Article published in:
Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 27:2/3 (2000) ► pp. 379–414

Seven grammarians on the ‘ablativus absolutus’

| University of Leiden
In this article, the history of the so-called ablative absolute as a descriptive category is traced from the 3rd to the 20th century. Texts by Sacerdos, Diomedes, Priscian, Alberic of Montecassino, Kühner & Stegmann and Harm Pinkster illustrate how the ablative absolute is recognized long before it get its name, and how its role in grammatical description is invented, changes, and disappears again in accordance with the grammatical systems adopted by the respective grammarians. The ablative absolute starts as a kind of appendix to the doctrine of the parts of speech, is moved from the description of the noun to that of the participle, and eventually just fades away as a descriptive label in its own right in the context of Functional Grammar. Its history cannot, of course, prove that the ‘God’s Truth’ metaphysics of grammar is wrong, but it certainly looks like a series of manifestations of grammatical ‘Hocus Pocus’.
Published online: 08 April 2002
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.27.2.13slu
References
Baratin, Marc
1989 La naissance de la syntaxe à Rome. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Barwick, Karl
1922 Remmius Palaemon und die römische ars grammatica . Leipzig: Dieterich. (Repr., Hildesheim: Georg Olms 1967.)Google Scholar
Calboli, Gualtiero
1972 La linguistica moderna e il latino: I casi. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Dik, Simon C.
1978 Functional Grammar. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
De Groot, A. W.
1964 Inleiding tot de Algemene Taalwetenschap. 2nd ed. Groningen: Wolters.Google Scholar
Householder, Fred W.
1952 Review of Zellig S. Harris, Methods in Structural Linguistics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1951) International Journal of American Linguistics 181. 260–268.Google Scholar
1957 “Rough Justice in Linguistics”. Report of the Seventh Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Study ed. by Paul L. Garvin, 153–160. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Hunt, Richard William
1980 The History of Grammar in the Middle Ages: Collected papers. Ed. with introduction, bibliography, and indices by G. L. Bursill-Hall. Amsterdam & Philadelpia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jeep, Ludwig
1893 Zur Geschichte der Lehre von den Redetheilen bei den lateinischen Grammatikern. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.Google Scholar
Kühner, Raphael & Carl Stegmann
1912 Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache. 21. Teil: Satzlehre. 2nd ed. Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung. (Repr., Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1971.)Google Scholar
Murru, Furio
1980a “Les cas et la linguistique ancienne: le ‘septième cas’”. Lalies 11.67–69.Google Scholar
1980b “À propos du septimus casus ”. Eos 681.151–154.Google Scholar
Pinkster, Harm
1984 Latijnse syntaxis en semantiek. Amsterdam: B. R. Grüner.Google Scholar
1990 Latin Syntax and Semantics. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rockinger, Ludwig
1863 Briefsteller und Formelbücher des elften bis vierzehnten Jahrhunderts. Vol. I1. München: Georg Franz.Google Scholar
Scaglione, Aldo D.
1970 Ars grammatica: A bibliographical survey, two essays on the grammar of the Latin and Italian subjunctive, and a note on the ablative absolute. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Sluiter, Ineke
1990 Ancient Grammar in Context: Contributions to the study of ancient linguistic thought. Amsterdam: VU University Press.Google Scholar
1997 “Parapleromatic Lucubrations”. New Approaches to Greek Particles: Proceedings of the Colloquium held in Amsterdam, January 4–6, 1996, to honour C. J. Ruijgh ed. by Albert Rijksbaron, 233–246. Amsterdam: Gieben.Google Scholar
Taylor, Daniel J.
1996 Varro, De lingua latina X: A new critical text and English translation with prolegomena and commentary. Amsterdam & Philadelpia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thurot, Charles
1869 Notices et Extraits de divers manuscrits latins pour servir à l’histoire des doctrines grammaticales au moyen âge. (= Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale, 22.) Paris: Impr. Nationale. (Repr., Frankfurt/M.: Minerva 1964.)Google Scholar
Tolkiehn, Johannes
1916 Philologische Streifzüge. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.Google Scholar
Wouters, Alfons
1993 “The Grammatical Term apolelumenon in the School Book Brit. Mus. Add. MS 37533 (= Pack-2 2712)”. Chronique d’Égypte 681.168–177. CrossrefGoogle Scholar