Abstract
This study considers the four best known French theories of general grammar with particular reference to the relationship which their authors postulate between thought and language. The first part refers to the reasons for modern interest in such theories and to consequent modern discussion relevant to them. With the aim of placing them in historical perspective, a short account of the progress of the theme of universal grammar is provided. This includes a brief summary of the various theories which may be regarded as subscribing to the concept, and of the progression of the theme in France during the specific period of general grammar there. In the second part, each of the theories is considered separately. Each section within this part has an introduction containing background information such as the role of the respective authors, the influences on their theories, details of their own publications and the main items in the secondary bibliography. In the case of the first section, on the Port-Royal theory, such details are more extensive, partly due to the volume of discussion on Port-Royal, partly to the historical position of the authors at the beginning of the era of general grammar in France. Most of the content in each of the sections is devoted to describing and discussing the conceptions of each of the authors on the nature of thought and its processes, and their accounts of the way in which these processes find their expression in language and affect grammatical theory. Attention is particularly directed at the main aspects of the theories, notably, the features which are considered to be universal, the role of words as artificial signs, and the role of the judgment and its linguistic expression, the proposition. The concluding part traces a certain progression in thinking which can be detected in the four theories and considers some of their relative advantages and disadvantages Also noted are salient features likely to be of interest in the context of modern linguistics.