Cover not available
Article published In:
Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 41:2/3 (2014) ► pp.219–245

Medieval Commentators on the Notion ‘persona agentis’ in Priscian’s Syntactic Theory

| University of Copenhagen
Medieval syntactic analysis ranges from simple word order parsing in prescriptive grammars to sophisticated discussions of first and secondary constructibles in modistic, dependency grammars. What combines these two levels is found in Priscian‘s use of actants: (1) persona agentis (= Apollonius’ ‘understood nominative’), (2) verb phrase, and (3) persona patientis, in this paradigmatic word order, corresponding to an underlying structure with an active verb, e.g., audio te “I hear you” corresponding to audieris a me “You are heard by me”, seruio tibi “I am a servant to you”, seruieris a me “You are served by me”. In medieval understanding, more complex sentences are reducible / convertible to such active / passive constructions, if one includes their particular notions of government, where verbs govern the nominative and / or oblique cases, always in separate dyadic combinations, e.g., “I hear”, “hear you”.
Published online: 10 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.41.2-3.02fre
References (64)
References
A. Primary sources
Alexander de Villa-Dei. Das Doctrinale des Alexander de Villa-Dei. Kritisch-exegetische Ausgabe by Dietrich Reichling. New York: Burt Franklin, 1974 [1845].Google Scholar
Apollonius Dyscole. De la construction. Texte grec accompagné de notes critiques, introduction, traduction, notes exégétiques. Ed. & transl. by Jean Lallot. 21 vols. Paris: Vrin, 1997.Google Scholar
CIMAGL = Cahiers de l’institut du Moyen-Age grec et latin. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen 1969–. [URL] since 2010.
Donatus, Fundamentum, Regulae. Tre Latinske Grammatikker. Donatus, Fundamentum, Regulae. Ed. by Jan Pinborg & Erik Dal. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1979.Google Scholar
GL = Grammatici Latini. Ed. by Heinrich Keil. 81 vols. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1855–1880. (Repr., Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1981.)Google Scholar
Glosa Victorina. Glosa Victorina super partem Prisciani de Constructione (ms Paris Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal 910). Ed. by Karin Margareta Fredborg with the collaboration of Anne Grondeux and Irène Rosier-Catach. (= Studia artistarum, 27.) Turnhout: Brepols, 2011. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grammatica Porretana. Ed. by Karin Margareta Fredborg & Cornelius Henri Kneepkens. CIMAGL 571.11–67 (1988).Google Scholar
Guarino of Verona. Ed. by W. Keith Percival. [URL].
Hugo of St. Victor. De grammatica. Cited after Jean Leclercq, “Le De grammatica de Hugues de Saint-Victor”. Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 141.263–322 (1943/45).Google Scholar
Jordanus. Notulae super Priscianum Minoren Magistri Jordani. Ed. by Mary Sirridge, (= CIMAGL, 36). Copenhagen, 1980.Google Scholar
Martinus de Dacia. = Martini de Dacia Opera. Ed. by Heinrich Roos. (= Corpus Philosophorum Danicorum, 2.) Copenhagen: Gad, 1961.Google Scholar
Petrus Helias. Summa super Priscianum. Ed. by Leo Reilly. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1993.Google Scholar
Priscian. Institutiones grammaticae. Ed. by Martin Hertz = GL II–III.
Radulphus Brito. Quaestiones super Priscianum Minorem. Ed. by Heinz W. Enders & Jan Pinborg. 21 vols. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1980.Google Scholar
Robertus Anglicus. La Sophistria de Robertus Anglicus. Ed. by Anne Grondeux & Irène Rosier-Catach. Paris: Vrin, 2006.Google Scholar
Thomas of Erfurt. Grammatica Speculativa of Thomas of Erfurt. Ed. & transl. by Geoffrey L. Bursill-Hall. London: Longman, 1972.Google Scholar
William of Conches. Glose super Priscianum. Ms Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat. 15130 (late version).
B. Secondary sources
Baratin, Marc. 2007. “Un exemple du traitement des sources philosophiques de Priscien: le classement stoïcien des prédicats”. Priscien, Transmission et réfondation de la grammaire: De l’antiquité aux modernes ed. by Marc Baratin, Bernard Colombat & Louis Holtz (= Studia artistarum, 21), 139–149. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Copeland, Rita & Ineke Sluiter. 2009. Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language arts and literary theory, AD 300–1475. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Covington, Michael. 1984. Syntactic Theory in the High Middle Ages: Modistic models of sentence structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ebbesen, Sten. 1981. “The Present King of France Wears Hypothetical Shoes with Categorical Laces: Twelfth-century writers on well-formedness”. Medioevo 71.91–113.Google Scholar
Ebbesen, Sten & Frédéric Goubier. 2010. A Catalogue of 13th-Century Sophismata. 21 vols. Paris: Vrin.Google Scholar
Fredborg, Karin Margareta. 1981. “Some Notes on the Grammar of William of Conches”. CIMAGL 371.21–41.Google Scholar
. 1988. “Speculative Grammar”. A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy ed. by Peter Dronke, 177–195. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011a. “William of Conches and his Grammar”. Guillaume de Conches: Philosophie et science au XIIe siècle ed. by Barbara Obrist & Irene Caiazzo, 329–376. Firenze: Edizioni del Galuzzo.Google Scholar
. 2011b. “Notes on the Glosulae and its Reception by William of Conches and Petrus Helias”. Arts du langage et théologie aux confins des XIe–XIIe siècles: Textes, maîtres, débats ed. by Irène Rosier-Catach. (= Studia artistarum, 26), 453–483. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondeux, Anne & Irène Rosier-Catach. 2011. “Les Glosulae super Priscianum et leur tradition”. Ibid. 107–179.Google Scholar
Grotans, Anna A. 2006. Reading in Medieval St. Gall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Householder, Fred W. 1981. The Syntax of Apollonius Dyscolus. Translated with a commentary and an introduction. (= Studies in the History of Linguistics, 23.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Louis G. 2002. The Mirror of Grammar. Theology, philosophy and the Modistae. (= Studies in the History of Language Sciences, 101.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kneepkens, Cornelius Henri. 1978. “Master Guido and his View on Government: On Twelfth-Century Linguistic Thought”. Vivarium 16:2.108–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1983. “The Quaestiones grammaticales of the MS Oxford, Corpus Christi College 250. An Edition of the First Collection”. Vivarium 21:1.1–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1987a. Het iudicium constructionis: Het Leersstuk van de Constructio in de 2de Helft van de 12de Eeuw. 41 vols. Nijmegen: Ingenium.Google Scholar
. 1987b. “ Ab omni homine habetur aliquod capud: A note on the concept of word order in twelfth-century grammatical thought”. Vivarium 25:2.146–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1987c. “ Suppositio and supponere in 12th-century grammar”. Gilbert de Poitiers et ses contemporains: Aux origines de la Logica Modernorum. Actes du septième symposium Européen d’historie de la logique et de la sémantique médiévales Poitiers 17–22 juin 1985 ed. by Jean Jolivet & Alain de Libera, 325–351. Napoli: Bibliopolis.Google Scholar
. 1990. “On Medieval Syntactic Thought with Special Reference to the Notion of Construction”. HEL 12:2.139–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2013. “Robert Kilwardby on Grammar”. A Companion to the Philosophy of Robert Kilwardby ed. by Henrik Lagerlund & Paul Thom, 17–64. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lallot, Jean. 1997. See Apollonius Dyscole.Google Scholar
Libera, Alain de & Irène Rosier. 1992. “La pensée linguistique médiévale”. Historie des idées linguistiques ed. by Sylvain Auroux, vol. II1. 115–186. Liège: Mardaga.Google Scholar
Luhtala, Anneli. 1993. “Syntax and Dialectic in the Carolingian Commentaries on Priscian’ Institutiones grammaticae ”. Historiographia Lingustica 20:1.145–191. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. “Priscian’s Philosophy”. Priscien: Transmission et réfondation de la grammaire. De l’antiquité aux modernes ed. by Marc Baratin, Bernard Colombat & Louis Holtz. (= Studia artistarum, 21), 109–124. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
. 2014. “Scholastic Influence on Syntactical Theory in Pedagogical Grammars”. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 241.51–70.Google Scholar
Marmo, Costantino. 1994. Semiotica e linguaggio nella scolastica: Parigi, Bologna, Erfurt 1270–1330. La semiotica dei modisti. (= Istituto storico italiano per il medio evo. Nuovi studi storici, 26.) Roma: Istituto Palazzo Borromini.Google Scholar
. 2010. La semiotica del XIII secolo tra arti liberali e teologia. Milano: Bompiani.Google Scholar
Percival, W. Keith. 1981. “The Place of the Rudimenta Grammatices in the History of Latin Grammar”. Res publica litterarum: Studies in the the Classical Tradition 41.233–264.Google Scholar
. 1983. “Grammar and Rhetoric in the Renaissance”. Renaissance Eloquence: Studies in the theory and practice of Renaissance rhetoric ed. by James J. Murphy, 303–330. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
. 1987. “On Priscian’s Syntactic Theory: The medieval perspective”. Papers in the History of Linguistics: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the History of Language Sciences, Princeton 19–23 August 1984. (= Studies in the History of Language Sciences, 38), 65–74. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1990. “Reflections on the History of Dependency Notions in Linguistics”. Historiographia Linguistica 17:1/2.29–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pinborg, Jan. 1967. Die Entwicklung der Sprachtheorie im Mittelalter. (= Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, 42.2). Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlags-buchhandlung.Google Scholar
. 1972. Logik und Semantik im Mittelalter: Ein Überblick. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog.Google Scholar
. 1973. “Some Syntactical Concepts in Medieval Grammar”. Classica et Mediaevalia ( Francisco Blatt Septuagenario dedicata ). Dissertationes 91.496–509.Google Scholar
. 1980. “Can Constructions be Construed”. Historiographia Linguistica 7:1/2.201–210. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1984. Medieval Semantics. Selected Studies on Medieval Logic and Grammar ed. by Sten Ebbesen. London: Variorum Reprints.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Suzanne. 1990. “ Ad auctorum expositionem: Syntactic theory and interpretative practice in the twelfth century”. HEL 12:2.31–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1996a. “‘Let him read the Satires of Horace’: Reading, literacy and grammar in the twelfth century”. The Practice and Representation of Reading in England ed. by James Raven, Helen Small & Naomi Tadmor, 22–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
. 1996b. Medieval Reading: Grammar, rhetoric and the classical text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosier, Irène. 1984. “Transitivité et ordre des mots chez les grammariens médiévaux”. Matériaux pour une histoire des théories linguistiques ed. by Sylvain Auroux, Michel Glatigny et al., 181–190. Lille: Université de Lille III.Google Scholar
. 1987. “La syntaxe des modistes: A propos d’un ouvrage récent”. Le Moyen Âge 3:2.461–468.Google Scholar
. 1994. La parole comme acte: Sur la grammaire et la sémantique au XIIIe siècle. Paris: Vrin.Google Scholar
Rosier-Catach, Irène. 2010. “Grammar”. The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy ed. by Robert Pasnau & Christina Van Dyke, vol. I1, 196–216. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sirridge, Mary. 1995. “The Science of Language and Linguistic Knowledge: John of Denmark and Robert Kilwardby”. Sprachtheorien im Spätantike und Mittelalter ed. by Sten Ebbesen (= Geschichte der Sprachtheorie, 3), 108–134. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Tesnière, Lucien. 1959. Éléments de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Thurot, Charles. 1868. Notices et extraits de divers manuscrits latins pour servir à l’histoire des doctrines grammaticales aut Moyen Âge. (= Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliotèque impériale et d’autres bibliotèques, 22.2.) Paris: Imprimérie impériale. (Repr., Frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1964.)Google Scholar
Vuillemin-Diem, Gudrun & Marwan Rached. 1997. “Burgundio di Pise et ses manuscrits grecs d’Aristôte: Laur. 87.7 et Laur. 81.18”. Recherches des théologie et philosophie médiévales 64:1.136–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Kneepkens, C. H.
2020. Peter Helias. In Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy, ► pp. 1430 ff. DOI logo
Fernandes, Gonçalo
2017. Syntax in the earliest Latin-Portuguese grammatical treatises. Historiographia Linguistica 44:2-3 ► pp. 228 ff. DOI logo
Kneepkens, C. H.
2017. The Donatus minor between Via antiqua and Via moderna . Historiographia Linguistica 44:2-3 ► pp. 355 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.