This book proposes a comprehensive discussion of the issue of linguistic feeling, the subject’s metalinguistic capacity to intuitively apprehend the normative – lexical, syntactic, morphological, phonological… – dimensions of a definite language he or she is acquainted with. The volume’s twelve contributions aim to revisit a concept that, through a fluctuating terminology (“Sprachgefühl,” “sentiment de la langue,” “linguistic intuitions,” etc.), had developed, since the late 18^th century, within a variety of cultural contexts and research traditions, and whose theoretical, epistemological, and historical ins and outs had not been systematically explored so far. Beginning with a long opening chapter, the book consists of two parts, one tracing the multifaceted approaches to linguistic feeling from Herder to Wittgenstein, and one offering a representative overview of the debates about the issue at stake in current linguistics and philosophy, while addressing the question of the place of metacognition, normativity, and affectivity in language processes.

David Romand is a philosopher, historian of knowledge, and language theorist, currently an associate researcher at Centre Gilles-Gaston Granger, Aix-Marseille University (France). As a language theorist, he is particularly interested in semantic, semiotic, and metalinguistic issues, with a strong focus on the German-speaking context and affective science.

Michel Le Du is full professor of philosophy at the University of Aix-Marseille and a member of the Centre Gilles-Gaston Granger. He co-edited the volume Wittgenstein and Aesthetics, Perspectives and Debates (Berlin, Ontos, 2011) and has also written numerous papers on Wittgenstein, philosophy of mind and philosophy of social sciences.