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Christianity and Language: St Augustine 354–430; Highly Learned

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Christianity and Language: St Augustine 354–430; Highly Learned Christianity and language: St Augustine 354–430; highly learned teacher of rhetoric from North Africa; convert to Christianity, then bishop of Hippo (now Annaba, Algeria) Highly regarded preacher, prolific writer, most influential thinker of Western Christianity, with strong background in philosophy and liberal arts Vast amount of exegesis Works on liberal arts, including dialectic with discussion of signs/semiotics Christianity and language: St Augustine The Bible on language (Augustine’s exegesis): • The Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9) – variety of languages is God’s punishment • The Pentecost miracle (Acts 2:1–11) – reversal of punishment, "redemption" of lgs • Jesus as the Word of God (Greek logos / Latin verbum / Hung ige etc.) → Jn 1:1–23 [see next slide] Christianity and language: St Aug on Jn1 "In the beginning was the ← The word (logos, verbum) is Word and the Word was a meaningful unit of with God and the Word utterance, which exists before it is uttered; the only was God... valuable part of the relation [John the Baptist] said: I am... a voice of one that ← The voice (Greek phōnē, cries in the desert: Latin vox) is only the carrier, Prepare a way for the the body of the meaning, Lord..." accidental (e.g. can be in any language), of no value in itself Christianity and language: St Augustine The consequence at a general level: what were seen as accidental, external properties of language (forms, sound shapes, variation) were not considered interesting What matters is meaning and pragmatic force Also: great efforts to anchor "accidental" properties of language in some aspect of reality (e.g. five vowels → five senses; eight parts of speech → eight beatitudes) Christianity and the language of the Church In the East, several languages with time- honoured literary traditions (Greek + Aramaic, Coptic, Syriac) → Church had no reservations about translating Bible; liturgy, services in local languages → creation of alphabet for languages with no tradition of writing (Armenian, Georgian, Gothic 4th c., Old Church Slavonic 9th c.) Christianity and the language of the Church In the West, no such languages (West Germanic, Celtic, later Scandinavian, Slavonic and Hungarian) → Roman Church decided to use Latin in liturgy, services, also as the sole language of the Bible (though translations & paraphrases of parts were made occasionally) → Literacy meant knowledge of Latin; anyone aspiring for higher status had to be schooled in Latin, the language of all serious business The Early Middle Ages: 600–800 Elementary instruction in Latin was needed (primarily morphology) inherited material (Donatus) not really good for this purpose Lot of experimentation, additions to Donatus, combinations of Donatus and Priscian’s Institutio de nomine... Insular grammars (mainly by Irish and English monks ― Ireland most cultured part of Europe between cca. 600–800; missions!) The Early Middle Ages: Carolingian era Carolingian Renaissance (around 800): • First back-to-past movement in European history • Charlemagne (r. 768–814) unified Franconian territories into a strong empire, extended it to large part of Europe; was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III (300+ years after fall of last Roman Emperor) • Wished to be seen not only as great conqueror but also as patron of arts/science The Early Middle Ages: Carolingian era Chm. invited greatest scholars of his time to his court, e.g. Paul the Deacon (Italy), Theodulf of Orléans (Spain), Alcuin of York; projects: • All bishops required to open schools • New editions of Bible and Benedictine Rule • many classical texts unearthed, manuscripts • form of writing standardised (Caroline minuscule, clear and harmonious hand → modern lowercase letters) Caroline minuscule (9th c.) vs. Merovingian script a hundred years earlier Merovingian cursive script (8th c.) vs. Caroline minuscule btw the British Isles had their own script, called Insular Hand (images from http://faculty.nmu.edu/kkendall/HS%20101/07b%20carolingian_book_production.htm and digipal.eu) The Early Middle Ages: Carolingian era Consequence: knowledge of Latin greatly improved, new kind of contact with Antiquity Very important discoveries: • Aristotle’s Organon (parts of), in Latin transl. with Porphyry’s introduction (Isagoge) • Priscian’s Institutiones grammaticae (bw. 600–800 only Institutio de nomine... known), probably Alcuin brought a manuscript from England The Early Middle Ages: Carolingian era Porphyry’ Isagoge: basic notions of philosophy e.g. definition species difference category shared feature Man is a rational animal that is mortal and able to laugh unique feature The Early Middle Ages: Carolingian era Porphyry’ Isagoge: basic notions of philosophy e.g. definition: Donatus’ verb (Peter of Pisa) species category shared feature The verb is a part of speech with tense and person without case, signifying action or passivity or neither difference unique feature The Early Middle Ages: Carolingian era Two important trends emerge: • linking grammar with philosophy • interest in syntax Both have to do with the discovery of forgotten texts: Aristotle and Priscian, resp. These trends develop over time into a strong interest in the philosophy of language, also a new direction for pedagogical grammar The Early Middle Ages: Representing form Ex: a nominal paradigm (virtus ‘manliness’) Singular Plural Nominative virtus virtutes Vocative virtus virtutes Accusative virtutem virtutes Genitive virtutis virtutum Dative virtuti virtutibus Ablative virtute virtutibus The Early Middle Ages: Representing form A manuscript from Corbie, early 9th c. virtus tutis ti tem tus te tes tum bus tes tes bus The Early Middle Ages: Representing form A manuscript from Corbie, early 9th c. • no tables/charts to represent paradigms • no sense of stem–affix articulation The Early Middle Ages: Representing form Ex: a nominal paradigm (virtus ‘manliness’) Singular Plural Nominative virtus virtutes Vocative virtus virtutes Accusative virtutem virtutes Genitive virtutis virtutum Dative virtuti virtutibus Ablative virtute virtutibus The High Middle Ages: Universities Up to 11th c. intellectual life in West takes place in monasteries City schools set up from 9th c. onwards (cathedral schools, Charlemagne) Cath. schools grow in size & importance (Reims, Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris, Salisbury, Canterbury...) ~ 1200 some of these develop into universities: Paris, Oxford, later Cambridge, Naples, Lisbon, Toulouse... The High Middle Ages: Universities What made these universities? • structured course spread over several years • well-defined stages • core of prescribed texts, on which lectures were given a set number of times • the granting of degrees • public recognition (charter from Pope) The High Middle Ages: Universities What were the stages? • Arts: Priscian’s Institutiones, Aristotle’s logic, ethics, physics • After graduation: Master of Arts • Higher faculties: theology, law or medicine • At a few universities (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge), faculty of grammar dedicated to training teachers The High Middle Ages: Universities Gregorius Reisch: Margarita philoso- phica nova (1515) Peter of Lombardy (theology) Plato (Physics), Seneca (moral philos.) Pythagoras (music), Euclides (geom.) Ptolemy (astronomy) Aristotle (logic), Cicero (rhetoric, poetics), Boethius (arithmetic) Priscian (advanced grammar) Donatus (elementary grammar) The High Middle Ages: Universities What were the influences? • primarily newly discovered texts by Aristotle • including rest of his Organon, Physics, Metaphysics and others • often translated from Arabic, with Muslims, Jews and Christians collaborating in South (Greek to Arabic to Old Spanish to Latin ?) The High Middle Ages: Universities What happened in the study of language? • Speculative grammar (~ Modistic grammar) – (meaning of term: theoretical!) – (practically only at Paris university, but spreads) – great interest in syntax, based on Priscian – philosophical interest in linking language to universals of reality and workings of the mind • Practical grammar – pedagogical grammar, verse grammars Speculative Grammar Syntax: government and agreement (regimen & congruitas) • word-based, dependency-relations – adjectives depend on nouns – verbs also depend on nouns (both S and O) • mainly for ontological reasons • notion of subject and predicate appear but grammar remains word-based (as opposed to logic) Speculative Grammar Linking language, mind and reality; universal properties of language • nothing essential about language can be found in sounds & sound shapes because those are arbitrary and language-specific • really important (=universal, non-arbitrary) properties can be found in meaning • basic problem: why eight parts of speech and why those specifically? Speculative Grammar Answer to be found in meaning, but not meaning as such (e.g. laugh and laughter have the same meaning) → • Modes of meaning (modi significandi) – substance with quality: noun – substance without quality: pronoun – action or passivity: verb – ... Speculative Grammar Later extended to level of mind and reality: Thing (in reality) props. of thing (modi essendi) Concept (in mind) props. of concept (modi intelligendi) Meaning (in word) props. of meaning (modi significandi) Speculative Grammar Also extended to lower level of grammar (categories like gender, tense etc. are all refashioned as modi, practically unchanged) Problems: ‘stone’ – lapis masc., petra fem. why two genders for same meaning? Martinus Dacus’ answer: lapis = laedens pedem ‘hurting the foot’ petra = pede trita ‘rubbed away
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