Michel Bréal

Michel Jules Alfred Bréal (miʃɛl bʁeal; 26 March 1832 - 25 November 1915), French philologist, was born at Landau in Rhenish Palatinate. He is often identified as a founder of modern semantics. Michel Bréal was born at Landau in Germany of French-Jewish parents. After studying at Wissembourg, Metz and Paris, he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1852. In 1857 he went to Berlin, where he studied Sanskrit under Franz Bopp and Albrecht Weber. On his return to France he obtained an appointment in the department of oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Impériale. In 1864 he became professor of comparative grammar at the Collège de France, in 1875 member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, in 1879 inspecteur général for higher education until the abolition of the office in 1888. In 1890 he was made commander of the Legion of Honour. He resigned his chair in 1905, and died in Paris. In 1883, Bréal coined the term semantics in the article “Les lois intellectuelles du langage. Fragment de sémantique” published in the journal Annuaire de l'association des études grecques en France (page 133). Among his works, which deal mainly with mythological and philological subjects, may be mentioned: L'Étude des origines de la religion zoroastrienne (1862), for which a prize was awarded him by the Académie des Inscriptions Hercule et Cacus (1863), in which he disputes the principles of the symbolic school in the interpretation of myths Le Mythe d'Œdipe (1864) Les Tables eugubines (1875) Mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique (2nd. ed., 1882) Leçons de mots (1882, 1886) Dictionnaire étymologique latin (1885) Grammaire latine (1890). Essai de sémantique (1897), on the signification of words, which was translated into English by Mrs Emmeline Cust with preface by J. P. Postgate. a translation of Bopp's Comparative Grammar (1866–1874), with introductions, which is highly valued. He also wrote pamphlets on education in France, the teaching of ancient languages, and the reform of French orthography.