3. Linguistics in the Renaissance period. Emergence of General rational grammar
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Commentaria epistolarum conficiendarum by Heinrich Bebel (published
1503), a collection o f treatises which follow the pattern o f the Elegantie even in their unsystematic form; the Grammaticae institutiones by Jacob Heinrichmann (Pforzheim 1506) and the Institutiones grammaticae by Johannes Brassicanus (Strassburg 1508); the Grammatica by Johannes Turmair (Aventinus) 1512: enlarged edn 1517 under the title Rudimenta grammaticae;13 the Grammatica latina by Philipp Melanchthon (Schwarzerd), o f which Orthographia and Etymologia appeared in 1525, Syntaxis and Prosodia in 1526 - a shortened version o f Brassicanus’ Institutiones which was destined to be pre-eminent in Protestant Germany until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.14 The work on grammar by the Flemish Iohannes van Pauteren (Despauterius), whose acknowledged sources are the grammars by Perotti, Sulpicio Verulano, Aldus Manutius and Nebrija, is a product o f the University o f Louvain; the first three parts o f the work were published in 1510 and 1511 and were intended to take the place o f Alexandre de Villedieu’ s Doctrinale; a fourth part followed in 1514 and, after some resistance from the clergy, the whole work was published in 1537 by Robert Estienne under the title Commentarii grammatici, and it had a dominant influence in France throughout the sixteenth century and beyond.15 Even before that, the same Robert Estienne had published an adaptation o f it written by Jean Pellisson and entitled Contextus universae grammaticae Despauterianae (1530). Still in the Flemish environment, the Restauratio linguae latinae by the aristocrat Georges d ’Halluin (Antwerpen 1533), which takes the Humanist idea o f Latin as a living language to its furthest consequences, is very interesting. Halluin takes his starting point from the Italian Humanists (mainly Biondo Flavio, Poggio Bracciolini, Guarino Veronese and Francesco Filelfo) who in the years between 1435 and 1480 had definitively proved that Latin had been the mother tongue o f the ancient Romans;16 he then projects this acquired certainty onto Varro’s discussion o f analogy and anomaly, dramatizing it as if it emphasized a juxtaposition o f irreconcilable principles;17 and he finally deduces, going back to Quintilian’s famous opposition between latine and grammatice loqui, which Valla had already brought into vogue, a drastic choice: ‘Si latine igitur loqui velimus, grammaticam dimittere ac fugere necesse est, quia aliud est, teste Quintiliano, sed ex priscorum Latinorum libris usum et consuetudinem ac etiam diversitatem eorum loquendi observare opus erit; quam consuetudinem grammatica docere non potest: contraria enim non nisi contraria docent’ .18 So his teaching method resolutely excludes the use of any grammar and relies wholly on a selected list o f authors to be read. The fact that V alla ’ s example lies behind this is made clear by, among other things, the use o f the term elegantia linguae latinae to indicate the final aim which the teaching must achieve, and by the use o f the term sermo quotidianus to indicate the intermediate stage o f familiarization with ‘ everyday Latin’ which was to characterize the learning o f the pupil around the age o f 10 or n . It is equally evident that in this short circuit between the ascertained nature o f Latin in antiquity and the contemporary situation there is also a good deal o f historical blunder. However, there is not only that. One is reminded o f Montaigne’ s claim (we do not know how paradoxical it was) that he spent the first years o f his life immersed in an artificial, exclusively Latin-speaking environment. And if, precisely during the years o f Montaigne’ s and Henri Estienne’ s childhood, Nicolas Berault was composing a dialogue on how to speak Latin fluently (1534), there must have existed in France some milieux for which such a work would prove suitable.19 There is also evidence o f other manuals o f Latin conversation from the last decades o f the fifteenth century onwards.20 However, unlike Valla and Erasmus,21 Georges d ’Halluin considered the use o f the vernacular, and even its teaching, as the first stage in schools, from about 6 to 10 years old. The instrumental use o f the vernaculars in the primary teaching o f grammar is an unavoidable phenomenon, and as such widespread everywhere; justifying it theoretically is another thing. Systematic research on this theme would be very interesting. It seems one could provisionally put forward the hypothesis that the different attitudes on this matter on the part o f grammarians who at the same time share a similar fundamental view, may be related to the respective national linguistic traditions. The exclusively Latin universe contemplated by Valla seems to be the mirage o f an extremist avant-garde which was deliberately closed to a vernacular literary tradition which was excellent but had no political support. Erasmus’ similar attitude seems to be connected to the relative weakness o f the Netherlandish language as a language o f culture. Nebrija’ s and V iv e s ’ different attitude is conditioned by the greater weakness o f the Latin strand and by the political strength of the national language (and Georges d’Halluin, according to this hypothesis, seems to react more as a member o f the French-speaking community o f his little court than as the lord o f a Flemish territory). The beginnings o f Humanist grammar in England, which include prints o f Donatus, Perotti and Sulpicio Verulano, and works by local authors such as the Compendium totius grammaticae (1483) by John Anwykyll and the Introductorium linguae latinae (1495) by Wynkyn de Worde, are linked to Oxford.22 The work o f three Humanists, Thomas Linacre, John Colet and William Lily, who were instrumental in the founding of Latin grammar, is also connected to Oxford. Thomas Linacre, who had been in contact with Poliziano, Chalcondylas and Aldus Manutius, from 1512 composed a couple o f school grammars in English and French, but his principal work is the De emendata structura Download 38.14 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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