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Summa Grammatica

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The Summa Grammatica[n 1] (Latin for "Overview of Grammar"; c. AD 1240[2] or c. 1250)[3] was one of the earlier works on Latin grammar and Aristotelian logic by the medieval English philosopher Roger Bacon.[4] It is primarily noteworthy for its exposition of a kind of universal grammar.[2]

History

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The work is apparently a series of lectures given by Bacon for the mandatory classes on Priscian's work On Construction (Books XVII & XVIII of his Institutes of Grammar) at the University of Paris,[5] where he taught in the 1230s and '40s. Much more than Bacon's later linguistic works, the Summa Grammatica lies in the mainstream of 13th-century analysis.[3] The first part borrows directly from Robert Kilwardby's commentary on Priscian.[6][7] More generally, the work reflects the speculative grammar taught at Oxford in such 13th-century works as the Logica cum Sit Nostra.[8] It is probable that the final draft of the work which Bacon mentions in his Communia Naturalium[9] was never completed.[10] His Greek and Hebrew Grammars and Compendium of Philosophy may have been considered as part of it.[10]

It survived in two manuscripts: P and W. P is a copy in book hand evidently 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

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The work describes figurative language, rhetorical devices, and irregular Latin grammar[13] using "sophisms" or illustrative examples.[14] It aims to complement Bacon's students' required readings of Priscian's work On Construction by 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 as glomerelli.[15] It most frequently cites Priscian, but more often adopts the solutions of Peter Helias.[15]

The first section lays out rules regarding grammatical agreement and the rhetorical devices antithesis,[16][17] synthesis,[18][19] procatalepsis,[20][21][8] From the Aristotelian notion that "art imitates nature to the extent that it can"[22][23] and under the influence of Averroës'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] and ablative 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 are Moris 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] and Nominativo 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 as ite missa est[45] whose use of ellipsis presented certain problems.[34] It's divided into three sections on "On Some Cases in the Nominal Absolute",[46][47] "On Mediate Apposition",[48][49] and "On Some Difficulties in Speech".[50][51]

Intentionalism

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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 follows Kilwardby.[8] Although Bacon considered an understanding of logic to be important for clarity in philosophical and theological texts, he found his era's Modist analyses needed to be tempered by a contextual understanding of the linguistic ambiguity inevitable in the imposition of signs and from the shifts of meaning and emphasis over time.[8]

Universal grammar

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Bacon argues for a universal grammar underlying all human languages.[2] As more tersely stated in his later Greek Grammar:[2]

Grammar is one and the same in all languages, substantially, though it may vary, accidentally, in each of them.[55][n 4]

Hovdhaugen leaves open the possibility, however, that, unlike the Modists who 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 the Latin grammatica, which referred variously to the structure of language, to its description, and to the science underlying such descriptions.[56]

See also

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  • Modistae, the philosophical school which developed partially under the influence of this work[2]
  • Book III of the Opus Majus

Notes

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  1. ^ In modern references, this standard spelling is typically used, but it is actually written as Summa Gramatica in the surviving texts.[1]
  2. ^ Referenced in the work by the terms of art "first item" (principium) or "end from which" (terminus a quo).[8]
  3. ^ Referenced in the work by the terms of art "end" (terminus) or "end to which" (terminus ad quem).[8]
  4. ^ In Latin, Grammatica una et eadem est secundum substantiam in omnibus linguis, licet accidentaliter varietor.

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. v.
  2. ^ a b c d e Murphy (1974), p. 153.
  3. ^ a b Hovdhaugen (1990), p. 121.
  4. ^ SEP (2013), §2.
  5. ^ a b Steele (1940), p. x.
  6. ^ Kilwardby, Inst. Gram., Ch. xvii.
  7. ^ Rosier-Catach (1994).
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o SEP (2013), §3.1.
  9. ^ Bacon, Com. Nat., Bk. I, p. 1.
  10. ^ a b Steele (1940), p. xii.
  11. ^ Cambridge Peterhouse 191.
  12. ^ Worcester Cathedral, MS Q13.
  13. ^ Steele (1940), pp. x–xi.
  14. ^ a b Rosier-Catach (1997), p. 68
  15. ^ a b Steele (1940), p. xi.
  16. ^ SG, "De Antithesi".
  17. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 27 ff.
  18. ^ SG, "De Sinthesi vel Apposicione".
  19. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 43 ff.
  20. ^ SG, "De Prolemptica Construccione".
  21. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 71 ff.
  22. ^ Aristotle, Phys., Bk. II, 219, 4a21.
  23. ^ SG, §35.4.
  24. ^ SG, §34.
  25. ^ SG, "De Construccionibus Impersonibus".
  26. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 74 ff.
  27. ^ SG, "De Gerundio".
  28. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 86 ff.
  29. ^ SG, "De Interjeccione".
  30. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 95 ff.
  31. ^ SG, "De Ablativo Absoluto".
  32. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 121 ff.
  33. ^ SG, §119 ff.
  34. ^ a b c Rosier-Catach (1997), p. 69.
  35. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 129 ff.
  36. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 135 ff.
  37. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 145 ff.
  38. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 150 ff.
  39. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 159 ff.
  40. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. 161.
  41. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. 162.
  42. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. 163.
  43. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. 164.
  44. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. 165.
  45. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. 183.
  46. ^ SG, "De Quibusdam Casibus Absolute Positis".
  47. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 166 ff.
  48. ^ SG, "De Apposicione Mediata".
  49. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 167 ff.
  50. ^ SG, "De Aliquibus Locucionibus Difficilibus".
  51. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), pp. 180 ff.
  52. ^ Rosier-Catach (1997), p. 73.
  53. ^ Nolan & al. (1902), p. 27.
  54. ^ Murphy (1974), p. 154.
  55. ^ Nolan,[53] cited in Murphy.[54]
  56. ^ a b Hovdhaugen (1990), pp. 127–128.

Bibliography

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  • 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)