Gli Spectators e il discorso sulla lingua: i topoi come tradizioni discorsive paneuropee

The topic of language has been of central interest to the so-called spectatorial press, a prototype of opinion journalism that developed in the first decades of the 18th century in England and spread to other European countries throughout the century. Within the metalinguistic reflections, carried out under the influence of the Enlighten- ment, there can be found traces of old concepts, elaborated by the philosophy of language in the Antiquity and revitalised in the 18th century under the stimulus of rationalist or empiricist-sensualist doctrines. The recurrence of topoi on language in the pages of the spectator journals shows the vitality of certain key-concepts used by the authors in the criticism or description of languages. Contextually, their diffusion in the discourse on language has contributed to the establishment of pan-European discourse traditions.