the British group in the 1950’s. I willtry to explain how the achievement of a practical task, the automatization of translation, aswell as the implementation of a specific conception of word meaning, modified the notionof universal language itself.

1. George Dalgarno (1626-1687); John Wilkins (1614-1672).2. “Philosopher” also means “scientist” in the 17th century.

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1. Historical and intellectual context

Although the two periods present some analogies, it is not relevant here to comparethe historical, economic and intellectual context of the apparition of universal languagesin Great Britain in 17th century with the 1950s context of apparition of MT. However itis interesting to note that, in both cases, universal languages and intermediary languageschemes were anchored in a strong social demand for interlingual means ofcommunication3.

In the 1950s, facing with the internationalization of science and the politico-militaryrequirements of the cold war, multilingual communication technologies were greatlyneeded. Within a frame of unprecedented technological development as electronicalcomputers, MT had to play a leading part in responding this demand.

The main point here is to see if the issues raised by the scientists on the feasibility ofMT in the 1950s can be compared with those raised by the authors of Universal languageschemes. Weaver’s conceptions are very enlightening on this point4:

The imperfection of languages was a recurrent issue for conceptors of universallanguages. It is the same for ambiguity and polysemy in MT which is one of the mostcomplicated problems to solve by machines. Besides, in Weaver’s viewpoint, the connectionbetween translation and cryptography led “very naturally” to the idea that translation makesdeep use of language invariants. Hence the translation between two languages cannot bedone word by word but only by using a universal language “the real but as yet undiscovereduniversal language” (Weaver 1949:23); such a project requiring considerable work onthe logical structure of languages.

2. Nude: from universal language to intermediary language

Nude is the first project of intermediary language devised by the CLRU. Although itmay look rough and based upon naive conceptions of meaning and translation, it is worthyof interest because it is the first time that semantic information and primitives were used innatural language processing5. Besides it raised interesting questions about languagerepresentation. Like all the members of the group, Richens shared the idea of pre-eminenceof semantic analysis upon syntax. This idea was very original among MT pioneers who,for most of them, thought morphology and syntax were dominant in the process of MT6.

3. On the context of apparition of universal language schemes in 17th century in Britain, see Cram(1985) and Salmon (1979c, 1992).4. Thanks to his Memorandum “Translation” which was widely distributed among scientists in1949, Warren Weaver (1894-1978) promoted MT in Great Britain and in the USA. 5. There are also technical issues for the use of intermediary languages in MT. Because theyconstitute semantic representations common to every language, they require far less algorithmsand dictionaries than transfert methods which necessitate two algorithms for each pair of sourceand target languages.6. Note that syntax, excluding any other linguistic area, will be at the heart of ComputationalLinguistics, after the ALPAC disaster and the wreckage of MT in 1966.

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His experience in word by word translation led Richens to introduce semanticinformation to solve ambiguities.

To use semantic information in procedures, Richens proposed to build an interlinguawhere structural distinctive features of source languages are suppressed. Interlingua isdevised as a “semantic net of naked ideas”, hence its name Nude. For Richens, semanticnetworks is what remains invariant during the translation process.

Nude is conceived as an algebraic language; it comprises about fifty elements, eachof them denoting a basic (naked) idea, such as plurality, plant or negation, representedby a letter.

Here are nineteen elements (out of fifty) which were used for the translation fromJapanese to English of the sentence “the percentage of matured capsules and the numberof grains of seeds of one capsule are different according to the time of hybridizing”:

B becoming, change p plantc straight, plane P plurality, group, numberC causation, influence Q hard, firmf possibility, potentiality S same, equalH pertain T time, period, durationI in, inside u elongateL living, alive x textileM much, more, great X part, componentn near, adjacent, together z negation, opposite, contraryN contact, adhere, attach

Nude has a syntax. A word is regarded as a relation with either 0 adjunction; or oneadjunction [.]: for example an adjective or a transitive verb expect a noun as an adjunct;or 2-adjunctions [:] transitive verbs7. Apostrophes and quotes are used as bracketswithin a word.

During the translation process, the source text is divided into chunks, the minimalsense units. The result of the translation of chunks into Nude is called a formula. Here isthe formula of “one seed”:

.Pz = one Xp’CL= seed Xp’CL.Pz = one seed

Richens had probably read Wilkins’ Essay. As a network of semantic primitivesrepresented by letters, Richens’ interlingua is very close of a universal characteristics8.

However Richens’ componential representation of word meaning is closer toDalgarno’s than to Wilkins’. Remember that Wilkins’ Characteristics is devised as a

7. Richens’ syntax can be viewed as of prefiguration of case grammar: a transitive verb is markedto expect a subject and an object.8. Moreover, just like Wilkins, he raises the issue of verbal particle compositionality (Cram 1994).

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hierarchical classification of concepts based on Aristotelian categories9. Conversely,instead of trying to codify the contents of universe as Wilkins, Dalgarno’s purpose wasto distinguish the different semantic components of each concept, to give a sign to eachcomponent and to form the name of objects and concepts by combining the signs of alltheir components10.

3. The epistemological status of intermediary language

Richens’ interlingua was widely discussed by the Cambridge group. One of theproblems raised by Nude was its lack of empirical foundation in natural languages. AsWittgenstein’s pupil, Margaret Masterman could not consider Nude primitives as universalconcepts. Besides she was impervious to any cognitive hypothesis according to whichprimitives could be the elements of a language of thought – such as Fodor’s Mentalesecreated a few years later (1975). For Masterman an intermediary language could notbe a universal language.

She agreed with Wittgenstein that the logic unit for studying language should not beword or proposition but word context, namely word use. In Masterman (1954:209)she defined use and usage in the following way: “the Use of a word is its whole field ofmeaning, its total “spread”. Its usages, or main meanings in its most frequently foundcontexts, together make up its Use”.

Because of its structure, based on the classification of words according to a set ofcontexts, Masterman chose thesaurus organization to create a new intermediary language,“a thesauric interlingua”.

For Margaret Masterman (1959:34) “the fundamental hypothesis about humancommunication which lies behind thesaurus making is that, although the set of possibleuses of words in a language is infinite, the number of primary extra-linguistic situationswhich we can distinguish sufficiently to talk to one another is finite. Given the complexityof the known universe it might be the case that we refer to a fresh extra-linguisticsituation every time we create a new use of a word. In fact we do not; we pile upsynonyms, to rerefer, from various and differing new aspects, to the stock of basicextralinguistic situations which we already have.”

The consequences for MT are important. Communication and translation dependon the fact that two people and two cultures, however much they differ, can share astock of extra-linguistic contexts.

9. In his Essay Part 4 “A Real Character and a Philosophical Language”, Wilkins gives thetranslation of the prayer the Our Father in fifty-one languages. In particular bread (p.454) istranslated into his characteritics as saðba, where sa denotes the genus of Oeconomical provisions,b the first difference, and a the second species (bread); such a decomposition reflects Wilkins’hierarchical classification of concepts.10. This difference of opinions pulled the two philosophers apart for ever whereas they hadworked together on a common scheme of universal language for a long time (Salmon 1979b).

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This is how Masterman defined language universality. The idea of an intermediarylanguage refers to a stock of extra-linguistic contexts, which can be represented by athesaurus11.

4. Roget’s Thesaurus

Roget’s Thesaurus, in spite of its drawbacks such as incoherence and non-systematicity,was chosen by the CLRU to build an interlingua combining a thesaurus with Nude.

Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869) quotes Wilkins and is considered as one of hiscontinuators. As Wilkins, he was a philosopher and the secretary of the Royal Society.What is common between Wilkins’ Essay and the Thesaurus is the classification ofwords based on concepts.

However Roget took care not to build a universal language scheme. His purposewas essentially pedagogical as is indicated by the title of his book.

Roget’s Thesaurus, taking Wilkins’ Essay as a model, is divided into two parts:a thematic thesaurus and an alphabetical index. The thematic part comprises sixprimitive classes (abstract relations, space, matter, intellect, volition, emotion) dividedthemselves into sections then into heads. Heads are followed by a list of wordsconnected semantically. A word can appear in several lists under different heads orclasses.

To build an interlingua from Roget’s thesaurus, it is necessary to have a set of coherentheads. These (archi)heads will be provided by Nude primitives. As heads can belong toseveral archiheads, they are classified according to a multiple hierarchy, and not only atree organization, as in Roget’s. To formalize such a thesaurus, the CRLU members chosethe Lattice theory.

5. Thesauric Nude

For Masterman, the thesauric interlingua is not an algebraic universal language whereelements are represented by letters. Actually the archiheads are English words. As basicsemantic categories “archiheads must be below the meaning-line”. They are not wordswhich could exist in any language. But they must be sufficiently like words which can behandled in any language. Archehead TRUE! must be like true; or at least TRUE! must bemore like true than it is like please.

To Masterman the interlingua should be a genuine language, able to cope with problemsof meaning such as metaphors. It is worth mentioning that at a certain point the CLRU

11. The CLRU was also influenced by the contextualists of the London school, namely by JohnRuppert Firth (1890-1960). Firth only attended to the first meeting of the CLRU in 1955 but was notvery interested in MT himself. However MAK Halliday, one of his most famous pupils, was anactive member of the CRLU from 1955 untill the beginning of the 1960s.

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members considered using Basic English or Esperanto as intermediary languages. Anywaywhat is at stake in new Nude is more the representation of natural language meaningthan the universal representation of knowledge.

Here are fourteen Nude primitives (out of fifty) (Masterman 1959:62)

Syntax is nearly the same as in Richens’ version. [: ] connects one element and itsadjunct; [/] is a verbal connector between subjet and verb or verb and object. Forexample to speak is in Nude cause/(have/sign).

Brackets replace apostrophes and quotes and unit primitives in pairs. As in Richensthe process is recursive.

speak he says speakercause / (have /sign) man/(cause / (have /sign)) man:(cause/ (have /sign))

The issues raised by thesauric Nude were meaning abstraction and categoryattribution. Thus the CLRU members had to find means to extract primitives from textsexperimentally. From their point of view the only justification of meaning abstraction is

JACQUELINE LÉON

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64 WOH evitcejda,ytilauq,edoM .woh:)emas/kniht(

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of pratical order. They do not believe in universal knowledge representation. What istaken from universal language tradition is the empirical tradition. Just as British universallanguage schemes were always anchored in technological developments and socialdemand, such as stenography cryptography, logarithms, printing characters, languageplanning, multilingual communication (Maat & Cram 2000), the CRLU aimed at devisingMT and information processing systems.

These practical options had great impact on the role of language formalization whichwas one of the main topics discussed by the group. The CRLU, boosted by MTobjectives, implemented a conception of language formalization which was based onreflections upon context and meaning, independently and in competition with Bar-Hillel’s12

and Chomsky’s logico-mathematics hypotheses (Léon 2000).For the CLRU language must be considered as a whole, and mathematically

formalizable only in a second step. Whereas for Bar-Hillel it is the opposite: language isconsidered as mathematically formalizable a priori; and it is the task for the researcherto discover how natural languages can be adapted to formalization.

6. Wilks and templates

I will conclude this paper by mentioning the works of one of the youngest membersof the CLRU, Yorik Wilks, who continued the work on Nude in the USA in the late1960s within the very new domain of Natural Language Understanding. Wilks modifiedNude in order to resolve semantic ambiguities in texts. He radicalized the CLRUconception of ambiguities which should be defined with reference to dictionaries, whichis the common view of MT experimenters, but within a text. He was then led to developwhat he called “preferential semantics”: for a given text, a specific meaning is chosenpreferably over another, so that no definitive choice should be made.

To solve ambiguities, he devised a semantic representation system for texts using“templates” which captures the “gist” of text message. Templates are pattern-matchingformulas representing the meaning of a clause. These formulas are very close to Richens’but instead of encoding the various meanings of a word, they encode the meaningrepresentation of a clause.

Here are some of the fifty-three primitives used by Wilkes to build formulas, ofwhich forty-five are thesauric Nude’s archiheads:

BE FORCE MANBEAST FROM MAYCAN GRAIN MORE

12. The Essays on and in Machine Translation by the Cambridge Language Research Unit,where the thesaurus method was presented, were dedicated to Bar-Hillel in response to a firstversion (1959) of his critical record on MT (1960).

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CAUSE HAVE MUCHCHANGE HOW MUSTCOUNT IN ONE

Here is the formula representing the meaning of “colourless”:

(COLOURLESS (((( ( (WHERE SPREAD)(SENSE SIGN) )NOT HAVE) KIND)(COLOURLESS AS NOT HAVING THE PROPERTY OF COLOUR))))

A formula is a pair, the first part is the head COLOURLESS, the second part is anew pair which represents the translation of the word into primitives (((WHERESPREAD)(SENSE SIGN) )NOT HAVE) KIND) and its definition in natural language(COLOURLESS AS NOT HAVING THE PROPERTY OF COLOUR).

The formula in that sense-pair can be explained as follows: ‘colourless’ is a sort; a sortindicating that something does not possess some property; the property is an abstractsensorial property of a certain sort; that certain sort has to do with spatial extension. Thusthe meaning of the whole word-sense is ‘a sort that lacks an abstract, sensory, spatialproperty’, and it is not difficult to see that this is what (in right-left order) the formulaconveys. (Wilks 1972:107)

Coded in LISP which was already the programming language of Artificial Intelligence,the formulas are recursive and dynamic. The first element of the list, the head, is afunction, the rest of the list is an argument. Thus this meaning representation is also acomputer procedure. Through pattern-matching procedure, word representations arecompared with word representation in the text. If the same primitives are in the sameclause, they help solving ambiguity by offering a preferred meaning.

Wilks’ works had the merit of introducing semantic primitives, conceived within MTresearch, into the new field of non-referential semantics and artificial intelligence. Hechose a far more radical semantic position than Katz and Fodor (1963) since his analysisunits are not grammatically correct sentences but texts. His works within the CLRUallowed him to work on semantics preferentially while syntax was dominant. Thisresearch on word and text meaning was strongly anchored in the British tradition, whichwas pratically based. Besides the CLRU works fit in with the 20th-century Britishcontextual tradition which was empirically based.

REFERENCES

Primary sources

Bar-Hillel, Yehoshua. 1960. “The present Status of Automatic Translation of Languages”.Advances in Computers. vol.1, 91-141. F.C. Alt ed. N.Y., London: Academic Press.

JACQUELINE LÉON

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Roget, Peter Mark. 1852. Thesaurus of English words and phrases classified andarranged so as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in literarycomposition, [2ème édition, 1853]. London: Longman.

Firth, John Ruppert. 1957. Papers in linguistics 1934-1951. Oxford University Press.Masterman Margaret, 1954. “Words”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society: 209-

232.. 1959. “What is a thesaurus?” Essays on and in Machine Translation,

by the Cambridge Language Research Unit. rapport non publié, ML90.Katz, Jerrold J. & Fodor, Jerry A. 1963. “The structure of a semantic theory”. Language

vol. 39, n°63: 170-210.Richens, R.H. 1955. “A general programme for mechanical translation between any

two languages via an algebraic interlingua” [archives du CLRU, ML5].Weaver, Warren. [1949]. 1955, “Translation”. in Machine Translation of Languages,

14 essays, (W.N.Locke and A.D. Booth, eds.), MIT et John Wiley:15-23.Wilkins, John. 1668. An Essay towards a real character and a philosophical

language. London: S. Gellibrand and J. Martin.Wilks, Yorick. 1968. “On line Semantic Analysis of English Texts”. Mechanical

Translation, vol 11, n°3-4:59-72. 1972. Grammar Meaning and the machine analysis of language.

London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Secondary bibliographyCram, David. 1985. “Universal Language Scheme in 17th century Britain”. Histoire

Epistémologie Langage vol 7-2: 35-44.. 1994. “Collection and Classification: Universal Language Schemes and

the Development of Seventeenth –Century Lexicography”, Anglistentag 1993Eichstätt Proceedings, 59-69. edited by Günther Blaicher and Brigitte Glaser.Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

Léon, Jacqueline. 2000. “Traduction automatique et formalisation du langage. lestentatives du Cambridge Language Research Unit (1955-1960).”: The History ofLinguistics and Grammatical Praxis, 369-394. (eds. P.Desmet, L.Jooken,P.Schmitter, P.Swiggers) Louvain / Paris: Peeters.

Maat, Jaap. & Cram, David. 2000. “Universal Language Schemes: the 17th Century”:History of the Language Sciences, An International Handbook on the Evolution ofthe study of Language from the Beginnings to the Present 1030-1042. Éd. by SylvainAuroux. E. F.K. Koerner Hans-Josef Niederehe Kees Versteegh, Volume 1. Berlin,New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Salmon, Vivian. 1979a. “John Wilkins’ Essay (1668): Critics and Continuators”. Thestudy of language: 17th century England: 97-126. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

. 1979b. “The evolution of Dalgarno’s “Ars signorum’”.The study oflanguage: 17th century England: 157-175. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

. 1979c. “Language-planning in 17th century England; its context and aims”,The study of language: 17th century England: 129-156. Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins.

. 1992. “Caractéristiques et langues universelles”. Histoire des IdéesLinguistiques t.II: 407-423. Liège: Mardaga.

FROM UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES TO INTERMEDIARY LANGUAGES

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THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE IN SAUSSURE’S LINGUISTIC THEORY

T. CRAIG CHRISTYUniversity of North Alabama

The category of absence figures explicitly in Saussure’s well-known distinctionbetween associative and syntagmatic relations, and, consequently, necessarily intersectsand informs the allied, and dependent, concepts of value and identity. Syntagmaticrelations result from the ways in which linguistic units influence each other by dint ofbeing co-present, in linear sequence, at any given instant. This co-presence is manifestin the varyingly complex syntagms store-housed in langue, and in the phrases andsentences of discourse. Associative relations, by contrast, result from the ways in whichlinguistic units influence each other without being co-present, in linear sequence, at anygiven instant. Associative relations hold units together only in the brain, as mnemonicgroups, outside discourse, indeed outside any set syntagmatic structure. As recorded inthe Cours, “Syntagmatic relations hold in praesentia. They hold between two or moreterms co-present in a sequence. Associative relations, on the contrary, hold in absentia.They hold between terms constituting a mnemonic group” (Saussure 1916:122 [171]).1

The semantic value2 of any given term derives, in turn, from the indissoluble nexusof the syntagmatic and associative relations in which that term figures. Accordingly,the concept of identity – technically, synchronic identity – conventionally denominatedin terms of presence, must, for the linguistic term, be co-denominated in terms ofabsence, since the identity of the linguistic term, at all levels of analysis, relates eitherto what is, or is not, materially manifest in that term, or to both. This is Saussure’sconcept of functional identity, which he illustrates with his famous example of the‘identity’ of the 8:45 Geneva-to-Paris train, a seeming sameness which obtains despitethe absence of material trappings otherwise requisite to establish identity. The identityin value associated with phonetically distinct Latin genitive case endings is likewiseadduced to demonstrate that identity can be grounded in associations of any kind,not just those with a material basis of comparison. “The mechanism of a language,”

1. Eleven passages from the Cours are cited from Roy Harris’s 1983 translation. The pagination ofthe French editions from 1922 onwards is given in brackets.2. In a chapter dedicated to “La valeur sémantique”, Bouquet (1997:311-345) addresses complexitiesassociated with this term.

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we are told, “turns entirely on identities and differences. The latter are merelycounterparts of the former” (1916:107 [151]). Thus sounds3, signifiers and signifiedsare alike defined negatively, in terms of what they are not, in terms of difference andopposition. The resultant identity of the categories ‘identity’ and ‘difference’underwrites the claims that “In the language itself, there are only differences”: and “Ina sign, what matters more than any idea or sound associated with it is what othersigns surround it” (Saussure 1916:118 [166]), that is, what is absent in the sign itself.

This differential approach to identity, to definitions delimited in terms of what is not,what is absent, suffuses the Cours, and has been cited as attesting to Saussure’s“...condemnation of nomenclaturism” (Harris 1987:11; cf. also Saussure 1916:65 [97ff]).4

It would seem, however, that it attests more importantly to the centrality of absencewithin Saussure’s linguistic theory. The concluding remarks to the chapter somewhatparadoxically entitled “Concrete Entities of a Language” echo a sense of near frustration,if not vexation, at this state of affairs: Like chess “...a language has the character of asystem based entirely on the contrasts between its concrete units. One cannot dispensewith identifying them, nor move a step without having recourse to them. And yet delimitingthem is such a tricky problem that one is led to ask whether they are really there”(Saussure 1916:105 [149]). The identity of a unit is, then, a function of all that it is not,of all that is outside the unit, together with which it comprises an equilibrium of contrasts.Its status within this equilibrium constitutes its value. In other words, its identity is itsvalue. In the words of the Cours, “...in semiological systems, such as languages, wherethe elements keep one another in a state of equilibrium in accordance with fixed rules,the notions of identity and value merge” (Saussure 1916:109 [154]).

Absence, it seems, has a large presence in Saussure’s linguistic theory, as laid out inthe Cours. It is not, however, only in this exposition of general principles that we findSaussure focusing on the absent. On the contrary, a pronounced attentiveness to thecategory of absence in fact characterizes virtually all Saussure’s work, both prior toand concurrent with the teachings recorded in the Cours. Take, for example, his brilliantreconstruction, in 1878, of what, at the time, were utterly unattested Proto-Indo-European sounds – now referred to as ‘laryngeals’– a feat later duly hailed as acrowning victory of the comparative method (Saussure 1879). Here the focus wason materially absent sounds, the onetime presence of which was neverthelessregistered in the form of extant phonetic irregularities affecting the quality andquantity of vowels. Reconstructing materially absent sounds was, of course, acommonplace and cornerstone of the comparative method: sounds absent in someor most of a set of related languages could, on the basis of their presence in one or

3. “Speech sounds are first and foremost entities which are contrastive, relative and negative”(Saussure 1916:117 [164]).4. In Saussure’s conception, value, not meaning, is the heart of any semiological system. Whilemeaning is dependent on value, value is dependent on absence..

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more of those languages, be reconstructed for the proto-language. Saussure’sapproach here represents a radical departure from that method precisely becausethe imputed sounds in question were in fact absent in all the descendant languages.Yet the discovery, in 1928, fifteen years after Saussure’s death, that the Hittitearchives actually contained written signs for these otherwise unattested soundsconfirmed both his approach and his results. With this reconstruction we have, Ibelieve, a first clear sign that Saussure was committed to, if not obsessed with,detecting the codes running the language program in absentia.

Saussure’s sustained involvement, between 1895 and 1898, with his Genevacolleague, Théodore Flournoy, in trying to make sense of the bizarre glossolalicproductions of a medium, known under the pseudonym ‘Mlle Hélène Smith’, offers yetanother intriguing case in point.5 What especially fascinated Saussure in this medium’sso-called ‘Sanskritoid’ pronouncements was that the sound f was conspicuously andconsistently absent. This could, he reasoned, be taken as a sign that her garbled utteranceswere still somehow authentic, given that Sanskrit does in fact lack f, and that theprobability would be extremely low that someone faking this language would commitprecisely this seemingly authenticating omission. Nevertheless, the sheer fact that therewas no evidence that Mlle Smith had ever been to India or otherwise been exposed toSanskrit should have pointed Saussure to the alternate interpretation which Flournoy,and Saussure’s fellow Sanskritist, Victor Henry (1901), ultimately proved applicable:namely, that the absence of f was symbolically crucial lest the French language programrunning in the background of her Sanskritoid be unmasked, a conclusion Saussurehimself approximated when he observed that “...the only thing that does not come toher mind is... to pronounce... in the French words which remain the theme or thesubstratum of what she is going to say; and the rule her mind obeys is that these familiarwords must each be replaced by an exotic-sounding substitute.... it is essential only,and above all, that these sounds not resemble French...” (cited from Todorov 1982:260).This whole experience seems to have had several lasting influences on Saussure. Italerted him on the one hand to the limitations of linguistic science as a source for explainingcomplexities of human discourse phenomena, yet, on the other, it must have made himintensely aware of what he subsequently set out to capture in his linguistic theory, namelythe thoroughgoing systematicity of language. After all, Mlle Smith’s seemingly automaticlanguage reflected the workings of a system so structured on integrated relational valuesthat what were homophones or figures of speech in French regularly surfaced in herSanskritoid permutations, either as one-to-one ‘translations’ or as fantasticallyconvoluted circumlocutions predicated on all manner of improbable linkages. But therewere linkages, and these defined the ways in which encodings regularly unfolded, justas Saussure was later to explicate in the teachings of the Cours. And precisely because

5. Flournoy (1900) chronicles this curious case. See also Christy (1999) and (1999a) for a detaileddiscussion.

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there were linkages, never mind how fantastical, the role of chance in linguistic encodingswas held in check, just as arbitrariness, as explicated in the Cours, reined in by systemicmotivation. Linguistic productions, then, are either fully intentional, or else constrainedin the subconscious by systemic strictures, or, in some sense, both, an ambiguity capturedin Saussure’s use of the phrase “...the rule her mind obeys...” in characterizing Mlle.Smith’s remarkably regular, though seemingly unrehearsed and automatic Sanskritoid.Just as systemic motivation separates radical arbitrariness from radical iconicity, so theuncanny regularity of this automatic language left little doubt that it was system-driven,springing from a language mechanism situated, in some sense, between chance andchoice.

Between 1906 and 1909 Saussure was to devote an inordinate amount of intensestudy to what seemed to him yet another manifestation of an absent presence in language.I refer here to his analysis of what he called ‘anagrams’. In poetic and prose works ofclassical Latin and Greek authors, Saussure became intrigued with seeming regularitiesin vowel and consonant repetitions. These repetitions occurred with such mathematicalprecision that Saussure was convinced they could only have been deliberatelyproduced.6 Moreover, they appeared to be more than a means for achieving a sort ofsonic equilibrium: these repeated sounds, he believed, were a device for reconstituting,over the course of a line, a theme word or proper name implicated in the text. In otherwords, the text was being to some extent driven by an overarching, otherwise absent,antecedent fact. The net effect of the anagrams was, then, to keep the absent present,and this strategy crisscrosses and challenges the principles of the Cours. Soundsequences in the anagrams, for instance, have a curiously dual character: at one and thesame time they are part of syntagmatic relations, as linear sequences, as well as part ofassociative relations, as constituents of the echo of the evoked name or theme word.However, unlike the associative relations defined in the Cours as being strictly in themind, arising from mnemonic groups without any fixed co-spatial structuring, theassociative relations steering anagrammatic encodings in fact involve spatially co-presentsounds. Since the guiding name or theme word, the fractionalized subtext, is reconstituteddiscontinuously over the course of the text, does this, paradoxically, require that wedifferentiate between contiguous and non-contiguous syntagmatic relations? Or betweenassociative relations without, versus with spatial co-presence? All such theoreticalcomplications and conundra of course disappear at once if the echos of the anagrams

6. In the discussion of analogy, Saussure observed: “Early Latin thus possessed a high degreeof awareness of the constituent parts of a word (stems, suffixes, etc.) And of their fitting together.It is probable that in our modern languages it is not felt so acutely. But German probably has itmore than French” (Saussure 1916: 166 [230]). These remarks should be factored in to thediscussion of possibly creating a typology of languages based on the ratio of intrinsically-arbitrary to relatively-motivated elements each manifests (cf. Saussure 1916: 131 [182-183].Saussure’s colleague and former teacher, Michel Bréal, advanced a similar proposal to establisha linguistic typology based on what languages leave unexpressed. See Christy (2000) and Christy(2002) for discussion of Bréal’s ‘latent ideas’.

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are simply ascribed to chance. But this is precisely what Saussure was not willing todo. On the one hand, the phenomenon seemed simply too regular, too measured to bemere statistical static; on the other, his conviction that parole reflected individuals’deliberate choices, as opposed to the trappings of tradition located in langue, effectivelycontraindicated any alternative reading. Never mind that Saussure was unable to findeven a shred of evidence attesting to any tradition of anagram encoding; never mindthat Mlle Smith’s Sanskritoid ramblings turned out to be the product of a subconsciousworking in overdrive, the encodings of a protracted dream, as it were, marching throughthe measured paces of tropic space.7 Thus, as in the medium’s case, so with the anagramsSaussure fails to recognize that not only conscious, but also subconscious regularizingforces are informing the message manifest in parole.

This, it appears, is the issue Saussure has on his mind in the discussion of syntagmaticrelations. Here we read: “The characteristic of speech is freedom of combination: sothe first question to ask is whether all syntagmas are equally free” (Saussure 1916:122[172], emphasis mine). He follows this question with the clarification that fixed sequences,whether idiomatic expressions or paradigmatic components, belong to langue, notparole: “To the language, and not to speech, must be attributed all types of syntagmasconstructed on regular patterns” (Saussure 1916:123 [173]). Saussure appears to beruling out the possibility that subconscious patterning extends beyond the syntagmas offixed lexical, paradigmatic and syntactic strings which he locates in langue, a possibilitywhich would address the crux of the anagram phenomena, since they would then notabsolutely have to be a matter of deliberate, conscious choice. The whole issue wouldseem, once again, to boil down to the matter of identity and value, not to mentionarbitrariness versus relative motivation. After all, the anagrams can be seen as a‘combinatory type’ every bit as legitimate as the prefix-stem-suffix sequences or theother “...sentences and groups of words based upon regular models” (Saussure 1916:123[173]) given as examples. Even more telling is the claim that these combinatory typesarchived in langue are based “...on specific examples heard and remembered” (Saussure1916:123 [173]). Hearing and remembering are, of course, the whole basis and pointof anagrammatic encoding, and there is no reason to assume that the subconsciousmind is not as attentive to phonic resonances as it is to grammatical patterning. Clearly,something is absent in Saussure’s model, and this is evident in the evasive conclusion tothe discussion of syntagmatic relations: “Where syntagmas are concerned... one mustrecognise the fact that there is no clear boundary separating the language, as confirmedby communal usage, from speech, marked by freedom of the individual. In many casesit is difficult to assign a combination of units to one or the other. Many combinations are

7. As Todorov points out, “The mechanisms that Henry sets forth are familiar to any specialist inetymology (or, more generally, in rhetoric, since the mechanisms of etymological derivation are...only a projection of the tropic matrix onto history)” (1982:262).

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the product of both, in proportions which cannot be accurately measured” (Saussure1916: 123 [173]).

What is absent is acknowledgment of a level of systemic patterning at work inlanguage, a level somewhere between the legacy syntagmas of langue and thedeliberately selected syntagmas of parole. What should be emphasized, however, isthat such a level of patterning can be accommodated in Saussure’s model. In thediscussion of syntagmatic interdependences, for example, we are told that “Almostall linguistic units depend either on what precedes or follows in the spoken sequence,or else on the successive parts of which they are themselves composed” (Saussure1916: 126 [176]). In addition to this fuzzy and indeterminate “almost all” qualification,we are reminded of the power of associative groups to evoke “... not just one formbut a whole latent system...” (Saussure 1916: 128 [179]). The absent name recuperatedpiecemeal over the course of an anagram-infested text flirts, to be sure, with thestandard notion of linearity, what with its discontinuous distribution, and yet itsconstituent sounds and syllables precede and follow each other all the same, in thecourse of evoking the latent signified.

The category of absence is central to Saussure’s linguistic theory –morespecifically to his semiological theory— precisely because value, the reflection ofdifférence, of the presence-absence tension, is the first principle of this theory.Moreover, since “…in semiological systems, such as languages, where the elementskeep one another in a state of equilibrium in accordance with fixed rules, thenotions of identity and value merge” (Saussure 1916: 109 [154]: emphasis mine),absence also underwrites the concept of linguistic identity: the identity of a givenelement is defined as being precisely all that it is not. ‘Equilibrium’ is the key tosemiological systems, where everything hinges on sustained symmetries. InSaussure’s reconstruction of Indo-European vowels, the phantom laryngeals notonly accounted for quality/quantity irregularities in the vowel system, but also restoredsymmetry to the system of Indo-European roots by replacing asymmetrical vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel sequences with uniformly symmetrical consonant-vowel-consonant sequences. In the case of Mlle Smith’s Sanskritoid, the materiallyabsent French language program, humming in the mental background, was the sourceof otherwise inexplicable inter-language symmetries of homophones and figures ofspeech. Clearly, systematicity and regularity are anything but alien to subconsciouslinguistic processing. Even in the case of Saussure’s anagrams a concern forsymmetry looms large, with a certain conceptual equilibrium being achieved throughthe piecemeal phonic recapitulation of an otherwise absent, or at least non co-present, theme word or name. In a word, the category of absence is integral to thedifferential concepts of value and identity, the mechanism of all semiological systems.

In all his teachings Saussure was in fact consistent in maintaining emphatically thatthe linguistic sign must be denominated negatively, for the simple reason that it existsonly in that it contrasts with all that it is not, with all that is absent in itself. Intrinsically

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and necessarily incomplete, sustained and renewed through the ever-fluctuating waysin which it takes on context-appropriate complements, the sign is necessarily andinescapably suspended between the two poles of absolute arbitrariness – absoluteabsence of apparent systemic motivation – and relative motivation. In recognizing thecategory of absence it becomes clear that what otherwise seem unrelated, if notunreconcilable, components of Saussure’s research are, in fact, informed by anoverarching conceptual common denominator –absence. As Harris insightfully maintains,“Most of what remains ‘unread’ in Saussure is not in any way obscure or difficult toread. …it lies there rather like some hidden object in a puzzle picture, which remains‘invisible’ until we look at the picture in a certain way. Once the object is ‘seen’, itbecomes clear that it was visible all the time” (1987:xv-xvi).

REFERENCES

Bouquet, Simon. 1997. Introduction à la lecture de Saussure. Paris: Payot.Christy, Craig. 2002. “From Articulation to Comprehension: Steinthal and the Dynamics

of Linguistic Intangibles”: Chaim H. Steinthal. Sprachwissenschaftler undPhilosoph im 19. Jahrhundert (Studies in European Judaism, 4) ed. by H.Wiedebach and A. Winkelmann, 3-16. Leiden: Brill.

Steinthal. Wirken und Rezeption (Studies in European Judaism, Volume IV), ed. byG. Veltri, H. Wiedebach and A. Winkelmann. Leiden: Brill.

Flournoy, Théodore. 1900. Des Indes à la planète Mars. Reissued 1983, MarinaYaguello and Mireille Cifali (eds.). Paris: Seuil.

Harris, Roy. 1987 Reading Saussure: A Critical Commentary on the Cours delinguistique générale. La Salle, Illinois: Open Court.

Henry, Victor. 1901 Le langage martien. Paris: Maisonneuve.Saussure, Ferdinand de 1879. Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les

langues indo-européennes. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1968.Reprografischer Nachdruck der Ausgabe Leipzig 1879.

. 1916. Cours de linguistique générale. Edited by Charles Bally andAlbert Sechehaye with the collaboration of Albert Riedlinger Translated by RoyHarris 1983. La Salle, Illinois: Open Court.

Todorov, Tzvetan. 1982. Theories of the Symbol. Transl. by Catherine Porter ofThéories du symbole 1977. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Univ. Press.

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LA CRÉATION DES COURS DE LETTRES AU BRÉSIL ET LESPREMIÈRES ORIENTATIONS DE LA RECHERCHE

LINGUISTIQUE UNIVERSITAIRE

JOSÉ LUIZ FIORINUniversidade Estadual de São Paulo

Dans cette étude, je me limiterai à l’étude des orientations de la recherche au coursde Lettres de l’Université de São Paulo, durant la période 1934/1962, à savoir lapériode qui va de la création du premier cours supérieur de Lettres au Brésil jusqu’àl’année où a eu lieu une grande réforme des cours de Lettres brésiliens, ce qui allaitavoir une profonde répercussion sur la recherche linguistique réalisée au Brésil.

La recherche linguistique à l’université brésilienne a vu le jour avec la création descours de Lettres. Ceux-ci n’apparaissent au Brésil que dans les années 30 du XXesiècle à la suite des projets de création des Facultés de Philosophie. Bien que l’existenced’une formation supérieure en langues et littératures eût déjà été revendiquée auparavant,et qu’une expérience à la Faculté de Philosophie São Bento, à São Paulo, au monastèredu même nom, eût été tentée en 1908, puis une autre avec la création d’une institutionlibre appelée Faculté Pauliste de Lettres et Philosophie, laquelle a fonctionné dans laville de São Paulo de 1931 à 1934 (Anuário1952a:170 )1, les premiers cours de Lettresau Brésil surgissent dans les années 30:1934, à la Faculté de Philosophie, Sciences etLettres de l’Université de São Paulo; en 1935 à l’Université du District Fédéral; en1939 à la Faculté Nationale de Philosophie de l’Université du Brésil et à l’Université deMinas Gerais.

La création des Facultés de Philosophie a lieu quand s’ouvrent les premièresuniversités brésiliennes dans la décennie des années 30 du XXe siècle. Des raisonsnombreuses et complexes expliquent la création tardive de l’université brésilienne. Durantla période coloniale, la métropole détenait, en plus du monopole commercial, etc., lemonopole de la formation supérieure, qui se réalisait à l’Université de Coimbra. En1808, la famille royale portugaise se réfugie au Brésil quand les troupes françaises,commandées par le général Junot, envahissent le Portugal, allié de l’Angleterre. En1815, le Pays est élevé au titre de Royaume Uni de Portugal et d’Algarve et, en 1822,l’Indépendance est proclamée et Pedro I, fils du roi de Portugal devient empereur du

1. Quand dans ce travail figure une citation comportant seulement la date et la page, sans indicationd’auteur, il s’agit d’une citation de l’Annuaire de la Faculté de Philosophie, Sciences et Lettres.

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Brésil. Le transfert au Brésil du siège du pouvoir métropolitain et l’émergence de l’étatnational créent le besoin de la fonction de l’enseignement supérieur, destiné d’une partà former des fonctionnaires pour l’Etat et d’autre part des spécialistes de la productionde biens symboliques pour la consommation des classes dominantes. Pendant la périodeimpériale, les écoles créées à l’époque royale furent maintenues avec les adaptationsnécessaires et d’autres furent créées à leur tour au cours de ces périodes royale etimpériale, le modèle adopté était celui de grandes écoles destinées à former des cadresnécessaires pour la réalisation d’activités bien définies. Pour cette raison, on arrive à lapériode républicaine avec un enseignement réduit en nombre d’établissements etd’étudiants.

La République brésilienne naît sous le signe du positivisme. Les adeptes de cettedoctrine prenaient position contre la création d’universités, car, pour eux, il s’agissaitd’une institution réactionnaire car, dans le monde entier, elle était devenue rétrograde(Mendes 1882:70).

A partir des années 20 du siècle dernier, avec les conceptions nouvelles concernant lanécessité de rattraper le retard brésilien, l’idée de créer des universités au Brésil prendvigueur. La création de l’Université de São Paulo doit être entendue dans le cadre de ladéfaite pauliste dans ce qu’on a appelé la Révolution de 32. Un groupe de l’élite industrielleet agraire pauliste, à la tête duquel était Julio Mesquita Filho, commence à défendre l’idée decréer une université d’état. L’Université de São Paulo se destinait à créer une nouvelle élite,pouvant assurer les commandes du pays, pour surmonter le retard national. Pour cetteraison, cette Université devait être publique et laïque. Elle devait disposer d’une autonomieacadémique et professionnelle. Le noyau en serait la Faculté de Philosophie, Sciences etLettres, où seraient enseignées toutes les disciplines de base. Les professeurs de la nouvelleFaculté travailleraient en temps intégral, et se consacreraient aux activité de recherche etd’enseignement. L’union de la recherche et de l’enseignement constituait la base de laconception de la nouvelle université. Les travaux pratiques seraient réservés aux écolesprofessionnelles. (Schwartzman 2001:164-160; Campos 1954:73-99).

L’Université de São Paulo a été créée par le décret 6.283, du 25 janvier 1934. Parce même décret, était créée la Faculté de Philosophie divisée en trois sections: celle dePhilosophie, celle de Sciences et celle de Lettres.. La section de Sciences était subdiviséeen six sous-sections: Sciences Mathématiques, Sciences Physiques, Sciences Chimiques,Sciences Naturelles, Géographie et Histoire et Sciences Sociales et Politiques. La sectionde Lettres était subdivisée en deux sous-sections: Lettres Classiques et Portugais etLangues Etrangères.2

Lorsque on avait pensé à fonder l’Université de São Paulo, ce qu’on voulait, c’étaitformer une nouvelle élite pour le pays, éduquée sur le modèle des pays les plus avancés du

2. Le projet de l’USP (Université de São Paulo) n’a pas remporté un succès total. De fortestensions entre les anciennes écoles supérieures et la Faculté de Philosophie obligèrent à une sériede compromis.

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monde. On avait alors prévu de recruter tous les professeurs en Europe. Avec la vaguemontante du nazi-fascisme en Allemagne et en Italie, il fut décidé que dans ces pays neseraient recrutés que des professeurs de Sciences Physiques et Biologiques, tandis que lesprofesseurs des Sciences Humaines viendraient de France, considérée comme une alternativelibérale au fascisme (Duarte 1976:70; Mesquita 1969:192). Ce projet a été réalisé dans sesgrandes lignes. A l’Université de São Paulo ont enseigné des professeurs tels que RogerBastide, Fernand Braudel, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Claude Lévi-Strauss, etc.

Au commencement, la section de Lettres était organisée en deux cours: LettresClassiques et Portugais et Lettres Etrangères. Le premier comprenait les chaires suivantes:Philologie Grecque et Latine; Philologie Portugaise; Littérature Luso-Brésilienne;Littérature Grecque et Littérature Latine; le second comprenait les chaires de Langueet Littérature Française et de Langue et Littérature Italienne (1937:1). C’est en 1940seulement qu’ont commencé à fonctionner les chaires de Langue et Littérature Espagnole,Langue et Littérature Anglaise et Langue et Littérature Allemande. La chaire de LangueTupi-Guarani, dans les débuts de l’existence de la Faculté, n’appartenait pas à la Sectionde Lettres, mais à celle de Géographie et Histoire. Il y avait une chaire d’EthnographieBrésilienne et Langue Tupi-Guarani.

En 1939, la Faculté dut s’adapter à la norme de la Faculté Nationale de Philosophie,créée à Rio de Janeiro, par le décret Fédéral n° 1.190, du 4 avril 1939. Dans la sectionde Lettres, sont constitués les Cours de Lettres Classiques, Lettres Néolatines et LettresAnglo-Germaniques, organisation qui perdurera jusqu’en 1962, quand, sur la base del’avis 283/62 du Conseiller Valnir Chagas, du CFE (Conseil Fédéral de l’Education),approuvé le 19 octobre 1962, tous les Cours de Lettres sont réorganisés dans le pays.Les chaires chargées de ces trois nouveaux cours étaient celles de Langue et LittératureLatine, Langue et Littérature Grecque, Philologie et Langue Portugaise, LittératurePortugaise, Littérature Brésilienne, Philologie Romane, Langue et Littérature Française,Langue et Littérature Italienne, Langue Espagnole et Littérature Espagnole et Hispano-Américaine, Langue Anglaise et Littérature Anglaise et Anglo-Américaine, Langue etLittérature Allemande.

1. Evolution de l’orientation des chaires au long des années

En Philologie et Langue Portugaise, quoiqu’il soit reconnu qu’au Brésil on parle unevariante linguistique différente de celle du Portugal, si bien que le premier professeur dela chaire, le portugais Rebelo Gonçalves, parle de la confection d’une grammaire luso-brésilienne de la langue portugaise (1937:197), le premier programme réserve uneplace réduite aux caractéristiques du portugais du Brésil (1937:289-291). L’idée d’unelangue commune dont la norme était la variante européenne imprègne tout le programme.L’orientation des programmes pour l’étude de la langue était avant tout historique.Outre la grammaire historique, on insiste, en étudiant l’histoire de la langue, sur la langue

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littéraire, principalement sur l’étude des auteurs qui ont été considérés comme desmodèles de perfection linguistique, Camões, Vieira et Bernardes (1937:289). Lescommentaires de textes pour l’étude des phases de la langue, se concentrent sur destextes de la phase archaïque du portugais (1937:291). Si l’orientation était l’orientationhistorique, la Géographie Linguistique, en accord avec la tradition portugaise d’étudeslinguistiques, commence à être prise en considération (1937:289; 1937a:281). Ainsi, larecherche linguistique réalisée à la chaire de Philologie et Langue Portugaise aux premierstemps de l’USP suit les courants dominants de la Linguistique Historique, mais commenceà s’intéresser à la Géographie Linguistique, à ses méthodes et ses objectifs. Le 22 avril1940 Francisco da Silveira Bueno est nommé à la chaire de Philologie et LanguePortugaise. Quoique cette chaire conserve son orientation essentiellement philologiqueet historique, d’autres influences commencent à se faire sentir: d’une part il publie, en1950, son Traité de sémantique générale, qui révèle les influences de sémanticistesfrançais et allemands de l’époque; d’autre part, en 1951, démarre l’installation à laFaculté d’un Cabinet de Phonétique Expérimentale (1952:217). Pour Silveira Bueno,la philologie est une discipline qui a pour fonction de coordonner et d’agréger lesconnaissances des différentes disciplines, car

elle pour objet particulier la connaissance parfaite et complète de la vie intellectuelle d’unpeuple a travers tous ses monuments littéraires (1953:84).

La philologie Portugaise doit être(…) l’étude de la civilisation, de l’esprit, de toute la vieintellectuelle du peuple lusitain, par l’intermédiaire des monuments que nous ont légués sesgénérations passées (1953:85).

Les textes anciens sont la raison d’être des études philologiques. Pour établir les textes,il est nécessaire de connaître à fond la langue du temps où ceux-ci ont été écrits. La conceptionde philologie qui oriente les travaux de la chaire de Philologie et Langue Portugaise est laconception classique de cette branche de la connaissance, qui se fonde sur le concept deculture en tant que l’ensemble des connaissances intellectuelles d’un peuple donné. Seloncette conception, la culture est comprise comme une réalisation des classes dominantes.

Les chaires de Langue et Littérature Grecque et de Langue et Littérature Latineavaient une orientation nettement littéraire. Les études linguistiques se destinaientseulement à permettre aux élèves d’avoir accès aux textes dans l’original. Un courssupérieur de Lettres Classiques devait étudier, d’une part l’histoire de la langue;d’autre part sa littérature (1937:187). De la sorte, pendant longtemps, les étudeslinguistiques, en Lettres Classiques, se destinaient à étudier la phonétique, lamorphologie, la syntaxe et la lexicologie historiques. La recherche linguistique avaitainsi une orientation nettement historique. Les programmes de Littérature visaient,d’une part, à donner une vision panoramique de la littérature étudiée; d’autre part, àamener l’élève à faire des explications de textes (1952:244; 1952a:257; 1953:501).D’un autre côté, les premiers professeurs de Lettres Classiques insistèrent beaucoup

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sur l’élaboration d’instruments de travail: grammaires, dictionnaires, et surtout deséditions de textes classiques, avec des traductions et des commentaires en portugais(1937:190; 1954:270).

De par le propre objet dont elles traitaient, dans les chaires de Philologie Romane etde Glottologie Classique, l’orientation était aussi historico-comparative. La GlottologieClassique s’occupait de ce que nous appellerions aujourd’hui Linguistique Indo-Européenne, avec une importance toute particulière attribuée à la comparaison du latinet du grec. ( 1952:244-246; 1953:439-440; 1954:279). Toutefois, c’est à la chaire dePhilologie Romane qu’a commencé l’étude de la linguistique moderne. Le ProfesseurTeodoro Henrique Maurer Junior, titulaire de la chaire, avait été boursier, au cours del’année scolaire 1945-1946 de la Fondation Rockefeller, à l’Université de Yale, où ilétudia le sanscrit, le hittite, la phonétique et la linguistique générale, et fut alors l’élèvede Bloomfield. Il était membre de la Linguistic Society of America et fut collaborateurde la revue Langage (1952:180-181). C’est lui qui, à São Paulo, commença à enseigneret à répandre les théories de Saussure, Bloomfield, etc.

Les cours de Langues Etrangères, durant la période considérée, étaient beaucoupplus tournés vers le monde de la réflexion poétique que vers la description linguistique.Toutes les chaires suivaient la même orientation: la connaissance de la langue était pratiquepour que l’élève pût lire les textes littéraires dans l’original; il était important de connaîtrel’histoire de la langue, pour une étude plus précise des textes littéraires des différentesépoques; la connaissance de la littérature était la finalité ultime d’un cours supérieur deLettres (1937:198-206, 294; 1938:364; 1952:222, 226, 239; 1952a:239, 245, 251-252; 1953:467, 469, 473, 481, 490, 491; 1954:255).

Le premier professeur titulaire de la chaire de Tupi-Guarani, dans un rapport de1934-1935, disait que l’étude de cette langue ne pourrait s’orienter dès le débutavec l’assurance qui serait souhaitable parce qu’elle ne disposait pas de bibliographieobéissant aux exigences d’un cours académique. Pour cette raison, le premier travailde la chaire consisterait à préparer l’ébauche d’une grammaire de la langue, à partirde la collecte d’éléments dans des œuvres anciennes et modernes (1937:140-141).Cette ébauche devrait recueillir, “avec simplicité et méthode, les particularitésidiomatiques découlant des lois et des faits d’ordre général” (1937:141). Le professeurs’interroge si la Faculté doit donner un cours de caractère pratique, c’est-à-dire s’ilfaut enseigner aux élèves la pratique de la langue et en même temps, il se demandequelle langue doit être enseignée, celle qui se parle aujourd’hui au Paraguay ou letupi-guarani amazonien, celui qui est appelé nheengatu. Pour lui, un cours supérieurne comporte pas d’enseignement aux finalités pratiques, où l’on s’occuperaitd’apprendre à parler telle ou telle langue, tel ou tel dialecte. D’un autre côté, de lamême manière que le grec qu’il faut étudier est le grec classique, il faut étudier cequ’on pourrait appeler le tupi classique, qui, bien qu’il puisse être compris par lespratiquants du tupi-guarani d’aujourd’hui, en diverge par de nombreux aspects. Lachaire de Tupi-Guarani doit être située au même niveau où se situent celles de Grec

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et de Latin. Pour cette raison, on ne s’occupera pas de la partie pratique de lalangue, “de son étude dans le champ limité des aires géographiques où elle estemployée aujourd’hui”, de “sa situation actuelle face aux influences de plus en plusfortes qu’elle reçoit des peuples dominants, mais exclusivement de ses aspectsgénériques, classiques et fondamentaux, seuls capables de fournir une visionpanoramique de sa structure et de son caractère” (1937:144-145). La recherchelinguistique, faite dans un Institut de Philologie devrait avoir une orientation historiqueet comparée: il serait nécessaire d’étudier l’évolution des faits linguistiques du tupi-guarani et de comparer le tupi avec d’autres langues américaines, pour établir lesfamilles linguistiques, ou, selon les propres mots du professeur de la chaire, établir“l’interdépendance avec d’autres langues américaines” (1937:145). Comme on levoit, l’orientation initiale de la chaire de Tupi-Guarani était une tentative de donner àcette langue le statut des langues classiques et des autres langues, le portugais, lefrançais et l’italien. La recherche linguistique avait une orientation historico-comparativeet la langue que les élèves devaient étudier, était celle qui a été désignée comme letupi classique. Le tupi-guarani était passible d’une étude philologique telle qu’elleétait pratiquée dans d’autres langues (1953:562). L’orientation de la première chairede langue indigène créée dans une école supérieure était bien distante de l’orientationqui a prévalu au cours des décennies suivantes. En effet, plus tard, les chercheursallaient s’attacher à décrire les différentes langues parlées par les indigènes sur leterritoire brésilien.

Conclusions

1) Dans les Langues Etrangères, ce qui était l’objectif de la recherche, c’était lalittérature; l’enseignement de la langue était le moyen d’amener les élèves à lire lestextes originaux. Même les cours d’histoire de la langue avaient pour finalité depréparer l’élève à la lecture de textes produits à d’autres étapes de la langue. Parconséquent, au cours de la période qui va de 1934 à 1962, à part de raresexceptions, il n’a pas été réalisé de recherches linguistiques dans le domaine deslangues étrangères.

2) Dans les Lettres Classiques, la littérature était également l’objet privilégié dela recherche. Au cours de la période considérée, en plus des études sur des auteurset des œuvres, la priorité a été donnée à la production d’instruments pour le travaillittéraire, à savoir, des traductions en portugais des auteurs greco-latins, avec uneintroduction, des notes et des commentaires. Les cours de langue suivaientl’orientation historico-comparative et quelques travaux ont été produits selon cetteorientation théorique. Toutefois, le gros des travaux de recherche portaient sur desthèmes littéraires.

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3) La recherche linguistique proprement dite est demeurée confinée aux chaires dePhilologie et Langue Portugaise et Philologie Romane et Glottologie Classique. Dans lapremière, il y avait d’une part le travail philologique, qui était considéré comme le plusimportant. Cependant, comme le travail philologique portait, d’abord, sur les textesarchaïques du portugais, il était important de réaliser des travaux sur l’évolution duportugais. Ainsi, la recherche diachronique occupe une place importante parmi les travauxréalisés. D’autre part, suivant une tradition portugaise, représentée par des noms commeLeite de Vasconcelos, et Carolina Michelis de Vasconcelos, quelques travaux ont étéréalisés suivant la ligne de la Géographie Linguistique.

4) La chaire de Linguistique Romane et de Glottologie Classique ont une orientationhistorico-comparative. C’est là néanmoins, grâce à la formation de son professeurtitulaire, qu’ont commencé à se diffuser les idées des fondateurs de la LinguistiqueModerne. Ce sera la base de la formation de toute une génération de linguistes qui sontaujourd’hui en activité dans différentes universités brésiliennes.

5) L’orientation philologique et historico-comparative était si forte que même la chairede Tupi-Guarani l’imprime à ses études et cherche à étudier un stade de la langue, celuiqui a été décrit par Anchieta, Montoya et Figueira, et qui est désigné comme tupi classique.On ne réalise pas d’études descriptives du tupi-guarani, mais on s’efforce de donner àl’étude de cette langue un statut identique à celui du grec et du latin.

6) Comme on le remarque, l’Université de São Paulo suit l’orientation pédagogique etles lignes de recherche de la moyenne des universités européennes où ont été recrutés sespremiers professeurs.

RÉFÉRENCES

Primary sourcesAnuário da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras 1934-1935, 1937. São Paulo,

Revista dos Tribunaes.Anuário da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras 1936, 1937a. São Paulo,

Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras.Anuário da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras 1937-1938, 1938. São Paulo,

Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras.Anuário da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras 1939-1949, 1953. São Paulo,

Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras, v. I e II.Anuário da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras 1950, 1952. São Paulo,

Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras.Anuário da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras 1951, 1952a. São Paulo,

Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras.Anuário da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras 1952, 1954. São Paulo,

Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras.

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Secondary bibliographyCampos, Ernesto de Souza. 1954. História da Universidade de São Paulo. São

Paulo: USP.Cunha, Luiz Antônio. 1986. A universidade temporã: da colônia à era Vargas. 2

ed. Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves.Duarte, Paulo. 1976. Memórias. Selva obscura, vol. 3. São Paulo: Hucitec.Mendes, Raimundo Teixeira. 1882. A universidade. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Positivista

Brasileiro.Mesquita Filho, Júlio de. 1969. Política e cultura. São Paulo: Martins.Schwartzman, Simon. 2001. Um espaço para a ciência: a formação da comunidade

científica no Brasil. Brasília: Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia, Centro de EstudosEstratégicos.

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THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE IN THEINSTITUTIONALIZATION OF LINGUISTICS

SUZY LAGAZZI-RODRIGUES Universidade Estadual de Campinas

The movements to grammatize the Portuguese language and the legitimation ofLinguistics in Brazil as a scientific and institutional process are a fact. Princípios deLingüística Geral (Principles of General Linguistics) and Estrutura da LínguaPortuguesa (Structure of the Portuguese Language) by Joaquim Mattoso Câmara Jr.were used to analyze and demonstrate this fact, and the scientific, institutional andlegitimated aspects of Linguistics are evident. The discursive memory shows the path ofscientific and institutional legitimation in the studies of the Portuguese language in Brazil,as will be demonstrated in this article.

1. Setting the Point

When we think of Linguistics in Brazil, we cannot forget the great author andresearcher Mattoso Câmara, whose work provided us with a scientific description ofgrammar. Guimarães (2000) declares that “Said Ali was the one who not only recognizedthe distinction between two kinds of descriptive grammars (one prescriptive and theother scientific), but he also put the scientific grammar to work”. On the other hand,Guimarães points out that, although Said Ali inscribed the referred scientific descriptivegrammar into Brazilian history, he did not actually complete it. We can say that thisposition is made clear in Estrutura da Língua Portuguesa (Structure of the PortugueseLanguage) by Mattoso Câmara in the 1970.

We will observe that the establishment of scientific descriptive grammar will beaccomplished by the linguist as opposed to the prescriptive grammarian. Related tothis, Orlandi (2000) states that, at the time when the changing of the authorship from thegrammarian to the linguist occurs, “the question posed by the language also changesfrom a political and intellectual perspective to an explicitly scientific one.” As Orlandipoints out, in spite of authorship effacing in grammar, the position of the author stillprevails but now as a school imposition of a sort of grammatical linguistic standard,which “manifests effects on the knowledge of the language which develops parallel tolinguistic knowledge and its metalanguage.” The author goes on with the argument thateach one of the disciplines presents a peculiar answer to the unity x diversity relationship

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concerning language. Such an interchange occurs in a place where contradiction ismanifest in the school system, which is the place for teaching language. “On the onehand, legitimation through Linguistics and on the other, grammar through terminology.Philology goes between the two of them - through comments - by interweaving thecomplex articulation between knowledge and language practice in building up therelationship unity x diversity.”

Therefore, we observe that linguistic knowledge supported by metalanguage isrepresented within a science-based process which will be legitimated by the school asan institution. Generally speaking, the school makes the difference between grammarrules and the scientific description of language stable as its operation becomes moreand more structured by the teaching of the language grammar. School is the place forthe language teacher. He works under the standardization of NGB (Brazilian GrammaticalNomenclature) according to the position of a grammarian. On the other hand, the linguisttakes over a scientific perspective of thinking about the language. University languagecourses represent remarkable places concerning this redistribution of knowledge.

Guimarães (1996) defines four periods concerning the development of the Braziliangrammar of the Portuguese language. There are debates on language issues betweenBrazilian and Portuguese people during the first and second periods, aside from thefoundation of the ‘Academia Brasileira de Letras’ (Brazilian Academy of Letters) andthe publishing of several important grammars. The third period starts at the end of thethirties, with the introduction of University Language courses. The 1943 OrthographicAgreement regulations also take place in this period as well as the debate to define thename to be given to the language in use in Brazil. Guimarães mentions a series of worksbrought forth in this period: History of the Portuguese Language (1952) by Serafimda Silva Neto, The Historical Formation of the Portuguese Language (1955) bySilveira Bueno, the descriptions of the Portuguese language by Mattoso Câmara,published in the sixties and republished in 1970 as a book - Structure of the PortugueseLanguage - and some studies on native languages by the same author, the famousNGB (Brazilian Grammatical Nomenclature) in 1958, Atlas prévio dos falares baianos(1963-65) by Nelson Rossi, A Policy of the Language (1965) and The PortugueseLanguage and Brazilian Reality (1968) by Celso Cunha, and Grammar ofContemporary Portuguese (1970), also by Celso Cunha. We observe that the specificworks of the third period show in their very titles the prevailing thought concerninglanguage studies in those days: ‘Língua Portuguesa’ (the Portuguese Language). As anobject, it was established as the national language, clearly defined from the grammarianposition. It also follows an institutional process that grows bigger and bigger. Guimarãesalso states that the foundation of University Language courses opens up a ‘place forresearch on language issues’ with enquiries that show concern with both literary standardas well as with teaching. From 1965 onward, Linguistics as a discipline is introducedand is compulsory in University Language courses. According to the author, this factmarks the fourth period of the grammatization of the Portuguese language in Brazil.

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At first sight we might say that the period of Brazilian debates on grammatization ofthe Portuguese language, when research on language issues is brought into Universitylanguage courses, represents an interesting gap which leads to the introduction ofLinguistics as a compulsory discipline of the curricula of the referred courses. Languageissues which mark this gap also contribute to the building of a stable basis for standardizedgrammar, besides laying solid foundations for the development of Linguistics in Brazil.

I restate that the scientific practice process takes place in an institutionalized context.This point is crucial to understand the process in analysis. Both science and institutionbecome superimposed.

Orlandi and Guimarães (1998) state that although there is not a straightforwardextension between nineteenth-century studies on language in Brazil and the wayLinguistics developed later in the country “there is already a sort of work that arises outof Linguistics, such as it was developed here. Above all, there is a work ofinstitutionalization of the relationship between Brazilians and the Portuguese language.Parallel to this, a representation of knowledge (such as schools, grammar, manuals, andliterature) is constituted in our society. I imagine that science and institution cross at atwo-way road”. Both authors argue that “writing, knowledge of language and identitywith a national language are conclusive for the institutional form of our society andpolitics”. Guimarães and Orlandi go on stating that both “the explanation of the relationshipsubject x language by school as an institution and the publishing of grammars representthe scientific practice process” that took place at that time. “It is a conclusive time forboth, the constitution of the historical form of Brazilians and the institutionalization ofLinguistics as a discipline”.

It is important to point out that, in this complexity of relations, the connection betweenscience and institution is legitimated. Science has to be legitimated as an institution.How does this process take place with the discipline of Linguistics in Brazil?

2. Taking the matter into consideration

When we think of Linguistics as a discipline, Mattoso Câmara Jr.’s works, Princípiosde Lingüística Geral (Principles of General Linguistics) and História e Estrutura daLíngua Portuguesa (History and Structure of the Portuguese Language), are referencetexts.

Published in 1941, the first one marks the birth of Linguistics in Brazil according toSilvio Elia. The author writes about this fact in the 1977 edition of the referred work:PORTUGUESE IN THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF LINGUISTICS

the birth of Linguistics in Brazil and perhaps in the world of the Portuguese language.

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On the introductory note to the second edition, in 1954, Mattoso stresses that hetried not to change the book’s plan:

the effort not to modify the book’s plan and to tie it into the subject that focalized it fromthe beginning. The subtitle – “How to Introduce Superior Studies of the PortugueseLanguage” – explains this intentional limitation of ambit. (Mattoso Câmara 1977)

According to the title and subtitle we can observe that General Linguistics establishesthe approach for the studies of the Portuguese language. On the other hand, thePortuguese language gives details of the thought on general Linguistics. The movementfrom general Linguistics to the specificity of the Portuguese language is a distinguishingtrait of this work by Mattoso and it is also relevant for us to understand the process ofthe institutionalization of Linguistics. It is characteristic of the structuralist perspective,which supports the thought of Mattoso’s work as we can observe below.

The general table of contents of Princípios de Lingüística Geral (Principles ofGeneral Linguistics) provides us with an overall view of the work developed. We counttwenty chapters that run as follows:

I. Content and Scope of linguistics; II. Phonemes or units of phonation; III. Syllable andword phonetics; IV. Units of the Language; V. The functions of morphemes; VI. Thegrammatical categories; VII. The categories of gender; VIII. The category of aspect; IX.The verbal voices; X. Types of words; XI. The phrase and its structure; XII. Modality ofthe phrase; XIII. Classification of the languages for descriptive purposes; XIV. Theclassifications of Schleicher and Sapir; XV. Concepts of the linguistic evolution; XVI.Linguistic causes of the evolution; XVII. Aspects of the phonetic evolution; XVIII. PhoneticLaws; XIX. Borrowing and its concept; XX. Social and linguistic aspects of Borrowing

Taking the chapters as a whole, we can observe the structuralist principles that setthe boundaries for thought on language. From the phoneme to the sentence, structuralismsettles the border lines of analysis. We can also note that the name ‘Portuguese language’is not mentioned in the chapter names. This fact leads us to raise questions on how therelation between Linguistics and the Portuguese language takes place. But when wetake the chapters into consideration, we immediately encounter examples in Portuguesefor all the general concepts accepted and explained by Mattoso, based upon greatauthors formed and legitimated by Linguistics as a science.

In the second section of Chapter I, we find the first reference to the Portugueselanguage. Mattoso then makes the comparison between the ‘Portuguese system’ andthe ‘Portuguese language,’ which is essential for the structural perspective he adopts:

Each community of men is served by a system of language, the essential property ofwhich is to be representative.Therefore, in the Portuguese system, or Portuguese language, the phenomena thatimpress our senses are interpreted, and REPRESENTED, - either consubstantiated in a

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“being”, not rarely merely conventional, as death (substantive names), or as «processes»in development (verbs) […] are divided into classes by a given criterion (such as that ofnominal gender), and are given a common or different denomination according to, forexample, the way in which they are interpreted on the basis of certain constitutive elements;A, in which we pick apples, B, in which we collect firewood, C, in the shade where we findprotection, such as a tree, or to the contrary, on the base of other elements, an abstractionof the general groups is made and called A apple tree, B eucalyptus, C jequitibá tree. Inthis way, the space in which we live […]. Mattoso Câmara Jr. 1977:17)

The word ‘assim’ (‘so’) is meaningful to the relationship established between therepresentative attribute of the language systems and the fulfillment of such representationwith terms of the Portuguese language. Due to the fact that representativity of languageis general, examples can be formulated in Portuguese. Formulation causes the effect ofdirect consequence between attribute and language in such a way that the Portugueselanguage can only provide examples. Below we can see some other passages byMattoso:

The current descriptive linguistics tends to consider these groups of opposition on thebasis of a “binarity”, that is, a conjugated binary, or having two members. When a linguistictrace distinguishes one of them and opposes the other, we have the GRAMMATICALMARK OF THE OPPOSITION. […]

Even when we come upon three or more members, there is an implicit rule, a hierarchicalorganization that may conduct us to understand successive binary groups: […]

For this reason, our set of seven vowels consists of a complex and decomposable structurein binary oppositions: […] (Mattoso Câmara 1977:43)

This led Brugmann to a theoretical schematization of the diverse types of aspects possiblefor the existence of a verbal conjugation, highlighting: 1) the PUNCTUAL aspect, ormomentaneous […]; 2) DURATIVE […]; 3) PERMANSIVE […].

In Portuguese, some of these aspects are rooted in the meaning of certain verbs; this canbe seen in the proposal of to leave and to arrive, which are essentially verbs – the firstinceptive and the second, cessative. Analogically, to fall is punctual; so, in the infantilefolklore song, we have it repeated to indicate a slow fall (durative aspect): “cai, cai,balão na rua do sabão” [“fall, fall, balloon in the street of soap …”].

Others are characterized by suffixes. This is the case of the frequentative aspect, with adiminutive notion added, implicit in the reach of the “itar” suffix, in the manner alreadyused in Latin, where this was the essence of certain derived verbs, in “are”, related tothe radical of the supine of a simple verb […].

In this way, we have the aspect functioning on a lexical level, by the change of semanteme,or on the level of derivation vocabulary, in which an affix imprints a particular value on asemanteme without affecting its inherent meaning (cf. §59).

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However, even on the purely grammatical level of the conjunction, the aspect-categoryfunctions subsidially in Portuguese. The resource consists of the use of composed orperiphrastical conjugations, in which an auxiliary verb […].

So, the CURSIVE ASPECT is formulated in the present, past, future and in any mode bymeans of the auxiliary verb estar [to be] conjugated with a gerund (estou cantando [Iam singing], estava cantando [I was singing], estive cantando [I had been singing], estareicantando [I will be singing], etc.) […].

In other and innumerous languages, these are the notions – whether subsidiary oradventitial in Portuguese – that constitute the dorsal spine of verbal conjugation.

In the African languages Bantu and Sudanese, Maurice Delafosse deducts, analogally,the existence of three central aspects […] (Mattoso Câmara 1977: 142-144).

In the second passage, as in the first one, the Portuguese language is in the place ofa conclusive fulfillment, in this case, the binary opposition. In the third passage, we canobserve the question of the conceptual aspect being discussed according to its functioningon several levels of the language system of both the Portuguese language as well as“outras e inúmeras línguas” (other and uncountable languages). Taking this instance, wecan perceive that it is essential to have a structural thought concerning languages,specifically the Portuguese language.

In a general overview, I would say that these language formulations make up theevidence of languages as systems and for the history of linguistic ideas in Brazil. Thefact that Portuguese language as a system is constructed through such formulations iswhat really matters. On that account, in the opposite direction, we find the manifestationof linguistic thought in our country. Legitimation of linguistic thought is built in Brazil atthe same time as theoretical concepts are manifest in the Portuguese language, supportingstructuralist perspectives.

It is extremely relevant when we think about the Brazilian authorship process whichis part of the manifestation of the linguistic thought in Brazil, where we find references tothe author himself among several quotations by Mattoso Câmara:

Understood as a game of physionomy, it is undeniable that the gesture of the arms andeven the whole body ineluctably accompanies the vocal enunciation and a “specifyingfunction of the word” is integrated in it (Kainz, 1943, II, 498), but only, as I said before, «inthe manner of a musical background that accompanies the words of a song» (MattosoCâmara 1977: 19).

When we examine the whole list of the referred works, we observe that besidesMattoso Câmara we also find Capistrano de Abreu, Said Ali, Antenor Nascentes,Theodoro Sampaio, Serafim Silva Neto e Sousa da Silveira. These are Brazilian authorswho make up a group of legitimated and legitimating authors concerning the linguisticthought.

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Now we will examine the work História e Estrutura da Língua Portuguesa. Thistext was elaborated between 1963 and 1965 and published in English in 1972 as partof the set of books The History and Structure of Languages. This text is differentfrom Princípios de Lingüística Geral in which the Portuguese language is formulatedaccording to a mechanism of representation and instances related to the generaltheoretical concepts taken from authors that form a long list of referred books. In thiscase, the Portuguese language is not parallel to several other systems, but examplesfrom other languages are brought out to elucidate theoretical questions. The main pointin História e Estrutura da Língua Portuguesa (The History and Structure of thePortuguese Language) as well as in Estrutura da Língua Portuguesa (Structure ofthe Portuguese Language) (1970) is that the Portuguese language is taken and describedaccording to a system of its own.

The description must begin with the unity of the fundamental features and, primordially,support itself in it. The differences enter secondarily and scale up in importance in thegeneral linguistic structure.Therefore, they arrive at a comprehension of the Portuguese language that will be aconstant directive for the study we are going to begin. (Mattoso Câmara 1976:9)

When Mattoso starts Chapter II named ‘Fonologia’ (Phonology) in part I ‘Prosódia’(Prosody), he defines the subtitle ‘O acento em Português’ (The Accent in Portuguese)and begins his considerations as follows:

It is best to begin the study of Portuguese Phonology by its accents, or prosodies, due totheir fundamental importance in all of the phonological system. The Portuguese accent isextensive but not violent. It is much stronger in Portugal than in Brazil with a great contrastbetween the tonic syllable, which is not found in Brazil. […] (Mattoso Câmara 1976:33)

It is remarkable that the comparisons with the Latin system presented throughoutthe entire book are used to contextualize specific statements on the Portuguese system,as we can observe in the passages below:

The Portuguese accent is free within the limits comprehended between the last and theantepenultimate syllable of the word (an acute, grave and proparoxitone, respectively).[…]In Latin there were the limits between the next to last and antepenultimate syllable, […](Mattoso Câmara 1976:33-34)

Therefore, according to the nature of the predicate – verb or name – a Portuguese phrase,as occurs with the Latin phrase, is respectively – verbal or nominal. (Mattoso Câmara1976:233)

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We now arrive at the most important radical variation for the total comprehension of thestructure of Portuguese verbs: that which occurs from an opposition between the forms ofimperfect and perfect that disappeared from the great majority of the verbal radicals inconsequence of the elimination of mark -u- of the latin perfectum.The small number of verbs that preserve the distinction in Portuguese are essentiallydivided in three types:The first presents an opposition of themes, not exactly radicals. It is constituted by twoverbs: […] (Mattoso Câmara 1976:156)

Princípios de Lingüística Geral (Principles of General Linguistics) brought aboutthe manifestation of the Portuguese language as a system. In its turn, História e Estruturada Língua Portuguesa consolidates the Portuguese language as the place for linguisticdescription, as previously stated by Guimarães. The place of the analyst is broughtforth after the beginning of the Portuguese language description. The position of thelinguist as an analyst is consolidated through the Portuguese language description,considering the area of Linguistics in Brazil.

The meaning of the Portuguese language as a manifestation of a structural place forthe description of the analysis consolidated, with the work of Mattoso Câmara beingessential for both, the institutional and scientific legitimation of Linguistics in Brazil aswell as for the acknowledgement of linguistic studies. In an attempt to draw an overview,I would say that the Portuguese language means the scientific institution itself because itmakes Linguistics and linguistic studies possible in Brazil. It is a question of legitimationin the scientific area which necessarily takes place through the institutionalization of thePortuguese language in the same scientific area.

REFERENCES

Mattoso Câmara Jr, J. 1976. História e Estrutura da Língua Portuguesa. Rio deJaneiro: Padrão.

. 1977. Princípios de Lingüística Geral. Rio de Janeiro: Padrão.Guimarães, E. 1996. “Sinopse dos Estudos do Português no Brasil: A Gramatização

Brasileira”. In: Guimarães,E. e Orlandi,E. (orgs). Língua e Cidadania: O Portuguêsno Brasil. Campinas: Pontes.

. 2000. “Entre o Estilístico e o Gramatical. Mattoso Câmara na Históriada Lingüística no Brasil”. Apresentado no “Congresso Internacional 500 anos deLíngua Portuguesa no Brasil”. Évora: Portugal.

Orlandi, E. 2000. “Métalangage et Grammatisation au Brésil: Le Rapport Grammaire/Philologie/Linguistique”. In: Orbis Supplementa. Louvain: Peeters.

. & Guimarães, E. 1998. “La Formation d’un Espace de ProdutionLinguistique. La Grammaire au Brésil”. In: Langages, 130. Paris: Larousse.

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HUMOR AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITIONANECDOTAL DATA AND THEIR ROUTE IN THE HISTORY

OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION STUDIES

ROSA ATTIÉ FIGUEIRAUniversidade Estadual de Campinas

It is well known that, in addition to the material recorded in video and audiotapesessions, researchers in the area of Language Acquisition frequently analyze segmentswhich were registered by members of children’s families. Such linguistic occurrences,at a certain point, called attention for their unusual nature and were taken by the child’sinterlocutors as a kind of “linguistic deed” or as a funny linguistic novelty. Generally, thislinguistic registered novelty interests the researcher and is added to other collected datain order to identify particular linguistic phenomena which might be involved in that material.

One of the objectives of this paper is to examine how representative this type ofdata is within the history of the area of Language Acquisition, from its birth to thepresent. This aim not only includes, but brings out the oldest contributions made by theso-called diarists. Many of the studies carried out by Sully (1896) and Jespersen(1922), are, as we all know, important contributions to the area and, as such, wereincorporated to more recent studies.

One could say that, whereas for us, it is very easy to recognize, admit and deal withanecdotal1 data, it is not that easy to define the exact meaning of the adjective “anecdotal”,appositively to data or even to some specific occurrences. Therefore, I propose someresearch in dictionaries focusing on the item anecdote, from which anecdotal derives.In O Novo Dicionário Aurélio, I found the following entry for anecdote:

(a)1. Relato sucinto de um fato jocoso ou curioso.2 Particularidade engraçadade figura histórica ou lendária.

For the English anecdote, The new shorter Oxford English dictionaryacknowledges basically the same senses, but in reverse order from than that in Aurélio:

1. I speak here as one of the members of the Language Acquisition Project, proposed andcoordinated by Prof. Cláudia de Lemos (1982, 1992) at IEL, Unicamp. This project celebrated its 25th

anniversary in 2002, when a seminar was held in honor of Cláudia Lemos.2. Some of these data were analyzed in Figueira (2001a). A little before that, in 1999, they were thetheme of a conference delivered at the opening of Enapol I, at USP.

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(b)1. secret or hitherto unpublished details of history: 2. A narrative of anamusing or striking incident (orig. an item of gossip) (...)

In French, Le nouveau petit Larousse. Dictionnaire de langue française alsolists the two senses above for the item anecdote, but, it adds the acknowledgement ofa third sense, which actually is held as the least important.

(c) particularité historique, petit fait curieux dont le récit peut éclairer le dessousdes choses, la psychologie des hommes. Récit d’un fait curieux ou pitoresque,historiette. Détail ou aspect sécondaire, sans généralisation et sans portée.

Without settling on one specific sense, it is possible – from the very (anecdotal) datachosen to be examined in this paper – to show that the researcher’s decision to incorporatesuch data to his/her material, situates him/herself between the two basic senses listed inthe dictionary: anecdotal meaning “funny, entertaining, picturesque, laughter-inducing,”and anecdotal meaning “unique, typical of the subject’s personal history.” As a result,instead of avoiding this duplicity, by choosing one of the uses of the word, I will deliberatelytake advantage of it, because embracing this slackening in meaning seems to be aprovidential and convenient prospect. In other words, it serves the purpose of makingevident a fact to be underscored in the very dynamics of anecdotal data: many of theprivate or episodic facts, sometimes considered as secondary or peripheral with respectto a person’s history (and here I am referring to the child as a subject constituted bylanguage) are eventually the target of laughter, being included in the family collection ofanecdotes, i.e., they become a type of production ready to circulate in the domesticenvironment, and, when and if directed to a language researcher will turn into a preciousfinding, part of his/her corpora, as qualified as any other (or maybe even more qualified)to compose the explanation chart of the native language acquisition phenomenon.

Some discoveries circulating among us, attributed to small children, will serve as point ofdeparture. For example, after hearing her mother, who was attentively looking at someplants in the garden, say: Veja, a primavera está chegando!, the child remarked, betweensurprised and confused:

– Não sabia que tinha uma prima chamada Vera! (a)

Similar to this utterance, which involves a divergent segmentation of the sound chain(primavera à prima Vera), there is one registered in Bonnet & Tamine-Gardes (1984:51), which is worth transcribing:

(Delphine 3;4 a cueilli des fleurs)X. Est-ce que tu sais comment s’appellent ces fleurs...ça s’appelle des primevères.D. Non, c’est des primes jaunes. (b)

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In the dialogue above, Delphine rejects the term primevères and replaces it withprimes jaunes - a sequence that, as the one in the previous dialogue, obliges you tocarefully analyze how the mother’s speech is captured by the child. What is remarkable inthis child’s utterance is the appearance of a feature which, in adult language is apparentlynot necessary or even pertinent - the color of the plant (jaune/yellow), which at themoment of her apprehension of the world and language, appears to be necessary andpertinent. (In fact, it is not for any other reason that this example fits in with creationsrelated to referential motivation.) Consequently, the final segment vères, which, in adultspeech, is by no means a morpheme, becomes one – an occurrence clearly fostered byhomonymy (the similarity between the signifiers vères and vert3) showed in a datumwhich, unfortunately, is poorly explored by the authors, who do not seem to have beenable to grasp the semiotic complexity of the child’s reply. This fact is not negligible, somuch so that they had, at their conceptual and descriptive disposal, the notion of autonimy.

Another anonymous finding, taken from what could be conceived as folklore concerningchildren’s utterances, comes from a child who, on opening the door for a gentleman andhearing that he was a tax collector, announced him to her mother as follows:

(batem à porta; uma criança de três anos e meio vai atender; um homem se apresenta comosendo “o cobrador de impostos”; a criança vira-se para a mãe e diz)- Mãe, taí o impostor. ( c )

This example also has equivalents in the English and French literature of LanguageAcquisition, related to innumerable cases of new agentive items, triggering reactionsfrom listeners ranging from light laughter to peals of laughter. Let us consider, for example,limacier, poubellier, creations which designate respectively, the one who kills snails(from the French limace), and the one who collects the garbage (from the Frenchpoubelle). The former was coined by a boy not identified by name, about whom Sullyreports that, in order to dignify his task of getting rid of the snails in the garden, calledhimself a “limacier;” the latter, produced by Valérie, Aimard’s subject, who delights uswith this and other countless innovations, of which “poubellier” is only an example.4

3. Homophony offers undeniable room for the play of words, which, in the case of vert, wasregistered as having been produced by more than one French child. Valérie’s beautiful example istaken from Aimard’s work: (en coloriand , V. prend un crayon de couleur). V. Je prends ce vert, Pi unverre où on boit, Pi des vers dans la terre, Pi des verts crayons. (Aimard 1995: 37). In anotherspeech, it is herbette which makes room for a resemantization, whose effect is undoubtedly funny.Once again, the datum below is Valérie’s: (V. entend) M. Alors, je prends une petite herbette... V. Unpetit air bête!!! - (Aimard 1975:33 – Observation: I replaced Moi for M, the initial for mother).4. Observe that the example only acquires the status of vocabulary innovation in French, where theperson who takes care of the garbage (poubelle) has a different designation. On the other hand, inPortuguese, in this case, the agentive derived item is formed from lixo: lixeiro, via the suffix –eiro.Below, in order to provide a wider variety of examples, are other creations for designating agents,collected from Bonnet & Tamine-Gardes: arrangeur: celui qui arrange (Guillaume 3;7); cremeur:mangeur de crême (Edmond: 3;8); tambourier: celui qui joue du tambour ( Charles 5;6); gymnasteur:celui qui fait de la gymnastique (Lev 5;11). (Bonnet & Tamine-Gardes 1984:95).

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If we refer to the corpora on English acquisition, we will find two great examples,within the same category of agentives: typewriter e rainer. The former, quoted byKarmillof-Smith in the epigraph to the chapter “The child as a linguist,” from the book“Beyond modularity,” belongs to 3-year-old Yara.

Y. What’s that?M. A typewriter.Y. No, you’re the typewriter, that’s a typewrite. ( d )

Taking the word as bearer of the agentive suffix – er, applicable to humans, the girlrefutes or denies its application to the machine and addresses the suffix to the agent, theone who does the job, in a kind of utterance that has the typical structure of reply. Yaratalks about people and things, but, indirectly, she talks about language, too.

The second occurrence with the suffix -er is a finding of Sully’s, and refers to a boy(3;7.7) whose initial is C.. Hearing his father say that nobody could walk in the rain, hereplied:

C. The rainer can. ( e )

Asked by his father who that person was, the boy replied with a statement whichhad definition traits: A man who lives in the forest.

Both utterances (d) and (e) are similar to (c) for triggering a process of word formationin language, whereas the example from Portuguese – impostor - shows, fortuitously, anextra ingredient, and maybe because of that, it is superior in its capability of makingpeople laugh. Indeed, in the case of impostor, the new word (an agentive) coincideswith a sign currently used in Portuguese, which conveys, however, one more meaning(according to the dictionary (cf. Houaiss): “person that deceives with false looks;trickster”). This fact makes the child’s speech an undoubtedly funny circumstance tothe adult – unique, in fact, in its nature, for the child him/herself does not realize thepotential for laughter that his/ her innovation entails.5

Against the background of these initial considerations, one can ask, “What is theparticipation of data of this kind in research on the acquisition of Portuguese as a nativelanguage?” One element of the answer has already been discussed in a recent paper Ihave written on the unusual marking of gender/sex, carried out with data of Diaries ofBrazilian children (Figueira 2001b). As I try to demonstrate, the heuristic power of thistype of material is clear in some realms of Language Acquisition such as gender, domainin which unusual changes in marks of masculine and feminine can be seen as reflectingthe subject’s sexual identity and, as such, part of the process of the constitution ofsubjectivity, which testifies to the presence of the subject in language. Now, I proceed

5. For a characterization of the different condition of the child and adult in view of verbal gamesof a witty nature, see Figueira (2001a).

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my studies on anecdotal data, with the backing of the existing material concerning theacquisition of English and French, which directly leads to the reexamination of twoauthors: Sully and Jespersen.

As a psychologist, interested in children’s overall behavior, including language, Sullygave a warm welcome to this mode of register. His most important work, Studies ofChildhood, was published in 1895. In 2000, the second edition came out with a longintroduction written by Susan Sugarman and a biographical note written by ElizabethValentine. More than one century after the first publication, one can say that Sully’swork can still fill in the reader on information about the child’s world, evoking – asSugarman points out in her introduction to the second edition – in a convincing mannerand agreeable style, the top categories of human experience: play and imagination,thought and concepts, language, emotional life, and so on.

How did Sully work? Right in the introduction, addressed to the new readers ofStudies of childhood, Sugarman offers us the answer, making use of a passage writtenby the author himself.

Professor Sully will be greatly obliged if parents or teachers of young children cansupply him with facts bearing on the characteristics of the childish mind. What heespecially desires is first-hand observations carried out on children during the first fiveor six years of life. In another part, she writes:

Compiled from anecdotes Sully collected from both published sources and informants hesolicited, and crafted into flowing and engaged prose, the books journeys through majorcategories of human experience that remain of interest today: play and imagination, thoughtand concepts, language, emotional life (specifically fear), morality and discipline, aestheticsensibility and drawing. The book provides a natural history of development in each ofthese areas beginning in infancy and extending through early childhood, though itconcentrates upon the toddler years. (Sully 1895: VII; my italics)

Within the prospect offered by historical research concerning the source “Diary”,I am especially interested in thoroughly surveying the material in the chapter of Studiesof childhood dedicated to language: “The little linguist.” There, one can find examplesof children of several nationalities (English, Italian, French), collected by lay persons,adults who, not less sensitive to linguistic facts than researchers themselves, madetheir children’s Diaries a rich and fertile depository of the most important phenomenaof childhood: language emergence. This chapter makes available, in this fashion, aprecious set of data to whoever wants to follow the kind of analysis put into effect ina period preceding the official birth of the area of Language Acquisition. From thewide range of language aspects observed by the author: sounds, invented words andconstructions, I have selected the mastery of words, to proceed in the directionheralded by the data shown above in this paper. I will take up the innovations orneologisms (word inventions), looking at the contributions of yesterday (19th centuryand the first half of the 20th century) from today’s point of view.

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Accordingly, and still with Sully, I have registered some examples of the naming ofindividual objects by the child, a phenomenon that would be better described as cases of“overextensions:” bow-wow, used not only for a specific dog, but for other dogs, paintingsof dogs and, not seldom, for other things resembling dogs. As described by the author,such a phenomenon allows itself to be lightly touched by metaphorical extension.

Coming to words which we call names we find that the child will often extend arecognition-sign from one object to a second, and to our thinking widely dissimilar objectsthrough the discovery of some analogy. Such extension, moving rather along poetic linesthan those of our logic classifications, is apt, as we have seen, to wear a quaint metaphoricalaspect. A star, for example, looked at, I suppose, as a small bright spot, was called by onechild an eye. The child M called the opal globe of a lighted lamp a “moon.” “Pin” wasextended by another child to a crumb just picked up, a fly, and a caterpillar, and seemedto mean something little to be taken between the fingers. (...) Taine speaks of a child ofone year who after first applying the word “fafer” (from “chemin de fer”) to railwayengines went on to transfer it to a steaming coffee-pot and everything that hissed orsmoked or made a noise. In these last illustrations we have plainly a rudimentary processof classification. Any point of likeness, provided it is of sufficient interest to strike theattention, may thus serve as a bias of childish classification. (Sully 1895: 162-3)

In addition to this comment, Sully also leaves his contribution in another field wellexploited by the literature in the area: the use of a lexical item for its opposite or correlative:yesterday for to-morrow, too little for too much (from Preyer’s boy), borrow forlend and learn for teach. At this point, my interest in the reading redoubled,reencountering, on Sully’s list, many examples analogous to or even the same as manyfound in the acquisition of Portuguese: the so-called “verbal changes” (ensinar foraprender, emprestar for devolver, etc 6). Let us see what he says:

Such words as lend, teach, call up first the pictorial idea of an action in which two personsare seen to be concerned. But the exact nature of the relation, and the difference in itsaspect as we start from the one or the other term, are not perceived. (Sully 1895: 165)

The excerpts above belong to the chapter “The little linguist,” but it is in anotherchapter that Sully presents what he calls “Excerpts of a father’s dairy,” where a commenton the funny/humorous effect, that the child’s creations produce on the adult who graspsit directly from the little ones’ mouths is not missing. We, thus, have the opportunity toget in touch not only with the linguistic fact but with the reaction it produces in the child’sinterlocutor.

There is little to note in the way of verbal invention. (...) His father asked him whether histoy-horse was tired, whereupon he answered: “No, I make him untired.” This leads off the

6. See in Figueira (1977), examples of similar “changes” registered in the corpus of Anamaria,between 2.8 and 3.2 years old.

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writer to an abstruse logical discussion of “negative terms”, and how it comes about thatwe do not all of us talk in C’s fashion and say “untired,” “unfatigued.” Another quaintinvention was the use of “think” as a noun. It was funny, writes the father, to hear himrejecting his sister’s statements by the contemptuous formula: “That’s only your thinks.”(The italics are mine.)

From Sully, I will go over to Jespersen, the Danish linguist, whose taste for data“collected live” is praised by Mattoso Câmara Jr. (1972). From his Language: it’snature, development and origin (1922, 1st edition), I chose the example below,collected from the speech of 7-year-old Antoinette. In reply to somebody who addressedher a compliment:

Eh, bien, je te félicite!

the girl said:

Eh, bien, je ne te fais pas licite!

episode whose anecdotal outcome does not go unnoticed by observers of the child’sspeech, be them researchers or lay persons.

But, surely, it is among investigators of the area called Language Acquisition,officially born in the late (19)50s, that findings such as this one (and others, exposedmore than one century ago), arouse greater interest, since they contribute to shedlight on the relationship of the child with his/her native tongue. When it concernsvocabulary innovations, it would be suitable to say that, from my very first writings,my attention was strongly directed to them, starting from the acquisition of verbswith the prefix “des” (Figueira 1999). This is what makes me have a high estimateand admiration for the pearl utterance above (untired), capable of adding to otherdata of English acquisition from the study of M. Bowerman (1982)7: unhate,unclothes, unopen..., collected from the speech of her daughters, Eva and Christy.These innovations fit in side by side with other similar creations I have registeredfrom the speech of two children learning to speak Portuguese as their native tongue:desabre, desfecha, dessai, desmuda, desmurcha. It can be stated that an equivalentattitude is found among other current researchers. Eve Clark, for example, in herbook The lexicon in acquisition was not indifferent to the contributions of yesterday,giving heed not only to Sully’s, but Guillaume’s, Stern & Stern’s contributions, allof them forerunners of the studies of language acquisition, based on Diary data. Inconnection with this, let us look at the following chart, taken from the chapterWords for undoing actions, where creations of reverse verbs with the prefix dé-,in French, are listed. Its source? Several authors, from the beginning of the 20th

7. It is not inappropriate to note here that the majority of Bowerman’s findings (collected from histwo daughters Christy and Eva) come from what seems to be the Diary of the two girls.

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century, namely: Vinson (1915-6), Grégoire (1947) up to Aimard (1975) andFrançois (1977) – a constellation of scholars who, taken as a whole, clearly reflectthe value Clark attributed to the (precious) contribution of, on one hand, the diaristsand, on the other hand, some current investigators. As a matter of fact, en passant,one can say that the frequency with which Diary data appear in the studies oflexical innovations is worth mentioning8 and shows the prestige of this source amongcurrent investigators:

1. Typical early innovative uses of French dé- for reversal

(1) LA (2; O) déconstruire ‘to un-build’ (from construire ‘to build’ /adult démolir ‘todemolish, knock down’)

(2) EA (2;6) dégrandir ‘to un-grow big’ (from grandir ‘to grow, enlarge’ /adult rétrécir‘to shrink’)

(3) GP (3;0) débagager ‘to un-baggage’ (from GP’s innovative bagager la voiture‘to baggage the car’, meaning ‘to go on holiday’; said here of unloading the car,meaning ‘to come back from the holiday’)

(4) V A (3; 3) désendormir ‘to un-fall asleep’ (from endormir ‘to fall asleep’/ adultréveiller ‘to wake up’)

(5) V A (3; S) démonter ‘to un-climb (up)’ (from monter ‘to climb (up)’ / adult descendre‘to climb down’)

(6) V A (3; 5) déchauffer ‘to un-warm up’ (from chauffer ‘to warm’/ adult refroidir‘to cool down’)

(7) SF (3;6) défroidir ‘to un-cool’ (from froidir ‘to cool, make cold’/ adult rechauffer‘to warm up (again)’)

(8) SF (3; 6) débimer ‘to un-spoil’ (from abîmer ‘to spoil’, meaning ‘to make newagain’)

(9) V A (3; 6) décoincer ‘to un-wedge’ (from coincer ‘to wedge, stick’)(10) EV (3;6) déprocher ‘to un-approach’ (from approcher ‘to approach’/adult

éloigner ‘to go away, depart’)(11) V A (3;9) détourner ‘to un-turn’ (from tourner ‘to turn around’ meaning ‘to go

back in the opposite direction’)(12) EV (3; 10) débâtir ‘to un-build’ (from bâtir /adult démolir ‘to knock down,

demolish’)(13) V A (4;0) désattacher ‘to un-attach’ (from attacher ‘to attach’ / adult détacher

‘to detach’)

8. The reason for this is quite clear. The neologism is obvious as a difference and offers itself tothe common observer as the emergence of something new, even though it is built – after all – fromprocesses known in the language. To remember Saussure, one should read what the master saysabout in-décorable (1916/1971:193).

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(14) V A (4; I) désécarter ‘to un-spread out’ (from écarter ‘to spread out’; of a handof cards)

(15) V A (4: I) déprisonner ‘to un-prison’ (from prison ‘prison’ / adult libérer ‘to free’)(16) V A (4; 1) développer ‘to un-wrap up’ (from envelopper ‘to wrap (up)’ /adult

ouvrir ‘to open, unwrap’)(17) EV (4;2) décorder ‘to un-arrange’ (from accorder ‘to arrange, organize’/ adult

déranger ‘to disarrange’)(18) VA (4:3) désescabeauter ‘to un-stool’ (from escabeau ‘stool’; for adult descendre

‘to get down )(19) CG (4;3) dégrasser ‘to un-fal’ (from gras ‘fat’/adult dégraisser ‘to remove fat

(from meal)’)(20) VA (4;6) désorteiller ‘to un-toe’ (from orteil ‘big toe’, meaning ‘to cut toe-nails’)(21) LC (5;3) désorer ‘to un-like’ (from adorer ‘to like, adore’ / adult détester ‘to

dislike’)(22) PM (6;0) dessoufler ‘to un-blow’ (from souffler ‘to blow’ / adult dégonfler ‘to

deflate’)

Source:Aimard 1975, Cohen 1969, Decroly 1932, François 1977, Grégoire 1947, Méresse-Polaert 1969, Vinson 1915-16.

(Taken from Clark 1993: 235)

Among the researchers that contributed to the creation of the chart above,Paule Aimard undoubtedly deserves special recognition. Referring to anotherwork, Quand l’enfant parle du langage, by Bonnet & Tamine-Gardes, onecan find, in the part designed for verbs with the prefix dé- (1984: 95), a list ofexamples, whose source massively points to a subject: Valérie. Who is Valérie?Paule Aimard’s main subject. The assured presence in this work, as well as inthat of several other experts in the acquisition of French, of such a comprehensiveand exuberant register, capable of spreading itself throughout the work of, notonly Aimard, but other researchers, (which is certainly not a fortuitouscoincidence), leads us to inquire about its source (or sources). Indeed, it is knownthat Valérie’s speech was extensively and carefully observed by Paule Aimard: infact, she is her daughter. (It is not necessary to conceal this fact; on the contrary,it is even more interesting to mention this condition from the start, for we knowthat many of the old and new observers of the child’s speech, started out athome.) Well, then, it is with Valérie’s data that Aimard fills dozens of pages of herLes jeux de mots chez l’enfant e Les bébés de l’humour, to mention only twobooks by this author, an enthusiastic expert on the child’s speech, who, as I see

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it, shows a very deep intimacy with data collected live and a refined taste forrevealing what they can mean as a linguistic accomplishment rather than, onecould say, a linguistic fact.9

Accordingly, the collection of data by the author along Valérie’s childhood was notunjustifiable, and such data go beyond her work and eventually compose a well articulatedset of examples of anecdotal data, source tapped by several other authors, be they French,or not. Transcending the work of Aimard herself, they incorporate the work of others:Bonnet & Tamine-Gardes (1984), Quand l’enfant parle du langage; Tamine-Gardes(1982), “La comprehension des métaphores chez l’enfant”; Tamine-Gardes (1988-89),“Le jeune enfant et les jeux de langage”; Clark (1993), The lexicon in acquisition, who useit when seeking elements to structure their own work.

In conclusion, the contents of my paper, made known in this (concise) presentationof anecdotal data, opens reassessment opportunities for such a methodological route,putting me in the position of defending, vis-à-vis the approaches to data in the areaof Language Acquisition, the adoption of a double methodological procedure:recordings and diary registers. In doing so, one eventually takes up and values thework of those that, driven both by parental and professional interest, have precededus by a few decades, bequeathing us rich and profuse material of children’sspontaneous speech.

REFERENCES

Aimard, P. 1975. Les jeux de mots de l’enfant. Villeurbaine: Simep Editions.. 1988. Les bébés de l’humour. Liège: Mardaga.. 1995. “Premières parlettes”. G. Cahen, Le plaisir des mots. Paris: Ed.

Autrement. 28-39.Authier-Revuz, J. 1995. Ces mots qui ne vont pas de soi. Boucles réflexives et non-

coïncidences du dire. Paris: Larousse.Bonnet, C. & Tamine-Gardes, J. 1984. Quand l’enfant parle du langage.

Connaissance et conscience du langage chez l’enfant. Bruxelle: Mardaga.Bowerman, M. 1982. Reorganizational processes in lexical and syntactic development.

In E. Manner & L. R. Gleitman (eds), 320-346. Language acquisition: the stateof the art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Buarque de Holanda, A. 1986. Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa. Riode Janeiro: Nova Fronteira.

9. I am interested in contrasting the terms fact [fato], accomplishment / occurrence [feito]and deed [ façanha]. Although they are used in a close sense, one can, from my point of view,establish a difference with respect to the position of the investigator face to face the child’sspeech. Considering the object as a fact implies destroying the lingusitsic production of his/her entourage, applying, to the registered sequence, the formal instruments normally requiredwithin lingustic science. Considering it as an accomplishment or occurence implies goingbeyond and examining what this phenomenon represents in the suject’s history, and this veryoften leads to acknowledging the utterance as a deed in which language itself is at issue.

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Clark, E. 1993. The lexicon in acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.De Lemos, C. 1982. “Sobre aquisição de linguagem e seu dilema (pecado) original”.

Boletim da Abralin 3. 97-136.De Lemos, C.1992. “Procesos metaforicos y metonímicos como mecanismos de

cambio”. Substratum, 1, 121-135. Barcelona: Meldar.Figueira, R. A. 1977. “Áreas de dificuldade na aquisição do léxico”. Anais do II

Encontro Nacional de Lingüística: 352-386. PUC-RJ.. 1984. “On the development of the expression of causativity: a syntactic

hypothesis”. Journal of child language, 11: 107-127 Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

. 1996. “O erro como dado de eleição nos estudos de aquisição dalinguagem”. In M. F. Castro (ed.), O método e o dado nos estudos da linguagem:55-86. Campinas: Editora de Unicamp.

. 1997. “Children’s riddles: what do they tell us about change in languageacquisition?” Cadernos de estudos linguísticos 33: 15-26.

1999. “A Aquisição dos verbos prefixados por des-”. PaLavra 5: 190-211. Rio de Janeiro: PUC.

. 2000. “L’Acquisition du paradigme verbal du portugais. Les multiplesdirections des fautes”. CALAP 20: 45-64.

. 2001a. “Dados anedóticos : Quando a fala da criança provoca o riso...Humor e aquisição da linguagem”. Línguas e instrumentos lingüísticos 6: 27-61.Campinas: Pontes.

. 2001b. “Marcas insólitas da aquisição do gênero. Evidência do fatoautonímico na língua e no discurso”. Lingüística, 13. ALFAL.

. 2001c. “La Propriété réflexive du langage dans le parler de l’enfant:quelques aspects pragmatiques et discursifs”. Pragmatics in 2000. Selected Papersfrom the 7th International Pragmatics Conference: 207-221. IPrA. Antwerp,Belgium.

. 2003. “La Propriété réflexive du langage: quelques manifestations du faitautonymique dans l’acquisition du langage”. Parler des mots. Le fait autonymiqueen discours. J. Authier-Revuz, M. Doury e S. Reboul-Touré (eds). Paris: PressesSorbonne Nouvelle.

Jespersen, O. 1964. It’s nature, development and origin. N.Y.: WW Norton &Company Inc.

Karmiloff-Smith, A.1995. Beyond modularity. Londres & Cambridge: MIT Press.Larousse. 1969. Le Nouveau Petit Larousse. Paris: Larousse.Mattoso Câmara Jr, J. 1972. Dispersos. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getúlio Vargas.Oxford. New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.Saussure, F. 1916/1971. Curso de lingüística geral. São Paulo: Cultrix.Sully, J. 2000. Studies of childhood. London/N.Y.: Free Association Books. 2nd. ed.

(1st. ed. 1895).Tamine-Gardes, J. 1988-89. “Le jeune enfant et les jeux de langage”. SIGMA, 12-13:

255-273.

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PART III

PLENARY PAPERS

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REFLEXIONS SUR L’EXPERIENCE GRECQUE DU LANGAGE

MARIA HELENA DE MOURA NEVES Universidade Estadual Paulista, CNPq

Introduction

Pour parler de l’expérience grecque du langage, nous devons certainement remonterà la poésie, et, pour traiter ce thème, nous devons faire abstraction de l’expérience quenous vivons dans le monde moderne, et ce n’est pas tâche facile. Aujourd’hui, nouslisons, nous sentons, nous apprécions Homère, Hésiode, les lyriques, les auteurstragiques et, selon l’habitude analytique de notre modernité, nous ne voyons que ce quiest là, dans les mots des poèmes. Nous oublions qu’ils ont vécu grâce à un type decirculation qui n’est pas celui de la parole écrite. Récitée dans les palais, dans lesréunions, dans les festivals, ou chantée au son d’instruments, la poésie promouvait parelle même la cohésion sociale du monde grec, ce qui a une importance grande, maisexige beaucoup d’effort pour se le représenter.

C’est justement par son caractère oral, que la poésie grecque assume ce caractèrede poíesis (terme lié au verbe grec poiéo, “faire”). La poésie instaure et crée les choses.Elle enveloppe non seulement son créateur mais aussi les chanteurs, et, également lesauditeurs. C’est en tant que vécue intimement par l’auditeur qu’elle est poíesis. Enréalité, ce que les grecs pensaient – comme on le voit plus tard dans la propre critiquede Platon à la poésie – c’est ce qu’ils écoutaient des poètes1. Voilà pourquoi les grecsont appelé la parole (épos) poésie. Les épe récités dans les festivals constituaient toutela configuration des choses. C’était par l’intermédiaire de la voix de la poésie, que lesgrecs vivaient leurs expériences et constituaient leur culture. Celle-ci résulte donc d’unelongue et riche expérience vécue du langage2.

Nous devons encore une fois prendre nos distances. Aujourd’hui, nous divisons entrois: homme/monde/langage, et nous avons l’homme avec sa place dans la réalité. Sinous proposons une étude théorique du langage, immédiatement nous viennent à lapensée des notions telles que signe, communication, représentation de la réalité,objectivité – et, en contre-partie, des notions vagues, considérées comme nonscientifiques, que nous écartons du domaine linguistique.

1. Rappelons que c’ est ainsi bercés que les grecs s’acheminent vers la philosophie.2. Nous savons que la philosophie a tué la tragédie, a relativisé le langage, mais sans annuler lepoids de cette expérience vécue.

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Quel lien unit cette notion de langue, et toutes les questions théoriques qui l’appuient,avec l’expérience de vie du langage? Est-ce que nous avons les conditions pour sentircette problématique? Non, certainement, car nous sommes un produit post-rhétoricien etpost-philosophique. Nous éprouvons des difficultés à comprendre – comme les grecs lecomprenaient – la parole comme création des choses. Le langage n’est plus une expériencequi constitue notre vie, mais une expérience qui lui est extérieure, au point que nousmettons en équation ses problèmes et nous nous disposons à les résoudre. Ce n’est pluscomme expérience vécue que les questions linguistiques sont importantes pour nous, maiscomme objet d’analyse, comme objet théorique.

Nous concevons la réalité comme quelque chose de stable; d’autre part il y a l’effortconstant de l’homme pour établir une relation avec les choses. Nous concevons doncune réalité extérieure à nous, que nous dominons plus ou moins bien, grâce à uneculture accumulée au cours du temps. Et l’un des moyens grâce auquel nous dominonscette réalité extérieure, c’est justement le langage, le langage qui dénomme et qui dit leschoses3.

Différemment de ce qui se produisait chez Homère – où la poesie représente lelangage en train de se faire – nous considérons le dire comme une activité qui contrasteet même entre en conflit avec le faire. Nous établissons une hiérarchie – comme post-platoniciens que nous sommes – entre le dire et le faire, dans laquelle le faire tient laplace d’honneur.

Revenons donc au commencement de ce que nous connaissons de l’expériencegrecque du langage.

1. L’expérience intuitive du langage et les premières réflexions surl’activité linguistique

1.1 La poésie

1.1.1 HomèreChez Homère on ne remarque pas encore, une réflexion fixée sur le langage, quoiqu’il

ne ressort pas de l’épopée cette conception selon laquelle le langage est une forceréelle, matérielle, cette conception primitive d’un lien entre langage et réalité corporelle.

Le contenu de l’épopée ce sont donc les actions humaines, (qui s’amplifientdans les actions divines). Mais parler (travailler avec la langue) et agir (travailleravec les membres) s’associent. Les actions s’articulent entre le dire et le faire; legenre épique lui-même reflète cette unité de la narrative avec le drame (du verbedráo, “agir”): l’auteur des actions parle. Tant en ce qui concerne les héros qu’ence qui concerne les dieux, le dire et le faire sont en parallélisme constant, parallélismequi constitue l’essentiel à propos des dieux et des hommes.

3. Rappelons que le grec n’avait pas le terme réalité. Il avait le mot être, et c’était sur celui-ci qu’il jouait.

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Qu’est-ce qui met en mouvement le héros de l’épopée homérique? Ce qu’il souhaiteatteindre c’est l’excellence dans le conseil (par la parole) et dans la guerre (par l’action).L’idéal de l’éducateur apparaît chez Homère, dans les paroles de Phénix à Achille:

Je devais t’apprendre à être en même temps un bon diseur d’avis, un bon faiseur d’exploits.

(Iliade IX, v.443).

Le pouvoir est directement lié à l’action, mais à cette action la parole participe. C’estdans ce sens que Zeus apparaît dans une position privilégiée, car sa parole est identifiéeavec l’agir. Au début du Chant II de l’Iliade, guidé par la parole persuasive de Zeus,Agamemnon a l’impression de préparer un piège, alors qu’en réalité, c’est lui qui est piégé.L’action de Zeus pour perdre les grecs consiste à parler en rêve à Agamemnon. Guidé parles paroles de Zeus, Agamemnon agit, mais son action consiste aussi à parler. Et son langagetrompeur – comme avait été trompeur celui de Zeus, sans que le héros s’en aperçoive –provoque le discours d’Ulysse et celui de Nestor, destinés à conduire l’action des grecs.Zeus veut la fin des grecs: il va l’obtenir par un langage qui est une tromperie. Ce langage estefficace pour Agamemnon, mais à un autre niveau. Dans la mesure où il s’adresse auxanciens, trompé sans le savoir, Agamemnon exécute le dessein de Zeus. Ainsi, Agamemnona l’illusion de tromper et adopte la technique de Zeus. Ses paroles provoquent l’action (desgrecs), mais aussi la parole (dans les discours de Nestor et d’Ulysse). Dans la mesure oùelle persuade, dans la mesure où elle suggère, la parole se prolonge dans l’action. La parolea une force persuasive dans l’exacte mesure où elle trompe. L’erreur apparaît comme undes éléments essentiels de l’activité de la parole, pas explicitement toutefois, ce quireprésenterait déjà une séparation des plans, celui du faux et celui du vrai, ce qui n’est pasencore le cas. Le seul point de référence est au plan de l’efficacité.

1.1.2 HésiodeChez Hésiode, il n’y a plus de narrative de faits mais une révélation d’un ordre qui

apparaît dans le monde. Le contenu du discours, ce ne sont plus des actions, mais desnotions. Il y a clairement une vision du monde qui s’organise en épisodes mythiques.On ne chante pas des hauts-faits, des prouesses, mais on célèbre l’excellence de Zeus(aristéia toû theoû), c’est-à-dire qu’il y a plutôt une qualification de l’agent qu’unenarrative d’actions. Zeus est l’áristos (“l’excellent”). C’est à mesure qu’il consolide savictoire sur l’informe et le terrible que le kósmos émerge.

Hésiode fait de la poésie en invoquant les Muses. Filles de la mémoire, elles sontnéanmoins “l’oubli des malheurs, la trêve aux soucis.” (Théogonie, v.55). Leurs “hymnesréjouissent le grand cœur de Zeus leur père” (Théogonie, v.37). Cataloguées commedes êtres créés (filles de Zeus et de la Mémoire), Hésiode les traite cependant commedes entités primordiales douées d’un langage poietique (“faiseur”), un langage quimanifeste l’être. Le langage revêt un caractère sacré, ce qui suggère fortement uncaractère fondateur, un caractère instituteur du langage.

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En vérité, les Muses ont une fonction technique bien précise: elles sont les divinitésresponsables de ce que disent non seulement les poètes mais aussi les rois. Chez Hésiodeil y a, déjà, un souci de vérité, ce qui n’existait pas chez Homère.

Et la relation entre la divinité et l’homme est changée. Il apparaît bien dans laThéogonie – comme nous l’avons vu apparaître dans l’Iliade – un affrontement qui seconstruit sur l’erreur: ici aussi s’affrontent Zeus et Prométhée. Mais la relation présenteune configuration bien différente.

Chez Hésiode, l’erreur se produit surtout à travers des actes. Hésiode ne se réfère pas,dans l’épisode de Prométhée, à l’institution du langage, tandis qu’Homère associe la paroleà l’erreur d’Agamemnon. Chez Hésiode, l’intériorité semble en relation avec le silence,alors que chez Homère elle s’associe à la parole. L’action directe est l’élément qui leurre; iln’y a pas de paroles trompeuses, mais Zeus sait qu’il y a ruse, et l’accepte, d’autant plus quegrâce à celle-ci il médite des maux pour les mortels. Prométhée a trompé, mais Zeus lesavait. Et ce que fait Prométhée, en réalité, c’est ce qu’il fallait faire: les dieux ne doivent pasmanger de viande, elle appartient aux hommes car elle est sujette à la putréfaction, et lapartie divine est ce qui a une odeur agréable. Cette étiologie est chez Hésiode:

Et aussi bien est-ce pourquoi, sur la terre, les fils des hommes brûlent aux Immortels les os

nus des victimes sur les autels odorants. (Théogonie, v.556-557)

Zeus assume la ruse de Prométhée pour en forger une autre, et, grâce à celle-citracer le destin des hommes. Conclusion: il est impossible de dérober l’intelligence deZeus.

Enfin, chez Hésiode, il n’y a pas simplement la caractérisation du chef des dieux, parla réunion en lui de la plénitude du dire et du faire. Ce qu’on voit c’est la configurationd’une espèce d’épiphanie de l’ordre du monde (kósmos).

1.1.3. Poésie lyrique: PindareFaisons un saut jusqu’à Pindare, poète lyrique qui élabore l’éloge des hommes

vainqueurs. Ce n’est pas une simple association – comme il y en avait une chez Homère– entre le dire et le faire, mais, dès que ce dire a un sens par rapport au faire, on diraitque commence une dissociation qui conduit à l’autonomie du dire. Le lógos est le ditdes héros; il a donc leur sens à eux. Il peut arriver que les poètes donnent à des mortelsune gloire indue, comme Homère à Ulysse. Pindare affirme que ce que l’on dit d’Ulysse(son lógos) est au-dessus de ses épreuves (son páthos):

Cependant, j’imagine que la renommée d’Ulysse a dépassé ses épreuves, grâce au charme

d’Homère. (Néméenes VII:20-21).

Il y a une dichotomie en jeu: le lógos (ce que l’on dit du héros) et l’érgon (l’œuvre,l’activité). Et l’activité d’un héros, est, dans le fond, un páthos, c’est ce qu’il vit, ce

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qu’il ressent, ce qu’il souffre, l’épreuve. Ulysse alors, grâce à Homère (dit Pindare), aune gloire plus grande que celle correspondant à son páthos. C’est une déclarationexplicite de la conscience de ce que serait l’idéal guerrier: l’idéal est la gloire du fait etdu lógos, ce qui montre que l’exploit (et de là, l’excellence, l’aristeía) sans le lógosn’est rien. Les dispensateurs de la vie éternelle sont les poètes, car, sans la parole,l’action s’efface dans l’oubli.

La juste mesure du dire du poète, néanmoins, est dispensée par la divinité. ChezPindare, pourtant, il n’existe plus cette association entre la belle parole et l’exploit excellentqui existait chez Homère. Il s’établit un désajustement entre la parole et l’action: la parolepeut dire plus que l’action, plus que l’exploit. De sorte qu’en plus de pratiquer de bellesactions, les mortels doivent rencontrer le poète qui perpétue leur gloire. Au poète, ilrevient de faire croître ou diminuer les gloires, selon la mesure de l’inspiration divine. Laparole complète l’œuvre car c’est par la parole que la gloire s’installe et se défend de lachute dans le néant. La parole du poète inspiré par le dieu est un lógos vivant qui vient ausecours des morts.

1.1.4. La tragédieDans la tragédie, le lógos du héros, ce qu’on dit de lui, s’associe à son nom. Le

nom et la perception s’opposent: le nom, avec toutes ses possibilités d’interprétation,est la place de la vérité, contre la perception, qui est l’occasion de l’erreur.

La poésie tragique parle toujours d’un nom exact, véridique, qui, néanmoins estun indice de contradiction. Il suffit d’observer les noms des héros tragiques. Dansl’onomastique des héros réside la vérité de leur destin. Lisons ce passage deProméthée Enchaîné (Eschyle, Sophocle 1960:25), qui dit:

Les déités te nomment d’un faux nom,prévoyant Prométhée: il te faut un Prométhéequi te dénoue toi-même de cet engin. (v. 85-87)

Rappelons-nous Oedipe-Roi – Oidypos Týrannos (“le pied enflé” c’est ce quesignifie Œdipe), nom qui symbolise la faiblesse, le manque de fermeté dans l’orientation.Dans toute la pièce, on rencontre le jeu des deux concepts: au commencement, il est leroi, le sauveur, le père et le seigneur du peuple; à la fin il est un oedipe, un “pied enflé”.

Chez Eschyle (Prométhée Enchaîné), Zeus et Prométhée de nouveau s’affrontent.Ici il n’y a pas de tromperie. Prométhée connaît un secret de Zeus (il sait que Zeus ne peutpas se marier pour ne pas se perdre), et grâce à cela, il est sauvé. Prométhée est unreprésentant de la parole (rappelons-nous que chez Eschyle, il apparaît comme celui qui,en dérobant le feu à Zeus, donne la parole aux hommes). Zeus est le représentant dupouvoir de l’action. Pour cette raison, à la fin de la trilogie, tous deux s’accordent: Zeus,celui qui a le pouvoir; Prométhée celui qui a la parole (parce qu’il possède le secret deZeus mais ne le révèle pas).

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Il n’y a pas d’association entre la tromperie et la parole. Au contraire, Prométhée ditqu’il connaît le mot, mais il le cache (ce qu’il y a, c’est un secret). Comme dénominateurcommun, il y a l’idée de cacher quelque chose.

2. Le début de la philosophie

Cette époque des premiers auteurs tragiques est aussi celle d’Héraclite et deParménide, époque où commence à exister une autre façon de considérer le lógos.C’est la philosophie. Nous rencontrons chez Héraclite et Parménide la notion que, s’ily a un désaccord entre le dire et l’agir, s’il y a un lógos qui peut être plus grand quel’action, c’est peut-être qu’il y a un mot qui ne correspond pas à l’action, un mot vide,privé de sens, un dire qui n’est rien. Ce qui importe ce n’est plus simplement le dire oule faire, ce qui importe c’est le sens de ce dire et de ce faire.

Le noûs, l’intériorité, l’intelligence de ce qui se dit et de ce qui se fait s’imposent:

Il ne faut ni agir ni parler comme des dormeurs. (Héraclite, Fragm.73).

Il y a une profondeur qui caractérise le lógos:

On ne peut trouver les limites de l’âme, quelque chemin qu’on emprunte, tellement elles

sont profondément enfoncées. (Héraclite, Fragm. 45).

Ainsi, le schéma dire/faire qui vient depuis Homère évolue. Depuis Homère, vérité etfausseté en accompagnent l’élaboration. Homère ne séparait pas la vérité de l’erreur etHésiode n’avait fait qu’énoncer, par la voix des Muses divines, l’opposition entre vrai etfaux. Dans le schéma d’Héraclite, être un sage c’est dire la vérité et agir selon la nature:

La pensée est la plus haute vertu; et la sagesse consiste à dire des choses vraies et à agir

selon la nature, en écoutant sa voix. (Héraclite, Fragm. 112).

Le discours philosophique naît pour articuler la totalité des choses. La vérité seplace maintenant dans la relation entre le langage et les choses, ce qui implique unedissociation qui permettra de prendre le langage comme objet d’investigation. Alors seséparent le lógos (ce qui se dit) et la léxis (comment on le dit). Le métalangage estinstitué. Etre théorique est une caractéristique du langage philosophique, qui se formecomme par une espèce de contraste avec le langage poétique.

Et, si nous passons à la philosophie, nous voici à la fin de ce bref parcours sur dessiècles de vécu intuitif très riche des problèmes du langage, représentés dans le langagepoétique des grecs.

Les poètes, à des degrés divers, ont eu conscience du caractère de base qu’a lelangage. C’est la propre expérience poétique du langage qui rend possible la

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philosophie, qui vient justement faire le discours critique de la poésie; une expériencepoétique riche, intense et profonde qui a équilibré le dire et le faire, qui les a dissociés,qui les a pesés et évalués, qui les a articulés avec l’erreur, la vérité, la fausseté, et quia découvert l’intériorité (le noûs), une expérience qui a dilacéré l’identité de l’hommeen antinomies, qui a créé le tragique et qui nous a laissé, à nous, humains, ce legs deglorification, que nous lisons dans le chœur d’Antigone:

Qu’il est de merveilles! mais rienqui soit plus merveilleux que l’homme. (v.332-333)

3. Le langage comme objet de réflexion théorique

3.1. Introduction

Le fait que le langage soit une capacité naturelle de l’homme n’est pas – comme ilpourrait le sembler à certains – une découverte de la science, mais constituait déjà l’undes piliers de la théorie aristotélique qui a conduit à une théorie de la signification.

3.2. Platon

Avant Aristote nous avons Platon pour qui le nom est, dans une première instance,le lógos de la chose (Cratile), mais, au point d’arrivée des réflexions, c’est le lógosdu discours, c’est-à-dire des relations entre les choses (Sophiste), Toutel’argumentation socratique autour de l’établissement du statut du nom suppose qu’ilexiste avec celui-ci une relation de ressemblance avec la chose nommée. Cette relation,qui est la garantie d’un degré de phýsis (“nature”) du nom, est de ce fait uneconsidération que le nom, d’une certaine manière, dit la chose, et par conséquent,est son lógos.

L’instance subséquente, qui est dans le Sophiste, est l’instance proprement logique;Platon ne va déjà plus chercher l’adéquation dans les termes, mais dans l’articulationde ceux-ci, dont l’entrecroisement reflète un accord existant entre les espèces. Dans celógos, qui est la communion de genres, il ne convient plus de parler de convention.C’est une instance où l’on quitte la simple dénomination, laquelle exige un certain degréde convention, et où l’on se dirige vers l’articulation des parties de la proposition,révélatrice de l’articulation entre les essences.

Cela représente déjà la base d’une théorie de la signification.

3.3. Aristote

Chez Aristote, le langage est une capacité biologiquement naturelle et un exercicepolitique, assurant, par l’intellect de l’être humain, la référence du langage aux choses:

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il y a un langage qui est le discours de l’être, c’est-à-dire, qui dit vérité et erreur (lelógos) et un langage pratique, d’exercice politique, qui est le discours rhétorique.

Comme l’objet de la philosophie n’est pas proprement le langage, lequel n’intéresseque parce que c’est à travers lui que les relations entre les êtres (ousía, gígnomai) serévèlent, dans la philosophie le discours pratique, rhétorique, n’est pris que commesupport pour la réflexion focalisée, qui appartient au monde des idées, au domaine dusignifié (logique).

L’essence de la réflexion d’Aristote sur le langage se trouve dans les œuvres où il sepenche sur les catégories (qui comprennent la correspondance entre la structure de lalangue et la structure du monde) et sur la proposition (qui révèle la nature, la phýsis).

Dans les noms il y a une signification, mais celle-ci est le résultat d’un accord, d’uneconvention, elle n’est pas naturelle: l’évidence est que les états d’âme sont identiquespour tous les hommes, parce que ce sont des images (homoiómata) des choses, mais lesmots, ne ressemblant pas aux choses, ne sont pas les mêmes pour tous: la relation entreles mots et les états d’âme n’est qu’une relation de signification, elle est symbolique, nonnaturelle, conventionnelle (katà synthéken). Les noms sont des symboles (forme et contenuqui sont à la place des choses, puisque nous ne pouvons pas nous servir des choses dansle langage). Ainsi, en eux-mêmes, les noms ne sont ni vrais ni faux, de même qu’un conceptn’est en soi ni vrai ni faux. Ce n’est que dans la liaison des concepts que se révèle ce quiest ou n’est pas, c’est-à-dire la vérité ou la fausseté.

Ainsi, dans la proposition, il y a plus qu’une signification, il y a une révélation de ceque les choses sont ou ne sont pas, il y a une “manifestation” (apóphansis).

Tout ceci signifie qu’Aristote sépare déjà les deux questions: d’une part la justessede la dénomination(orthótes), à savoir, la relation entre la forme sonore(le nom) et lachose désignée (qui est conventionnelle, symbolique, et qui par conséquent, commepour Platon, n’est pas le point focal de la recherche), et, d’autre part, la vérité ou lafausseté de la relation entre les êtres, à savoir, l’affirmation ou la négation, que laproposition (la relation être ou ne pas être) révèle. De ce côté-là, il n’y a rien à chercher,simplement, choisir entre phýsis (“nature”) ou nómos (“convention”), dans la vérificationdes relations entre le langage et ce qu’il dit.

4. Les stoïciens

Mais c’est avec les stoïciens que je vais couronner ce parcours que je fais ici desrelations entre le langage et les choses, entre ce qui signifie et ce qui est signifié dansl’histoire de la pensée hellénique et hellénistique. La logique stoïcienne, qui n’est plus unelogique de termes, mais une logique d’énoncés (spécifiquement, de prédicats), place lesévénements (et non les êtres individuels)comme objet de la pensée. L’unité d’examen –l’objet de la logique stoïcienne – est le lektón (“ce qui est dit”, le contenu de l’actematériel de dire, en particulier la signification d’une assertion à laquelle s’appliquent lescatégories du vrai et du faux, enfin, ce qui est signifié quand on parle avec sens).

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Etre vrai ou faux est une propriété des lektá, non pas de tous, mais, en particulier,de la proposition, qui est un des lektá complets, un des axiómata. Pour les stoïciens lelangage est naturel, il est un produit de la nature, ainsi que les représentations de valeurgénérale qui se créent elles-mêmes chez les hommes, et, de cette façon, sont communesà tous les individus. A partir de là, toute théorie stoïcienne du signe appuie la recherchede la justesse et de la vérité dans le langage, ce qui n’est autre que la recherche de soncaractère naturel.

Dans une direction théorique, on va vers des spéculations étymologiques. Dans unedirection pratique, on part à la poursuite des hellénismes en vue de constituer desparadigmes.

Et sur ces deux fronts, théorie et pratique, se pose avec évidence une question quidoit être dominante dans la formation de la discipline grammaticale: la dichotomieanalogie/anomalie.

Le principe de l’analogie, qui n’est rien d’autre que le reflet de la capacité intellectivehumaine d’établir des relations et des associations, a toujours été reconnu dans l’activitélinguistique.

Au fond, c’était aussi ce qui était en jeu dès cette expérience intuitive du langage(avec la relation ambiguë entre vérité et erreur, dont j’ai traité dans la premièrePartie de cette présentation) et les premières réflexions sur le langage (avec larecherche délibérée de la relation entre langage et vérité, dont j’ai parlé dans ladeuxième Partie).

Considerations finales: Un angle de vision historique dans l’investigation sur le langage

Fixons-nous, maintenant, dans notre temps, dans le domaine temporel de la sciencelinguistique, et, à partir de notre présent, regardons dans la direction inverse, retournantà une histoire de plus de vingt siècles au cours de laquelle la proposition de cettedichotomie analogie/anomalie a accompagné les considérations sur le “phénomène” dulangage (en prenant le terme “phénomène” dans son sens étymologique: “quelque chosequi se manifeste”).

Ce que nous allons voir, dans l’histoire des études du langage – unissant cette troisièmePartie aux première et deuxième Parties – c’est que cette dichotomie, discutée selon desprésuppositions et des directions très différentes, s’est toujours révélée comme déterminantepour considérer les relations grammaticales, la grammaire étant vue comme la propreorganisation de l’activité de langage.

Je vais choisir quatre moments de la pensée linguistique en partant de la modernité deSaussure pour revenir à la tension fondatrice des stoïciens, point où je m’étais arrêtéedans l’examen de la pensée grecque sur le langage que j’ai présenté ici. Mes réflexionsseront guidées par quatre centres d’intérêt dans la controverse entre analogie et anomalie:

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a) la conceptualisation; b) le terrain de l’examen; c) l’attitude d’analyse; d) la finalité del’invocation du concept.

1) Chez Saussure, en ce qui concerne la conceptualisation, l’analogie s’oppose àl’usage, dans le sens où celui-ci est un mécanisme de création de formes nouvelles.Quant au terrain où la question se situe, il s’agit de la synchronie. C’est une attituded’analyse non valorative, une simple vérification de symétrie dans la langue. En ce quiconcerne la finalité de l’invocation du concept, ce qui est en jeu, c’est l’accentuation dela dichotomie langue/parole.

2) Chez les néogrammairiens, analogie s’oppose également à usage, mais dans lesens où il s’agit d’un mécanisme producteur de groupement de formes divergentes parrapport aux lois de formation primitives. Elle se situe sur le terrain de la grammairediachronique. L’analyse est également non valorative, c’est une simple vérification dedivergence dans la chaîne évolutive. Quant à la finalité de l’invocation du concept, ce quel’on cherche en premier lieu, c’est à expliquer les exceptions aux “lois” phonétiques.

3) Arrivant, dans ce recul, au seuil de l’institution de la discipline grammaticale, chezles grammairiens alexandrins analogie s’oppose de façon dichotomique à anomalie,qui est considérée comme “in-conformité”, “ir-régularité” (mais qui, au fond, est liéeaussi à l’usage). Le terrain est la synchronie. Toutefois, l’attitude d’analyse est valorative,étant donné que les formes analogiques sont celles prescrites comme standard. Et quantà la finalité de l’invocation du concept, ce que l’on recherche c’est établir des paradigmes.

4) Chez les stoïciens, finalement – et nous nous trouvons de retour à la philosophiedans cette régression – analogie s’oppose à anomalie – celle-ci étant vue comme“contrariant la nature” (mais détectée dans l’usage). Le terrain est clairement celui de lalogique. L’attitude est nettement valorative, puisque les anomalies sont indiquées commeun éloignement du naturel, et par conséquent du vrai. Quant à la finalité de l’invocationdu concept, ce que l’on veut prouver, c’est exactement le caractère naturel du langage.

Et c’est ici que réside le grand nœud de cette controverse qui a gouverné l’institutionde la grammaire en Occident, ce qui a fait que, orientée théoriquement par la philosophie,cette discipline s’est instituée sur tout ce que la réflexion philosophique cherchait justementà “disqualifier”: ce qu’on découvre, c’est que la logique ne gouverne pas le langage etque le langage n’est pas un instrument d’expression de la vérité.

D’abord objet de discussion, la relation du mot avec l’objet (la dichotomie phýsei/nómoi), n’est déjà plus prise au sérieux chez Platon, car Cratile conclut à la faussetédu problème en soi, puis, Aristote démontre irréfutablement le caractère conventionneldes noms. La philosophie classique a établi la prééminence du lógos (de la proposition)sur l’ónoma (le nom) – déjà dans le Sophiste de Platon – pour arriver, chez Aristote ànommer la proposition (l’expression de l’être ou n’être pas) comme apóphansis, comme

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“révélation”, comme “manifestation”, dans cette conduite typiquement philosophiquequi consiste à considérer le langage comme rien de plus qu’un chemin à parcourir- etindispensable pour parvenir à la révélation des choses, le dire étant considéré commequelque chose de toujours inférieur à ce qui est affirmé ou nié (Platon, Lettre VII).

La tension entre analogie et anomalie, qui s’instaure plus tard dans la logique stoïcienne(à la frontière de l’institution de la grammaire), représente le point culminant des réflexionsqui, à partir de la pure et simple distinction entre le langage et la réalité ont pu placer lelangage comme objet de réflexion, et au service du vrai et du juste. Dans l’esprit de laphilosophie, on admettait de partir du langage pour arriver aux choses, à l’autó.

Dans une logique de prédicats comme la logique stoïcienne, cette assomption au départ,ne pouvait culminer, que par la considération qu’à une régularité et à une ressemblanceentre les objets devrait correspondre une régularité et une ressemblance dans leurexpression.

Que cherchaient donc les stoïciens dans le langage? La conformité avec la nature, etpar conséquent l’analogie. Et qu’ont-ils trouvé? L’anomalie. Il ne s’agit pas, loin de là,d’une fin malheureuse au parcours que nous avons essayé de retrouver dans l’histoirede la pensée grecque sur le langage, car ce qui est évident, c’est que les stoïciens eux-mêmes ont découvert qu’on ne peut pas garantir la congruence entre les exigences dela dialectique et les formes d’expression linguistique: le mot, selon son contenu et sesrelations, ne correspond pas exactement au concept et aux relations dialectiques decelui-ci.

A la régularité universelle ne doit pas correspondre nécessairement la régularitélinguistique. Logique et grammaire sont définitivement des domaines entre lesquels iln’y a pas à chercher de symétrie.

Si à ce moment-là, l’évolution qui conduisait à ce manque de congruence était vucomme une perversion parce qu’il représentait un éloignement de ce qui était tenu pournaturel – et pour cette raison l’étymologie et le témoignage des anciens étaient tellementvalorisés – malgré cela la tension créée dans l’institution de la dichotomie n’en a pasmoins été une avance cruciale dans le progrès des réflexions sur le langage, au pointque nous pouvons dire que ce sont ces réflexions qui constituent l’assise du principefondamental: celui qui admet qu’il n’y a pas nécessairement de lógos (la ratio latine, la“logique”, la “rationalité”) dans le lógos (l’oratio latine, l’“expression linguistique”) etque le langage est en soi un objet d’investigation.

C’est ainsi que, la science linguistique ayant été instituée comme nous l’avonsvu, le propre concept d’analogie a pu ressurgir comme point focal d’investigation,et a pu être mis en confrontation avec l’usage, sans que ce dernier, de manièresynchronique aussi bien que diachronique, représente un éloignement du naturel,donc sans que la dichotomie mette en jeu une détermination rigide entre le processuscognitif et la production linguistique – et même sans que l’invocation du conceptd’analogie n’embrouille les relations entre langage et “réalité”, après tout ce long etremarquable effort de pensée qui a conduit à la compréhension de ces deux

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“réalités”, par rapport auxquelles nous menons nécessairement – tous et toujours –nos expériences de vie.

RÉFÉRENCES

Eschyle, Sophocle. 1960. Tragiques Grecs. Traduction par Jean Grosjean. Fragmentstraduits par Raphaël Dreyfus. Introduction et notes par Raphaël Dreyfus. Paris, LibrairieGallimard.

Hesiode. 1972. Théogonie Les travaux et les jours Le bouclier. Texte établi ettraduit par Paul Mazon. Paris, Les Belles Lettres.

Homere. Odyssée. 1955. Traduction, introduction et notes de Jean Bérard. Paris:Gallimard.

. 1955. Iliade. Traduction, introduction et notes de Robert Flacelière.Paris: Gallimard.

Les Penseurs Grecs Avant Socrate. 1964. De Thalès de Milet à Prodicos. Traduction,introduction et notes par Jean Voilquin. Paris: Guarnier-Flammarion.

Pindare. 1967. Néméennes. Texte établi et traduit par Aimé Puech. 4ème. édition revueet corrigée. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

Platon. 1960. Le sophiste. Texte établi et traduit par A. Diès. 5ème. éd. Paris: Les BellesLettres, 1969.

. Lettres. Texte établi et traduit par Joseph Suilhé. 3ème. éd. Paris: Les BellesLettres.

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JOHANN JACOB REISKE (1716-1774)LEADING FORCE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ORIENTAL

AND CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN GERMANY

KURT R. JANKOWSKYGeorgetown University

Oriental studies in Germany – just like the study of Classical languages – have a longtradition within the larger field of Biblical Studies. The Christian church from early on –and long before such studies had begun in Germany after the foundation of the HolyRoman Empire of the German Nation in 962 – had devoted extraordinary resourcesto the elaborate exploration of the three Holy Languages: Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.For centuries, the study of these languages was pursued within a framework which ofnecessity took its lead from the needs of Holy Scripture. And it did a great deal ofgood, first and foremost of course to the three biblical languages themselves, but also towhat initially was by no means the main thrust of the research effort: laying the foundationfor an independent, self-sufficient study of Oriental languages.

Even Classical language study needed a fresh start from what it was like during the15th and 16th centuries when it served almost exclusively the objectives of the Church.The following assessment of Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Introduction to Wilamowitz 1982: viii)proves the point: “The scholarly interests of the greatest figure of the late Renaissance,[Desiderius] Erasmus [1469–1536], centered upon the Bible and the Christian Fathers.”

The teaching of Latin and Greek in the subsequent century and a half, in spite of thedevastating effects of the Thirty-Year War (1618–1648), increased significantly andmanaged to attain a modicum of standards. But much substantive work had to beaccomplished before Classical studies could be expected to be launched as an academicdiscipline in its own right. For a long period of time, direction, objectives, and methodologieswere largely chosen at random. The desperately needed guidelines were finally providedby the English scholar Richard Bentley (1662–1742). The sum total of the issues Bentleyraised in various programmatic publications (cf., e.g., Bentley 1691 and 1697) amountedto the demand that, in order to do full justice to the writings produced by an ancientscholar or poet, the modern scholar would have to make an all-out effort to establish andreconstruct the entire context for the work in question. Such an endeavor would not onlyinvolve acquiring an exquisite amount of knowledge of all aspects of grammar and style,of metrical phenomena and their relationship to grammatical features, as well as historical

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facts pertaining to the period investigated, but would also require the ability, and thecourage, to emend and reconstruct by reasoned conjectural work where the text materialwas suspected to be faulty or was in need of supplementation. Bentley’s venture for thefirst time did establish Classical scholarship as an independent science, as a disciplinewhich was no longer ancillary to other fields, such as theology or philosophy. Since Bentley’sdemands still had to be adopted and implemented by his fellow-researchers in Englandand in other countries throughout Europe, his envisioned mission was far from beingcompleted by the mere proclamation of his ambitious program. But the first step had nowbeen taken – and a very decisive step at that.

Universities in Germany were by no means ready to lend all-out support to theestablishment of chairs in Latin and Greek. But at least the tendency was there to rise tothe challenge, and it grew steadily. Invaluable help came occasionally from someresearchers in Classical studies who produced superb editions of Greek and Latin textsand wrote inspiring methodological treatises without being affiliated to a university, thatis, without receiving the appropriate institutional support.

One such researcher was Johann Jacob Reiske (1716–1774). His devotion toClassical scholarship is unique in also this respect that, in addition to being rightfullycalled “one of the first, if not the first, Greek scholar of the 18th century” (Foerster1889a:131), he is, furthermore, credited with being “truly the founder of Arabic philology”(ibid. –Translations from German here and elsewhere are mine: KRJ). With theunconditional support of his wife Ernestine Christine (1735–1798) whom he married in1764, but with hardly any other help from the outside world, he accomplished to producean amazing amount of publications which proved to be of extraordinary merit in thefield of Classical as well as Arabic scholarship.

Reiske collected accolades from only few of his contemporaries, but their voicescount a great deal because they belonged to people of prestigious position in thesociety of that time. More important, however, are the assessments by his peers of alater time. Rudolf Pfeiffer (1869-1979), for instance, comparing Reiske with ChristianGottlieb Ernesti (1756–1802), Prof. at the University of Leipzig at a time when Reiskeattempted in vain to get a professorship there, calls Ernesti “industrious and solid”,but found Reiske an “incomparably greater scholar” (Pfeiffer 1976:172). Ulrich vonWilamowitz is much more outspoken. Referring to the theologian Johann August Ernesti(1707–1781), predecessor to his nephew Christian Gottlieb as chair holder, he findsthat “his pedestrian mind was incapable of original, let alone profound, thought”.Contrasting the two, his preference is clearly with Reiske, “the latchet of whoseshoes he [Ernesti] was not worthy to unloose” (Wilamowitz 1982: 94). Even anadversary like Johann David Michaelis (1717–1791) refers to Reiske as “a manwhose assets of knowledge could perhaps be shared by ten people, and each mightbe... a great scholar” (cf. Brekle 1992:164).

As to Reiske’s achievements in Arabic studies, we should take note of Johann Fück(1894–1974) who attributes to Reiske that Arabic philology at long last came of age.

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He calls Reiske outright brilliant, being “the first substantial Arabist that Germany hadproduced” (Fück 1944:192).

Reiske is a most unlikely candidate for greatness as a scholar in general and as aClassicist or Arabist in particular, if one looks for the usual criteria which one expects ina candidate most likely to succeed. But, then, he was a highly unusual person, and thatpertains above all to his insatiable thirst for digging into manuscripts in Latin, Greek,and Arabic, some of which were unreadable even for those who were acknowledgedmasters in the field.

Reiske entered the University of Leipzig in 1733, at the age of 17. Although his mainfield of study was theology, he attended classes neither in this nor in any other subject,but devoted, instead, all of his time in independent study to continue learning Greek andHebrew, as well as to take up a new subject, Arabic.

After five years, in 1738, he left Leipzig for Leiden, hoping to increase there andin Amsterdam his knowledge of Arabic with the help of manuscripts available omlythere. While he was forced to work many hours for his livelihood, mostly by copyingmanuscripts and offering private lessons, he took courses in Arabic with AlbertSchultens (1686–1750) and in Greek with Tiberius Hemsterhuys (1885–1766). Hishopes to secure a university appointment in Arabic were nipped in the bud sinceSchultens entertained career aspirations for his son and did not want his star pupil tobe on the scene as a competitor for the position which he had earmarked for his son.He therefore persuaded Reiske to change fields and study medicine instead of pursuinga degree in Arabic. It was, if nothing else, for Reiske a mere waste of time, eventhough his doctoral thesis of 1746, Miscellaneae aliquot observationes medicaeex Arabum monumentis, was related to one of his two major fields of interest,Arabic studies.

He returned to Leipzig immediately upon graduation, apparently without any prospectfor adequate employment. His appointment to an extra-ordinary professorship in Arabicin 1748 brought no relief, since the remuneration was minimal and after some yearsceased to be paid altogether. Even his election to principal of the Nicolai School in1858, while a true life-saver for him, did not substantially improve his economic situation,since the administrative work severely curtailed his time for research.

In spite of overwhelming adversities his enormous productivity never abated. InArabic studies he created an innovative approach in that he focused on evaluatingArabic as a language and culture in its own right, not being motivated primarily bylinguistic or theological concerns. His extraordinary status of having mastered two scientificareas, Arabic and Classical studies, and being hailed as “the first Arabist and one of thefirst, if not the first Greek scholar of the 18th century”(Foerster 1889a:131), isacknowledged by a number of distinguished personalities. Johann Gottfried von Herder(1744–1803), for instance, states (Herder 1785–1792.4:265A): “Our Reiske hasbecome a martyr of his Arabic-Greek enthusiasm... But his scorned learnedness willcertainly not come again in a long time.”

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For Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) Reiske was “the incomparable” (1871: 381).Heinrich L. Fleischer (1801–1888), foremost Arabist at his time, said of a Latin translationwhich Reiske had prepared at the age of 20, that he doubted there was a youth of thesame age today, in 1870, who would be able to produce, even if supported by the bestinstruction and the most appropriate aids, a better translation (cf. Fück 1944:191-192). Already in 1846, Fleischer had dedicated the first volume of his main workBeidhawii Commentarius in Coranum to the memory of Reiske. Carsten Niebuhr(1733–1815), known for his famed Orient expedition of 1764, was full of praise forReiske, of whom he said: “This scholar has that much advanced in his knowledge of theArabic language that Germany had perhaps never so far seen anyone like him” (Niebuhr1772:XXXV).

And then there was Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), one of the very fewdignitaries of the time, who recognized and widely acknowledged Reiske’saccomplishments and their scholarly importance. He also provided help in many respects,although there were limits to what he could do other than being a good friend, alwaysthere to give advice and encouragement. Many instances in the surviving portion oftheir extensive correspondence prove the point. Unfortunately, Lessing’s plan to writea 3-volume Vita of Reiske, including “a precise listing of each and every paper left byhim that is at least in some respect worth the trouble” (cf. Foerster 1889a:138), did notmaterialize.

Ironically, the greater part of Reiske’s misfortune was caused by his difficultpersonality. He often managed to offend those who wanted to be supportive. Invariablyhe spoke his mind when it would have been more diplomatic, and even just more polite,to keep his thoughts to himself. But, on the other hand, he had also to endure more thanhis normal share of injustice, envy, and even causing outright hostility by some of hiscolleagues and numerous representatives of institutional authorities.

His marriage to Ernestine Christine Müller in 1764 proved to be the most beneficialevent of his entire life. With his help she had become a competent Classical scholar inher own right, but all through their married life she worked selflessly for the implementationof his projects and for helping him realize his full potential.

We will now take a closer look at Reiske’s life and his work from his early educationthrough the stages of his professional and scholarly career ending with his death in1774.

Reiske’s father left the early education of his son entirely to his wife. Anna ChristinaReiske suffered for the greater part of her life from a hypochondriac disorder which didnot fail to have a pervading effect on her son. In his Vita written in 1770 and publishedafter his death by his wife, he stated without further elaboration: “From childhood Ihave been sickly, sad, downcast, people-shy, and hypochondriac” (Reiske 1783:5).After initial education at the municipal school of his home town Zörbig near Halle untilthe age of 10, he was sent to his maternal grandfather in Zöschen, a village near Leipzig.There Christoph Meissner, whom the pastor of the village had employed for his son,

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taught him within a year’s time that much Greek, “that I could... understand and analyzerather well the four gospels in Greek” (ibid.). The next five years, until 1732, werespent at the Waisenhaus Gymnasium in Halle. It was a mixed bag for the timid child,who suffered severely from the harsh rules in the monastery school and the lack of trulyexcellent teachers. While he claimed to look back to Halle “always with happiness andgratefulness” (8), he maintained at the same time: “I took along from this school quite agood grounding in Latin, but hardly anything more” (5).

Of his university studies in Leipzig, Reiske says: “I must confess, the greater part ofthose five years was lost time for me” (9). He lists several reasons, among them hisdesire to keep to himself, his unwillingness to ask anybody for advice, and his aversionto attend classes other than a few in literature. Classes on Classical Greek which hewould have loved to attend, were not offered. So he went to work reading Greekwriters on his own, but thereby experiencing more frustration due to lack of guidancethan achieving satisfying success. A reprieve, mysteriously emerging, brought about awelcome change, yet no lasting relief. In his own words: “But then, a certain, inexpressible,unstoppable desire – I do not know myself how it came about – took hold of my soul,a desire to learn Arabic” (9). He went to work with an all-consuming zeal, devoting tothe newly-found task all of his time and energy as well as the financial resources he hadat his disposal. “In this I was, just like in everything else that I have ever learned ordone, my own teacher” (9-10). By 1736 he had acquired and read, in spite of hislimited resources, a great deal of what had been printed at that time in Arabic. This,however, created another, perhaps even more serious problem. When no Arabicmanuscripts were obtainable any more in Germany, he decided to go where he wouldfind them, i.e., to Holland, more specifically, to Leiden. For someone without financialmeans, without any experience as to what such a journey would entail, it was bound tobe an extremely dangerous undertaking. Later in life he became aware of the great risksthat had been involved: “I have become a martyr of Arabic literature” (11), he admitswith some contrition. His Vita contains, however, a revealing statement as to whatprompted him to embark on his daring journey into the Arabic language: “I have learnedthis language with the intention to acquire through it familiarity with the history, oratory,and poetry of the people who in former times have spoken it” (13). Such an attitude puthim at odds with the entire purpose of Arab studies as practiced so far: to providesupport to “the so-called Holy Philology” (12), i.e., the exploration of Latin, Greek,and Hebrew within the framework of Biblical Studies.

Like a journeyman in search for the next master craftsman, he set out on foot in May1738, traveling first to Hamburg, then by ship to Amsterdam, finally reaching Leiden onJune 6. At the two stopovers he visited influential people to whom he had gained accessvia letters of recommendation. Their help, even monetary support, made it possible forhim to stay afloat. In Amsterdam Prof. Jean-Philippe d’Orville, alerted through a letterto the precarious financial situation of the young German scholar, offered him employmentas his personal secretary, but to d’Orville’s dismay Reiske declined, pointing out that he

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had come to read Arabic manuscripts, not to make money. Nevertheless, by doing oddjobs for d’Orville and others he had to give up a sizeable portion of his time to earnmoney for food and shelter. Fortunately for him, proof-reading, editing manuscripts,preparing catalogues in libraries and related tasks kept him somewhat close to the typeof work he wanted to do.

His chief sponsor in Leiden was Albert Schultens (1689–1750), since 1732Prof. of Exegesis and Oriental Languages at the University. Reiske owed him agreat deal during his 8-year stay in Holland. That their healthy relationship waseventually all but destroyed, had two major reasons. The first one I have alreadymentioned: Schultens was convinced that Reiske, due to his proven capabilities asa scholar, and not Schultens’ son would get appointed to a professorship in Arabicstudies at the University unless an effective plan was designed and implemented toget rid of the inconvenient competitor. This plan entailed to entice Reiske to studymedicine rather than to continue with Arabic studies which – so Schultens contended– might leave him unemployed. It is almost unbelievable to believe that Reiske thistime did indeed follow the advice, although he had made it a habit to flatly rejecttruly helpful offers.

The second reason was entirely of his own making. He had stated publicly his firmconviction that Schultens’ dealing with Arabic did not amount to anything at all. Therewas too much speculation, too much arbitrary and empty stuff in his lectures as well asin his writings. Arabic studies should not be treated as part of theology, but as geography,mathematics, physics, and medicine, i.e., as a subject matter in its own right. Needlessto say that Schultens’ resolve to remove Reiske from the scene grew only strongerwhen he became aware of his protégé’s critical remarks. Curiously enough, Schultenspersonally intervened in behalf of Reiske at the decisive meeting of the promotioncommittee, and he himself told Reiske afterwards “how little space there actually hadbeen between obtaining and losing the doctorate and how he, and the medical faculty,with great effort had barely been able to rescue me from the danger” (32-33).

In his Vita, about 24 years later, he arrived at what one might call a fair assessmentof his adventurous 8 years in Holland, stating the conviction that the country and itspeople had treated him well and had offered him a great deal of worthwhile opportunities,on the personal and professional level, but that he had failed to make use of most ofthem. He acknowledged to have learned and profited greatly from his stay in both hisArabic and Classical studies.

When he arrived in Leipzig at the beginning of July 1746, he knew that making anyuse of his medical degree would be out of the question. He first spent a few months athis parents’ home in Zörbig, to see “whether there might emerge in the immediateneighborhood a good opportunity to secure an advantageous marriage so as to establishthe place for my future life and fortune” (41). Realizing the futility of that hope, hereturned to Leipzig. What initially prevented him from obtaining a Magister noster titlefrom the Philosophical Faculty, precondition for the permission to give lectures, was the

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fact that he already held a higher degree in another faculty, his doctorate in medicine.Finally, with the publication of his Dissertatio de principibus Muhammedanis,dedicated to His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince Frederic Christian, in 1747, hewas awarded the title of Professor, but reaped no special benefits from either thephilosophical or the medical faculty (43).

Obviously, Reiske’s professional life was inextricably intertwined with what he didor did not do on a very personal level. His wife had no illusions as to how often heavoided taking appropriate action, when the display of credible initiative in word anddeed could have been to his advantage in getting favorable responses. In his Vita hecomplained about the slow sale of his books. What a pain it must have been for hisloving wife to write down the following revealing comment: “To a certain extent thegood man was partly to blame for the bad result in the sale of his books. He neglectedfar too much to establish and uphold acquaintances with scholars who edited scientificnewspapers and journals; and he did not bother much about the book dealers either.Therefore his works remained unknown; for if nobody knows a particular work, itsown value alone does not sell it” (68). Similarly, rather than creating job opportunities,he waited for a miracle to happen.

In the absence of a vigorous, comprehensive action plan to construct a money-producing livelihood, Reiske had to live from hand to mouth. He continued practicingwhat he had started in Holland: giving private lessions, correcting manuscripts, translatingfrom other languages into German (44), again as before often enough for a mere pittancein remuneration. But he also managed somehow to keep writing scholarly materials,book reviews, small articles for scientific periodicals, and translations of Arabic, Latinor Greek manuscripts.

With the years, the number of publications steadily increased, and so did the numberof manuscripts for which he could not find a publisher, forcing him to pay for thepublication himself as the only alternative. A case in point is his series Animadversionesad Graecos Auctores. A total of 200 copies were printed at his own expense. Not allof them, he said, were sold, amounting to a loss of about 900 thalers. He considered hisAnimadversiones “the best piece of writing that I have ever produced. They are flosingenii mei, the flower of my genius” (70). Publication costs were borne by himrepeatedly, when other attempts had failed. He cited as an example his edition of theAnthologiae Graecae, published in 1754: “I did not want to be kept waiting in emptyhope any longer. So I dared having it printed at my expense and throw my bread intothe water; just like my desire to become useful in my way had tempted me to do manymore times later on. I am not put off by the injustice of people, but move along on mypath unconcerned, as far as I can, full of confidence that God will always... reward thegood and punish the bad” (68).

For many years he had worked almost exclusively with Greek writers. He even claimedthat he had spent the greater part of his life reading Greek authors. He preferred Greek toLatin because he felt that his initial training received at the Waisenhaus Gymnasium was

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not so much in Classical Latin. “That was a disaster for me. I did acquire from the newerLatinists a certain expertise in Latin so that I could read and write Latin fluently and thateven people who were experts in the good Latinity regarded my Latin as beautiful. Butthe good Latinity of the old genuine authors I have come to know only in my 40th year oflife; by then it was too late for me to remedy what I had neglected. Only then I began toget acquainted with Cicero, but it was too late to acquire a taste for him” (7).

By 1755 his name had become known to organizations of various academicdisciplines such as language, literature, and history. Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700–1766) invited him to join his Gesellschaft der freien Künste und Wissenschaften(Society for the Liberal Arts and Sciences), and a year later, Christian Wilhelm Walch(1726–1784) offered him membership in the Jenaische Lateinische Gesellschaft, theLatin Society of Jena. Other honorable nominations followed, e.g., inclusion among thehonorary members of the Royal Historical Society in Göttingen in 1769. These honorsled to contacts with influential people who, once convinced of his expertise, were eagerto avail themselves of his skills. After Reiske had successfully completed some challengingtasks for a court official in Dresden which involved the Arabic monetary system, CountWackerbart, Cabinet Minister in Dresden, put his special knowledge to a serious test.Reiske succeeded in deciphering the inscription on a gold-embedded stone that no onehad ever been able to interpret correctly. The ramification of this remarkable achievementwas to have a crucial impact on his future life. In 1757, Reiske’s financial plight hadreached disastrous proportions. He was forced to accept daily free lunches offered byProf. Ernesti, not exactly a special friend of his. A most welcome relief emerged whenthe position of rector of the Nicolai School in Leipzig fell vacant. Reiske applied, drivenby the thought: “What if God had here opened to you the door to a better fate?” (78).He was convinced that “God had led me, by an unexpected accident... to that office....Otherwise I would have perished. I recognize in this God’s almighty hand that can saveeven from death.”

His numerous adversaries immediately attempted to block the appointment, buttheir efforts were in vain, since, through the intervention of the Cabinet Minister CountWackerbart, backed by his Royal Highness, the Electoral Prince, Reiske was officiallyinaugurated as rector in June 1758.

By comparison, life now became more bearable for him, and he could devote muchmore time to his long, inexhaustible list of research projects.

If one considers the amazingly large number of scholars with whom Reiske hadbeen in touch throughout his professional career, one could hardly claim that he led anisolated life. But taking into account his propensity for confrontation – whether forinvalid or for praiseworthy reasons – the outcome can hardly leave any doubt that long-lasting, fruitful, continuously beneficial relationships of his were very few, exceptingmost notably his marriage to Ernestine Christine Müller.

Ernestine Christine was his greatest asset all through their marriage which spanned thelast ten years of his life. She had highest regard for him as a person and as a scholar, and he

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seemd to have his rather erratic personality under perfect control in his relationship withher. She was instrumental in solidifying a number of Reiske’s relationships with colleaguesand family friends that had either been disrupted or were not likely to last due to hisoftentimes careless attitude towards friends and associates. Restoring the impairedfriendship with Gottsched due to Mrs. Reiske’s pleasing personality is a case in point.But there are indications likewise that often enough, where personal and professionaldecisions were involved, Mrs. Reiske, in spite of all her efforts, was unable to preventher husband from incurring harm or even outright disaster. When she realized that hefelt strongly about a planned course of action, she gave him unconditional support evenat great personal sacrifice.

On the professional level, she provided any type of help she could, always anxiousto make sure that her contributions would fall neatly into the framework of his overallresearch and publication plans. Furthermore, she prevailed upon him to write up hisown life story. This was a remarkable achievement, considering his reluctance to speakfreely and openly about himself. The opening remarks in his Vita make that very clear:“I am supposed to write about my life. I have been asked to do it several times, and Ihave never felt like doing it” (Reiske 1783:1). Nevertheless, his 150-page CurriculumVitae was written, and it contains a wealth of fascinating details on his personal andprofessional life. It was published after her husband’s death, together with a number ofequally important appendices: (1) Her own account on Reiske, mainly covering the lastyears of his life, full of praise for his many accomplishments. (2) A listing of Reiske’spublished and unpublished works. (3) Several hundred pages of Reiske’scorrespondence. To finance this bulky publication project she devised a subscriptionplan, for which she managed to engage the support of a long list of illustrious personalitiesfrom Germany and abroad.

Undoubtedly her greatest accomplishment, however, is that she succeeded incompleting a large number of unfinished manuscripts and arranging the publication ofthese as well as of other works which Reiske had completed, but could not get publishedfor lack of either time or money.

Last but not least, after her husband’s death in 1774, she did everything in herpower to lay the foundation for the comprehensive recognition of his significance for theestablishment of Classical and Arabic studies in Germany. First, and most importantly,she prevented the Reiske papers from falling into the hands of false friends who wouldhave utilized them for their own glorification. Second, she saw to it that all scholarlypapers finally went to a Danish nobleman, Peter Frederek von Suhm (1728–1798),who would ensure their safe keeping while at the same time continue with the publicationprocess.

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Concluding Remarks

Reiske approached classical and Arabic Studies with an open mind, abhoring anypreconceived ideas. He was not bound by restrictions that an academic position –which he never held – or an academic tradition might have placed on him. With ease herecognized that Classical studies required a great deal of expansion and intensification.He elaborated on what needed to be done by both theoretical discussions in many ofhis writings and practical implementations through his research. His example as aprotagonist for self-sufficient Classical and Arabic studies had repercussions even at histime, although then only in a limited way due to his peculiar professional circumstancesreferred to before. In a moving self-assessment he presents an accurate picture: “Godhas given me gifts; not the best, but also not the worst; and besides those gifts he alsoendowed me with urge and desire to make use of them to His glory and for the commongood.... I would have certainly been able to do much more, had the time been moreamenable to my kind of studies and had I received more support and encouragementfrom my contemporaries. But I have done more than a thousand of others would havedone under my circumstances” (Reiske 1783:96).

In Arabic studies he was determined from early on to discard what in his opinionproved to be a serious impediment for obtaining the best possible results. For Arabicstudies to become a self-sufficient, independent academic discipline, it was imperativefor them to be cut loose from their intrinsic relationship to philologia sacra, and ceaseto be subservient to the primary requirements of the investigation for the benefit of thethree Holy Languages, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Reiske’s envisioned procedurebrought into scope subject matter areas that so far had at best been merely of marginalinterest to investigators. Ex oriente lux – light from the east – had previously as itsfocus anything intrinsically related to Christianity and its origins. Now, for Reiske, thefocus shifted to a different dimension of meaning: the oriental world – Reiske preferredthe terms Islamic or Moslemic – deserved to be a subject matter in its own right. Hispoint of departure was a thorough investigation of Arabic language texts, and he madesure that the selected texts were restored as closely to their original state as couldpossibly be achieved by thorough textual criticism. But language was for him not an endin itself. He aimed at exploring Arabic culture, all aspects of it. He discovered the valueof Arabic history and was intent on assigning to it its rightful place in world history (cf.,e.g., Reiske 1747b, a 274-page treatise published in 1847). For those who knew himwell it was no surprise that he proved also to be a numismatic expert, capable ofdeciphering Arabic inscriptions on coins, which others before him had attempted andfailed. The science of numismatics owes a great deal to his pioneering effort.

Richard Foerster (1943-1922), biographer of Reiske and editor of a large portionof his correspondence at the end of the 19th century, had this to say about his hero:“The assessment that he belongs to the greatest philologists of all times is today (1897)shared by all evaluators in the field of Greek and Arabic studies, who are truly capable

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of judging” (Foerster 1897). While Foerster’s claim might be somewhat overstated, Iwould assert nevertheless that he comes fairly close. What Reiske did achieve in histwo academic disciplines was truly unique and is now widely acknowledged as such,even though the adverse circumstances of his professional and personal life preventedhim from developing his full potential.

Today, in 2002, the riches burried in Reiske’s published and as yet unpublished works andin the huge amount of correspondence still wait for an exhaustive exploration. Once this isaccomplished and Reiske’s work is viewed within its appropriate historical context, Reiske’sachievements and Foerster’s assertion might actually be unrestrictedly called identical.

REFERENCES

Primary sources

(1742) Tharaphae Moallakah cum Scholiis Nahas e mss. Leidensibus / Arabiceedidit, vertit, illustravit Joann. Jacob Reiske. Lugduni Batavorum: Apud JoannemLuzac.

(1746) Miscellaneae aliquot observationes medicae ex Arabum monumentis.Lugduni Bat.

(1747a) Dissertatio de principibus Muhammedanis, qui aut ab eruditione, aut abamore literarum et literatorum claruerunt. Lipsiae.

(1747b) Primae lineae historiae regnorum Arabicorum et rerum ab Arabibus mediointer Christum et Muhammedem tempore gestarum: cum tabulis genealogicistribuum Arabicarum/ Jo. Jac. Reiskii; e libro manuscripto BibliothecaeGottingensis edidit Ferdinandus Wüstenfeld. Gottingae: Typis LibrariaeDieterichianae.

(1748a) De Arabum Epocha vetustissima, Sail ol Arem, id est ruptura catarrhactaeMarebensis dicta / invitat Ioannes Iacobus Reiske. (Inaugural writing.) Lipsiae:Pouillard.

(1748b) Oratio studium Arabicae linguae commendans. (Leipzig: Inaugural address.Printed 1779.)

(1754a) Anthologiae Graecae a Constantino Cephala conditae libri tres. Lipsiae:In Bibliopolio Gleditschiano.

(1754b) Abu-’l-Fida Ismail Ibn-Ali: Annales moslemici/ lat. ex arab. fecit J. J.Reiske. Lipsia: Gleditsch

(1757– 66) Animadversiones ad Graecos Auctores V, Vol. 8, Lipsiae: Gleditsch.(1759) De optimo episcopo. (Gratulationsschrift für Johann August Ernesti.) Leipzig:

Langenheim.(1759 – 60) Animadversionum ad Graecos Auctores VI, Vol. 8. Lipsiae: Gleditsch.(1761) Deutsche Übersetzung der Reden aus dem Thucydides, nebst lateinischen

Anmerkungen über dessen gesamtes Werk. Leipzig: Löper.

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(1764) De principibus, mahummedanis. Lipsiae: Gleditsch.(1766) Abulfedae Tabula Syriae cum excerpto geographico ex Ibn ol Wardii

Geographia et historia naturali (Abulfeda). Lipsiae: Litteris Schoenermarkii.(1770 – 75) Oratorum Graecorum, quorum princeps est Domosthenes, quae

supersunt, monumenta ingenii, e bonis libris, a se emendata, materia critica,commentariis integris Hieron. Wolfii, Io. Taylori, Ierem. Marklandi, aliorum,et suis indicibus denique instructa, edidit Ioannes Iacobus Reiske. 12 vols.Lipsiae: Typis W. G. Sommeri.

(1776) Opuscula medica ex monimentis Arabum et Ebraeorum. Halae: Apud I. I.Gebauerri vidvam et filium.

(1781) “Briefe über das arabische Münzwesen. Mit Anmerkungen und Zusätzen vonJoh. Gottfr. Eichhorn.” Repertorium für biblische und morgenländische Litteratur(Leipzig: Weidmann) 9:192-346.

(1783) D. Johann Jacob Reiskes von ihm selbst aufgesetzte Lebensbeschreibung.Hrsg. von seiner Frau Ernestine Christine Reiske. Leipzig: Sommer.

Secondary bibliography

Bachmann, Peter. (b. 1936). 1974. Johann Jacob Reiske: Der Begründer derarabischen Studien in Deutschland. Beirut.

Bennholdt-Thomsen, Anke & Alfredo Guzzoni. 1992. Gelehrsamkeit und Leidenschaft:Das Leben der Ernestine Christine Reiske 1735–1798. München: C. H. Beck.

Bentley, Richard. (1662–1742).1962[1691]. Epistola ad Joannem Millium. (Repr.from the edition of Alexander Dyce, together with an introduction by George P.Goold.) Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.

. (1662–1742). 1699[1697]. A Dissertation upon the Epistles ofPhalaris. London: Hartley.

Brekle, Herbert E. et al., eds. 1992-. “Reiske, Johann Jacob”. Bio-bibliographischesHandbuch zur Sprachwissenschaft des 18. Jahrhunderts: Die Grammatiker,Lexikographen und Sprachtheoretiker des deutschsprachigen Raums mitBeschreibungen ihrer Werke. Band 7. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

Eckstein, Friedrich August. (1810–1885). 1871. Nomenclator philologorum. Leipzig:Teubner. [Repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1966.]

Fleischer, Heinrich Leberecht. (1801–1888), ed. 1846–1848. BeidhawiiCommentarius in Coranum: ex codd. Parisiensibus, Dresdensibus etLipsiensibus. 2 vols. Lipsiae: Sumptibus F. C. G. Vogelii.

Foerster, Richard. (1843–1922). “Johann Jacob Reiske”. Allgemeine DeutscheBiographie 28.129-140.

. 1889b. “Ernestine Christine Reiske”. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie28.140-143.

KURT R. JANKOWSKY

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. 1897, ed. Johann Jacob Reiske’s Briefe, Leipzig: Hirzel.

. 1917, Briefe von J. J. Reiske. Nachtrag. [Abhandlungen derPhilologisch-Historischen Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft derWissenschaften, 34. Bd., No 4.] Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.

Fück, Johann. (1894–1974). 1944. “Die arabischen Studien in Europa vom 12. bis inden Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts”. Beiträge zur Arabistik, Semitistik undIslamwissenschaft, 85-253. Herausgegeben von Richard Hartmann (1881–1965)und Helmuth Scheel. Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz.

Herder, Johann Gottfried von. (1744–1803). 1785–1792. Ideen zur Geschichteder Menschheit. 4 vols. in 2. Riga & Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch.

Lessing, Karl Gotthelf. (1740–1812). 1789. Gelehrter Briefwechsel zwischen JohannJacob Reiske, Moses Mendelssohn und Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. 2 Theile.Berlin: Voss und Sohn.

Littmann, Enno. (1875–1958). 1942. Der deutsche Beitrag zur Wissenschaft vomvorderen Orient. Stuttgart & Berlin: W. Kohlhammer.

Meusel, Johann Georg. (1743–1820). 1811. Lexikon der vom Jahre 1750 bis 1800verstorbenen Teutschen Schriftsteller. Vol. XI, pp. 192-208. Leipzig: J. G.Neubert. [Contains most complete bibliography.]

Mommsen, Theodor. (1817–1903). 1871. “Bruchstücke des Johannes von Antiochiaund des Johannes Malalas”. Hermes 6:323-383.

Morus, Samuel Friedrich Nathanael. (1736–1792). 1777. De Vita J. J. ReiskiiMedicinae Doctoris. Lipsiae: Georg

Niebuhr, Carsten. (1733–1815). 1772. Beschreibung von Arabien: aus eigenenBeobachtungen und im Lande selbst gesammelten Nachrichten. Kopenhagen:N. Möller; Leipzig: B. C. Breitkopf und Sohn,

Pfeiffer, Rudolf. ((1869 –1979). 1976. History of Classical Scholarship from 1300to 1850. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Sacy, Antoine Isaac Silvestre de. (1758–1838). 1854-[65]. “Biography de JohannJacob Reiske”. Joseph Fr. Michaud (1767–1839) and Louis Gabriel (1773–1858)Michaud. Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne. 35.381-387. Deuxièmeédition par Eugène Ernest Desplaces (b. 1828). Paris: Madame C. Desplaces.

Sandys, John Edwin, Sir. (1844–1922). 1998[1903–1908]. A History of ClassicalScholarship. Vol. III: The Eighteenth Century in Germany, and the Nineteenth Centuryin Europe and the United States of America. Bristol [England]: Thoemmes Press.

Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich von. (1848–1931). 1982. History of ClassicalScholarship. Transl. from the German by Alan Harris; edited with introduction andnotes by Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

JOHANN JACOB REISKE (1716-1774)

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THE CONTEXT AND SENSE OF HUMBOLDT’S STATEMENTTHAT LANGUAGE ‘IST KEIN WERK (ERGON),

SONDERN EINE TÄTIGKEIT (ENERGEIA)’

HANS AARSLEFFPrinceton University

During the last years of his life Wilhelm von Humboldt produced the three-volumework entitled Ueber die Kawi-Sprache auf der Insel Java (1836-39). The best-known part of this work is the introduction, often called the Kawi-Introduction (or forshort KI), which, he said, would be ‘devoted to more general considerations’ with aview to reading the rest of the large work (OL 1988:20; GS 7:13).1 The KI presentsthe summary of some thirty years’ work on language, with much repetition and steadycommitment to basic views that were formed early. His basic conception was that ‘wemust look upon language, not as a dead product, but far more as a producing,’ athought to which he gave this formulation on the next page: ‘In itself [language] is noproduct (Ergon), but an activity (Energeia)’ (‘Sie [die Sprache] ist kein Werk (Ergon),sondern eine Tätigkeit (Energeia)’) (OL 1988:48-9; GS 7:45-6).

Four aspects of this statement merit attention: (a) The use and contrasting of theGreek terms, of which Energeia occurs nowhere else in Humboldt’s writings. (b)The correlation of Ergon with the German ‘Werk,’ which means ‘finished work,’‘work already done,’ and Energeia with ‘Tätigkeit,’ which signals ‘action,’ ‘activity,’with the implication of creativity and creation. (c) The package-like quality of theformulation, like a quotation that suddenly flashed into the context. (d) The primalemphasis placed on energy.

After the word Energeia the text continues about language, ‘its true definition cantherefore only be a genetic one.’ This means that languages must be understood interms of their formation thus becoming more or less successful depending on the formativecapabilities of their speakers. Language is not a rational construct, but ‘an act, a trulycreative performance of the mind’ (OL 1988:183; GS 7:211). Speech and languagemust be understood in aesthetic terms, a conception that is splendidly argued in Diderot’sLettre sur les sourds-et-muets (1751), which, basing on Condillac’s anti-rationalistEssai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines (1746), is the pivotal text in Diderot’s

1. For abbreviations, see the list at head of References.

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œuvre.2 The Essai has related chapters on ‘Music’ and on ‘Inversions,’ that is, thetransposition of words away from any sentence order that might be considered naturalor normal. The subject of the Lettre is inversion and its source in the energetic rhetoricalexpressivism that produces it. Inversion undermines the rationalist doctrine that theprevailing word order of, say, modern French is the natural order.3

The sense of the ergon/energeia statement has been the subject of endless andaimless speculation without ever leading to a viable answer. In accordance with thecanons of intellectual history, the remedy for this failure lies in attention to the context inwhich Humboldt was living and working, and this takes us back to the time when hisexposure to Basque first made language the heart of his anthropology. As we shall see,it was also in this context that the ergon/energeia conception first entered his mind.4

When he arrived in Paris with his family in November of 1797, Humboldt had gonethrough a long period of depression that found disturbing expression in his letters. Fullof self-reproach, he felt unproductive and unable to write because he could not collecthis thoughts. In an especially dark letter to Friedrich Schiller, he wrote in the late summerof 1797 that he lacked the fundamental notions for what he was trying to do – ‘dass mirnoch Grundgedanken fehlen’ (Freese 1986:228). At the time he was trying to write twothings, one on the eighteenth century and another entitled ‘Plan einer vergleichendenAnthropologie.’ Both remained unfinished. He worked on the latter during 1797, but inspite of efforts to define the subject as well as aims and method, language is whollyabsent except once when it is listed among ‘exterior’ features that reveal ‘Verschiedenheitunter Menschen,’ such as ‘Körperbau und Betragen, Gestalt, Farbe des Gesichts unddes Haars, Physiognomie, Sprache, Gang und Gebehrden überhaupt’ (GS 1:399).5

But within a short time the depression lifted while his thinking also took a radical turn.

2. On the centrality of the Lettre in Diderot’s aesthetics, see the magisterial Chouillet 1973, esp.pp. 153-257. Also Chouillet (1984). Baudiffier (1982) offers a succinct demonstration of Diderot’scloseness to Condillac. Becq (1994) treats Condillac’s aesthetics, pp. 444-64.3. On rhetorical expressivism, see Aarsleff (2001: xviii-xxiii), and also Aarsleff, forthcoming.4. On contextualism, see Skinner (2002) and Tully (1988).5. To take an example of the absence of language, in ‘Vergl. Anthrop.’ we read concerning‘Kenntniss der Charaktereigentümlichkeit’ that, ‘der Charakter ensteht nicht anders, als durchdas beständige Einwirken der Tätigkeit der Gedanken und Empfindungen’ (GS 1:386) – the confident‘not otherwise than’ leaves no role for language whatsoever. ‘Vergl. Anthrop.’ was no not begununtil early 1797, but this causes conflict with the editor Leitzmann’s dating of the set of theses onlanguage which he gave the title ‘Ueber Denken und Sprechen’ (GS 7:581-3) and dated 1795/96, aconflict that did not occur for him because he mistakenly dated ‘Vergl. Anthrop.’ 1795, which isone of several of his datings that have proved untenable. Lammers (1935:30) also questions thedating of ‘Ueber Denken und Sprechen.’ Menze (1965:211-13) accepts the dating but then saysthat, ‘erst der Aufenthalt in Paris und die Reisen nach Spanien bringen neue Beschäftigung,Vertiefung, und Auseinandersetzung mit der Sprache,’ which then again raises the question why,written in the meantime, ‘Vergl. Anthrop.’ has no role for language. The commentary at FG 5:674(to a letter of 1803) remarks that, ‘Die Anfänge von Humboldts Sprachphilosophie sind offenbarschon in die Pariser Jahre zurückzuführen.’ Howald (1944:97-106) is good on Humboldt’s depressionand on his recovery once in Paris. bringen neue Beschäftigung, Vertiefung, undAuseinandersetzung mit der Sprache,’ which then again raises the question why, written in themeantime, ‘Vergl. Anthrop.’ has no role for language.

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Only a few weeks after arriving in Paris Humboldt felt exuberant improvementand firm confidence about getting on with the writing. In a searching self-assessmentwritten at the end of 1797 he contrasted past failure with present assurance that henow had ‘das unverkennbare Bewusstsein einer lebendigen und emporstrebendenTätigkeit’ (GS 14:391). About a month earlier he had written with enthusiasm aboutParis to a friend; he was full of cheer, ‘und vielleicht nie noch war ich so sehr zurBeobachtung und Tätigkeit bestimmt,’ more than ever eager to get on with writing onthe eighteenth century and on comparative anthropology (Freese 1986:234-5). Fromthen on his letters from France and Spain are optimistic, with regular mention of hisnew-found linguistic anthropology. The question is: what had caused this sudden anddramatic change?

In print Humboldt several times declared that it all happened because he ‘by chance’came upon Basque and its speakers on his way toward Madrid late in 1799 (GS3:292; 6:137). But the story is very different. The special status of Basque was alreadybeing discussed in the Parisian circles in which Humboldt moved before he left forSpain. Chief among his informants was the political figure and man of letters Dominique-Joseph Garat, who, born at Bayonne, was a native speaker of Basque and a dedicatedadvocate of his home region’s language and culture. Garat is mentioned in a letter toSchiller already in late January 1798, with the flattering comment that he is equipped‘mit einer ausserordentlich guten Kopf’ (Seidel 1962:147), and by the summer of thatyear Humboldt noted that Garat had written for Mercure de France, and that he hadbeen one of the initiators of the first collected edition of Condillac published in 1798,the same year as Garat’s ‘Discours préliminaire’ appeared in the fifth edition of thedictionary of the French Academy. Both in practical and linguistic matters Garat becameHumboldt’s cicerone in the new territory he was now entering. He paid close attentionto two of Garat’s essays that had appeared in Mercure de France in 1783 and 1785,even to the point of copying out parts of those essays.

The first, ‘Sur Bayonne & sur les Basques,’ contains a eulogy of the Basque language,with emphasis on the intimate relationship between a nation’s entire mode of thought,feeling, and culture on the one hand and its language on the other: (1) Basque has all theadmired qualities of Greek and Latin and is probably older than either, by which hemeant original and free of any admixture from other languages. (2) Basque showsperspicuous analogy in the formation of words. (3) And most of all, the syntax of Basqueshows ‘une hardiesse incroyable pour entrer dans la pensée de tous les côtés, &cependant dans les mots des marques sûres & infaillibles pour fixer rapidement leursrapports au milieu même des mouvements les plus passionés & les plus convulsifs del’inversion.’ To these qualities, Garat declared, the Basque nation chiefly owed ‘tout cequ’il y a de raison & d’étendu dans les idées..., d’énergique, de fin & de délicat dansses sentiments’ (Garat 1783:66). Thus Basque displayed the most fruitful fit betweenspeaking and thinking, between thought and expression. Garat also noted that the greatrhetorician Quintilian was a native Basque, an observation that has deeper implications

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than I can go into here. Garat defined the question that informs the entire KI, namelyhow ‘language is connected with the nation’s mental power’ (OL:21; GS 7:14).6

Garat’s essay of 1785 is a review of Antoine Rivarol’s rationalist Discours surl’universalité de la langue française (1784). Rivarol and Garat shared the principlethat ‘la parole est aussi nécessaire à la pensée que la pensée à la parole.’ This insight,wrote Garat, was ‘une de plus belles découvertes du siècle,’ while at the same timeblaming Rivarol for not crediting the discovery to Condillac, whose glory it was to haveperceived it in his first work, the Essay, and to have expounded it more fully in his laterwritings (1785b:21). It was with these things in mind that Rivarol made the much-citedclaim that ‘ce qui n’est pas clair n’est pas français’ (Rivarol: 49). French did not sufferthe disorder of inversions which, he said, flourishes when people become more powerfullygoverned by their passions than by reason. Celebrating the rationality of his language,Rivarol admitted without regret that French had no affinity for music and the arts (Rivarol:50). Naturally, as the dedicated standard-bearer for Condillac, Garat did not agree.

Garat answered that, on the contrary, inversion favored clarity more than the directrationalist order:

M. de Rivarol prétend que dans le Latin, le sens est suspendu jusqu’à la fin de la phrase.Mais j’ignore quelle est la langue dans laquelle le sens peut être achevé avant la phrase; &c’est -là encore une des choses que tout le monde répète sans que personne s’avise unefois au moins d’examiner ce qu’il dit. Dans toutes les langues du monde, ce n’est qu’avecla phrase que le sens peut être terminé, & jusqu’au dernier mot le sens est suspendu.(1785b:33; GS 15:45-6; OL 1988: xliii-xlvi)

This entire passage was copied out in French by Humboldt in a note entry from1799 that was first published in 1918, but not identified until I did so (OL 1988:xliv). Atthis point Humboldt became so excited that he also copied out in German a sentenceon the facing page: ‘Die Sprachen mit Inversionen sind der Klarheit vorteilhaft, weilman mehr Mittel sich auszudrücken hat’ (GS 15:46). In Garat’s French this sentencewas immediately preceded by these words:

‘Dans les langues à inversions, dans la langue Latine, par example, il y a vingt manières deconstruire la même phrase; & on n’est jamais obscur si on donne aux mots les désinencesqui en marquent les rapports.’

And it was followed by this sentence on the deficiency of the rationalist order: ‘& leslangues à ordre direct lui sont contraires, puisqu’il n’y a souvent qu’une seule manièred’être clair, & qu’il y en a vingt d’être obscur’ (1785b:32). In his critique Garat also

6. Garat (1783) is identified in Humboldt’s Nachlass in Mueller-Vollmer (1993:260). Aarsleff (1988)treats Garat’s importance for Humboldt in some detail, though without use of Garat (1783), whichwas not known to me. Aarsleff (1988) also demonstrates Diderot’s impact on Humboldt’s thought;for his ecstatic response to the reading of Diderot, see p. li.

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recalled that he was himself, both as speaker and listener, familiar with a language – hisown Basque of course – in which inversions were much bolder than in the classicallanguages. Indeed he believed it was the language that is spoken and understood mostquickly of all, thus exhibiting the ideal quality that Humboldt would later find preeminentin Greek and Sanscrit.

Humboldt may also have known Garat’s entry ‘Cantabrie’ (1785a) in the second of thethree volumes of the Encyclopédie méthodique that were devoted to Grammaire etlittérature (EMGL). All entries in this work were signed, and there can be no doubt that theEMGL was busily pillaged without credit. In this entry, which was not in the originalEncyclopédie, Garat was very explicit. Basque, he wrote, has more declensions andconjugations than the classical languages, often using declensions even where Greek andLatin use prepositions. He immediately continued to state the consequence of this richness.In Basque, ‘[les] inversions sont infiniment plus hardies que celles du latin & du grec; &cependant avec quelque rapidité qu’on parle cette Langue devant moi, je ne suis jamais niarrêté ni suspendu dans l’intelligence d’une phrase!’ (EMGL 2:446b). Garat was againsaying that it is the entire utterance, the sentence that is the unit of meaning, not the individualwords as the rationalists maintained. This principle of the unit-sentence is prominent also inCondillac and Diderot, and it has important implications for logic, a point well understood byJeremy Bentham.

In this entry Garat also celebrated the analogy that rules in Basque because it is an unmixed,‘original’ language. This is yet another key notion that is firmly stated by Condillac: mixedlanguages have weak analogy (Essay 2001:187; Essai 1973:261). As in Condillac and Garat,this notion also becomes prominent in Humboldt’s work. In the KI he wrote, echoing Garat:‘In Basque there flourishes a wealth of verb-inflection forms which it is difficult to survey. Butthe analogy of their formation is adhered to with admirable care, so that the understanding runsthrough them by way of an easily recognizable guide-line’ (OL 1988:134; GS 7:150-1). Andin the context of celebrating inflection as the condition for the ideal he repeatedly called ‘wahreinnere Festigkeit,’ Humboldt observed that, ‘in its word-construction [i.e., analogy] and speech-ordering [i.e., syntax], Basque has a special power arising from its brevity and boldness ofexpression [i.e., as in inversion]’ (OL 1988:146; GS 7:164).

It is obvious that Humboldt responded with unmistakable evidence of interest,engagement, and discipleship on the conceptual coherence of the aesthetic view of language,on energetic expression, on inversions, inflectionality, true inner fixity, the weakening of analogyin mixed languages, and most of all on the combined effect of these qualities in producing theintimate union of language and culture. Garat was not an original mind, yet he applied allthese qualities in his eulogy of the Basque language and nation. What is the source of all this?Where lies the center?

As Garat made clear it lies in Condillac’s Essay, and especially in the chapter on inversions,with weighty support from the chapter on ‘Music.’ The freedom of word order that is madepossible by high inflectionality allows the imagination to create a compactness of expressionthat we, with Diderot, recognize in a hieroglyph or a painting. In French Condillac and

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Diderot used the word ‘tableau’ for this effect; in German Humboldt used ‘Gemälde’ ormore often ‘Bild,’ and when he wrote in French ‘tableau.’ The entire conception is wellstated in one of Humboldt’s French writings:

L’avantage à cet égard est entièrement du côté des langues qui regardent l’expressioncomme un tableau de la pensée dans lequel tout est continu et fermement lié ensemble, etou cette continuité est imprimée aux mots mêmes...et qui permettent à celui qui écoute, desuivre, toujours à l’aide des sons prononcés, l’enchainement des pensées, sans l’obliger àinterrompre ce travail pour remplir les lacunes qui laissent les paroles. (GW 7:345-6; cf. OL1988:88-9; GS 7:94-6, and often elsewhere)

One of Humboldt’s charges against Chinese was precisely that it imposed on thelistener the burden of filling in the lacunae or, in the terminology of rationalist grammar,of ‘subauditing’ what was not expressed. All this was something that Garat’s claims forBasque had made clear long before Humboldt decades later began to apply theseconceptions to Sanskrit and Greek.

We are now at the threshold of ergon/energeia. In the chapter on inversions Condillaccited some lines from a Horatian ode (Odes Bk. I, no. 28) by way of illustration:

...nec quicquam tibi prodestaerias tentasse domos, animoque rotundumpercurrisse polum, morituro

The expressiveness of these lines, he argued, is caused by the need to join ‘tibi’ inthe first line with the word on dying in the last. If these words were put into the directorder of prose, there would be no role for the imagination to create the synthesis thatCondillac and Diderot, and with them Humboldt, so greatly prized. Inversion, saidCondillac, has much the same quality as the language of action, which is the proto-language that exhibits the poetic origins of speech in which ‘a single sign is often equivalentto an entire sentence.’ From this potency it followed that inversions ‘create a picture[tableau], that is, that they in a single word unite the circumstances of an action, muchas the painter unites them on the canvas’ (Essay 2001:175-6; Essai 1973:249). Condillaccalled this effect ‘vivacité.’ The quick effect of Condillac’s exposition was Diderot’scelebration of inversion and energy in the Lettre sur les sourds-et-muets (Baudiffier1982).

In 1782 the EMGL (1:713a) had a new entry ‘Energie,’ written by Nicolas Beauzée.It explained that,

Energie est cette qualité qui, dans un seul mot ou dans un petit nombre des mots, faitapperçevoir ou sentir un grand nombre d’idées; ou qui, au moyen du petit nombre d’idéesexprimées par les mots, excite dans l’âme des sentiments d’admiration, de respect, d’horreur,d’amour, de haîne, &c. que les mots seuls ne désignent point.

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To illustrate this passage Beauzée immediately cited the same Horatian lines thatCondillac had quoted to show the vivacity of inversion, which, Condillac had affirmed,is made possible only by the high inflectionality of Latin.

Beauzée’s explication of energy inescapably calls to mind Humboldt’s statement onergon and energeia, and this also was in Beauzée’s entry, which began thus: ‘Ce motest grec, , actio, efficacia: il a, dans ce sens, pour racines, , (in, dans,en), et – (opus, ouvrage, œuvre). ‘The distinction here made between theGreek words along with their Latin and French equivalents recurs in Humboldt’sdistinction between ‘Tätigkeit’ for energeia and ‘Werk’ for ergon. So here we areback with the famous Humboldt passage that was quoted in the first paragraph of thisessay, and what I called its package-like quality should now be obvious. Energeia isthe pivot of Humboldt’s notion of language, but the conception of that pivot was nothis own. He owed it to Garat, to Condillac, to Diderot, and to Beauzée’s formulation.When speech and language popped into the center of Humboldt’s anthropology, thedepression lifted, and he was successfully launched on his life’s work.

The intimate relation between thinking and speaking is a principle that Garatproclaimed in all his writings on language. In the ‘Discours préliminaire’ to the Academy’sdictionary he wrote that once languages had come to be considered in a philosophicallight, ‘on a vu...que les mots ne nous servaient pas seulement, comme on le croyait, ànous communiquer nos pensées, mais qu’ils nous étaient nécessaire pour penser’ (p.iv). Words and language are not merely, as the rationalists held, the instrument ofcommunication, but a fortiori the creative and necessary instrument of thinking, or, touse the Greek word for instrument, the organ of thinking.

There is space for two concluding observations. In a book published as late as 1996,one reads that, in Humboldt’s view, in order to provide the study of language with

‘eine neue, angemessenere Grundlage, darf man die Sprache nicht als Instrument, sondernsie als Organ betrachten. Diese Gegenüberstellung von Metaphern bezeichnet die Kluftzwischen Humboldts Sprachansicht und jener traditionellen Auffassung, die imRationalismus der Aufklärungszeit ihre letzte Ausformulierung gefunden hatte’ (Di Cesare1996:278).

This seems to be the conventional wisdom in Humboldt scholarship, and it is false.As I said at the outset, for a strict Cartesian, speaking is merely the instrument forcommunication of the pre-fabricated discourse of the mind, but this conception is over-turned by the anti-rationalist argument of Condillac’s Essai in favor of the aesthetic andcreative conception of the nature of language. The making of speech in interpersonaldialogue is the primal human creation (Essay 2001:6; Essai 1973:101-2). Furthermore,Humboldt knew that the rationalist doctrine had been overcome, and he said so: “DerIrrthum ist längst verschwunden, dass sie [die Sprache] ein Inbegriff von Zeichen von,ausser ihr, für sich bestehenden Dingen, oder auch nur Begriffen sei’ (GS 7:621, quoted

THE CONTEXT AND SENSE OF HUMBOLDT’S STATEMENT

e jne vrgeia e jne [rgon

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with comment OL 1988:xlii). This is a succinct statement of the position that Condillacattacked when he showed that there can be no thinking and knowledge withoutdiscursivity, no discourse without speech, no speech without sociability and dialogue,and no dialogue without creativity.

I have pointed out that Humboldt’s fresh thinking did not suddenly arise from hischance encounter with Basque, even though he more than once chose to give that impression.Still, against the evidence, his words are still trusted. It has been claimed that Humboldt’snew orientation, ‘ergibt sich ganz aus den in Anthropologie und Aesthetik angelegtenGedanken und ohne erkennbaren neuen Anstoss von Aussen’ (Borsche 1981:202). Tothe contrary, as we have seen, there was plenty of outward impulse, and Humboldt knewwell where it came from. This goes, we have seen, for the anthropology, but it is also trueof the related aesthetic conception of language – the energeia conception – that is somagnificently presented in the Lettre sur les sourds-et-muets and in many of Diderot’sother writings. The case of Garat shows what attention to the richly documented contextwill do for the intellectual history of Humboldt’s sources and developments. It also baresthe impotence of much that passes for secure conventional wisdom in Humboldt studies.

REFERENCES

AbbreviationsGW Humboldt 1841-52GS Humboldt 1903-37EMGL Beauzée & MarmontelEssai 1973 Condillac 1973Essay 2001 Condillac 2001FG Humboldt 1960-81OL 1988 Humboldt 1988

Aarsleff, Hans. 1988. Introduction. OL 1988: vii-lxv.. 2001. Introduction. Essay 2001: ix-xlv.. Forthcoming. Philosophy of language’ in Cambridge History of

Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Knud Haakonssen.Baudiffier, Serge. 1982. ‘Diderot et Condillac.’ Jean Sgard, ed., Condillac et les

problèmes du langage, 115-36. Genève/Paris: Slatkine.Beauzée, Nicolas. 1782. ‘Energie’. EMGL 1:713a.

. & Jean-François Marmontel, eds. 1782-86. Encyclopédie méthodique.Grammaire & Littérature. Paris: Panckoucke.

Becq, Annie. 1994 [1984]. Genèse de l’esthétique française moderne 1680-1814.Paris: Albin Michel.

Borsche, Tilman. 1981. Sprachansichten. Der Begriff der menschlichen Rede inder Sprachphilosophie Wilhelm von Humboldts. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.

. ed. 1996. Klassiker der Sprachphilosophie, von Platon bis Chomsky.München: C. H. Beck.

HANS AARSLEFF

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Chouillet, Jacques. 1973. La Formation des idées esthétiques de Diderot. Paris:Armand Colin.

. 1984. Diderot: Poète de l’énergie. Paris: PUF.Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de. 1973. Essai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines.

ed. Charles Porset. Paris: Editions Galilée.. 2001. Essay on the Origin of human Knowledge, ed. & tr. by Hans

Aarsleff. Cambridge: CUP (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy).Di Cesare, Donatella. 1996. ‘Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835).’ Borsche 1996:

275-89.Freese, Rudolf, ed. 1986. Wilhelm von Humboldt. Sein Leben und Wirken,

dargestellt in Briefen, Tagebüchern und Dokumenten seiner Zeit. Darmstadt:Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

Garat, Dominique-Joseph. 1783. ‘Lettre sur Bayonne et les basques.’ Mercure deFrance, 8. Feb. pp. 55-77.

. 1785a. ‘Cantabrie.’ EMGL 2:446-47.

. 1785b. Review of Rivarol 1784. Mercure de France. 6 Aug. pp. 10-35; 13 Aug. 63-73.

. 1798. ‘Discourse préliminaire.’ Dictionnaire de l’Academie française, 2vols. Fifth ed., 1:i-x.

Howald, Ernst. 1944. Wilhelm von Humboldt. Erlenbach-Zürich: Rentsch.Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1841-52. Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Gesammelte Werke. 7

vols. ed. Carl Brandes. Berlin: G. Reimer. 1903-37. Wilhelm von Humboldts Gesammelte Schriften. 17 vols.

ed. Albert Leitzmann et al. Berlin: Behrs Verlag.. 1960-81. Wilhelm von Humboldt. Werke in fünf Bänden, eds. Andreas

Flitner & Klaus Giel. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.. 1988. On Language. The Diversity of human Language-Structure and

its Influence on the mental Development of Mankind, tr. by Peter Heath, withIntroduction by Hans Aarsleff.

Lammers, Wilhelm. 1935. Wilhelm von Humboldts Weg zur Sprachforschung 1785-1801. Berlin: Juncker und Dünnhaupt.

Menze, Clemens. 1965. Wilhelm von Humboldts Lehre und Bild vom Menschen.Rattingen: A. Henn-Verlag.

Mueller-Vollmer, Kurt. 1993. Wilhelm von Humboldts Sprachwissenschaft: Einkommentiertes Verzeichnis des sprachwissenschaftlichen Nachlasses. Paderborn:Schöningh.

Rivarol, Antoine. [1784]. Discours sur l’universalité de la langue française. Paris:Classiques Larousse, n.d.

Seidel, Siegfried, ed. 1962. Der Briefwechself zwischen Friedrich Schiller undWilhelm von Humboldt. 2 vols. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag.

Skinner, Quentin. 2002. Visions of Politics. 3 vols. Vol. 1 Regarding Method.Cambridge: Cambridge Univertisity Press.

Tully, James, ed. 1988. Meaning and Context. Quentin Skinner and his Critics.Princeton: Princeton Univertisity Press.

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ON THE NOTION OF STRUCTURE ANDSTRUCTURALISM IN BRAZIL

ENI P. ORLANDIUniversidade Estadual de Campinas

Considering structuralism as one of the most expressive theories in the study of language,and the notion of structure as a notion that marks the history of science, affecting therelation among disciplines, I will situate structuralism in Brazil through texts and authorsthat, in our history, characterize our tradition of language studies. I will try not to repeathere what I call integrated bias of file reading in science: I will attempt to avoid theinterpretations that attribute to a founder ideas that are only possible now, with a non-linear development, both in time and space. I prefer to make my position in history ofscience explicit and try to interpret what is characteristic of the different authorships.

My objective is, therefore, to elaborate some meanings of Brazilian structuralism.Since my perspective is that the history of science occurs simultaneously in variousplaces, with its different production conditions and its different effects on society inpolitics and history, I will attempt to show how this movement of ideas took shape andproduced its effect in Brazil without digressing from occurrences in other places.

As Puech (1995) said , and that is no different in Brazil, structuralism is exactly this“precipitation” that, at the end of the ‘50s, allowed the hope for a unity in human sciencesto sediment, even beyond the scientific culture/ literate/ natural cuts, recomposingrelations among disciplines. As the same author says (1995), we are facing the challengeof reasoning and the permanent need to renew the forms and the representations ofrationality. However, if Puech (1995) is going to distinguish linguistic structuralism,structuralism and philosophy, structuralism and materialism to comprehend them, ourroute will be a different one, also passing similar places, but taking us in another direction.And this is perhaps due to what can be denominate more appropriately as the history ofscience, which is not indifferent to the conditions in which its practice is constituted, isnot homogeneous and is sensitive to the scientific processes derived from particular,regional, or better said, territorialized histories.

Aside from this, and this is also a reality of all countries in their history of knowledge,science carries along with it aspects wich we can call cognitive, in their generality,others that are social-cultural and disciplinary. The design of the disciplines together

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with the conjuncture in which science is produced constitutes a tradition, that is, in myterms, a network of affiliation of senses in a memory that cannot be anything but singularin its particular conditions. It is this conjuncture, this tradition, this disciplinary designthat I attempted to outline here in a few words, without losing view of the nucleus ofmy reflection: structuralism.

We will see how references to foreign authors, made by our authors, are a mannerin which to argument in relation to our own history. They are neither simple influencesnor mere reception. They are elaborated in function of a tradition of our own in thestudy of language. They are forms in which to argue in function of ideas that give thespecificity of a Brazilian linguistics tradition in relation to science in general.

This leads me to introduce one of our most renowned authors of linguistic historyin Brazil, Joaquim Mattoso Câmara Jr. And I introduce him citing one of his texts thatis a reflection on João Ribeiro, one of our expressive XIX – century grammarians:

(...)I believe it to be of the utmost importance in our present conditions a systematic exam,of a critical and interpretive nature, on the ideas of our most relevant grammarians of thepast (João Ribeiro). Linguistic studies in Brazil are at a crossroad, ready to take a new route,and various studies that are appearing give us much to hope for in the future. (...) At thesame time, the method of interpretation and grammatical exposition is being perfected, freerof logistic preoccupation, as well as the psychologism that followed it. Therefore, at amoment such as this, it is particularly important to take a stance in relation to our ancestors.(...) Only in this way will we be able to harmonize present thinking with that of the past, acondition essential to the development of a well-rooted linguistic science among us andwithout a problem of continuity in time and that is, at the same time, imperative to avoidimitation of foreign doctrinary thought, elaborated on the basis of other languages that(such as the behaviorism of Bloomfield) does not coadunate with our experience on thisparticular point (Mattoso Câmara: 1972).

We see here auto-reference to a work model in which criticism, singularity andaffiliation are presented. As we will see in the continuation, Mattoso Câmara Jr willbe a strong critic of psychologism and, above all, of mechanicism and Bloomfieldianbehavior although, in the same text, he will say that it is a quality of João Ribeiro toestablish, “according to the present descriptive orientation, the separation betweenthe morphic plan and the phonetic plan, fleeing from the “confusion of levels” ofwhich Bloomfield and his disciples were so cautious”. This means that it is not aquestion of dogmatically adhering or refuting but of reflecting through the authors infunction of a history of our own, on knowledge in which, not infrequently in face ofour own tradition, inaugurated with our grammaticization (S. Auroux 1992) in theXIX century, Mattoso will relate grammar and linguistics:

Descriptive grammar (...) is part of pure linguistics. Therefore, as every pure and disinterestedscience, linguistics has on its side a normative discipline that is part of what we can callapplied linguistics for a purpose of social behavior. (...) the fact is that normative grammar

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depends on synchronic linguistics or, in short, descriptive grammar, not to be capricious orcounterproductive (Mattoso Câmara:1970).

And he goes further, criticizing the fact that many grammarians do not distinguishbetween grammar and style and mix “the expressive and personal traits of a givenauthor (...that) are presented as imperative formulas of well speaking”. As we cansee, our linguist is zealous of our tradition, but knows the foreign authors and alsoworks in the interior of dichotomies that are the nodal point of our exposition on hisauthorship relative to structuralism: grammar/style, morphology/phonetics, description/normativity, but also synchrony/diachrony, mentalism/mechanicism, as we will seefurther on. It is there that he clearly takes a stance: situating himself in relation toAmerican structuralism, he will favor Sapir and his mentalism (whose work hetranslated into Portuguese), moving away from Bloomfield and his mechanicism.

We know the extension of what is called structuralism; extension from the point ofview of its importance, of its expansion in space and time and its amplitude in the fieldof sciences. Mattoso Câmara Jr (1967) gives a definition by Hrabák:

Structuralism is not a theory or a method; it is an epistemological point of view. Part of theobservation that every concept in a given system is determined by all of the other conceptsof the same system and alone signifies nothing. (...) The scientific work of structuralism isthe synthesis of the romantic vision – whose cognitive basis is the deduction based on aphilosophical system that classifies and evaluates the facts a posteriori, and the positioncontrary to positivism that, on the contrary, constructs its philosophy based on the factsthat it proved by experience. (...) In the same manner that no concept is unequivocal beforebeing integrated into its particular structure, the facts are not unequivocal in themselves.

We can say that this structuralism, thus defined, covers everything (this is what I callgeneralized structuralism). And this occurs in all places where science is done. In thissense we pass by the common place (and here I use this expression in its effects ofsenses): the Saussurian heritage, the structuralism of Prague, of the Americans, of theGlossematics of Hjelmslev etc. And names such as Jakobson, Lévy Strauss, Troubetzkoy,Sapir, Bloomfield, and Martinet will certainly be present in any history on the subject. Butthey are not present in the same manner. And it is this difference of manners which interestsme to understand in Brazil. I also like to keep Saussure, or better, the text of the Courseas a memorable place, as we need these representations in science. And I keep Saussureas the “place of origin and beginning of the closure of regression in time and dispersion inspace” (Puech,1995). This is what I have called, à quelques différences près, the foundingdiscourse: that which opens discursiveness and creates, at the same time, a tradition,where the senses make other senses, in this case, that of General Linguistics in relation toCompared Grammar. Saussure is the author of this discourse. We know, by discourseanalysis, that Saussure, as founder, is also the work of other authors (external evaluation,prestige, legitimization, affiliation, tradition, heritage, and projection on the horizon ofscience). But we cannot deny that in him, epistemologically, an object, a theory is constructed.

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And this without forgetting that Saussurian linguistics is made present by structuralism.And, in our structuralism, we build our relations with Saussure on this side of the Atlantic.

1. How is this history made in Brazil?

In Brazil, although from early on these authors were in general cited here, thestructuralism to which our authors were initially related is the American structuralism:Bloomfield, Sapir – more Sapir than Bloomfield. And various citations by Jakobsonthat ally in their structuralism two striking elements: communication and functionalism,plus a theory for sounds. Next, to the European side, to Martinet (and his functionalism).Why?

To answer this question, I am presenting my hypothesis in this text. I believe that inBrazil I can mention two crucial moments: one is the formation of linguistics bystructuralism, connected to authors who preserve the synchrony/diachrony relation,internal form/external form, language/culture, sound/senses and another later one, inwhich the investment is strongly on synchrony, form and language. At this moment,Saussure and Hjelmslev appear, as well as Jakobson, Martinet, Greimasian semiotics,Pottier and Coseriu accompanied by a strong presence of the formation in historiclinguistics in the style of Benveniste (and his work on the Indo-European).

I will discuss this history based on texts. I selected texts by Mattoso Câmara Jr(1972) (in Dispersos) and one by T.H. Maurer (1956). In addition, a special issue ofthe journal Tempo Brasileiro on structuralism called my attention, the main article ofwhich, by Mattoso Câmara Jr (1967), concerns Linguistics, which is in a manner aninaugural synthesis of the presence of structuralism in Brazil at its beginning.

2. A scientific territory of our linguistic tradition: Rio de Janeiro

Based on the reading of Mattoso Câmara (1967), we can conclude that thearguments were organized to guide thinking of an authorship in which the question ofthe senses, the culture and the history could be elaborated, based on the principles ofstructuralism. In other words, in this perspective, synchrony and diachrony are distinctbut articulate themselves in function of the notion of structure. Around this, variedconsiderations are woven regarding the psychological, the philosophical, etc.Respecting the structuralist principles that separate the organism and the culture, thatsee the language as fact/structure/institution in synchrony, there is the relation sound/senses, the relation form/function, the principle of communication, where phonologyis the model, having the rest beside it. (A variation, coming from the other side, thinksthe form/material relation). Bloomfield, cited many times, is however criticized for hismechanicism.

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In general, we can affirm that, in Brazil, there is a certain reluctance to leavingmentalism. The sound/senses relation is thought in relation to the phonic material andthe semantic structure (meaning: ethnolinguistics, cultural anthropology), a step fromdiachrony. When this separation, as in Bloomfield – who is principally criticized forbehaviorism, the preponderance of the external over the internal of the subject – drainsthe semantic content, it is avoided, as is Hjelmslev for his excessive abstraction (linguisticalgebra), that leaves the substance aside (the contents of thought). Sapir, however,accepts these articulations, as does Jakobson, although diversely, who speaks of adiachrony made of the description of states of structure. A strong example, given byMattoso Câmara Jr, is Meillet, a disciple of Saussure, who maintains a relation withhistory.

In my interpretation, these authors maintain the notion of history in the XIX centuryas a reference, although the practice of structuralism, in a certain manner, makes themsurpass it. Theoretically, this passage is made explicit (moments that permit thereinvention of the past: history and epistemology and science and art) by the Hjelmslevgroup, which Saussure himself read in a more radical manner, I might say, as Harris did,who was a disciple of Bloomfield.

Mattoso Câmara Jr did not neglect the history/culture relation or the poetic relation(and this is in relation to the affiliation with Sapir and Jakobson). He criticizes the mannerin which the notion of system dominates that of structure. According to him, Structuralism,submitted to the notion of system, closes, abstracts and leaves no place to give greaterimportance to the relation of synchrony with diachrony.

According to the interpretation of Mattoso Câmara Jr, the notion of structure, althoughit has appeared in an implicit interpretation by Schleicher, based on the comparatist typologyof Bopp, is lost due to his reification of language considered “literally a living organism”.For this reason, according to Mattoso Câmara Jr, the most positive origins of the structuralconception of language are found in the theory of form that Humboldt developed. In theinterpretation of Mattoso, Humboldt took the form as an ideal configuration and with thiscreated a mentally existing object, not having the concrete existence that Vossler refutedin the implications of the organicism of Schleicher and in the positivistic comprehension ofa language as the sum of concretely considered linguistic facts. But there is the advantagein relation to Vossler of not being anti-structuralist; contrary to this form, Humboldt’s is astructural concept. For Mattoso Câmara Jr, the internal form/external form distinction isthe first nitid and coherent affirmation of linguistic structuralism. And he adds more andthis, in the direction in which I want to develop my reflection, is very important. He states:“we may say in passing that in this initial manifestation the semantic structuration wasadmitted as a prior denial to the arbitrary identification that is made at times betweenstructuralism and anti-mentalism”. In this statement we see the knot of the questionformulated: the relation of linguistic structuralism, of semantics and of mentalism, whichmaintains the relation with history (poetic and cultural).

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Mattoso Câmara Jr then affirms that “the first rigorous and conscientiouslystructuralist position is that of Saussure”. To refer to this, he chooses to mentionSaussure’s affirmation on “the states of the language”. In this, Saussure movesaway from the neogrammarians who refused this concept because, to them, anypause to take permanent facts into consideration was artificial and anti-scientific.Continuing, Mattoso Câmara Jr explores the distinction made by Saussure betweendiachrony and synchrony. It is here that the notion of system enters – through therelation with the notion of Whitney’s social institution, present in the Course. Thenotion of system is contained more in the notion of institution than in the notion oforganism and it is playing with the idea of system and structure, insisting on thearbitrariness of the linguistic phenomenon, by a reflection that comes from asociological comprehension – presence of the French sociology in which theDurkheim school prevails – and in which, according to Mattoso Câmara Jr, Saussureeviscerates the concept of system for the language on structuralist lines for the firsttime in linguistics.

The existence of language as a group of relations supports a position on theequivocality of facts (Hrabák, above). These are the relations that Saussure considersin the institution that is language and not the empirical facts or, in other words, asMattoso Câmara Jr states – “it consubstantiates the facts arising out of existing relations.However, the relational concept in Saussure does not appear in terms of structure butas a closed system: “la langue est un système où tout se tient” ”. According to MattosoCâmara Jr, this interpretation of language as a system is what takes Saussure to differentdoctrinary positions, depending on his situation on the plane of synchrony or diachrony.In historical linguistics, as Jakobson also states, he remains fundamentally neogrammaticand changes position when he speaks of synchrony. Mattoso Câmara Jr states that ifwe consider the concept of system as a complete organization with sufficient elements,we soon realize that, strictly speaking, we cannot obtain an explanation for a changefrom it. Change, viewed from the perspective of neogrammatics, will always be anisolated fact, and with it, we pass from the system to chaos. And, taking sides, MattosoCâmara Jr states: “From this specific point of view, the Saussurian thought has causedsome uneasiness”.

According to Mattoso Câmara Jr, to overcome this uneasiness it is necessary tointroduce a notion of structure lato sensu without the implications that the notion ofsystem (as in Saussure) necessarily requires. Saussure overcame naturalistic phoneticsby introducing a grammatical order in what seemed to be a capricious and inconsistentvariety. He did not consider the isolated facts of minimum vocal emissions but only theresulting interrelations and structuration. In the same manner, for Mattoso Câmara Jr,the Saussurian structuralism unfolds on the planes of associative relations and syntagmatics,which neglect to emphasize the elements themselves to consider the points of relation,such as paradigms and, in the same manner, privilege the concept of syntagm whichconsiders the linear structuration. Mattoso Câmara Jr continues stating that Bally, disciple

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of Saussure, makes the structural nature of the syntagm concept emerge, at the sametime in which he explores the field of affection, left aside by his master, creating hisstylistics.

The importance given to the syntagmatic structure leads to the interpretation of thephrase as the genuine linguistic reality. Therefore, as Mattoso Câmara Jr says, thephrasal structure is, in last analysis, a relationship of functions, arriving at a modality oflinguistic structuralism that is functional, and its varieties, quite familiar to Brazilian authors.Advancing in his interpretation of structuralism, Mattoso Câmara Jr speaks of the schoolof Prague and refers to B. de Courtenay in his effort to classify the phoneme as anabstract linguistic reality but criticizes him for his psychologism. Always emphasizing thenecessity of appreciating the importance of the interrelations of language, he will showthe relevance of authors such as Jakobson (who was his professor in the USA),Karcevsky, Troubetzkoy and Mathesius. He emphasizes the fact that structuralist Czechspractice a conception of structuralism that is ample, as stated by P. Garvin, and is notlimited to linguistics. However, “by linguistics, the Circle gains European dimension”.

This interests us since in Brazil there will be a research to deeply explore theserelations of linguistics with poetry and anthropology, working closely with the questionof communication and the functions of language at USP in the decade of 1960, whenJakobson was received in Brasil. According to Mattoso Câmara Jr, Jakobsonsimplified the classification of the phonological oppositions with their reduction tobinary conjugates and with the concept of “mark”. This new structural comprehensionopens the way to a universal typology, creating particular, contingent structures fordifferent languages. We cannot forget that Mattoso Câmara Jr is the linguist whopractices systematically and with excellence the description of the Brazilian languages.

This brings us then to what causes a strong impression on Mattoso Câmara Jr: TheSapirian structuralism. As the author says, this structuralism, strange to the EuropeanSaussurian structuralism, is created in the USA; it is the linguistic structuralism of Sapir.Instead of connecting him directly to Boas (who is very empiric), with whom Sapir wasintimate, Mattoso Câmara Jr, in a gesture of interpretation that is charged with hisaffiliation to a Brazilian tradition, ties him preferentially to Humboldt, who, according tohim, had inspired Sapir in a way of seeing language in the face of culture and theorganization of thought. Humboldt’s concept of form is, according to Mattoso CâmaraJr, the leitmotif of Sapir in the interpretation of language. What is interesting then arethe patterns that make the element a linguistic form. The comprehension of the form,that is, a pattern in linguistic concepts, opens the way for a structural semantics, althoughit has not been carried out by Saussure’s followers, nor by Sapir, but permeates hisstructuralism.

What separates Mattoso Câmara Jr from Bloomfield is the structuralism confinedto Humboldt’s external form (in Bloomfield, supported by behaviorism). In general,he says that the linguist reserved himself for the study of phonic material and itscombinations as being the language in the strict sense, and banished semantics to

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cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology took a structuralist orientation. And thestructuralization of culture will come together in the structuration of languages throughthe interdisciplinary study of ethnolinguistics, which is, according to Mattoso CâmaraJr, the common denominator between anthropologists and linguists in North America.However, European structuralism approaches semantics within linguistics (notion of“semantic fields”).

This American linguistics, be it Sapir’s or Bloomsfield’s, has in common the weightof the interest of Boas in American indigenous languages and sees in linguistics a wideanthropological study that, however, sidetracked in the sense of a structural line, saysMattoso Câmara Jr. To my thinking, this is a sign that in the scientific territory inwhich the linguistics of Rio de Janeiro is constituted, the background is anthropologic,when not pragmatic.

In relation to the tradition that is nourished in the scientific territory of São Paulo,in at least one of the branches, an idea of order, subject to flaws, is developed.When thinking the language that leads to the comprehension of an object as discourseis not an anthropological object such as speech (Saussurian or the notion of speechin the American tradition) and does not inscribe itself, in the notion of history in theXIX century. It is clearly post-structuralist, as we will see further on.

Returning to Mattoso Câmara Jr, we can perceive that, going in the direction ofabstraction, he accentuates in Bloomfield – who, more than by his highly praisedbehaviorism, is known for considering the relational nature of the language, with disciplessuch as Harris – the exclusion of the semantic done by the generalization of hisdistributional method. Mattoso Câmara Jr then recals that, in the abstractionist line, therecourse to notations of symbolic logic becomes usual in the North American descriptivelinguistics.

But what interests Mattoso Câmara Jr is the fact that a language is seen as a hierarchyof structures or levels (phonology, syntax, semantics) that should not interfere with oneanother. Declaring himself against the relation of a language to the concept of systemonly, and assuming the perspective of Humboldt, Sapir and even Saussure, he affirmsthe search for objective and real structures. And this will be his work in the descriptionof Portuguese. He refers favorably to Guillaume, saying that it was he who tried to“clearly and coherently create a structural linguistic psychology”. And he shows how,leaving psychologism, he proposes a structuralism of the psychological. Guillaume, saysMattoso Câmara Jr, distanced from psychologism and proposed a structuralism of thepsychological, putting ahead of the linguistic structure a psychic structure which is hisobject: “The external forces, of historical-social order, can break the linguistic systembut are only arbitrary in reference to the system at the first moment because they aresoon integrated into the system”.

He tries to go beyond two difficulties of the linguistic structuralism in the face ofhistory, according to Mattoso Câmara Jr: by the conciliation between the idea of thesystem and the idea of change and between the external change and the internal change

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which, since it comes from the social, begins to participate in the system. Sapir’smentalism, according to Mattoso, delved into the subconscious and the intuitions of thesubconscious to find the roots of the language. He longed for a deep psychology thatcould serve as a base for linguistics since, according to Sapir,

Current psychology does not seem exactly adequate to explain how these formalsubmerged systems that reveal themselves in the languages of the world are constitutedand transmitted. (...) Everything indicates that the languages must be cultural depositsof a vast and complete network of psychic processes that have not yet been clearlydefined to us.

As a matter of fact - here one more of the unfoldings that linguistics in Brazil willsuffer is outlined: on the one side, the relation language/culture (unconscious, internal/external form) and on the other, the relation with a memory that is not just cultural but ofanother nature - the relation language/symbolic/history which introduces the notion ofmaterial form. Hjelmslev belongs to the group that separates the linguistic frompsychology and sees a system that is self-sufficient: a three-part concept is establishedin which the system transcends the particular consciences of the speakers of the languageand that only the linguist can comprehend through objective hypotheses, exempt ofpreconceived ideas. As can be imagined, Mattoso Câmara Jr criticizes him for hisexaggerated abstraction.

Mattoso Câmara Jr is decidedly Sapirian. This is a double authorship – Bloomfieldand Sapir – who dominate the American scene and with whom our first structuralists,via Mattoso Câmara Jr, relate. But not exclusively since even Mattoso Câmara Jr hasan interest in Martinet and his functionalism. The concept of linguistic structure isessentially connected to the comprehension of the functioning of language, he says.

Structural relations do not exist in the air. They occur according to the role theiroppositie terms play in the process of communication. Therefore, he cites Martinetcongenially, for whom “all structuralists take into consideration the function of the linguisticunits” (1964). And he cites Martinet not just congenially. In his Estrutura da LínguaPortuguesa (Structure of the Portuguese Language) (Mattoso Câmara 1970), he divideshis work into chapters whose titles are: Part one “The Second Articulation or Phonology”and Part two “The First Articulation or Morphology”, citing Martinet explicitly on page23, where he speaks of the technique of description.

Mattoso Câmara Jr refers next to Chomsky but, at this point, we arrive at the limit ofthe form of structuralism in which we are thinking and stop here. But not before referringto what he is going to call diachronic structuralism. If Saussure, the first ostensive structuralist,was only a structuralist as a synchronist (as were Bally, Hjelmslev, Firth and a large part ofthe Bloomfieldians), it should be noted that someone such as Meillet, disciple of Saussure,took advantage of the Saussurian structuralism for a new vision of diachrony. He interpretsthe linguistic evolution as a passage from one state of language to another instead of the

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continuous flow in which there would be no opportunity for structuration (as in the case ofthe neogrammarians). In the same manner, says Mattoso Câmara Jr, Sapir involved thehistory of language in a wide structural vision. For him, language obeys a “deviation” andis a structure in permanent elaboration. From early on, Jakobson also claims the need tostudy phonetic evolution in structural lines.

Once again, Mattoso Câmara Jr advocates against the idea of system and prefersthat of structure since “in the face of the concept of strictly considered linguistic system,it would be difficult to explain diffusion” (here he refers to Jakobson’s concept ofdiffusion). Once again, he refers to Martinet for the importance he gives to historicphonology in structural lines, with its three forces: the structural force, strictly speaking,the economy (of psychological order) and the condition of biological order (asymmetryof the phonetic organs). To these three linguistic forces he joins the external ones andadmits the importance, as does Jakobson, of borrowing. Finalizing, he cites Braque: “Ido not believe in things; I only believe in the relations between them”. This heritage hadechoes, as we will see, even in those who, in Brazil, such as I, did not read MattosoCâmara Jr in their linguistic formation, but read Saussure, Hjelmslev and Martinet.

We can say that what we have shown up until now was the Brazilian structuralismproduced in Rio de Janeiro (without forgetting that, in the number in which Mattoso’sarticle on structuralism appears, there is already an article by Miriam Lemle (1967) on“The new structuralism in Linguistics: Chomsky”).

3. The scientific territory of São Paulo

The situation that will be experienced in São Paulo is totally different, more specificallyat USP. In this work I will give only a outline of a much deeper history.

At USP, the Indo-European linguist Thedoro Henrique Maurer Jr. also has a relationwith American structuralism: he was a student of Bloomfield at Yale University in 1945and 1946. Maurer refers to Bloomfield as one of the deepest and most competentlinguists of the century, greatly knowledgeable in Sanskrit and the work of Pânini. Maurer(1956) makes this affirmation in a reflection on grammar, description and historicallinguistics in an article published in Bulletin 157 of USP’s Faculty of Philosophy, Scienceand Letters, as an introduction to a work on the description of the phonology of theuaiuai language by W.N. Hawkins.

We would like to highlight a few passages from this work of Maurer. His definitionof grammar – “description of the categories of a language and study of their functionsand use” – and his criticism of the deviation from objectivity of the grammatical studiesanterior to structuralism since they dealt with the description through logical andphilosophic preoccupations which, according to him, made a perfectly objective analysisof linguistic phenomena difficult.

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Language analyses that look for categories similar to those that exist in Latinand want to distinguish forms by the simple reason that we are accustomed to themas heirs of a system that came to us from Indo-European, he calls them artificial.We may not have a category in a language but, through it, still express thecorresponding notion whenever necessary. He says that the XIX century createdhistorical linguistics with the works of Bopp, Rask, Grimm, Diez and others but, ingeneral, “neglected descriptive linguistics, whose object would be the rigorousanalysis and the exact description of the essential elements of phonology, morphologyand syntax of a language spoken by a determined group”.

This is a definition in the American spirit of language definitions. It does not lackreference to indigenous languages that - as is always said in Brazil - must be describedbefore they disappear and for this require specialists trained in this technique byAmericans (presence of the Summer Institute of Linguistics - SIL), represented byPike and Nida. Maurer observes that “isolated initiatives occurred in the XIX centuryin this effort of observation based on the admirable method encountered in the practiceof Hindus, elaborated more than 2000 years ago”. In 1851, Böhtlinck (European editorof Pânini grammar) applies the descriptive method to a Russian language, iacute. AsLeskien proceeds in the field of Baltic and Slavic languages and, at the beginning of XXcentury, Finck in the same manner describes eight different languages, insisting on theimportance of the descriptive study as a base for historical investigation and ofphilosophical generalizations.

We can say, as I. Blikstein (2000), that Maurer

had a great presence in the entrance of Linguistics. (...) The chair of Classic Glottology laterbecame Indo-European Linguistics and the classes that Maurer gave, and I say this in anarticle that I wrote, were, in truth, classes that breathed Structuralism. He was already doingComparative Linguistics from a structural perspective. (...) His vision was that of AmericanLinguistics.

I agree with Blikstein that works such as the Personal Infinitive of the Problem ofVulgar Latin or the Grammar of Vulgar Latin are historical studies in which descriptionoccupies a large space.

Prof. T.H. Maurer Jr plays an ample role in the institutionalization of Linguistics, inBrazil, at USP, not only through his relation (which he will relax with time) with theNorth-American structural linguistics but, above all, due to the fact that he created theinstitutional conditions for Linguistics (historical, descriptive) to be implemented in Brazil,in his specific case, at USP. This he did by creating courses, contracting personnel,supporting training periods of students abroad, participating in examining boards, andwriting introductions to works in this field. He will always have history as his mainobjective, Indo-European linguistics. Even when speaking of the importance ofBloomfield, he says: “His classic work, Language, constitutes a magnificent exposition,

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although a bit heavy, of descriptive linguistics, side-by-side with historical linguistics”(Maurer 1956).

What he appreciates in this movement of the history of the reflection on languageis the method of description that can lead to a scientific knowledge of the language,as he says, “without the interference of the personal interpretation of your ownlanguage. In this way, a person can obtain, with the maximum of spontaneity, theimage of the language spoken by him”. An expression that he repeats is that, with thismethod, one can obtain the description, elaborate the phonology, the morphologyand the syntax “according to formal and structural elements significant to thelanguage”, without philosophical or even linguistic presuppositions that “may disfigurethe real image of the language being studied”. And praising the science of structuralism,he says: “Only in this way can we observe the linguistic facts with the objectivity withwhich a physicist describes the facts he studies in the laboratory”.

According to him, “the descriptive analysis of languages has an extraordinary scientificimportance, even for historic-comparative linguistics”. This in an indelible mark inUspian linguistics: its relation with Indo-European Linguistics, its relation with Philology,but that does not impede the different forms to practice structuralism there.

In the ‘60s, in fact, structuralism flourishes at full force at USP. We have thenvarious contributions. And this occurs at the same time in which theinstitutionalization of linguistic studies is consolidated. If Maurer did not teachBloomfield, he did however open space for the institutionalization of linguistics –through the Roman Philology chair – by the work of various of his disciples. Inthis way, we are going to have the practice of Linguistics by professors who,such as Izidoro Blikstein and Cidmar Paes, have classic formation and carry outwork dedicated to structuralism in linguistics, and I myself, initially a Saussurianstructuralist and, later, decidedly taken by the relation to Hjelmslev’s Glossematics.My works are dedicated to non-contentism, the non-separation betweenmorphology and syntax, the notion of figure, the non-functionalism, the relationbetween the abstract form and the material form, the text.

Izidoro Blikstein will be responsible for the approximation, structuralist andfunctionalist, of the themes studied in Linguistics, Communications, Literature,Anthropology (with authors such as Saussure, Jakobson, Coseriu, Barthes and Greimas),having done a representative work in the direction of a structuralism that placed linguisticsin the relation with other areas of language study, a relation that gave wide space tosemiological research.

He was at the origin of the preparations for Jakobson’s coming to Brazil, and whosework has resonance even in secondary studies (which shows that linguistic knowledgehas repercussions outside of the strictly academic ambit).

Cidmar Paes, working with structuralism directed to Phonology and Lexicology,as well as Semiotics, worked with authors such as Saussure, Martinet, Greimas,and Pottier, introducing statistic treatment in linguistics at USP. In this direction, he

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will develop a whole line of works supported by the method of statistics carried toeffect by Z. Zapparoli. Professors such as Diana L.P. de Barros and, later on, J.L.Fiorin will also reinforce Semiotics. Phonetic and phonological studies have theirimpulse with Francis H. Aubert and Norma Hochgreb.

As professors, we all did general, basic linguistics, with authors such as Saussure,Martinet, Jakobson, Pottier and even Benveniste and later returned to our specializations.

In this sense, we can say that the work done in structuralism at USP is amply relatedto European structuralism. I believe we can distinguish two lines in the interior of thisstructuralism: one who that maintained a preoccupation with the content (function),with a certain form of working with the relation of the language with history (carried outby Indo-European linguistics), of structuralism with functionalism and another that didnot. I include myself in this second case. Attracted by the work with material form, Idid not remain very long in the dichotomic opposition between form and content. AndI think that it was this insistence of mine in thinking a semantic that was neither justabstract nor of content that led me to the discourse analysis of French affiliation inwhich I situate M. Pêcheux. And if I refer to this, it is to show that authorship in sciencealways has a long route that is not made of “influences” but of reflections within a“tradition” under certain conditions.

In this sense, it is necessary to say that the question of materiality was also present inthe studies of semiotics (in which the Greimas’ affiliation is situated) at USP (Diana L.P.de Barros and J.L. Fiorin). Therefore, we can say that there is an initial structuralism (ofthe ‘40s and ‘50s) that I exemplified here with Mattoso Câmara Jr in Rio de Janeiroand T.H. Maurer Jr in São Paulo) and a structuralism of the ‘60s and ‘70s at USP thatare differentiated by their relation with theoretical affiliations internal to structuralism,quite distinct in their manners of inscribing linguistics in the Institution and that willdetermine, given the nature of structuralism itself (generalized or specific), differentdisciplinary profiles in the interior of human sciences.

What I have said with these points and brief references on structuralism at USP, dueto a practical question of time and space for my exposition, remains as a suggestion fora deeper investigation, which I give to my colleagues and that I intend to continue onanother occasion.

4. The Inflections of the Science and the Political

In my opinion, something that refers to politics and more directly to the history ofscience should be said here to conclude this exposition - something on the history ofscience and its interpretations.

Uspian structuralism brings with it a fine inflection of thought on politics thatcan be comprehended if we think that, in the elaboration of a fundamental momentin the science of language in Brazil and of its institutionalization, it indicates

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modernity, a futurity that resists, including the dictatorship that we had at the time(dictatorship realized by democratic capitalism), surprising it and surpassing it. Adifference in relation to the European position that, from Dosse’s point of view,considers the ambiguity of the student movement of ’68 to be like a continuationof structuralism by other means or, to the contrary, like the first symptom of thereaction of “leftwing” anti-structuralists. I cannot help but remember the interviewthat Sarte gave to the l’Arche magazine, where he affirms that structuralism wasthe last barrier that the bourgeoisie raised against communism, with which I stronglydisagree, due to my practice at the time in Brazil, more specifically at USP.Ideologically, at USP in the decade of 1960, we were structuralists because wewere leftwing, although Philosophy at USP always remained aloof to structuralism,and is until today, with rare exceptions. However, what was visible to the linguistswas that structuralism was beginning another explicit intellectual history for thestudy of language (in the widest and most general sense) and for the humansciences, such as the courses of Letters that were being implemented at the time,both in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Going back to the question of the conceptions of science and its representations andinterpretations, I would like to affirm that it is not sufficient to introduce the time (andthe space) and, treating it as something that has it own objectivity, fill it withrepresentations that are no more than representations of epistemology a posteriori (S.Auroux 1992). Time is history.

And, in this history, in which science is the fact – the objects of science, the scientificdisciplines are the objects of observation – as P. Henry (1984) says: “the facts demandmeaning”. And it is in this meaning-making that the history of science is produced.Talking then of “totalitarianism” in regard to the structure is not something that can bedone automatically and outside of a history that connects subject, language and ideology.

In Brazil, being a structuralist in the ‘60s and ‘70s meant resisting the irrationality ofthe dictatorship. Therefore, instead of accepting a (history of) science with itspresupposed contents as a consumed fact, we criticize the content and prefer to thinkthis history discursively and then it is not its content but its functioning that interests us.In this way, we do not presuppose its previous existence.

There is an effect of prior objectivity but we consider it in its contradictory materialobjectivity, discursive memory, in short, we observe it in its interdiscursivity. We can,then, appreciate the movement of scientific production, not as something monotonousbut, on the contrary, full of presuppositions and implications and very dynamicconsequences, frequently controversial. From this perspective, structuralism as practicedat USP (that is not the same as in the ‘40s and ‘50s), awakened persons in an acutemanner to criticism of the system, of the social-political structure established and ledthem to work the discursive side of the possibility of, under censure, signifying in silence.Sign of resistance, of a work of history on history, of an effort to sustain an effective,

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energetic intellectual life, in an institution dominated at the time by the strong hands ofthe dictatorship. Which leads me to conclude: contents matter little; it is the very possibilityof thought (of thinking) that is at play in the games of scientific history.

REFERENCES

Auroux, S. 1992. A Revolução Tecnológica da Gramatização, Campinas:Ed.Unicamp.

Blikstein, I. 2000. Uma Visita do estruturalismo: Jakobson na USP, interview given to EniP. Orlandi, Diana L. P. de Barros, Eduardo Guimarães and J.L. Fiorin, Relatos, 6. Campinas.

Henry, P. 1984. “L’Histoire n’existe pas?”. Actes du Cheiron, European Society forthe History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Lemle, M.1967 “The new structuralism in Linguistics: Chomsky”. Estruturalismo,15/16. Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro.

Mattoso Câmara Jr, J. 1967. “O Estruturalismo Lingüístico”. Estruturalismo, 15/16.Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro.

. 1970. Estrutura da Língua Portuguesa. Petrópolis:Vozes.

. 1972. Dispersos. Selection and Introduction of Carlos Eduardo FalcãoUchôa. Rio de Janeiro: FGV.

Martinet, A. 1964. Éléments de linguistique générale. Paris: Armand Colin.Maurer, T.H. 1956. “Introdução” to the work of W. N. Hawkins, A Fonologia da

Língua Uáiuái, Bulletin 157 of the faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters,Ethnography of Tupi-Guarani 25.

Puech, C. 1995. “La Linguistique Structurale, Du Discours de Fondation à l´EmergenceDisciplinaire”. Langages. Paris: Larousse.

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LES AVANCÉES DE NOTRE DISCIPLINE(SEANCE PLÉNIÈRE DE CLOTURE D’ICHOLS 2002)

SYLVAIN AUROUXEcole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines (Lyon)

Nous sommes peu nombreux ici à avoir été présents au premier ICHoLs organisé àOttawa par Konrad Koerner. Et pourquoi sommes-nous si peu nombreux à avoir étéprésents ? Parce que c’était en 1978. Et je vois beaucoup de jeunes gens dans cetteassemblée. Cela fait 25 ans que nous étions à Ottawa; je crois qu’il est temps, aumoment où nous allons décider la localisation du10e ICHoLs, et passer ainsi à uneinstitution trentenaire, de faire quelque peu le bilan de ces 25 ans de travail. S’il n’yavait pas de bilan à présenter cela signifierait que nous avons travaillé pour rien pendantces années. Je n’y peux croire.

Reportons-nous à la situation autour de 1978. Je vais la rappeler brièvement pourceux qui n’étaient pas là à cette époque. Nous avions eu la création en 1975 parl’initiateur du colloque d’Ottawa de la revue Historiografia Linguistica; en 1978, dela Société d’histoire d’épistémologie des sciences du langage à la Sorbonne. En1979, nous avons eu la création de la revue Histoire d’épistémologie du langage,publiée par cette société. Ces institutions existent encore aujourd’hui. A partir du colloqued’Ottawa nous avons assisté à une croissance qu’on peut qualifier d’exponentielle.Viendra une troisième revue Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft, chezNodus. On compte aujourd’hui 7 sociétés locales dédiées à notre discipline, la Géorgie,l’une des dernières nées, la Grande-Bretagne, l’Espagne, les Pays-Bas, les Etats-Unis,l’Allemagne et deux sociétés au moins ont déployé des activités consacrées au domainesans que cela soit leurs préoccupations exclusives, je pense à la société italienne dephilosophie du langage, mais aussi à nos amis brésiliens qui nous accueillent aujourd’hui.

Il y a des éditeurs qui vivent de nos travaux, je pense à John Benjamins d’Amsterdam,le plus ancien de tous, celui qui publie les actes des colloques ICHoLS, à Gunter Narr,à Nodus. De nombreux autres éditeurs ont tenté leur chance dans le domaine; toutesles collections n’ont pas réussi.

Il y a des laboratoires spécialisés. Celui du CNRS en France, dont la création datede 1984. Il y a eu beaucoup de travail en Allemagne autour des chaires de romanistique.Je pense à ce qu’il y avait à Tübingen du temps de Coseriu (1967), mais surtout à cequ’a développé notre regrettée amie Brigitte Schlieben-Lange, en particulier autour

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des idéologues. Je pense au groupe qui travaillait avec Herbert Brekle (1985) àRatisbonne et aux recherches pour le dictionnaire des linguistes allemands du 18esiècle. Je reviendrai sur cet aspect quantitatif. Je pense à Trèves et à ce qui c’est faitautour de H.-J. Niederehe sur la linguistique espagnole. Je pense aussi, et il faut rendrehommage à cette université, à ce laboratoire, au laboratoire de Campinas, et au projetqui a associé ces dernières années les chercheurs de Campinas (déjà très engagés dansle domaine) et l’université de São Paulo. Je n’oublierai pas Munster qui n’a pas sugarder P. Schmitter ou Louvain, un peu plus tardif, qui reprit très vite les problématiquesinternationales.

Il ne s’agit pas de faire un palmarès. Un aperçu quantitatif sera plus clair. En sebasant sur les 9 colloques ICHoLS, qui attirent à chaque fois 100 à 150 participants,sur les sociétés savantes, sur les abonnements aux revues, on peut risquer les estimationssuivantes:

- l’histoire des sciences du langage regroupe à peu près de par le monde 1 000 participantsintéressés, dont environ 300 producteurs actifs (je veux dire ceux qui publient des articles,sans appréciation qualitative sur ces articles).

- Il y a tous les ans, au moins 100 articles spécialisés, ce qui veut dire en 25 ans 2500 articlessur l’histoire de la linguistique.- Il y a environ une cinquantaine de thèses, ce qui fait à peu près 250 à 300 thèses en 25 ans.- Il y a une dizaine de rencontres annuelles entre les sociétés locales, les manifestationscomme celles de nos jours, ce qui donnent en 25 ans 250 rencontres.

On est donc face à un bon quantitatif. Il est désormais impossible de se tenir aucourant de l’actualité sans recourir aux services des sociétés savantes, des banques dedonnées et des sites spécialisés.

Dire qu’il y a eu une croissance exponentielle, c’est, comme toujours, témoignerd’une institutionnalisation. Comme partout dans ces cas-là, on a vu se dérouler prisesde pouvoir, luttes, carrières. C’est la vie. Leur description relèvera (pour peu que celaintéresse quelqu’un) de la sociologie de la science, quand les gens de ma générationlivreront leurs archives privées. Mais derrière toute cette écume du développementscientifique, il faut poser la question de savoir quelles sont les connaissances qui ont étéproduites, poser la question de savoir si cet investissement de nombreuses universitésde la planète et de tous ces chercheurs qui ont consacré leur temps et leurs talents ànotre discipline, su porter ses fruits. La question que je vais donc essayer de traiter estcelle-ci: qu’est-ce qui a changé en 25 ans au niveau du contenu des connaissances ? Jetacherai de rester très général, afin d’éviter de citer des noms.

L’aboutissement, c’est aujourd’hui vous par exemple, mais ce sont aussi les grandessynthèses que nous avons vues ou que nous voyons paraître ces dernières années:l’histoire de la linguistique en italien, l’histoire des idées linguistiques en français (unecentaine de collaborateurs). Des synthèses multilingues sont en cours, celle de Peter

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Schmitter (1982, 1987), qui est extrêmement intéressante, parce que régionalisée : ellene choisit pas pour totaliser la somme de l’histoire le composant temporel linéarisé,mais aussi le composant spatial et le composant thématique. Une grande synthèse plusclassique, je dirai moins bouleversante théoriquement, mais sans doute la plus importanteau niveau de la quantité des informations, est en cours de parution chez De Gruyter. Unjeune chercheur qui se spécialise dans l’histoire des sciences du langage doit commencerpar lire une somme importante de littérature secondaire.

Quand tout a commencé, il y avait bien des choses que l’on ne retrouve plusdans les bibliographies de nos élèves. Reprenez les bibliographies, dans les années60/70, il y avait un certain nombre de manuels. Le meilleur d’entre eux, RobertRobins (1967) est resté longtemps l’instrument le plus technique, quoique succinct.Robins était encore avec nous lors de notre dernière conférence (ICHoLs 8) en1999 à Fontenay. Il y avait, le plus drôle parce que le moins intéressantscientifiquement, le Mounin (1967), l’Histoire de la linguistique des origines au20e siècle. Ce livre entendait couvrir toute l’histoire de la linguistique en prenantpour base de référence interprétative la théorie de Martinet. A telle date (lesconnaissances empiriques étaient très élémentaires) il nous disait ce qu’il en étaitdes connaissances concernant la première articulation, puis la deuxième articulation,etc. Les jugements de valeur étaient à l’emporte pièce. On peut dire que ce typed’ouvrage ne comprenait rien à l’histoire. Mounin n’était pas un historien, c’étaitun honnête homme qui racontait des choses, non sans intelligence, par rapport à uncertain préjugé. Il y avait déjà plus professionnel, par exemple E. Coseriu. Il yavait eu aussi dans ces années-là, l’ouvrage collectif de D. Hymes qui contient lespremiers grands textes méthodologiques de notre discipline, la première synthèsebibliographique de celui que l’on doit considérer comme le documentaliste essentielde notre discipline, K. Koerner (1978). Ce dernier ouvrage parvient à lister toutesles histoires de la linguistique, mais avec une hypothèse importante élément qui vame permettre d’aborder notre travail. La période retenue tient en deux dates :1822-1967; la seconde correspond parfaitement au renouveau que l’on vientd’aborder; la première nous dit “l’état de l’art” : à l’époque, on avait tendance àpenser qu’en matière de sciences du langage les choses sérieuses ne commençaientqu’avec le comparatisme.

Autrement dit dans les années 60-70, quelles étaient les caractéristiques de notrediscipline?

- premièrement, une vision globale à orientation exclusivement occidentale; on dispose dela même configuration dans l’histoire des sciences ou dans l’histoire de la philosophie quiont hérité de la tradition germanique l’idée du “miracle grec” et ses conséquences drastiques(il n’y a de science qu’occidentale).- deuxièmement, je dirais une vision construite, en ce qui concerne les résultats et lapériodisation, par les linguistes du 19e siècle, qui, en se faisant les historiens des sciences

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du langage, ont considéré que l’histoire tout entière avait pour finalité leurs propres travaux.L’histoire a pour cœur et pour point de vue sur l’ensemble des siècles une histoire héroïquedu comparatisme. Il en reste encore des traces aujourd’hui, autant chez ceux qui n’ont pasrefait leur documentation que chez ceux qui ne recherchent pas les origines du comparatismelui-même.- troisièmement, des thèses dogmatiques qui engendrent un modèle canonique dedéveloppement des sciences du langage : avant le 19° siècle nous sommes dans une périodepré-scientifique, la linguistique est une science née au 19e siècle avec la découverte dusanskrit et la naissance de la grammaire comparée et historique, science réorientée ensynchronie au début du 20e siècle par Saussure.

C’est cela que nous avons appris, c’est de ce modèle que nous sommes partis. Iln’y avait pas à l’époque d’articulation entre la grammaire que l’on considérait commeétant une discipline purement normative développant (ce qui est incompatible avec lascience) et les événements ultérieurs des connaissances scientifiques. On ne se posaitmême pas la question de savoir ce que signifiait le mot “linguistique”. Il n’y qu’unequinzaine d’années, que l’on dispose enfin d’une histoire un peu fine du terme, et quel’on sait que c’est un mot qui a été inventé (ou remotivé par J. S. Vater) pour désignerl’histoire des langues et leur classification, ce qui ne saurait recouvrir l’ensemble dessciences du langage.

On a eu aussi des fantasmes. Ceux d’entre nous qui lisaient l’espagnol, l’espagnolde Montevideo, se souviennent d’un célèbre article sur le logicisme et l’antilogicismedans la linguistique. Un thème qui était récurrent dans l’histoire de la linguistique consistaità soutenir que tout ce qui s’était fait en contact avec la logique était mauvais. Il a fallu sedébarrasser de tout cela pour comprendre que la grammaire n’a introduit la notion desujet qu’au XI° siècle (évidemment elle l’a emprunté à la logique !) et pour entrevoirque sans la logique de Port-Royal et plus tard l’apport de Frege et Russell, la grammairen’aurait pas avancé sur la notion de détermination.

Je n’ai cité que quelques exemples, mais l’histoire dans son ensemble était constituéede cette façon. A une exception près. Il y avait un ouvrage, qui n’était pas l’œuvre d’unlinguiste traditionnel, qui n’était pas l’œuvre d’un historien, et, je dirai, au niveau du contenu,qui est probablement totalement erroné. Il s’agit, vous avez deviné de qui je voulaisparler, de Noam Chomsky dont la Cartesian linguistics paraît en 1966. Les historiensérudits des sciences du langage et les philosophes ont montré de façon certainementdéfinitive que les thèses historiques sont fausses. Mais ce n’est pas l’essentiel. Chomskyn’a jamais vraiment lu Descartes, et s’il l’a lu, il ne l’a pas compris : il faut des années pouravancer sur le sujet. La polémique qui entoura le livre, montre la véritable questionépistémologique et cette question épistémologique est quasiment comme le point aveuglede l’histoire des théories linguistiques. Quel rapport pouvons-nous avoir entre notre présentscientifique et son passé ? Quelle profondeur pouvons-nous donner à ce passé ? L’intérêtdu livre provient de ce que le présent de Chomsky n’était plus le comparatisme, ni leprésent de ses héritiers structuralistes. Il n’a pas un projet d’historien : il se cherche des

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justificatifs pour sa propre polémique parmi ses contemporains. Ce faisant il libère l’histoirede la barrière qu’instaurait le modèle traditionnel entre le “pré-scientifique” et la“scientifique”. Avant lui, on ne se posait même pas la question de savoir comment s’étaitconstitué le concept de “proposition” ou celui de “verbe transitif”. Après lui, on pouvaitplus légitimement former le projet d’appliquer les méthodes générales de l’histoire dessciences à toutes les connaissances qui d’une façon ou d’une autre, en quelque lieu que cesoit, à quelque époque que ce soit ont abordé la question du langage. J’exagère sansdoute le rôle de Chomsky. On peut considérer que la chose est plus complexe : il a rendulégitimes les études sur le 17° et le 18° siècle (la grammaire générale, notamment), pour lereste le phénomène est plus diffus. Il tient sans doute d’abord à la multiplication desétudes et à l’accumulation des résultats et, par conséquent, au fait même de l’existence dechercheurs en histoire des sciences du langage.

En tout état de cause, je dirai que le développement de l’histoire des théorieslinguistiques, dans son aspect quantitatif, a amené une croissance de la populationqui s’y consacrait, et donc une croissance des connaissances, laquelle entraînequasi mécaniquement des changements au niveau des contenus de connaissances.Nos recherches ont eu des résultats. Qu’est-ce qu’un résultat en matière derecherche dans l’histoire des théories linguistiques; autrement dit, comment pouvons-nous évaluer les travaux ? On peut présenter une grille d’analyse. Elle n’est sansdoute pas parfaite, c’est celle que je propose à mes étudiants lorsque j’accepte dediriger leur thèse. Je leur demande d’apporter quelque chose de nouveau dans undes cas suivants:

- éditions critiques; traductions des textes anciens.- connaissance de nouveaux textes.- extraction des faits nouveaux au moment de l’apparition de leur connaissance.- évaluation quantitative et qualitative des productions.- description conceptuelles; évaluation de la structure et de la solidité des représentations.- modélisation des changements théoriques à différentes échelles.- explication des changements.- description du contexte social et du soubasement institutionnel du développement scientifique.- éventuellement, modélisation de phénomènes généraux de l’évolution scientifique.

1. Quelles connaissances nouvelles avez-vous apportées ?

1 – D’abord l’ouverture sur d’autres traditions. Il est difficile de dire aujourd’hui,que les tablettes de bilingues sumérien/akkadien contenant des paradigmes verbaux oupronominaux (tournant des troisième et second millénaires avant notre ère) ou lesparadigmes égyptiens (1600 av. J.C.), étaient inconnus dans les années 70. Les spécialistesde l’Egypte ou de Babylone les connaissaient parfaitement. Pratiquement aucun historiendes sciences du langage n’en faisait état. Alors que dans n’importe quel ouvrage générald’histoire des mathématiques, vous avez toujours quelque chose sur le calcul des aires ou

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des volumes en Mésopotamie. Chacun devrait connaître les tablettes grammaticales. Celanous fait aussi réfléchir à la nature de notre discipline. Il est probable que dans les annéessoixante, on aurait dit que mettre un paradigme grammatical à côté d’un texte n’a rien àvoir avec de la science, alors que, comme nous le montrent l’histoire des mathématiques,c’est ce genre de chose qui est fondamental pour l’histoire de l’humanité.

La tradition chinoise n’était connue que par des ouvrages généraux, et je me souviensque dans ces années-là, c’était par les ouvrages de philosophie que des gens commemoi avait accès à la théorie mohiste, voire à l’ensemble des réflexions sur la logiquebouddhiste. Mais c’est l’époque, où Joseph Needham lance la publication des étudesde son équipe sur la science et la civilisation chinoise (1965).

La tradition arabe était un petit peu plus connue. Dès Ottawa nous avions des arabisants(Versteegh, par exemple, qui venait de publier son ouvrage très controversé sur l’influence dela tradition grecque chez les arabes). En 1976, Georges Troupeau venait de publier son lexique-index du Kitab de Sibawaihi. Le second colloque de la Société d’histoire et d’épistémologiedes sciences et du langage, en 80, était consacré à la tradition linguistique arabe.

Le sanscrit était sans doute mieux connu à cause des travaux du 19e siècle et d’unecontinuité de publications importantes tout au long du 20° siècle. Mais les grandeséditions qui rendent Panini et sa suite accessibles aux non-spécialistes datent de la findes années 80. Et ce n’est que dans les vingt dernières années du vingtième siècle quela tradition tamoul vint s’agréger à nos connaissances communes.

2 – Ensuite une extension considérable du champ de recherche. Nous avons eude nouveaux objets. Pensez à la linguistique des langues amérindiennes, en 1978,nous n’avions que l’ouvrage de Victor Hanzeli (1969), pour nous faire comprendreque leur connaissance ne remontait pas au tournant des 19° et 20° siècle et aux travauxde Sapir et Boas. C’est dans les années 80, qu’on s’est mis à travailler sur cette question,en recherchant systématiquement des sources. Et régulièrement, maintenant dans lescolloques d’ICHoLs, il y a des communications sur la grammaire des languesamérindiennes. Il faut bien se représenter l’énormité du phénomène. Si on s’en tient auseul patrimoine espagnol (excusez-moi, devant cette assemblée de laisser de côté lepatrimoine “portugais” et votre célèbre Anchietta), à la fin du 17e siècle on disposaitd’une trentaine de grammaires, donc, c’étaient 30 langues de “grammatisées” (voirplus loin sur cette notion); à la fin de 17e c’étaient 80; et à la fin du 18e c’étaient 150.En trois siècles, l’humanité a conquis 150 langues qu’elle a agrégé à un patrimoinecommun. En matière de progrès scientifique, peu de disciplines ont connu de tels résultats.Nous commençons seulement depuis une dizaine d’années aussi à entrevoir des élémentsextrêmement importants comme le développement de la connaissance des languesafricaines. Il y a trente ans quelqu’un comme moi aurait été prêt à soutenir (sans véritableconnaissance empirique) que tout avait commencé à la fin du 19e siècle. Mais, vousavez, par exemple, eu dans ce colloque une communication sur un texte du 17° siècle;plusieurs articles ont montré ces dernières années l’existence d’une tradition continue.

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3 – Enfin, une accessibilité nouvelle des sources, autant que la production denouvelles sources. L’accroissement du nombre des chercheurs qui se sont consacrésà l’histoire des sciences du langage (je ne suis pas sûr qu’il perdurera dans le nouveaucontexte universitaire) nous a conduit à un bon quantitatif. Pensez, par exemple, àtout ce qui a été fait sur l’antiquité, nous possédons des éditions critiques des grandstextes (dans quantité de langues : il existe une traduction annotée de Denys le Thraceen serbo-croate), pensez à la quantité de textes du moyen-âge qui ont été sortis desarchives, édités, traduits, expliqués, etc. Pensez aux archives linguistiques de larenaissance, aux chantiers sur le 19e siècle, pensez à tout ce qu’a apporté laconnaissance de la querelle Meyer/Ascoli à propos des frontières dialectales et,donc, sur la nature de ce que l’on entend par “langue”. Autrement dit, c’est vrai, jecrois que quelqu’un qui n’aurait pas vécu ces 25 années, et se retrouverait aujourd’huiavec la connaissance de l’époque, ne s’y retrouverait pas. En particulier, parce qu’ily a des choses nouvelles que l’on peut voir, des questions que l’on peut désormaisposer et que l’on n’envisageait pas.

- premièrement, un nouveau cadre de référence pour l’histoire globale. A partir de 1982,quand nous avons lancé le projet d’histoire des idées linguistiques, nous avions proposéaprès bien des discussions, un plan qui a beaucoup circulé et qui est devenu un plancanonique. C’est un plan en trois tomes: dans le premier, on aborde les origines, on met àégalité, les grecs, les arabes, les chinois, les sancrits, etc.; dans le second on traite de lagrammaire latine et de son transfert aux vernaculaires, jusqu’aux grandes compilations de lafin du 18° siècle et du début du 19°; enfin, dans le troisième tome on aborde la grammairecomparée et tout le développement de la linguistique moderne. Ce plan connaît des variantes(dans le manuel italien ou dans le manuel de De Gruyter) qui peuvent être significatives,notamment quant à l’évaluation de la place historique de la grammaire comparée. Quoiqu’ilen soit de ces questions qui méritent des discussions qui n’ont pas toujours eu lieu, onpeut dire que c’est mis en place un nouveau cadre de référence concernant la périodisationdes sciences du langage.

- deuxièmement, “un acquit pratique”, l’idée qu’il y a de la science du langage dans lelong terme. Je dis “acquit” parce qu’on ne conteste plus aujourd’hui qu’on fait de l’histoiredes sciences du langage lorsque l’on étudie les dictionnaires de rimes chinois, les Canonesde Théodose, ou une tablette “grammaticale” babylonienne. Je dis “pratique” car celan’empêche pas qu’à l’intérieur de certains des grands manuels contemporains, certainsauteurs expliquent encore qu’il n’y a de science du langage qu’à partir du 19e siècle. Ondispose d’un cadre de travail, on n’en tire pas nécessairement toutes les conséquencesthéoriques. Il est clair que nous manquons encore des discussions fines sur la naissancedes sciences du langage, comme en disposent les mathématiques ou l’astronomie. Nousn’avons pas non plus tiré vraiment les conséquences de l’histoire comparée des grandestraditions. Ces questions sont pourtant essentielles pour les sciences du langage. Je pense,en particulier, à la question philosophique essentielle de cette discipline qui est celle del’universalité. Y-a-t-il un rapport fort (comme je le crois) entre la structure des languesconcernées et la forme des outils linguistiques construits dans telle ou telle civilisation?Y-a-t-il des liens de type cognitif entre le fait que certaines traditions (en fait, une seule, la

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nôtre) a pu aborder toutes les langues de la planète? La tradition chinoise (qui n’a pasconnu de grammaire indigène) aurait-elle pu le faire en conservant ses spécificités?- troisièmement, nous avons rendu visible des phénomènes que nous ne connaissionspas. La recherche soutenue qui accumule des résultats rend visible des phénomènesqu’un regard accommodant de trop près ne peut voir. C’est ainsi qu’avant que l’on aitréuni les grands corpus d’inscriptions sur les monuments italiens, on n’imaginait guèrece qu’étaient les langues italiques. Avant l’existence d’une communauté de chercheursen histoire des théories linguistiques, il était anecdotique de considérer que Donatavait été traduit en syriaque, voire en géorgien, en breton ou en provençal. Nousn’avions pas d’espace de représentation où réunir ces informations. Les historiens dessciences du langage se sont mis à s’intéresser aux premières grammaires ou aux premiersdictionnaires de telle ou telle langue. Nous pouvons maintenant faire des séries. Onremarque aussitôt plusieurs choses. D’abord, la multiplication de cet “outillage” deslangues (ce que nous appelons “grammatisation”) n’est le fait que de la traditionoccidentale; deuxièmement, elle ne devient significative (croissance exponentielle) qu’àpartir de la Renaissance; troisièmement, il y a simultanéité entre la grammatisation desvernaculaires européens et celle d’autres langues (par exemple, les languesamérindiennes, voir supra). Autrement dit, nous avons mis au jour un phénomèneinconnu, parce qu’invisible.

De cet ensemble de travaux résultent évidemment de nouvelles questions ou si l’onveut de nouveaux problèmes à résoudre. Je n’en citerai que quelques uns, dans le seulbut de montrer comment notre discipline évolue dans ses formulations théoriques quandelle progresse dans la connaissance des faits :

- nous considérons que la grammaire est un moyen d’apprendre les langues (bien quela thèse soit controversée chez les théoriciens de l’apprentissage, il s’agit de laconception vulgaire du rôle de la grammaire); ce statut ne remonte pas vraiment endeçà de la Renaissance. Auparavant les grammaires (grecques et latines, mais aussiarabe, sanskrite) ne s’adressaient qu’à des locuteurs natifs. Comment en est-on arrivélà ? Pourquoi principalement en Occident ? On a bien entendu des esquisses de schémaexplicatif : existence de grammaire latine; rôle du latin dans la constitution du savoir;disparition du latin comme vernaculaire; nécessité d’apprendre le latin comme langueseconde; utilisation des grammaires comme instruments; traduction en vernaculairedes grammaires latines, etc.

- nous envisageons que la grammaire est une représentation théorique de ce qu’est unelangue (la “grammaire générative” repose sur ce postulat). Or, les études de suivi nousmontrent tout autre chose : les grammaires (comme les dictionnaires) sont transférées(traduites) d’une langue dans une autre, notamment avec leur corpus d’exemples; lerenouvellement se fait par parties, très lentement. Leur mode d’existence est celui d’objetstechniques (les historiens des techniques ont parfaitement décrit ce mode). La grammatisationest essentiellement un transfert technologique. Dans ces conditions, il faut réévaluer biendes jugements négatifs sur les premières grammaires qui adaptent les schéma gréco-latinaux vernaculaires du monde entier (certains d’entre nous parlent de “grammaire latineétendue”). L’histoire de l’évolution et de l’adaptation de ce cadre théorique (y compris auxvernaculaires européens) est à refaire.

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- nous disposons d’une histoire convenue du comparatisme : enfin W. Jones vint, découvritle sanskrit et fonda le comparatisme. Malheureusement, on sait que les ressemblancesentre le grec et le sanskrit sont évoquées depuis le 16° siècle; on remarque que dès que desconnaissances linguistiques de langues apparentées sont disponibles pour une mêmecommunauté savante on assiste quasi-mécaniquement à des travaux de comparaison (pourles langues sémitiques dès le 17° siècle, pour les langues caribes ou finno-ougriennes dèsle 18°, etc.); si on envisage les travaux contemporains de Port-Royal et de G. Hickes(Institutiones grammaticae anglo-saxonicae et moesogothicae, 1689; remarquez la reprisedu titre de Priscien !), on est obligé de penser que la grammaire générale et la grammairehistorique et comparée répondent probablement au même problème théorique de ramener ledivers à l’unité. Qu’est-ce qui a changé avec Grimm ? Simplement pas la simple découvertede nouveaux faits, mais la réinterprétation théorique de faits dont certains bien connus,avec des compétitions de modèles théoriques (diffusionnisme vs généalogisme) et desreconstructions d’éléments conceptuels (loi phonétique).

Ces exemples rapides n’ont qu’un seul but : montrer qu’en histoire des théorieslinguistiques, non seulement le paysage a changé, mais surtout que nous avons affaire àdes problèmes théoriques spécifiques passionnants. Il y a un travail considérable àfaire. Je n’ai que deux regrets. Qu’il me soit permis, pour clore ce survol, de les exprimer.D’abord, le peu d’intensité des débats méthodologiques. Il faut remonter à la fin desannées 70 (Persival 1976) ou au début des années 80 (Grotsch 1982, Schmitter 1982)pour trouver des discussions consistantes sur la notion de paradigme (on n’est pas allétrès loin) ou le rôle de la narrativité (mais l’introduction de l’histoire sérielle, par B.Schlieben-Lange notamment) n’a guère soulevé les passions. On a avancé sur la notiond’influence, tout en restant souvent bloqué sur des questions de sources textuelles (quia écrit le premier la formule X) et sans mettre en avant le fait que nous avions affaire àdes connaissances. Peut-être manque-t-il dans nos milieux une information suffisantesur l’histoire des autres disciplines (mathématiques, physique, chimie) et de ses méthodes.

Mon second regret est peut-être essentiel à l’avenir de notre discipline. Il concerne lepeu d’impact de nos travaux sur le mouvement de progression de la science contemporaine.Lorsque nous constatons qu’il a fallu 25 siècles pour grammatiser environ 900 langues,est-ce que ce résultat massif n’a pas d’intérêt pour évaluer la faisabilité de certainsprogrammes de recherche, pour soutenir, par exemple, les grammaires d’unification (aptesà “récupérer” les connaissances traditionnelles), plutôt que certains modèles (la plupartde ceux de Chomsky) qui proposent de tout reconstruire à nouveaux frais ? Le rôle desdécouvertes empiriques dues à la connaissance de nouvelles langues (je pense à deschoses comme l’apparition de concepts, qui, dès le début du 17° siècle tournent autourde l’ergatif, avec la découverte de l’absence d’accusatif en basque et la présence d’un“casus agentivus”), ne doit-il pas être versé au dossier de la question de l’innéisme ou ducaractère empirique des sciences du langage ? Probablement eût-il fallu que nous discutionsdavantage les thèses de Itkonen (1990). Bref, il importe de travailler avec en perspectivele fonctionnement de la science contemporaine et ce que nous pouvons en dire. Il fautprobablement parvenir autant à des synthèses théoriques lisibles par des non-spécialistes

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qu’à être capable de lister et dater les inventions qui ont été faites tout au long de l’histoireen matière de connaissances linguistiques (la découverte des cordes vocales, l’oppositionsourde/sonore, les différents cas, l’ergatif, les temps verbaux, la notion d’aspect, etc. nesont-elles pas des “inventions” au même titre que la chute des graves ou la circulation dusang?). Il en va du statut contemporain des sciences du langage.

La science fonctionne avec un discours dénué de référence temporelle à ses actespropres. L’histoire n’y est pas une modalité d’argumentation. On en conclue trop vitequ’elle n’y a aucune place. Je me souviens de discussions avec des collègues linguistespraticiens, lors d’un colloque sur le lexique. Ils m’expliquaient doctement que la démarchehistorique n’avait pas d’intérêt pour eux car chaque théorie possédait une définitionintrinsèque de ses catégories et que lorsqu’ils reprenaient une nomenclature existante(par exemple, celle des parties du discours), il y avait simple homonymie. L’atemporalismepourtant à un prix exorbitant : l’incapacité de dépasser l’instant.

De mes études de philosophe, je me souviens d’une définition que Leibniz donnaitde la pierre. Il disait qu’elle était mens momentanea, “esprit instantané”. C’est direque finalement si on n’a pas d’histoire, si on n’est pas dans la temporalité, on estcomme un caillou. Il est de l’essence des activités de l’esprit d’avoir toujours lieu dansle temps. Et quand bien même ce mode d’existence ne se confond pas avec le rapportdes propositions à la vérité (mais les sciences ne sont pas non plus simplement dessystèmes de propositions), notre tâche intellectuelle, en quelque sorte notre finalitéphilosophique, est d’éclaircir ce rapport de l’esprit au temps. Je vous remercie.

Question d’un auditeur : Puisqu’on est au moment du rendez-vous avec les idéesforces, j’en profite pour signaler, pour rappeler, pour dire comme on le sait tous, qu’il n’y apas d’histoire autonome des cités intellectuelles, celle-ci se rattache à des faits plus matériels.Je me disais, effectivement, qu’il était peut-être temps, qu’on commence à se poser laquestion de la connexion entre, les mouvements intellectuels dans l’histoire de la linguistique,et la production et la reproduction de la vie matérielle, pour employer des termes qui percutenttoujours. Alors je me demande si la question de l’historicisation, c’est-à-dire del’émergence des disciplines des sciences du langage, des disciplines du langage, dedifférents contextes de production, est bien avancée. Est-ce que on a de l’espoir ou denouveaux espoirs, ou un espoir de renouveau dans la direction de cette analyse?

S.A.: Oui, bien sûr. L’un de mes grands regrets dans l’histoire des théories linguistiques,c’est de ne pas avoir pu faire l’histoire économique précise du développement des sciencesdu langage. Mais il est tout à fait évident que le développement des technologies linguistiquesest dans l’histoire de l’humanité quelque chose d’aussi important que le développement destechnologies, du feu, de l’acier ou des choses comme ça. Et que, notamment, tout ce qui sedéveloppe à partir du 15e siècle, l’organisation du pillage du monde par l’occident chrétientriomphant, est connecté au développement de la linguistique européenne (“la révolutiontechnologique de la grammatisation”). Et derrière tout ça, il y a aussi des enjeux idéologiques.Je prends toujours l’exemple qui concerne la différence entre la France et l’Allemagne au

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tournant du 18e siècle. Vous avez en France un problème de norme, le problème du pouvoircentral qui est à l’origine de l’Académie française et de son dictionnaire (1694), totalementsynchronique. Vous trouvez une définition de l’usage comme étant quelque chose qui estrapportée à une autorité, qui n’a de valeur qu’instantanée, toujours référée à un centre dedécision. En Prusse, comme dans les autres pays de langue allemande, le rapport à la langue“nationale” ne peut fonctionner de cette façon. Là où on cherchera l’unité, c’est dansl’histoire. La grammaire de Grimm est une grammaire des dialectes germaniques, et sivous lisez l’ouvrage de 1948 sur l’histoire de la langue allemande, lisez la préface, vous yverrez comment se définit l’empire (Reich) de la langue allemande.

Les enjeux économiques qui se cachent derrière la grammatisation des vernaculairesdu monde entier à partir de la tradition gréco-latine ne concerne pas seulement lesrelations de pouvoir et le pillage du monde. Pensez au développement de l’industrie dulivre, au développement de tout ce qu’il y a derrière (la science moderne, notamment).L’équipement grammatical et lexical d’une langue (une langue n’est pas spontanémentapte à être le véhicule de la physique nucléaire et de la biologie moléculaire) est uninvestissement considérable. Il peut rapporter directement. Pensez, par exemple, à ceque coûte au monde entier actuellement la domination de l’anglais.

La croissance de l’histoire de la linguistique doit elle-même être reliée aux enjeuxéconomiques de la discipline (pensez au bouleversement technologique que représentel’automatisation du traitement du langage naturel) et à son fort développement dans lesannées soixante dix. C’est un petit peu comme le fait que dans les années 50 s’est développéeà Pittsburgh, par exemple, toute une école d’analyse des sciences de la nature et desmathématiques. C’est le moment où vous avez des programmes à choisir et où vous avezdes besoins d’avoir une idée, de savoir où l’on va dans la linguistique. Evidemment, il y aaussi une utilisation rhétorique et opportuniste de l’histoire. On a vu des linguistes qui faisaientde l’histoire pour justifier la domination de leurs hypothèses dans la discipline. Aujourd’huiavec l’histoire, on peut expliquer quand, où, pourquoi, comment, il y a domination etaussi nous pouvons expliquer que toutes les dominations n’ont qu’un temps.

RÉFÉRENCES

Auroux, Sylvain. 1987. “The first Uses of the French Word ‘Linguistique’ (1812-1980)”.Aarsleff, Hans. Kelly Louis G. Niederehe, Hans-Josef. eds. Papers in History ofLinguistics: 447-459. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Auroux, Sylvain. 1994. La révolution technologique de la grammatisation. Liège :Mardaga.

. ed. 1989-2000. Histoire des idées linguistiques. 3 vols. Liège : Mardaga.

. Koerner, E.F.K. Niederehe, Hans-Josef. Versteegh, Kees, eds. 2000-2004. History of the Language Sciences. An International Handbook on theEvolution of the Study of Language from the Beginnings to the Present. 3 vols.Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.

LES AVANCÉES DE NOTRE DISCIPLINE

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Brekle, Herbert. 1985. Einführung in die Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft.Darmstadt.

Coseriu, Eugenio. 1967. “Logicismo y antilogicismo en la gramatica”. Teoria del lenguajey Linguistica General. 235-260. Madrid: Gredos.

. 1969-1972. Die Geschichte der Sprachphilosophie von der Antikebis zur Gegewart. 2 vols. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Grotsch, Klaus. 1982. Sprachwissensschaftgeschichtsschreibung. Ein Beitrag zurKritik und zur historischen und methologischen Sebstvergewisserung derDisziplin. Göppingen: Kümmerle Verlag.

Hanzeli, Victor. E. 1969. Missionary Linguistics in New France: A Study ofSeventeenth- and Eighteenth Century Descriptions of American Language.The Hague: Mouton.

Itkonen, Esa. 1990. Universal History of Linguistics. Amsterdam & Philadelphia:John Benjamins.

Koerner, Konrad. 1978. Western Histories of Linguistic Thought. An annotatedchronological bibliography. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Mounin, Georges. 1967. Histoire de la linguistique des origines au XX° siècle.Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Persival, Keith. 1976. “The Applibility of Kuhn’s Paradigms to the History ofLinguistics”. Language. 52: 285-294.

Robins, Robert. 1967. A short History of Linguistics. London: Longman.Schmitter, Peter. 1982. Untersuchungen zur Historiographie der Linguistik. Struktur-

Methodik-theoretische Fundierung. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.. ed. 1987. Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft. Tübingen: Gunter Narr

Verlag.Troupeau, Georges. 1976. Lexique-index du Kitab de Sibawahi. Paris.

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Aarsleff, Hans 198,200,204,205,233Abaev 93,99Aimard, P. 159, 164, 165,166Alkmim, Tania Maria 88, 92Alpatov, V. M. 94, 99Althusser, L. 109, 120Andreev A. P. 95, 96 ,99Arnauld, A. 41, 43 ,44 ,61,62Auroux, Sylvain 3, 15, 39, 40, 75, 85, 86, 131, 208,

220, 221, 232, 233Authier-Revuz, J. 166, 167Bachmann, Peter 194Baddeley, Susan 7, 9, 15Bakhtine, M.M. 98, 99Bar-Hillel, Yehoshua 129, 130Barros, Diana L. P. de 85, 219, 221Baudiffier, Serge 198, 202, 204Beauzée, Nicolas 23, 24, 202, 203, 204Becq, Annie 198, 204Bennholdt-Thomsen, Anke 194Bentley, Richard 183, 184, 194Benveniste, E. 210, 219Blikstein, I. 217, 218, 221Bloomfield, L. 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116,

119, 120, 145, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213, 214, 215,216, 217, 218

Bonnet, C. 66, 158, 159, 165, 166Borsche, Tilman 204Bosquet, Jean 3, 7, 10, 15, 21, 24Bouquet, Simon 133, 139Bowerman, M. 163, 166Brekle, Herbert E. 101, 104, 105, 184, 194, 223, 234Brücke, Ernst. 104, 105Brunot, F. 104, 105Buarque de Holanda, A. 166Cagnin, Antonio Luiz 87, 92Campos, Ernesto de Souza 142, 148Canguilhem, G. 98, 99Cauchie, Antoine Caucius 3, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 20,

24

Chapelain, Chiflet 61Chevalier, Jean-Claude 71, 85Chiflet, Chapelain 45, 46, 51, 52, 53, 61Chomsky, N. 110, 111, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118,

119, 120, 129, 204, 215, 226, 227, 231Chouillet, Jacques 198, 205Christy, Craig 133, 135, 136, 139, 163Clark, E. 163, 164, 165, 167Coignard, J.-B. 61Colombat, Bernard 3, 15, 24Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de 64, 65, 66, 67, 68,

69, 71, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204,205

Coseriu, Eugenio 210, 218, 223, 225, 234Cram, David 124, 125, 129, 131, 139Cunha, Luiz Antônio 148De Lemos, C. 157, 166, 167Delesalle, S. 41Della Volpe, G. 109, 119, 120, 121Demaizière, Colette 16Désirat, Claude 71Desmet, P. 131, 139Di Cesare, Donatella 203, 205Diderot 24, 197, 198, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205Dodart, Denis 104, 105Duarte, Paulo 143, 148Dubois, Jacques 15Dudley, Homer 101, 102, 103, 104, 105Dyce, Alexander 194Eckstein, Friedrich August 194Engels, F. 98, 100Eschyle, Sophocle 175, 182Estienne, Henri 24Estienne, Robert 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 21, 24Fagyal, Zsuzsanna 101, 104,105Figueira, R. A. 147, 157, 160, 162, 163, 167Fiorin, J.L. 141, 218, 219, 221Firth, John Ruppert 127, 131, 215Flanagan, James L. 103, 104, 105Fleischer, Heinrich Leberecht 186, 195

INDEX OF NAMES

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Flournoy, Théodore 135, 139Fodor Jerry, A. 126, 130, 131Förster, Richard 194, 195Forthcoming 198, 204Foucault, Michel 33, 40, 61Fournier, J.-M. 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21 23, 25Fournier, Nathalie 14, 16, 25França, Jean Marcel Carvalho 30, 35, 39Freese, Rudolf 198, 199, 205Fück, Johann 184, 185, 186, 195Galet, Y. 19, 25Ganault, Joël 71Garat, Dominique-Joseph 199, 200, 201, 202, 203,

204, 205Garnier, Jean 3, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15Gattel, Claude Marie 64, 65, 71Girard 61Gleitman, L. R. 166Goold, George P. 194Grotsch, Klaus 231, 234Guimarães, Eduardo 28, 40, 86, 149, 150, 151, 156,

221Guzzoni, Alfredo 194Habermas, J. 107, 108, 120Haller, Albrecht von 104, 105Hans-Josef 131, 233, 234Hanzeli, Victor E. 228, 234Harper 120Harris, Roy 139Hausmann, Franz Josef 16Henry, P. 221Henry, Victor 139Herder, Johann Gottfried von 185, 195Hesiode 182Hjelmslev, L 209, 215Homere 182Hubert, Carrier 62Humboldt, Wilhelm von 63, 94, 95, 98, 111, 197,

198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 211, 213,214

Ikobava 94, 99Irson, C. 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 54,

56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62Itkonen, Esa 231, 234Jakobson 95, 210, 211, 212, 213, 215, 216, 218,

219, 221Jankowski, Kurt R. 183

Jespersen, O. 157, 161, 163, 167Johannes, Malalas 95Jooken, L. 131, 139Karmiloff-Smith, A. 167Kasbarian, Jean-Michel 85Katz Jerrold, J. 130, 131Kempelen, Wolfgang von 101, 102, 103, 104, 105,

106Kibbee, Douglas A. 3, 16Koerner, Konrad 131, 223, 225, 233, 234Lammers, Wilhelm 198, 205Lancelot, Claude 41, 42, 43, 44, 47, 47, 61, 62Léon, Jacqueline 123, 129, 131Lessing, Karl Gotthelf 186, 195Lévy-Bruhl 99, 100Lévy-Strauss, C 209Lima, Herman 87, 92Littmann, Enno 195Maat, Jaap 129, 131Macherey, Pierre 63,71Maciel, Maximino 75, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86Maire, Catherine 62Manner, E. 64, 76, 78, 118, 135, 161, 166, 208,

209, 210, 211, 212, 215, 217, 220Marcuse, H. 108, 121Mariani, Bethania S.C. 27, 40Marmontel, Jean-François 204Marr, N.Ya. 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 100Martinet, A 209, 215, 221Masset 21, 22, 23, 24, 41, 62Masterman, Margaret 123, 126, 127, 128, 131Mattoso Câmara Jr. J. 152, 153, 154, 155, 156,

208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 215, 219, 221Maupas, Charles J. 8, 10, 11, 15, 17, 21, 22, 23,

24, 42, 45, 46 ,62Maurer, T.H. 145, 210, 216, 217, 218, 219, 221Mazière, F. 39,40, 41, 42, 47, 85Meigret, Louis 3, 7, 9, 11, 15, 19, 20, 22, 24Mendes, Raimundo Teixeira 142, 148Menze, Clemens 198, 205Mešaninov 93, 100Mesquita Filho, Júlio de 142, 148Meusel, Johann Georg 195Michel, M. J. 85Mommsen, Theodor 186, 195Mongin, François Bernard 66,71Morus, Samuel Friedrich Nathanael 195

INDEX

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Mounin, Georges 225, 234Mueller-Vollmer, Kurt 200, 205Neves, M.H.M.171Nicot, J. 21, 42, 62Niebuhr, Carsten 186, 195Niederehe, Hans-Josef 131, 233, 234Niederehe, Kelly Louis G. 131, 233, 234Nieuhoff, John 28, 37, 38,39Normand, Cl. 59Ondrejovi, Slavomír 101, 102, 105Orlandi, Eni P. 28, 33, 39, 40, 85, 86, 149, 151, 156,

207, 221Oudin, C. 42, 45, 46, 62Palsgrave, John 3, 7, 9, 15Pêcheux, Michel 28, 34, 40, 219Pellat, Jean-Christophe 4, 5, 6, 16Pellisson; Olivet 41, 46, 61, 62Persival, Keith 231, 234Pfeiffer, Rudolf 184, 195Phillips, D.L. 109, 121Pillot, Jean 3,6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 23,24Pindare 174, 175, 182Platon 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 204Pompino-Marschall, Bernd 101, 103, 105Port-Royal 24, 41, 43, 45, 47, 61, 226, 231Puech, C. 162, 207, 209, 221Rafail 93, 100Ramus, Petrus 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15Ribeiro, Julio 86Richens R.H. 123, 124, 125, 126, 128, 129, 131Riegel, Martin 4, 5, 6, 16Rioul, René 4, 5, 6, 16Rivarol, Antoine 200, 205Robins, Robert 234Roget, Peter Mark 123, 127, 131Rosier, I. 86Sacy, Antoine Isaac Silvestre de 195Salmon, Vivian 123, 124, 126, 131Sandys, John Edwin, Sir 195Sapir, E 209, 211Saussure, Ferdinand de 63, 109, 110, 121, 133,

134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 164, 167, 179, 180,209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 218, 221,226

Schmitter, P. 131, 139, 224, 231, 234Schuchardt, H. 98, 100Schwartzman, Simon 142, 148

Seidel, Siegfried 199, 205Serbat, Guy 5, 16Serreius, Johannes, 10, 11, 15Skinner, Quentin 198, 205Sodré, Nelson Werneck 87, 92Städtler, Thomas 16Stéfanini, Jean 7, 8, 16Steinthal 139Sully, J. 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 167Swiggers, Pierre 16, 131, 139Sylvius, Iacobus 3, 6, 9,11, 12,13 ,15Tamine-Gardes, J. 158, 159, 165, 166, 167Tarnoczy, T. H. 101, 102, 103, 105Tillmann, H. G. 102, 105Todorov, Tzvetan 135, 137, 139Traunmüller, Hartmut 102, 103, 106Tristan Howald, Ernst 71Troupeau, Georges 228, 234Trubeckoj, N.S. 95, 100Trubetskoy 95, 100, 209Tully, James 198, 205Ungeheuer, Gerold 105, 106Varvolsen, S. 86Vaugelas (C. Favre de) 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 62Versteegh, Kees 131, 228, 233Veselovskij 98, 100Weaver, Warren 124, 131Weinrich, H. 19, 25Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 196Wildgen, Wolfagang 101, 104, 105Wilkins, John 68, 123, 125, 126, 127, 131Wilks, Yorick 123, 129, 130, 131Wittgenstein, L. 109, 121, 123, 126Zvegincev 93, 100, 238

INDEX

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A.Ambiguity, ambiguïté, ambigüidade 36, 124, 130,

136, 219Absence, absence, ausência 36, 92, 96, 98, 109,

133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 189, 198, 231Acoustics, acoustique, acústica 105Acquisition, acquisition, aquisição 83, 157, 158,

159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 165, 166, 167Action, action, ação 7, 8, 19, 22, 79, 97, 102, 113,

119, 162, 173, 189, 191, 197, 202Anagram, anagramme, anagrama 45, 137, 138Analogy, analogie, analogia 136, 162, 179, 180,

181, 199, 201Animism, animisme, animismo 97Anthropology, anthropologie, antropologia 198,

199, 203, 204, 211, 213, 218Arabic, arabe, árabe 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189,

190, 191, 192, 228, 230Autonimy, autonimie, autonímia 159

B.Basque, basque, basco 94, 198, 199, 201, 202,

204, 231Behaviorism, béhaviorisme, comportamentalismo

112, 208, 211, 213, 214Biblical studies, études bibliques, estudos

bíblicos 183, 187Black language, Langage des Noirs, linguagem

dos negros 87, 88, 92

C.Chronicle, chronique, crônica 27Creation, création, criação 8, 19, 39, 119, 141,

142, 145, 147, 148, 165, 172, 180, 197, 203,223Culture, culture, cultura 39, 70, 86, 144, 171, 172,

185, 192, 199, 201, 207, 210, 211, 213, 215

INDEX RERUM

D.Data, données, dados 58, 59, 91, 224Descriptive linguistics, linguistique descriptive,

lingüística descritiva 114, 118, 153, 214, 217Designation, désignation, designação 24, 35, 38,

39, 159Diachrony, diachronie, diacronia 51, 209, 210, 211,

212, 215Dialect, dialecte, dialeto 38, 82, 83, 145Dictionary, dictionnaire, dicionário 21, 41, 47, 48,

56, 58, 60, 61, 62, 65, 157, 158, 160, 166, 167,199, 203, 223, 224

Difference, différence, diferença 18, 19, 21, 23,24, 42, 45, 48, 53, 78, 83, 95, 113, 117, 126, 134,138, 150, 162, 164, 166, 219, 233

Discourse, discours, discurso 27, 28, 29, 31, 33,34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 43, 47, 49, 51, 52, 60, 64,65, 69, 70, 71, 85, 87, 89, 107, 110, 111, 133,135, 167, 173, 176, 177, 178, 199, 200, 203, 204,205, 209, 210, 214, 219, 221, 232

E .Empiricism, empirisme, empirismo 75English, anglais, inglês 3, 5, 15, 28, 59, 76, 125,

127, 128, 130, 131, 155, 157, 159, 160, 161, 163,167, 183

Enlightenment, Lumières, Iluminismo 69, 70Epistemology, épistémologie, epistemologia 65,

107, 108, 109, 111, 118, 211, 220Ergon, Energeia, energy, énergie 187, 197, 198,

202, 203, 204Etymology, étymologie, etimologia 70, 137Evolution, évolution, evolução 48, 53, 56, 61, 81,

93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 108, 131, 143, 152,215, 234

Extended Latin grammar, grammaire latineétendue, gramática latina estendida 3

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F.Form, forme, forma 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16,

17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34,35, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 58, 63, 69,75, 77, 80, 82, 83, 84, 91, 94, 97, 98, 107, 108,112, 113, 115, 118, 119, 126, 134, 138, 151,155, 176, 178, 210, 211, 213, 215, 218, 219, 229

French, français, francês 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, 27, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42,43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 54, 59, 60, 61, 62,63, 64, 65, 66, 79, 85, 86, 96, 97, 99, 104, 133,135, 136, 138, 144, 146, 158, 159, 161, 163,164, 165, 166, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203,212, 219, 224, 233

Function, fonction, função 24, 27, 38, 47, 50, 58,79, 80, 97, 107, 130, 134, 142, 144, 154, 174,208, 210, 215, 219

G .German, allemand, alemão 3, 94, 95, 96, 98, 136,

183, 184, 187, 189, 195, 197, 200, 201General grammar, grammaire générale, gramática

geral 21, 24, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47, 49, 60, 61, 63, 64Grammar, grammaire, gramática 3, 4, 5, 6, 14, 32,

41, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79,80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 91, 116, 118, 125, 131, 143,145, 149, 150, 151, 156, 179, 180, 181, 183,201, 202, 204, 208, 209, 216, 217, 226, 227,228, 229, 233

Grammaticization, grammatisation, gramatização17, 75, 77, 149, 208

Greek, grec, grego 5, 7, 8, 20, 25, 41, 42, 44, 47, 60,145, 171, 172, 183, 184, 185, 187, 189, 192,197, 199, 201, 202, 203, 225, 234

H .Hebrew, hébreu, hebraico 183, 185, 187, 192Historical linguistics, linguistique historique,

Lingüística histórica 144, 212, 216, 217Historiography, historiographie, historiografia

223, 234History, histoire, história 17, 24, 27, 28, 39, 46, 62, 75,

86, 87, 92, 93, 95, 99, 105, 117, 118, 120, 131, 137,139, 142, 143, 147, 149, 150, 151, 154, 155, 156, 157,158, 161, 166, 179,187, 190, 192, 195, 196, 198, 204,205, 207, 208,209, 210, 211, 214, 215, 216, 217, 219,220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 230, 231, 233, 234

Hyperlanguage, hyperlangue, hiperlíngua 39, 40,75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 85

I .Identity, identité, identidade 133, 134, 137, 138,

151, 160Ideologists, idéologues, ideólogos 63, 64, 65,

66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 223Indigenous language, langue indigène, língua

indígena 30, 39, 146Institutionalization, institutionnalisation,

institucionalização 27, 149, 151, 152, 156, 217,218, 219, 224

Intermediary language, langue intermédiaire,língua intermediária 123, 124, 126, 127

Italian, italien, italiano 4, 87, 161, 224, 229

L .Latin, latin, latim 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,

15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 27, 41, 42, 44, 46, 47, 48,51, 55, 56, 59, 60, 62, 133, 136, 145, 147, 155,183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 191, 192, 199, 200, 201,203, 216, 217, 230

Lexicon, lexique, léxico 47, 48, 53, 55, 60, 61, 81,82, 86, 166, 167, 232, 234

Linguistic colonization, colonisation linguistique,colonização lingüística 32, 38

Linguistic families, familles linguistiques, famíliaslingüísticas 3, 146, 230

Literary language, langage littéraire, linguagemliterária 78

Logic, logique, lógica 43, 44, 61, 65, 99, 108, 109,110, 111, 114, 116, 119, 120, 121, 126, 162, 177,178, 180, 181, 201, 214, 226, 228

Logicism, logicisme, logicismo 108, 226, 234

M .Machine, machine, máquina 101, 102, 103, 104,

105, 123, 129, 131, 160Manual, manuel, manual 43, 46, 102, 229Mathematization, mathématisation, matematização

108Mechanism, mécanisme, mecanismo 102, 103,

105, 112, 133, 136, 138, 155, 180Mentalism, mentalisme, mentalismo 112, 114, 209,

211, 214

INDEX

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241

Metalanguage, métalangage, metalinguagem150, 156, 176

Metaphor, métaphore, metáfora 59Metaphysics, métaphisique, metafísica 108, 113,

116Method, méthode, método 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46,

47, 48, 51, 53, 54, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68,71, 72, 98, 108, 109, 112, 119, 120, 123, 129,134, 135, 167, 198, 205, 208, 209, 214, 217, 217

Morphology, morphologie, morfologia 47, 49,53, 56, 58, 78, 124, 144, 209, 215, 217,218

N .Narrative, narrative, narrativa 28, 158, 173, 173Nature, nature, natureza 10, 19, 21, 27, 31, 32, 39,

65, 67, 96, 97, 101, 108, 109, 111, 118, 120, 155,157, 160, 162, 163, 167, 176, 177, 178, 179,180, 181, 203, 208, 212, 214, 215, 219, 227,229, 233

Neologism, néologisme, neologismo 164Norm, norme, norma 43, 47, 50, 54, 85, 86, 90, 91,

97 , 218

P .Paradigm, paradigme, paradigma 11, 63, 64, 67,

68, 71, 167, 227, 231Philology, philology, filologia 78, 150, 184, 187,

218Philosophy, philosophie, filosofia 46, 64, 68, 72,

107, 108, 111, 114, 120, 141, 142, 143, 147,171, 176, 180, 181, 184, 204, 205, 207, 209,216, 220, 221, 223

Phonetics, phonétique, fonética 78, 81, 101, 105,144, 145, 152, 231, 212

Phonology, phonologie, fonologia 81, 113,155, 210, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 221

Phrase, syntagme, sintagma 14, 24, 76, 77, 80,84, 92, 118, 136, 200, 201, 213, 241

Poetry, poésie, poesia 171, 172, 173, 174, 175,176, 187, 213

Portuguese, portugais, português 27, 30, 31, 32,33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80,81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 142, 143,144, 145, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153,154, 155, 156, 160, 162, 163, 167

Positivism, positivisme, positivismo 107, 108,109, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 119, 142, 209

Presence, présence, presença 27, 102, 133, 134,135, 137, 138, 160, 165, 210, 212, 217, 231

Primitive, primitive, primitivo 10, 97, 108, 114, 116,127, 172

Prose, prose, prosa 46, 136, 161, 202Psychologism, psychologisme, psicologismo

208, 213, 214

R .Reason, raison, razão 66, 67, 70, 80, 85, 116, 118,

121, 137, 138, 159, 164, 188, 200, 211, 216Record, register, registro 129, 161, 165Russian, russe, russo, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99

S .Sanskrit, Sanskrit, sânscrito, 135, 202, 216, 226,

231Science, science, ciência 47, 58, 60, 69, 71, 100,

104, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116,117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 135, 150, 151, 152,166, 177, 179, 181, 184, 192, 207, 208, 209, 211,216, 218, 219, 220, 224, 225, 226, 228, 229, 231,235

Semantics, sémantique, semântica 112, 113, 114,115, 129, 130, 133, 139, 144, 211, 213, 214

Spanish, espagnol, espanhol 27, 65, 228Speech, parole, fala 4, 6, 23, 24, 32, 43, 44, 66, 69,

70, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 110, 111, 113, 115,134, 135, 137, 138, 159, 160, 163, 165, 166, 167,171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 180, 197, 200, 202, 203,204, 214, 221

Structuralism, structuralisme, estruturalismo 109,110, 111, 152, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214,215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221

Structure, structure, estrutura 11, 35, 47, 59, 83,94, 95, 97, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, 124, 126,131, 135, 146, 155, 160, 166, 178, 205, 207,209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217,218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 227, 229

Synchrony, synchronie, sincronia 57, 75, 180,209, 210, 211, 212, 226

Syntax, syntaxe, sintaxe 8, 9, 15, 21, 42, 47, 49,50, 60, 62, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84, 91, 115,124, 125, 128, 130, 144, 199, 201, 214, 217, 218

System, système, sistema 19, 20, 22, 66, 67, 68, 70, 81,96, 97, 110, 111, 113, 118, 129, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139,150, 153, 154, 155, 156, 190, 209, 211, 212, 214, 215,216, 220

INDEX

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242

T .Technology, technologie, tecnologia 14, 148Tense, temps, tempo 4, 6, 8, 11, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,

22, 23, 24, 31, 42, 43, 50, 51, 59, 61, 62, 95, 142,144, 145, 172, 173, 179, 210, 221, 223, 224,232, 233

Theology, théologie, teologia 41, 57, 184, 185,188

Tupi, tupi, tupi 143, 145, 146, 147, 221

U .Universal language, langue universelle, língua

universal 123, 124, 126, 129, 131Use/usage, usage, uso 21, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54,

56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 71, 79, 80, 82, 86, 126,137, 154, 180

V .Value, valeur, valor 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 47, 54, 87,

93, 133, 137, 138, 154, 164, 179, 189, 192, 225,233

Vocabulary, vocabulaire, vocabulário 35, 46, 56,60, 159, 163

INDEX

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STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE SCIENCES

E. F. K. Koerner, EditorZentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie

und Universalienforschung, [email protected]

The series Studies in the History of the Language Sciences (SiHoLS) has been established as a companion to the journal Historiographia Linguistica. The series intends to meet the revival of interest in the his-tory of linguistic thought and to provide an organized reservoir of information concerning our heritage of linguistic ideas of more than two millennia. SiHoLS will publish book-length scholarly studies on (the evolution of) human reflection about the nature of language and the many ways in which it can be analyzed and used. These studies may concern particular aspects of language study, entire traditions, or special periods of their development. In addition, the series will include re-editions or entirely new translations into English of ‘classic’ works in the field that have been out of print for many years. These new editions will be introduced by a present-day specialist who places the book in its intellectual and socio-historical context, and highlights its significance in the evolution of our thinking about language. A complete list of titles in this series can be found on the publishers website, www.benjamins.com

111 Zwartjes, Otto, Gregory james and emilio ridruejO (eds.):MissionaryLinguisticsIII/LingüísticamisioneraIII.MorphologyandSyntax.SelectedpapersfromtheThirdandFourthInternationalConferencesonMissionaryLinguistics,HongKong/Macau,12–15March2005,Valladolid,8-11March2006.viii,357pp.Expected August 2007

110 Guimarães, eduardo and diana LuZ PessOa de BarrOs (eds.):HistoryofLinguistics2002.SelectedpapersfromtheNinthInternationalConferenceontheHistoryoftheLanguageSciences,27-30August2002,SãoPaulo-Campinas.2007.x,242pp.

109 Zwartjes, Otto and Cristina aLtman (eds.):MissionaryLinguisticsII/LingüísticamisioneraII.OrthographyandPhonology.SelectedpapersfromtheSecondInternationalConferenceonMissionaryLinguistics,SãoPaulo,10–13March2004.2005.vi,292pp.

108 niederehe, hans-josef:Bibliografíacronológicadelalingüística,lagramáticaylalexicografíadelespañol(BICRESIII).Desdeelaño1701hastaelaño1800.2005.vi,474pp.

107 LuhtaLa, anneli:GrammarandPhilosophyinLateAntiquity.AstudyofPriscian'ssources.2005.x,171pp.

106 Zwartjes, Otto and even hOvdhauGen (eds.):MissionaryLinguistics/Lingüísticamisionera.SelectedpapersfromtheFirstInternationalConferenceonMissionaryLinguistics,Oslo,13–16March2003.2004.vi,288pp.

105 FOrmiGari, Lia:AHistoryofLanguagePhilosophies.TranslatedbyGabrielPoole.2004.x,252pp.104 KOerner, e.F.K.:EssaysintheHistoryofLinguistics.2004.x,271pp.103 jOsePh, john e.:FromWhitneytoChomsky.EssaysinthehistoryofAmericanlinguistics.2002.

viii,240pp.102 KOerner, e.F.K. and aleksander sZwedeK (eds.):TowardsaHistoryofLinguisticsinPoland.From

theearlybeginningstotheendofthe20thcentury.2001.xxii,335pp.101 KeLLy, L.G.:TheMirrorofGrammar.Theology,philosophyandtheModistae.2002.x,243pp.100 KOerner, e.F.K. and hans-josef niederehe (eds.):HistoryofLinguisticsinSpain/Historiadela

LingüísticaenEspaña.VolumeII.2001.xxii,463pp.99 aurOux, sylvain (ed.):HistoryofLinguistics1999.SelectedpapersfromtheEighthInternational

ConferenceontheHistoryoftheLanguageSciences,14–19September1999,Fontenay-St.Cloud.WiththeassistanceofJoscelyneArpin,ElisabethLazcano,JacquelineLéon.2003.xii,403pp.

98 GraFFi, Giorgio:200YearsofSyntax.Acriticalsurvey.2001.xiv,551pp.97 hutChins, w. john (ed.):EarlyYearsinMachineTranslation.Memoirsandbiographiesofpioneers.

2000.xii,400pp.96 jOsePh, john e.:LimitingtheArbitrary.LinguisticnaturalismanditsoppositesinPlato'sCratylusand

moderntheoriesoflanguage.2000.x,224pp.95 Cram, david, andrew r. Linn and elke nOwaK (eds.):HistoryofLinguistics1996.Volume2:From

ClassicaltoContemporaryLinguistics.1999.xx,390pp.94 Cram, david, andrew r. Linn and elke nOwaK (eds.):HistoryofLinguistics1996.Volume1:

TraditionsinLinguisticsWorldwide.1999.xx,341pp.

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93 COBLin, w. south and joseph a. Levi:FranciscoVaro'sGrammaroftheMandarinLanguage(1703).AnEnglishtranslationof‘ArtedelalenguaMandarina’.WithanIntroductionbySandraBreitenbach.2000.liv,282pp.

92 KOerner, e.F.K.:LinguisticHistoriography.Projects&prospects.1999.x,236pp.91 niederehe, hans-josef:Bibliografíacronológicadelalingüística,lagramáticaylalexicografíadel

español(BICRESII).Desdeelaño1601hastaelaño1700.1999.vi,472pp.90 esParZa tOrres, miguel Ángel and hans-josef niederehe:BibliografíaNebrisense.Lasobras

completasdelhumanistaAntoniodeNebrijadesde1481hastanuestrosdías.1999.vi,374pp.89 jOnes, william j.:ImagesofLanguage.SixessaysonGermanattitudestoEuropeanlanguagesfrom1500

to1800.1999.x,299pp.88 KOerner, e.F.K. (ed.):FirstPersonSingularIII.AutobiographiesbyNorthAmericanscholarsinthe

languagesciences.1998.x,267pp.87 stein, dieter and rosanna sOrniCOLa (eds.):TheVirtuesofLanguage.Historyinlanguage,

linguisticsandtexts.PapersinmemoryofThomasFrank.1998.viii,232pp.86 darneLL, regna:AndAlongCameBoas.ContinuityandrevolutioninAmericanistanthropology.1998.

xviii,333pp.85 tayLOr, daniel j.:DeLinguaLatinaX.AnewcriticaltextandEnglishtranslationwithprolegomenaand

commentary.1996.x,205pp.84 verBurG, Pieter a.:LanguageanditsFunctions.Ahistorico-criticalstudyofviewsconcerningthe

functionsoflanguagefromthepre-humanisticphilologyofOrleanstotherationalisticphilologyofBopp.TranslatedbyPaulSalmoninconsultationwithAnthonyJ.Klijnsmit.1998.xxxiv,577pp.

83 wOLLOCK, jeffrey:TheNoblestAnimateMotion.Speech,physiologyandmedicineinpre-Cartesianlinguisticthought.1997.l,461pp.

82 BeKKum, wout jac. van, jan hOuBen, ineke sLuiter and Kees versteeGh:TheEmergenceofSemanticsinFourLinguisticTraditions.Hebrew,Sanskrit,Greek,Arabic.1997.ix,322pp.

81 Lee, Penny:TheWhorfTheoryComplex.Acriticalreconstruction.1996.x,324pp.80 nerLiCh, Brigitte and david d. CLarKe:Language,ActionandContext.Theearlyhistoryof

pragmaticsinEuropeandAmerica1780–1930.1996.xiv,497pp.79 KOerner, e.F.K.:ProfessingLinguisticHistoriography.1995.viii,274pp.78 janKOwsKy, Kurt r. (ed.):HistoryofLinguistics1993.PapersfromtheSixthInternationalConference

ontheHistoryoftheLanguageSciences(ICHoLSVI),WashingtonDC,9–14August1993.1995.xx,380pp.77 saLmOn, vivian:LanguageandSocietyinEarlyModernEngland.Selectedessays1982–1994.1996.

viii,276pp.76 niederehe, hans-josef:Bibliografíacronológicadelalingüística,lagramáticaylalexicografíadel

español(BICRES).Desdelosprincipioshastaelaño1600.1994.vi,457pp.75 versteeGh, Kees:TheExplanationofLinguisticCauses.Az-Zağğāğī'sTheoryofGrammar.Introduction,

translation,commentary.1995.xvi,310pp.74 FOrmiGari, Lia and daniele GamBarara (eds.):HistoricalRootsofLinguisticTheories.1995.

viii,309pp.73 GOLdZiher, ignaz:OntheHistoryofGrammaramongtheArabs.TranslatedandeditedbyKinga

DévényiandTamásIványi.1994.xx,153pp.72 radwańsKa-wiLLiams, joanna:AParadigmLost.ThelinguisticthoughtofMikołajKruszewski.

1994.xii,200pp.71 Law, vivien a. (ed.):HistoryofLinguisticThoughtintheEarlyMiddleAges.1993.viii,255pp.70 FOrmiGari, Lia:Signs,ScienceandPolitics.PhilosophiesoflanguageinEurope1700–1830.1993.

x,218pp.69 murray, stephen O.:TheoryGroupsandtheStudyofLanguageinNorthAmerica.Asocialhistory.1994.

xx,598pp.68 ahLqvist, anders (ed.):DiversionsofGalway.PapersonthehistoryoflinguisticsfromICHoLSV.1992.

xxviii,384pp.67 suBBiOndO, joseph L. (ed.):JohnWilkinsand17th-CenturyBritishLinguistics.1992.xvi,376pp.66 naumann, Bernd, Franz PLanK and Gottfried hOFBauer (eds.):LanguageandEarth.Elective

affinitiesbetweentheemergingsciencesoflinguisticsandgeology.1992.xvi,445pp.65 itKOnen, esa:UniversalHistoryofLinguistics.India,China,Arabia,Europe.1991.x,368pp.64 nOOrdeGraaF, jan, Kees versteeGh and e.F.K. KOerner (eds.):TheHistoryofLinguisticsin

theLowCountries.1992.vi,400pp.+ills.

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63 sundBy, Bertil, anne Kari BjørGe and Kari e. hauGLand:ADictionaryofEnglishNormativeGrammar1700–1800(DENG).1991.x,486pp.

62 Leitner, Gerhard (ed.):EnglishTraditionalGrammars:anInternationalPerspective.1991.x,392pp.61 KOerner, e.F.K. (ed.):FirstPersonSingularII.AutobiographiesbyNorthAmericanScholarsinthe

LanguageSciences.1991.x,303pp.60 KiBBee, douglas a.:FortoSpekeFrencheTrewely.TheFrenchlanguageinEngland,1000–1600:itsstatus,

descriptionandinstruction.1991.viii,268pp.59 nerLiCh, Brigitte:SemanticTheoriesinEurope,1830–1930.Frometymologytocontextuality.1992.

xi,359pp.58 dinneen, Francis P. s. j. and e.F.K. KOerner (eds.):NorthAmericanContributionstotheHistoryof

Linguistics.1990.xii,238pp.57 starnes, de witt t. and Gertrude e. nOyes:TheEnglishDictionaryfromCawdreytoJohnson

1604–1755.WithanintroductoryarticleandabibliographybyGabrieleStein.1991.cxii,xxii,299pp.56 versteeGh, Kees and michael G. Carter (eds.):StudiesintheHistoryofArabicGrammarII.

ProceedingsofthesecondsymposiumonthehistoryofArabicgrammar,Nijmegen,27April–1May,1987.1990.x,320pp.

55 haLL, jr., robert a.:ALifeforLanguage.AbiographicalmemoirofLeonardBloomfield.1990.x,129pp.54 antOnsen, elmer h., james w. marChand and Ladislav ZGusta (eds.):TheGrimmBrothersand

theGermanicPast.1990.x,162pp.53 Owens, jonathan:EarlyArabicGrammaticalTheory.Heterogeneityandstandardization.1990.

xvi,294pp.52 juuL, arne and hans Frede nieLsen (eds.):OttoJespersen:FacetsofhisLifeandWork.1989.

xviii,154pp.51:2niederehe, hans-josef and e.F.K. KOerner (eds.):HistoryandHistoriographyofLinguistics.

ProceedingsoftheFourthInternationalConferenceontheHistoryoftheLanguageSciences(ICHoLSIV),Trier,24–28August1987.Volume2:18th–20thCentury.1990.x,397-873pp.

51:1niederehe, hans-josef and e.F.K. KOerner (eds.):HistoryandHistoriographyofLinguistics.ProceedingsoftheFourthInternationalConferenceontheHistoryoftheLanguageSciences(ICHoLSIV),Trier,24–28August1987.Volume1:Antiquitity–17thCentury.1990.xxv,1-396pp.

50 KOerner, e.F.K.:PracticingLinguisticHistoriography.1989.xiv,455pp.49 maurO, tullio de and Lia FOrmiGari (eds.):Leibniz,Humboldt,andtheOriginsofComparativism.

Proceedingsoftheinternationalconference,Rome,25–28September1986.1990.vii,329pp.48 FOrmiGari, Lia:LanguageandExperiencein17th-centuryBritishPhilosophy.1988.viii,169pp.47 haLL, jr., robert a. (ed.):LeonardBloomfield:EssaysonhisLife&Work.1987.x,237pp.46 tayLOr, daniel j. (ed.):TheHistoryofLinguisticsintheClassicalPeriod.1987.xii,294pp.45 Owens, jonathan:TheFoundationsofGrammar.AnintroductiontomedievalArabicgrammatical

theory.1988.xii,371pp.44 amsLer, mark e.:EtymologyandGrammaticalDiscourseinLateAntiquityandtheEarlyMiddleAges.

1989.xi,280pp.43 BursiLL-haLL, Geoffrey L., sten eBBesen and e.F.K. KOerner (eds.):DeOrtuGrammaticae.

StudiesinmedievalgrammarandlinguistictheoryinmemoryofJanPinborg.1990.x,372pp.42 BuZZetti, dino and maurizio Ferriani (eds.):SpeculativeGrammar,UniversalGrammar,

PhilosophicalAnalysis.PapersinthePhilosophyofLanguage.1987.x,269pp.41 COwan, william, michael FOster and e.F.K. KOerner (eds.):NewPerspectivesinLanguage,

Culture,andPersonality.ProceedingsoftheEdwardSapirCentenaryConference(Ottawa,1–3October1984).1986.xiv,627pp.

40 hartmann, reinhard (ed.):TheHistoryofLexicography.1986.viii,265pp.39 dinneen, Francis P. s. j.:PeterofSpain:LanguageinDispute.AnEnglishtranslationofPeterofSpain's

'Tractatus'calledafterwardsSUMMULAELOGICALES,basedonthecriticaleditionbyL.M.deRijk.1990.xl,271pp.

38 aarsLeFF, hans, L.G. KeLLy and hans-josef niederehe (eds.):PapersintheHistoryofLinguistics.ProceedingsoftheThirdInternationalConferenceontheHistoryoftheLanguageSciences(ICHoLSIII),Princeton,19–23August1984.1987.xxvi,680pp.

37 Ó mathúna, seán P.:WilliamBathe,S.J.,1564–1614:apioneerinlinguistics.(EnglishtranslationfromtheIrishedition,Dublin,1981).1986.iv,211pp.+16ill.

36 saPir, edward:Appraisalsofhislifeandwork.EditedbyE.F.K.Koerner.1984.xxviii,224pp.

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35 saLmOn, vivian and edwina Burness:AReaderintheLanguageofShakespeareanDrama.1987.xx,523pp.

34 quiLis mOraLes, antonio and hans-josef niederehe (eds.):TheHistoryofLinguisticsinSpain.1986.viii,360pp.

33 ramat, Paolo, hans-josef niederehe and e.F.K. KOerner (eds.):TheHistoryofLinguisticsinItaly.1986.x,364pp.

32 manChester, martin L.:ThePhilosophicalFoundationsofHumboldt'sLinguisticDoctrines.1985.xii,216pp.

31 Christy, t. Craig:UniformitarianisminLinguistics.1983.xiv,139pp.30 GOrdOn, w. terrence:AHistoryofSemantics.viii,284pp.Expected Out of print29 arens, hans:Aristotle'sTheoryofLanguageanditsTradition.Textsfrom500to1750,sel.,transl.and

commentarybyHansArens.1984.v,525pp.28 versteeGh, Kees, e.F.K. KOerner and hans-josef niederehe (eds.):TheHistoryofLinguisticsin

theNearEast.1982.xii,265pp.27 Breva-CLaramOnte, manuel:Sanctius'TheoryofLanguage.Acontributiontothehistoryof

Renaissancelinguistics.1982.viii,294pp.26 KOerner, e.F.K., hans-josef niederehe and robert h. rOBins (eds.):StudiesinMedieval

LinguisticThought.DedicatedtoGeofreyL.Bursill-Hallontheoccassionofhis60thbirthdayon15May1980.1980.vi,321pp.

25 hymes, dell h.:EssaysintheHistoryofLinguisticAnthropology.1983.xxiii,406pp.24 Carter, michael G. (ed.):ArabLinguistics.Anintroductoryclassicaltextwithtranslationandnotes.

1981.x,485pp.23 hOusehOLder, Fred w.:ApolloniusDyscolus.TheSyntax ofApolloniusDyscolus.1981.vi,281pp.22 mcdermOtt, a. Charlene senape (ed.):GodfreyofFontaine'sAbridgementofBoethiusofDacia's'Modi

SignificandisiveQuaestionessuperPriscianumMaiorem'.AntexteditionwithEnglishtranslationandintroduction.1980.ix,237pp.

21 davis, Boyd h. and raymond K. O’Cain (eds.):FirstPersonSingular.PapersfromtheConferenceonanOralArchivefortheHistoryofAmericanLinguistics.(Charlotte,N.C.,March1979).1980.xiv,239pp.

20 KOerner, e.F.K. (ed.):ProgressinLinguisticHistoriography.PapersfromtheInternationalConferenceontheHistoryoftheLanguageSciences,Ottawa,28–31August1978.1980.xiv,421pp.

19 KOerner, e.F.K.:TowardaHistoriographyofLinguistics.SelectedEssays.WithaforewordbyRobertH.Robins.1978.xx,222pp.

18 hayashi, tetsuro:TheTheoryofEnglishLexicography1530–1791.1978.xii,168pp.17 saLmOn, vivian:TheStudyofLanguagein17th-CenturyEngland.SecondEdition.1988.x,218pp.16 PanCOnCeLLi-CaLZia, Giulio (1878–1966):'GeschichtszahlenderPhonetik'(1941),together

with'QuellenatlasderPhonetik'(1940).Newedition.WithanintroductionbyE.F.K.Koerner.1994.xxxviii,88pp.

15 PseudO-aLBertus maGnus, and L.G. KeLLy:'QuaestionesAlbertideModissignificandi.'Acriticaledition.1977.xxxvii,191pp.

14 siGerus de COrtraCO, and jan PinBOrG:Summamodorumsignificandi;Sophismata.Newedition,onthebasisof.G.Wallerand'seditioprima,withadditions,criticalnotes,anindexofterms,andanintroductionbyJanPinborg.1977.xli,108pp.Small-4to.

13 draKe, Glendon F.:TheRoleofPrescriptivisminAmericanLinguistics1820–1970.1977.x,130pp.12 PauLinus a.s. BarthOLOmaeO,:DissertationontheSanskritLanguage.Translated,editedand

introducedbyLudoRocher.1977.xxviii,224pp.11 KOerner, e.F.K.:WesternHistoriesofLinguisticThought.Anannotatedchronologicalbibliography,

1822–1976.1978.x,113pp.10 KiLBury, james:TheDevelopmentofMorphophonemicTheory.1976.viii,155pp.9 niederehe, hans-josef and harald haarmann (eds.):InMemoriamFriedrichDiez:Aktendes

KolloquiumszumWissenschaftsgeschichtederRomanistik/ActesduColloquesurl'HistoiredesEtudesRomanes/Proc.1976.viii,508pp.

8 stenGeL, edmund (1845–1935) (ed.):ChronologischesVerzeichnisfranzösischerGrammatikenvomEndedes14.biszumAusgangedes18.Jahrhunderts,nebstAngabederbisherermitteltenFundortederselben.1976.x,240pp.

7 Pedersen, holger (1867–1953):AGlanceattheHistoryofLinguistics.withparticularregardtothehistoricalstudyofphonology.1983.xxxii,100pp.