In accordance with the intentions of the Editorial Board this chapter is not meant to be a full-scale history of the linguistic achievements of the seventeenth century; it is rather a critical report on some aspects of research that has been carried out in this field during the last few decades pertaining to grammar and the theory of language. At some places the available material is supplemented by readings and interpretations that occurred to the present writer as he looked through various sources. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that this article is—at least in principle—restricted to an evaluation of works and contributions dealing with questions of general linguistics and some adjacent areas, like, eg, language philosophy and semiotics. Consequently, no attempt is made to discuss the endless number of grammars and grammatical treatises dealing with some particular language or special aspects of one or another language. 1 Furthermore, it is not the intention of this article to determine with reasonable accuracy the various influences of earlier writers on grammatical doctrines developed during the seventeenth century; at certain points, however, where reliable work on special influences on certain grammarians is available, such results will be included in our survey. Another problem consists in describing possible crossrelationships between authors belonging to the period under consideration. Due to the lack of a relatively complete history of linguistics in the seventeenth century only fragmentary informations can be given on this point. In most of the recently published full-scale works on the history of linguistics, eg Verburg 1951, Borst 1957-63, Tagliavini 1964, Ivic 1965, Kukenheim 1966, Robins 1967, Mounin 1967, Arens 1969, and Leroy 1971, the seventeenth century is not treated as fully as one would wish in view of the many important philosophical and linguistic contributions stemming from this century. 2 More specialized works, as for example Rossi 1960, Kretzmann 1967 and Formigari 1970 will be discussed in the proper places.