Réflexions sémantiques d'un romaniste : Léo Spitzer (1887-1960) sur le changement de sens

Abstract

ABSTRACT : Although Spitzer investigated language, especially its change through ordinary language use or artistic manipulation, his work went almost unnoticed in the linguistic circles of the first three decades of this century. One can give three reasons for this situation, especially insofar as Spitzer's reflections on semantics, the allocation and the change of meaning are concerned : Firstly, it is not easy to assemble Spitzer's thoughts on these matters, as one has to glean them from widely different essays, although the general structure of his position is stated in the Essays in Historical Semantics. Secondly, Spitzer himself pointed out that the linguists of his time neglected the aesthetic and stylistic side of language. Thirdly, the pugnacious tone of his texts and the eccentricity of his judgments did not make it easy to appreciate his thoughts. But in the light of a closer collaboration between linguistics and the history of linguistics regarding phenomena such as semantic change, a reappraisal of Spitzer's heritage seems to be called for. His conception of language change can briefly be characterised as follows : he stands in the tradition of context-theory, according to which meanings are seen as dependent on socio- cultural factors, but also determined by biographically conditioned structures of motifs (in the sense of leitmotifs or themes) and by voluntary acts (e.g. in name- giving). He also stressed the accidental nature of the 'right' or appropriate meaning of a word, which to his mind cannot be justified in any way.