La langue naturelle en Périgord au xvi^e siècle Autour de l’activité épilinguistique des Essais

Gilles Couffignal examines the problem of natural language in the work of Montaigne by focusing on the thread of epilinguistic activity which emerges around Occitan and Latin in the Essais. He shows that these languages share with the subject that speaks them an imperfection and instability which is the very index of their richness. As such, it is never language which is natural but rather the subject who, by using it, seeks to define his or her own naturalness.