About the Early Reception of Saussure in Italy. Historicity and Sociality of Language in Benvenuto Terracini

Terracini played a central role in the critical reception of Saussure's linguistics in Italy, fueling since 1919 (the year of publication of his review of CLG) the epistemological debate on the status and method of linguistics. His confrontation with Saussure's general linguistics is part of a broader framework of critical rethinking of the foundations and goals of comparative-historical linguistics. At the center of his reflection is the historicity in linguistic research, which should not mean attention to the development and evolution of languages (as in the historical grammar) but to the contingent, temporal and social character of linguistic productions – a sense of historicity elaborated by modern historicism. The article follows Terracini's confrontation with Saussure over the years, through the progressive development of his model of historical linguistics, highlighting its closeness to the reflections of Dilthey and especially Cassirer, rather than Croce