The history of the science of language and didactics of languages

Abstract

This paper presents a didactic orientation. It first deals with a short account of the history of linguistics in general analizing in particular its study by historians over the course of the last two centuries. The text then goes on to demonstrate, by focusing on the case of phonology in some French grammars of Russian published in the XXth century, how such an historicist approach is revealing of some of the main tendencies as well as unusual aspects of linguistic thought.