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In:Chapters of Dependency Grammar: A historical survey from Antiquity to Tesnière
Edited by András Imrényi and Nicolas Mazziotta
[Studies in Language Companion Series 212] 2020
► pp. 23–58

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Chapter 1
Syntactic relations in ancient and medieval grammatical theory

 | University of Helsinki
Published online: 6 February 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.212.02luh
It was the Stoics among the ancient philosophers who most vividly developed the philosophy of language as part of their logic. Within their theory of meaning, they recognized various types of predicates which required one or more cases or ‘arguments’ to complete their meaning. A minimal complete statement consisting of a verb and one or two nominals formed a logical proposition. This minimal statement also became the point of departure for syntactic analysis when a theory of syntax began to be integrated in grammars. Indeed, some of the basic elements of Stoic logic were adopted into the earliest grammatical theory of syntax, the one composed by the Greek grammarian Apollonius Dyscolus (2nd century AD). His theory, as transmitted to the Middle Ages by the Latin grammar of Priscian (c. 500 AD), established itself as the foundation of the Western theory of syntax. Within this framework, the verb was regarded as an incomplete expression, which needed one or more nominal cases to perfect its meaning. It would then appear that the approach was verb-centered, as it was the verb that drew the nominal parts of speech into a construction. In the Middle Ages, grammar came under the influence of Aristotelian logic, and the functional notions of subject and predicate were incorporated into medieval syntactic theory. As the predicate was defined as saying something about the subject, it could be maintained that logically the subject is prior to its predicate. The same view was implied in the medieval idea of a logical or natural ordering of the parts of speech, whereby the noun occupied the primary position. Thus, the noun occupied the first place, because the verb drew some of its features from the noun, such as number and gender. Such tensions in the inherited theories provided ingredients for lively scholarly discussions throughout the Middle Ages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Stoic logic
    • 2.1Stoic proposition
    • 2.2Self-sufficiency (Autoteleia)
    • 2.3Stoic predicate types
    • 2.4Referentiality
  • 3.Ancient theory of syntax
    • 3.1Rationalistic grammar
    • 3.2Meaning (intelligibile)
    • 3.3Definition of sentence
    • 3.4Congruity (katallelotes, congruitas)
    • 3.5Noun-centered view
    • 3.6Verb-centered view
    • 3.7Transitivity
      • 3.7.1Genus verbi (Diathesis)
      • 3.7.2A third actant?
      • 3.7.3Mixed criteria
    • 3.8Concord and coreferentiality
  • 4.Syntactic theory in the High Middle Ages
    • 4.1Hugh of St. Victor’s De grammatica
      • 4.1.1Well-formed and perfect construction
      • 4.1.2Transitivity
    • 4.2The Summa super Priscianum of Peter Helias
      • 4.2.1Causae inventionis
      • 4.2.2Modi significandi
      • 4.2.3Sentence (oratio) and construction (constructio)
      • 4.2.4Government (regimen)
        • 4.2.4.1Government of nouns
        • 4.2.4.2Government of verbs
      • 4.2.5Transitivity
  • 5.The speculative grammar of the late Middle Ages
    • 5.1Modes of signifying
    • 5.2Transitivity
    • 5.3New dependency relations
      • 5.3.1Dependens – terminans
      • 5.3.2Primum/secundum
    • 5.4Grammaticality and well-formedness
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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