Squib published in:
Lingvisticæ Investigationes
Vol. 41:1 (2018) ► pp. 152–159

The origin of the valency metaphor in linguistics

| University of Warsaw | Polish Academy of Sciences
The aim of this squib is to question the popular belief that the metaphor of valency was introduced to linguistics by Lucien Tesnière in the middle of 20th century. Rather, we show that it was first used by Charles Peirce half a century earlier, leading to apparently independent – but probably mediated by Roman Jakobson – ‘discoveries’ of this metaphor by linguists in the Soviet Union, Holland, USA and indeed France.
Keywords: valency, Tesnière, Peirce, Jakobson
Published online: 27 August 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/li.00017.prz
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