Discours Public Sur Les Langues En General Et Sur La Langue Francoise En Particulier

Author : Matthew Lauzon
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 080145770X
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Download or read book Signs of Light written by Matthew Lauzon and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Signs of Light, Matthew Lauzon traces the development of very different French and British ideas about language over the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and demonstrates how important these ideas were to emerging notions of national character. Drawing examples from a variety of French and English language works in a wide range of areas, including language theory, philosophy, rhetoric, psychology, missionary tracts, and literary texts, Lauzon explores how French and British thinkers of the day developed arguments that certain kinds of languages are superior to others. The nature of animal language and British and French understandings of the languages of North American Indians were vigorously debated. Theories of animal language juxtaposed the apparent virtues of transparency and wit; considerations of savage language resulted in eloquence being regarded as an even higher accomplishment. Eventually, the French language came to be prized for its wit and sociability and English for its simple clarity and vigor. Lauzon shows that, besides concerns about establishing the clarity of introspective representations, questions about the energetic communication of sincere emotion and about the sociable communication of wit were crucial to language theories during this period. A richly interdisciplinary work, Signs of Light is a compelling account of a formative period in language theory.