The Mirror of Grammar

Theology, philosophy and the Modistae

Author
L.G. Kelly | Darwin College, Cambridge
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027245908 (Eur) | EUR 110.00
ISBN 9781588111760 (USA) | USD 165.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027297303 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00
 
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ISBN 9780585462523
Much is known about the grammar of the modistae and about its eclipse; this book sets out to trace its rise. In the late eleventh century grammar became an analytical rather than an exegetical discipline under the impetus of the new theology. Under the impetus of Arab learning the ancient sciences were reshaped according to the norms of Aristotle’s Analytics, and developed within a structure of speculative sciences beginning with grammar and culminating in theology. Though the modistae acknowledge Aristotle, Donatus, Priscian and the Arab commentators, their roots also lie in Augustine and Boethius, and they took as much from their scholastic contemporaries as they gave them. This book traces the genesis of a grammar which communicated freely with other speculative sciences, shared their structures and methods, and affirmed its own individuality by defining its object as the causes of language.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“[...] a particularly thorough historical exploration of the Modistae, the medieval school of speculative grammar that sought to blend Aristotelian logic with Augustinian views on language [...]”
“For more than seven centuries the Wise in Dante’s Sphere of the Sun have awaited a synthesis of their linguistic wisdom in the context of their understanding of God and the human mind. Kelly, having accomplished this monumental task, has earned his seat among them. He charts the revolutionary developments in grammatical theory that took place in the 12th and 13th centuries, and most intensely in the Paris of the 1260s-70s, which he compares to MIT in the 1950s-60s. Composed of erudition and insight in equal measures, the book radiates enlightenment and inspiration. The balance among topics and chapters is exquisite, the writing crystalline. In a word, the book is great, in both the classical and vernacular senses.”
Cited by

Cited by 18 other publications

Appolloni, Claudia
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2017. Syntax in the earliest Latin-Portuguese grammatical treatises. Historiographia Linguistica 44:2-3  pp. 228 ff. DOI logo
Fredborg, Karin Margareta
2014. Medieval Commentators on the Notion ‘persona agentis’ in Priscian’s Syntactic Theory. Historiographia Linguistica 41:2-3  pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
Kelly, L. G.
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Kneepkens, C. H.
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Manzano Ventura, Victoria
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Pasnau, Robert
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2018. Unruly Grammar: Linking Vernacular English to Changing Models of Early Modern Pedagogy and Power Politics. English Literary Renaissance 48:1  pp. 98 ff. DOI logo
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2017. Latin parsing grammars from the Carolingian age to the later Middle Ages. Historiographia Linguistica 44:2-3  pp. 255 ff. DOI logo
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Rosier-Catach, IrèNe
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Schneider, Christoph
2022. The Mystery of Words: Orthodox Theology and Philosophy of Language. In Eastern Christian Approaches to Philosophy,  pp. 171 ff. DOI logo
Szoc, Sara
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TURAN, Bülent & Gürkan HAŞİT
2021. Kişilik Özellikleri ve Whistleblowing Niyeti: HEXACO Modeli ile Kavramsal Bir Bakış. Bilecik Şeyh Edebali Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2020. Chapter 1. The historiography of linguistics past, present, future. In Last Papers in Linguistic Historiography [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 128],  pp. 4 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 march 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.

Subjects

Main BIC Subject

HP: Philosophy

Main BISAC Subject

PHI000000: PHILOSOPHY / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2002074488 | Marc record