Far from being a 20th-century creation, linguistics developed over several centuries of reflection on language. From Sanskrit grammarians to 19th-century neogrammarians, by way of Greek philosophers and comparatists, the history of this discipline is marked by major advances that paved the way for the Saussurean revolution. This article, inspired by Foued Laroussi’s work in *Histoire de la linguistique*, traces the major stages of this evolution and highlights the schools of thought that shaped our understanding of language before the advent of structuralism.
The study of language is as old as human thought itself. Long before Ferdinand de Saussure introduced the fundamental concepts of linguistic structuralism, numerous intellectual traditions attempted to analyze, classify, and explain the mechanisms of language. Far from being a science born ex nihilo at the turn of the 20th century, linguistics finds its roots in philosophical debates, grammatical endeavors, and comparative attempts spanning several millennia. Tracing these stages allows us to better understand the intellectual dynamics that paved the way for the emergence of modern linguistics.
Antiquity represents the first major period in linguistic thought. The earliest attempts at language analysis date back to the Sanskrit grammarians, the most prominent of whom is Pānini (4th century BCE). His Ashtadhyayi, a grammar of Sanskrit in eight chapters, is often considered the first systematic description of a language, based on a set of rigorously formalized morphological and syntactic rules. This work demonstrates a concern for the internal structure of language, well before this idea became central in the West.
Meanwhile, in the Greek world, reflection on language developed under the impetus of philosophers and rhetoricians. Plato, in the Cratylus, poses a fundamental question: is the relationship between word and thing natural or arbitrary? This debate between proponents of physis (the natural relationship between word and thing) and those of thesis (the conventional relationship) would permeate the entire Western tradition. Aristotle, for his part, focused more on the structures of discourse and logical reasoning. He developed essential concepts such as the distinction between subject and predicate, which would have a lasting influence on medieval grammar and logic.
It was during the Hellenistic period, with the grammarians of Alexandria, that grammar began to establish itself as an independent discipline. Dionysius Thrax (2nd century BC) wrote a Techne grammatike, which laid the foundations of Western grammar by identifying eight parts of speech: article, noun, pronoun, verb, participle, adverb, preposition, and conjunction. This model would be adopted and expanded upon by Latin grammarians, notably Donatus and Priscian, who provided a theoretical basis for the teaching of Latin throughout the Middle Ages.
With the spread of Christianity, linguistics took a new direction, centered on the study of sacred texts. Philology became a dominant discipline, aiming to interpret and comment on Scripture. Saint Augustine, in *De Magistro*, explored the question of the linguistic sign and its connection to thought and revealed truth. However, this period was characterized by a relative stagnation in terms of linguistic conceptualization, with concerns being more theological than scientific.
It was not until the Renaissance that linguistic thought experienced a resurgence. Humanism, by emphasizing the study of classical and vernacular languages, fostered a more descriptive and comparative approach. The works of Greek and Latin grammarians were rediscovered, while the first attempts at language classification emerged. Scholars began to question the origin of languages and their diversity, fueling a debate that would culminate in the birth of comparative grammar in the 19th century.
The 17th century marked a crucial turning point with the publication of the Port-Royal Grammar (1660). Written by Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot, this work is based on the idea that all languages share an underlying logical structure, reflecting the laws of thought. This rationalist approach had a lasting influence on the French grammatical tradition and foreshadowed certain modern conceptions of the universality of language.
The 19th century marked a turning point in the history of linguistics. With the discovery of Sanskrit and the identification of its similarities to Greek and Latin, comparative grammar was born. Franz Bopp, Rasmus Rask, and Jacob Grimm laid the foundations of this new discipline by establishing systematic correspondences between Indo-European languages. The concept of phonetic laws emerged, notably illustrated by Grimm’s Law, which describes the regular changes in consonants in Germanic languages.
At the end of the 19th century, neogrammarians continued this approach, asserting that linguistic changes obey strict and predictable laws. Hermann Paul and Karl Brugmann emphasized the need for scientific rigor in the analysis of phonetic and morphological developments. However, their approach remained rooted in a diachronic perspective, focusing on the history of languages rather than their internal workings.
It is precisely on this point that Ferdinand de Saussure introduced a major shift. By distinguishing synchronic linguistics (the study of language at a given moment) from diachronic linguistics (the study of its evolution), he refocused the analysis on the structure of language as a system. His Course in General Linguistics, published in 1916, inaugurated a new era for the discipline by highlighting the notions of linguistic sign, differential value, and system of relations.
Thus, pre-Saussurean linguistics, although fragmented and often subordinate to other disciplines (philosophy, philology, comparative grammar), laid the conceptual foundations that would allow for the emergence of a science of language. The question of the nature of the sign, the classification of parts of speech, the comparison of languages, and the development of phonetic laws all constitute steps that prepared the way for the Saussurean revolution. Far from being a complete break, structuralism is part of a tradition that, since Antiquity, has continuously sought to understand the mechanisms of human language.
Bibliographical references
Meillet, A. (1921). Historical Linguistics and General Linguistics . Paris: Champion.
Mounin, G. (1967). History of Linguistics from its Origins to the 20th Century . Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Jocelyn Godson HÉRARD, Copywriter H-Translation
