French enunciation theory is not a unified theory, but represents several different diversified approaches to pragmatic questions. It developed out of French structuralism, from the heritage of Saussure and grammatical traditions, whereas pragmatics in the Anglo-American tradition grew out of analytical philosophy and logic (Fuchs 1981). It bears resemblances to other pragmatically oriented theories (see, for instance, Banks 2004), but presents an original view on language use. In this essay, the terms enunciation theory and enunciation linguistics are occasionally used. They reflect the French tradition and are literal equivalencies of French terms. But since the used perspective is pragmatic, it is considered appropriate to also use the terms enunciative pragmatics and French pragmatics. The essay first traces the context in which French enunciation theory has developed, and surveys its traditions and the formulation of its main concepts from a historical point of view up to the present day. This is done in order to examine the basic theoretical claims and assumptions the theory makes more generally, and to see how it is situated vis-à-vis neighbouring disciplines. Secondly, it presents its main concepts from the point of view of their basic features and as they are used in research today.