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Michel Bréal

Historical and Comparative Linguistics

Michel Jules Alfred Bréal was a French philologist born at Landau in the Rhenish Palatinate. He is often identified as a founder of modern semantics, and was also the creator of the modern marathon race, having proposed its first running at the 1896 Olympic Games and offered what became known as Bréals Silver Cup to the winner.

Facts
Birth Year
1832 1
Death Year
1915 1
Role
French philologist, founder of modern semantics 1
Birth Date
1832-03-26 1
Death Date
1915-11-25 1
Classification
Nationality
France 1
Connections

Associated With

A comparative philologist of the Indo-European languages who coined the term semantics in his 1897 Essai de semantique.

Influenced

Breal was Meillet teacher in Paris and a formative influence on his approach to historical and comparative linguistics.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Michel Bréal
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead sentence, birth date in parenthetical
    26 March 1832-25 November 1915
  • Lead sentence, birth year in parenthetical
    26 March 1832-25 November 1915
  • Lead sentence, occupational description
    French philologist, was born at Landau in Rhenish Palatinate. He is often identified as a founder of modern semantics.
  • Lead sentence, death date in parenthetical
    26 March 1832-25 November 1915
  • Lead sentence, death year in parenthetical
    26 March 1832-25 November 1915
  • Nationality, Michel Bréal entity page
    Michel Jules Alfred Bréal was a French philologist born at Landau in the Rhenish Palatinate.
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