Une pragmatique avant la pragmatique : « médiévale », « arabe » et « islamique »

What is it about?

Although “ pragmatics ”, historically speaking, refers, with “ syntactics ” (syntax) and “ semantics ”, to one of the three branches of Morris’s semiotics, it may, from a non-historical point of view, be used to charac¬terise any theory of language, implicit or explicit, which takes into consideration the “ interpreters ” and, as a corollary, such things as the action of one interpreter on the other, the other interpreter’s reaction, and the interaction of both. Modern pragmatics may also — without any undue zeal in the search for forerunners — be used as a heuristic device to bring to light the pragmatic nature of “ theories ” of language belonging to other historical periods and other geographical areas than our own. This is the approach we shall adopt in the following article, showing that there exists a common pragmatic dimension providing a strong and original link between those various disciplines which, in the Arabic language and in an Islamic context, during a period which might be termed “ medieval ” (from the 8th to 18th centuries), dealt either entirely (grammar and rhetoric), or in part (the theologico-juridical sciences) with language. Among these disciplines the relatively late (13th century) category of ’inšā’ (literally “ creation ”) — the Arabic counterpart to the Austinian categories of “ performative utterances ” and “ illocutionary acts ” — constitutes the most spectacular “ pragmatic ” element.

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