François Thurot and the First History of Grammar

ABSTRACTFrancois Thurot's Discours preliminaire (1796), a first attempt at a historiography of grammar, sums up the language theories of the philosophes, while prefiguring the 19th century in both his concept of language and his attitude towards the science of language. He accepts, for instance, the theory that the perfection of a language reflects the progress of the mind but rejects the metaphysical speculation on the origin of language that characteristically accompanied such a theory. And although Thurot, like his contemporaries, still preoccupies himself with the method of logico-linguistic analysis which would lead to a langue bien faite, his study opens up to a new variety of linguistic phenomena in the vernacular. Thus, his view of language embraces both the mechanical reductionism aimed at scientific language with its pretention to universality as well as the creative dynamism of discursive language with its recognition of cultural relativity. Furthermore, Thurot assimilates the interest in the genetic relationship among languages, that was already in the air, to the historicism of the philosophes, whose historical tableaux unfolded within their theories of language.Thurot's interest in natural language is an outgrowth of the prevailing 'climate of opinion'. The data-oriented approach to language had begun with the invention of the printing press, from which time there was an ever increasing accumulation and distribution of material on non-European languages. The French Revolution was to dramatize the importance of discursive language, since the unification of the nation depended, in part, on the democratization and standardization of daily language. Such a climate proved favorable for subsequent work on genetic classification and on Indo-European in the 19th century.RESUMELe Discours preliminaire (1796) de Francois Thurot, une premiere tentative d'une historiographie de la grammaire, resume les theories "langagieres" des philosophes et prefigure le concept du langage et l'attitude envers la science de la langue du XIXe siecle. Thurot accepte, par exemple, la theorie que la perfection de la langue reflete le progres de l'esprit humain mais rejette la speculation metaphysique sur l'origine de la langue qui devrait caracteriser une telle theorie. Meme si Thurot, comme ses contemporains, se preoccupe toujours de la methode logico-linguistique qui aboutirait a une langue bien faite, son essai revele egalement une nouvelle variete de phenomenes linguistiques dans la langue vernaculaire. Aussi son concept du langage renferme-t-il et la reduction mecanique visant une pretendue universalite de la langue scientifique et le dynamisme createur de la langue maternelle soulignant une relativite culturelle. En outre, Thurot amalgame l'interet envers le rapport genetique des langues, repandu a l'epoque, et l'historicisme des philosophes chez qui se degagent des tableaux historiques, surtout a l'interieur de leurs theories du language.Le milieu culturel de l'epoque formule l'importance de la notion de langue naturelle chex Thurot. L'invention de l'imprimerie avait facilite l'accumulation et la propagation des etudes sur certaines langues non-europeennes, etudes qui se repandaient de plus en plus depuis la Renaissance. La Revolution francaise, par contre, a mis en relief l'importance de la langue naturelle, parce que l'unification de la notion dependait, en partie, de la democritisation et de la standardisation de la langue quotidienne. Un tel climat s'est en effet avere favorable pour les etudes sur la classification genetique et sur l'indo-europeen predominantes au XIXe siecle.