Lingüística e Filologia. O eterno debate

The relationship between 'philology' and 'linguistcs' has been a contentious issue in the study of language for over 150 years. This paper sketches part of the origins of the philology/linguistics debate and, at the same time, hints at some of the reasons behind certain differences between the Anglo-Saxon and the Continental European terminological traditions. The value of terms like philology,philologie (compareé), Philologie; and linguistics, linguistique, Sprachwissenschaft, Linguistik, as well as the scope of the sope of the corresponding disciplines they used to designate are reviseted, tracing their usage among some generations of 19th and 20th century linguistics

Does the Relationship between Age and Brain Structure Differ in Youth with Conduct Disorder?

Conduct disorder (CD) is characterised by persistent antisocial and aggressive behaviour and typically emerges in childhood or adolescence. Although several authors have proposed that CD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, very little evidence is available about brain development in this condition. Structural brain alterations have been observed in CD, and some indirect evidence for delayed brain maturation has been reported. However, no detailed analysis of age-related changes in brain structure in youth with CD has been conducted. Using cross-sectional MRI data, this study aimed to explore differences in brain maturation in youth with CD versus healthy controls to provide further understanding of the neurodevelopmental processes underlying CD. 291 CD cases (153 males) and 379 healthy controls (160 males) aged 9–18 years (Mage = 14.4) were selected from the European multisite FemNAT-CD study. Structural MRI scans were analysed using surface-based morphometry followed by application of the ENIGMA quality control protocols. An atlas-based approach was used to investigate group differences and test for group-by-age and group-by-age-by-sex interactions in cortical thickness, surface area and subcortical volumes. Relative to healthy controls, the CD group showed lower surface area across frontal, temporal and parietal regions as well as lower total surface area. No significant group-by-age or group-by-age-by-sex interactions were observed on any brain structure measure. These findings suggest that CD is associated with lower surface area across multiple cortical regions, but do not support the idea that CD is associated with delayed brain maturation, at least within the age bracket considered here.</p

Meillet, Saussure et la linguistique générale

ABSTRACT : Meillet was a student of Saussure's at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris during 1885-89, substituting for him during 1889-90, when Saussure took a sabbatical leave. Following Saussure's acceptance of a professorship at the University of Geneva in 1891, Meillet remained in touch with him ; letters by the latter addressed to Meillet attest to their friendship. Meillet, for his part, never tired to acknowledge his debt to Saussure ; by contrast, his influence on his former teacher with regard to general linguistic ideas is much less certain. The present paper addresses this question as well as the traditional claim that Saussure was influenced by Durkheimian sociology, most probably mediated by Meillet Throughout most his his career Meillet made general observations about the nature of language and linguistic methodology. But these are usually expressed in book reviews and few papers ; all studies of his of book length are devoted to languages or language groups of the Indo-European family, and it is evident that Meillet remained a comparativist. A close analysis of Meillet's general linguistic ideas reveals that he usually stated the obvious at least if compared with what Saussure had to say about the foundations of linguistics, and that there is little that Saussure could have found in Meillet as a generalise It is therefore not surprising that Meillet's reaction to the Cours de linguistique générale was much less favourable than one might have expected ; for Meillet, Saussure remained first and foremost the author of the Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles, which appeared in Leipzig in 1878.RÉSUME : La biographie de Meillet indique qu'il était élève de Saussure à l'École Pratique des Hautes Études à Paris pendant les années 1885-89 et qu'il le remplaça durant l'année 1889-90 lorsque celui-ci prit un congé d'un an. Nous savons, de plus, que même après que Saussure eut accepté un poste de professeur en grammaire comparée à Genève en 1891, les deux hommes restèrent en contact. La série de lettres adressées par Saussure à Meillet qui a été retrouvée témoigne de l'amitié qui existait entre ces deux érudits. Mais ce qui est plus important, c'est le rapport entre Meillet et Saussure dans le domaine de la linguistique générale : l'influence de Saussure sur Meillet reconnue par ce dernier d'une part, et l'influence possible de certaines idées de Meillet sur la théorie linguistique de son ancien maître, d'autre part. Dans cet exposé, je reverrai en premier lieu la production scientifique de Meillet en ce qui concerne l'évolution de ses idées dans le domaine de la linguistique générale par opposition à ses travaux en linguistique historique et comparée. J'aborderai ensuite la question de l'impact de certaines observations de Meillet sur l'enseignement de la linguistique générale de Saussure durant les années 1907-1911. La bibliographie de Meillet démontre que celui-ci oeuvrait presqu'exclusivement dans le domaine de la linguistique indo-européenne, même si l'on note son intérêt pour des questions de méthode et de théorie générale dans la recherche scientifique. Cet intérêt théorique se révèle davantage dans ses comptes rendus ou ses articles destinés à une audience moins spécialisée que dans ses livres dont la plupart sont consacrés à des langues ou des groupes de langues de la famille indo-européenne. Il reste cependant que Meillet insistait souvent sur le caractère systématique et social du langage - points de vue partagés par Saussure. Toutefois, la réaction de Meillet vis-à-vis du Cours de linguistique générale publié par Charles Bally et Albert Sechehaye suggère que, pour Meillet, Saussure demeurait avant tout l'auteur du Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indoeuropéennes de, 1878.Koerner Konrad. Meillet, Saussure et la linguistique générale. In: Histoire Épistémologie Langage, tome 10, fascicule 2, 1988. Antoine Meillet et la linguistique de son temps, sous la direction de Sylvain Auroux . pp. 57-73