Linguistics and the science of literature

Abstract

Although the description of literature does not belong to the grammatical tradition, since the advent of linguistics, two centuries ago, the science of language and the science of literature met in the field of cultural sciences. Their meeting, however, was to be neglected later in the formal grammars and in orthodox cognitivism. Yet the semiotics of cultures relies on theoretical achievements resulting from the development of a comparative method within structuralism. It is therefore possible to conceive a linguistics of texts that extends into a science of works. Linguistic and literary studies undoubtedly have much to learn from their interactions within the broad field of cultural sciences.