Abstract
SummaryIt is commonly stated that metalinguistic texts reflect the historical, social and intellectual context in which they are produced. In this article the author examines how later readings of ‘classic’ texts can both reflect the changing concerns of the time and colour subsequent readings of those texts. The case-study provided is the work of the three great 17th-century Frenchremarqueursor authors of volumes of observations on the French language – Claude Favre de Vaugelas (1585–1650), Gilles Ménage (1613–1692) and Dominique Bouhours (1628–1702); their observations were read by and assimilated into the work of subsequent French grammarians working within often very different socio-cultural and intellectual frames of reference. Readings of these volumes of remarks on French from each century following their publication are used to illustrate the argument.
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