The articles in this volume are revised versions of papers presented at an international colloquium in Munich in 2001. With special reference to French, the authors attempt a cognitive interpretation of language features and texts from a decidedly historical viewpoint. Implicit in the project is the hope that 'cognitive history' will be able to establish itself as a third approach alongside external history (largely event-based) and internal history (derived from the structuralist model). Among the topics addressed are schematization, conceptualization, lexical variation, and enunciation.