The language of Verdaguer as seen by Pompeu Fabra

This article makes a contribution to the study of the influence of Verdaguer on the linguistic work of Pompeu
Fabra, and on the study of Fabra’s overall view of the figure of Verdaguer. In the first part we present a chronological account (divided into various stages) of Fabra’s references to Verdaguer and other details revealing the standpoint of Fabra with respect to Verdaguer. In the second part we make an assessment of the data presented in the first part, and conclude that Fabra considered Verdaguer the central figure of the nineteenth-century literary renaissance even as he explicitly signaled the appearance of a work such as L’Atlàntida as proof of Catalan’s status as a “genuine language.” In the more specific field of language codification, Fabra relied little on Verdaguer. Where lexis is concerned, however, Fabra was drawn to Verdaguer, especially for his lexical precision and authenticity. Still, Fabra sought to avoid the notion that the
origin of his rich lexical contribution lay, as was widely believed, in the supposedly rural quality of Verdaguer’s language.