Two issues of authorship and influence in turn-of-the-century French linguistics

Abstract

Our grasp of two important episodes in the history of linguistic science, with heightened attention riveted to the French arena, invites certain corrections or, at least, qualifications. First: semantics clad in its new grab was launched, almost a century ago, not by Bréal in splendid isolation, but by the triumvirate A. Darmesteter/Littré/Bréal, with the original gambits made before Littré's death in 1881. Second: medical, especially pathalogical, metaphors in the analysis of word histories, favored by J. Gilliéron and his school of dialect geographers and diachronic lexicologists, go back to a once famous, but later practically forgotten essay by Littré, a scholar known for his finely chiseled style. This idiosyncrasy makes excellent sense once it has been placed in the framework of Littré's professional aspirations: for many years his dream was to become a medical doctor.