Mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique

An 1877 analysis of the common origins of language and mythology by a founder of modern semantics.

Michel Jules Alfred Bréal (Author)

9781108061964, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 September 2013

430 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.54 kg

The eminent French philologist Michel Bréal (1832–1915) made significant contributions to the fields of comparative linguistics, pedagogy and etymology. He became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1875 and a commander of the Légion d'honneur in 1890. This work, first published in 1877, gathers together articles that Bréal mostly wrote before 1869, when he was appointed secretary of the new and prestigious Société de Linguistique de Paris. He argues that language and mythology have a common origin, which accounts for why most abstract nouns are feminine, in remembrance of ancient deities. Bréal also exposes new ways to study languages and their impact in primary and secondary education. Lastly, he lays the foundations of modern semantics, a discipline he intended would reconcile historical linguistics with the philosophy of the Enlightenment.

Préface
1. Hercule et Cacus
2. Le mythe d'Oedipe
3. De la géographie de l'Avesta
4. La légende du Brahmane converti par Zoroastre
5. Sur la composition des livres zends
6. De la méthode comparative appliquée à l'étude des langues
7. De la forme et de la fonction des mots
8. Les progrès de la grammaire comparée
9. Les idées latentes du langage
10. Quelle place doit tenir la grammaire comparée dans l'enseignement
11. L'enseignement de la langue française
12. Les racines indo-européennes
Index analytique.

Subject Areas: Linguistics [CF]