Etimologia e semantica: convergenze e divergenze teoriche nella storia del pensiero linguistico antico e tardoantico

In this contribution we will retrace some moments of the story of the relationship between semantics and etymology that runs through the Western philosophy of language, since its Greek origins up to the present day, to show that since then two approaches, corresponding roughly to the two disciplines, in terms of goals, methods and results, were kept quite distinct; and that, if they were overlapping, there was often a clear ideological intent.