This book, which inscribes itself in the field of the history and epistemology of the language sciences, examines how the utterance has come to be regarded as a relevant level of analysis in the course of the history of linguistic theories.

Utterance here is to be understood as a generic term referring to a linguistic sequence perceived as complete, larger to the word and representing – at least intuitively and empirically – a unit of communication. In 17^th-and 18^th-century French general grammars, prominence is given to the utterance which is theorized using a notional and terminological network encompassing the notions of proposition, période and phrase, alternatively conceived of as competing, redundant or complementary.

This study endeavours to bring to light how these units gained a syntactic dimension and how this has resulted in a transformation of the set of notional objects constituting the field of grammar.