Summa Grammatica
TheSumma Grammatica[n 1](Latinfor "Overview of Grammar";c. AD 1240[2]orc. 1250)[3]was one of the earlier works onLatin grammarandAristotelian logicby the medievalEnglishphilosopherRoger Bacon.[4]It is primarily noteworthy for its exposition of a kind ofuniversal grammar.[2]
History
[edit]The work is apparently a series of lectures given byBaconfor themandatory classesonPriscian's workOn Construction(Books XVII & XVIII of hisInstitutes of Grammar) at theUniversity of Paris,[5]where he taught in the 1230s and '40s. Much more than Bacon's later linguistic works, theSumma Grammaticalies in the mainstream of 13th-century analysis.[3]The first part borrows directly fromRobert Kilwardby's commentary onPriscian.[6][7]More generally, the work reflects thespeculative grammartaught atOxfordin such 13th-century works as theLogica cum Sit Nostra.[8]It is probable that the final draft of the work which Bacon mentions in hisCommunia Naturalium[9]was never completed.[10]HisGreekandHebrew GrammarsandCompendium of Philosophymay have been considered as part of it.[10]
It survived in two manuscripts: P and W. P is a copy inbook handevidently intended for a personal library.[11]W is a students' copy written in the informal hand of the late 13th or early 14th century.[5][12]
Contents
[edit]The work describesfigurative language,rhetorical devices,and irregularLatin grammar[13]using "sophisms" or illustrative examples.[14]It aims to complement Bacon's students' required readings ofPriscian's workOn Constructionby presenting its important points in a more thorough and logical order.[14]It assumes a mastery of standard grammatical rules which the students would have already learnt asglomerelli.[15]It most frequently citesPriscian,but more often adopts the solutions ofPeter Helias.[15]
The first section lays out rules regarding grammatical agreement and the rhetorical devicesantithesis,[16][17]synthesis,[18][19]procatalepsis,[20][21][8]From theAristoteliannotion that "art imitates natureto the extent that it can "[22][23]and under the influence ofAverroës's commentaries,[8]Bacon argues that nouns and pronouns can be distinguished from verbs and adverbs owing to the distinction between permanent and successive things.[8]Further, verbs constitute a kind of movement from the subject[n 2]to the object[24][n 3]which imposes obligations on the grammar.[8]For instance, owing to their origin from verbs, Bacon considers that participles and infinitives are too unstable to function properly as the object of a sentence, as "nothing which is in motion can come to rest in something in motion, no motion being able to complete itself in something in motion".[8]
The second section deals with non-figurative constructions including impersonals,[25][26]gerundives,[27][28]interjections,[29][30]andablative absolutes.[31][32][8]
The third section[33]covers illustrative examples by topic in greater or less detail[8]and more or less at random.[34]The primary ones areMoris erat Persis ducibus tunc temporis omnem ducere in arma domum,[35]Vestes quas geritis sordida lana fuit,[36]Amatus sum vel fui,[37]Vado Romam que est pulcra civitas,[38]Video centum homines uno minus,[39]Lupus est in fabula,[40]In nostro magistro habet bonum hominem,[41]Margarita est pulcherrimus lapidum,[42]Quid nisi secrete leserunt Philide silve,[43]andNominativo hic magister.[44]Most of these examples appear in other collections.[34]
The fourth section analyses short sentences, along with adverbial phrases and liturgical formulas[8]such asite missa est[45]whose use ofellipsispresented certain problems.[34]It's divided into three sections on "On Some Cases in the Nominal Absolute",[46][47]"On MediateApposition",[48][49]and "On Some Difficulties in Speech".[50][51]
Intentionalism
[edit]Bacon emphasizes that grammatical rules cannot be applied mechanistically but must be understood as a structure through which to attempt to understand the author's intent (intentio proferentis).[8]The desire to communicate some particular idea may require breaking some of the standard rules.[52]Such exceptions must, however, be linguistically justified.[8]In this he followsKilwardby.[8]Although Bacon considered an understanding of logic to be important for clarity in philosophical and theological texts, he found his era'sModistanalyses needed to be tempered by a contextual understanding of the linguistic ambiguity inevitable in theimposition of signsand from the shifts of meaning and emphasis over time.[8]
Universal grammar
[edit]Bacon argues for auniversal grammarunderlying allhumanlanguages.[2]As more tersely stated in his laterGreek Grammar:[2]
Grammar is one and the same in all languages, substantially, though it may vary, accidentally, in each of them.[55][n 4]
Hovdhaugenleaves open the possibility, however, that, unlike theModistswho followed Bacon, his own statements on the subject did not refer to a universal grammar but to a universal science to be employed in studying linguistics across languages.[56]This derives from an ambiguity in theLatingrammatica,which referred variously to thestructure of language,to its description, and tothe science underlying such descriptions.[56]
See also
[edit]- Modistae,the philosophical school which developed partially under the influence of this work[2]
- Book III of theOpus Majus
Notes
[edit]- ^In modern references, this standard spelling is typically used, but it is actually written asSumma Gramaticain the surviving texts.[1]
- ^Referenced in the work by the terms of art "first item" (principium) or "end from which" (terminus a quo).[8]
- ^Referenced in the work by the terms of art "end" (terminus) or "end to which" (terminus ad quem).[8]
- ^InLatin,Grammatica una et eadem est secundum substantiam in omnibus linguis, licet accidentaliter varietor.
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. v.
- ^abcdeMurphy (1974),p.153.
- ^abHovdhaugen (1990),p.121.
- ^SEP(2013),§2.
- ^abSteele (1940),p.x.
- ^Kilwardby,Inst. Gram.,Ch. xvii.
- ^Rosier-Catach (1994).
- ^abcdefghijklmnoSEP(2013),§3.1.
- ^Bacon,Com. Nat.,Bk. I, p. 1.
- ^abSteele (1940),p.xii.
- ^CambridgePeterhouse 191.
- ^Worcester Cathedral,MS Q13.
- ^Steele (1940),pp.x–xi.
- ^abRosier-Catach (1997),p. 68
- ^abSteele (1940),p.xi.
- ^SG,"De Antithesi".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 27 ff.
- ^SG,"De Sinthesi vel Apposicione".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 43 ff.
- ^SG,"De Prolemptica Construccione".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 71 ff.
- ^Aristotle,Phys.,Bk. II, 219, 4a21.
- ^SG,§35.4.
- ^SG,§34.
- ^SG,"De Construccionibus Impersonibus".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 74 ff.
- ^SG,"De Gerundio".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 86 ff.
- ^SG,"De Interjeccione".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 95 ff.
- ^SG,"De Ablativo Absoluto".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 121 ff.
- ^SG,§119 ff.
- ^abcRosier-Catach (1997),p.69.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 129 ff.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 135 ff.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 145 ff.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 150 ff.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 159 ff.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. 161.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. 162.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. 163.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. 164.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. 165.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. 183.
- ^SG,"De Quibusdam Casibus Absolute Positis".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 166 ff.
- ^SG,"De Apposicione Mediata".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 167 ff.
- ^SG,"De Aliquibus Locucionibus Difficilibus".
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),pp. 180 ff.
- ^Rosier-Catach (1997),p. 73.
- ^Nolan & al. (1902),p. 27.
- ^Murphy (1974),p.154.
- ^Nolan,[53]cited inMurphy.[54]
- ^abHovdhaugen (1990),pp.127–128.
Bibliography
[edit]- Bacon, Roger(1902), Nolan, Edmond; et al. (eds.),Grammatica Graeca[Greek Grammar],Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
- Bacon, Roger (1940),Steele, Robert(ed.),Summa Gramatica necnon Sumule Dialectices,Opera Hactenus Inedita Rogeri Baconi,No. XV, Oxford: John Jonson for the Clarendon Press.(in Latin)
- "Roger Bacon",The Worthies of the United Kingdom; or Biographical Accounts of the Lives of the Most Illustrious Men, in Arts, Arms, Literature, and Science, connected with Great Britain,London: D. Sidney for Knight & Lacey, 1828, pp. 39–48.
- "Roger Bacon",Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,Stanford University, 2013.
- Hovdhaugen, Eva (1990),"Una et Eadem:Some Observations on Roger Bacon's Greek Grammar ",De Ortu Grammaticae:Studies in Medieval Grammar and Linguistic Theory in Memory of Jan Pinborg,Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science,Ser. III:Studies in the History of the Language Sciences,No. 43, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 117–132,ISBN90-272-4526-6.
- Murphy, James J. (1974),Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: A History of Rhetorical Theory from St. Augustine to the Renaissance,Berkeley: University of California Press,ISBN0-520-04406-1.
- Rosier-Catach, Irène (1994),La Parole Comme Acte: Sur la Grammaire et la Sémantique au XIIIe Siècle,Paris: J. Vrin.(in French)
- Rosier-Catach, Irène (1997),"Roger Bacon and Grammar",Roger Bacon and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays,Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters,No. 57, Leiden: Brill, pp. 67–102,ISBN90-04-10015-6.