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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 20:1 (1993) ► pp.145–191

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Syntax and dialectic in carolingian commentaries on priscian’s institutiones grammaticae

 | University of Helsinki
Published online: 1 January 1993
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.20.1.09luh
Summary
The present article deals with two aspects of linguistic study associated with the reintroduction of Priscian’s Institutiones in the Carolingian Renaissance – the infiltration of logical concepts into linguistic description and the initiation of syntactic studies. In both of these fields the achievement of ninth-century scholars marks a significant departure from the grammatical tradition of preceding centuries. Evidence for the new orientation of linguistic studies can be found mainly in the philosophical elaboration of grammatical notions in grammatical commentaries as well as in glosses to Priscian’s Institutiones; the latter material is as yet unedited.
Sharing the concern of their philosopher contemporaries for the Aristotelian categories, the grammarians not only elaborated the philosophical notions present in Priscian’s work but searched continuously for new sources of inspiration, mainly in elementary logical texts. Syntactic doctrine, which figures throughout Priscian’s discussion of the parts of speech, is from the start an object of concern for the commentators. The Carolingian scholars achieve an interpretation of Priscian’s syntactic doctrine which is peculiar to them, placing a special emphasis on certain philosophical points of doctrine. An alternative approach to syntactic analysis, applying the dialectical notions of subject and predicate to syntactic description, offered by the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella, is employed by at least one master concerned with both logical and grammatical issues.
Résumé
Le présent article traite de deux aspects de l’étude linguistique, liés à la réintroduction des Institutiones de Priscien au moment de la Renaissance carolingienne: la pénétration de concepts d’ordre logique dans la description linguistique et le début des études de la syntaxe. Dans ces deux domaines, l’oeuvre des savants du IXe siècle se différencie de manière significative de la tradition grammaticale des siècles précédents. On peut trouver un témoignage de la nouvelle orientation des études linguistiques surtout dans deux types de textes: les commentaires grammaticaux, avec leur élaboration philosophique des notions grammaticales, et les gloses des Institutiones de Priscien – ces dernières sont encore inédites.
Les grammairiens, qui partageaient l’intérêt des philosophes de l’épo-que pour les catégories aristotéliciennes, ont non seulement approfondi l’étude des notions philosophiques présentes dans l’oeuvre de Priscien, mais aussi cherché continuellement de nouvelles sources d’inspiration, surtout dans les traités élémentaires de logique. La théorie syntaxique, qui est presente dans la discussion que fait Priscien des parties du discours, suscite tout de suite l’intérêt des commentateurs. En insistant de manière particu-lière sur certains points de doctrine philosophique, les savants carolingiens mettent au point une interprétation de la doctrine syntaxique de Priscien qui leur est propre. Un maître au moins, qui est préoccupé par des problè-mes à la fois logiques et grammaticaux, aborde de manière différente l’ana-lyse syntaxique: il applique à la description syntaxique les notions dialecti-ques de sujet et de prédicat, telles qu’elles sont proposées par le De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii de Martianus Capella.
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