The Western Classical Tradition in Linguistics

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The Western Classical Tradition
Keith Allan
LONDON OAKVILLE
Published by UK: Equinox Publishing Ltd, Unit 6, The Village, 101 Amies St, London, SW11 2JW USA: DBBC, 28 Main Street, Oakville, CT 06779 www.equinoxpub.com First edition published 2007. This second edition published 2009. © Keith Allan 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 1 84553 665 7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Allan, Keith, 1943- The western classical tradition in linguistics / Keith Allan.– 2nd ed. p. cm. – (Equinox textbooks and surveys in linguistics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84553-665-7 1. Linguistics--History. I. Title. P61.A375 2009 410.9--dc22 2009016746 Typeset by the author Printed and bound by Lightning Source UK Ltd, Milton Keynes and Lightning Source Inc. (US), La Vergne, TN
In memoriam Mollyae (1910–2006) et Johannis (1920–2007)
Requiescant in pace
Acknowledgments xvi
Symbols and abbreviations used in the text xvii
Chapter 1 Linguistics and the Western Classical Tradition 1 Linguistics, language, and languages 1 Viewpoints on language 5 The Western Classical Tradition in linguistics 9 Why (almost) no women? 14 Summary introduction to the Western Classical Tradition in linguistics 18
Chapter 2 Plato on language 22 Before Plato 22 Plato on meaning and grammar 27 Plato on the relationship between meaning and form in language 28 Particulars, universals, and abstract objects 35 Plato on meaning, form, and understanding 37
Chapter 3 Aristotle’s legacy 39 Aristotle’s footprints in the linguist’s garden 39 Some basic Aristotelian assumptions 41 Aristotle’s parts of speech 43 Aristotle on the phoneme 46 Semantic relations in Aristotle 47 Propositions and their meanings 49 Aristotle and the Gricean maxims 55 A summary of Aristotle’s perambulations in the linguistics garden 57
Chapter 4 The Stoics and Varro 59 The third century BCE through to the third century CE 59 The Stoics 59 Varro 68 The development of a linguistic theory 78
viii Contents
Chapter 5 Quintilian, Dionysius, and Donatus: the start of a pedagogic tradition 80
From philosophy to pedagogy 80 Quintilian 81 The Techn Grammatik of Dionysius Thrax 84 The Artes Grammaticae of Aelius Donatus 93 The parts of speech in the pedagogical tradition 97 Chapter 6 Apollonius and Priscian, the great grammarians among the
ancients 101 Apollonius 101 Priscian 111 Priscian’s Institutiones Grammaticae 112 Priscian’s De Nomine 122 Priscian’s Partitiones 124 A summary of Priscian’s contribution 125
Chapter 7 Prescriptivism from the early middle ages on 128 The prescriptivist tradition 128 The early middle ages 130 Isidore of Seville, encyclopaedist 132 The insular grammarians 136 Ælfric of Eynsham 139 The Anglo-Saxon grammar of Elizabeth Elstob 141 Prescriptivism and standards in English grammar 142 Prescriptive linguistics from the middle ages till modern times 157 Chapter 8 ‘General’ or ‘universal’ grammar: from the modistae to
Chomsky 161 The background to general grammar 161 The modistae or speculative grammarians 163 The recognition of vernacular languages 175 The search for a ‘philosophical language’ and a ‘real character’ 177 General or universal and rationalist grammar 183 From the modistae to Chomsky 192
Chapter 9 Phonetics, phonology, and comparative philology 195 The nineteenth century 195 A brief history of phonetics and phonology 195 Nineteenth century comparative philology 207 Linguistics at the end of the nineteenth century 221
Contents ix
Chapter 10 Language and thought: from Epicurus until after Whorf 224 Speculations on the origin of language and linguistic relativity 224 Speculations on the origin of language 224 Humboldt on the mutual influence of language and culture 234 Boas 238 Sapir 241 Whorf 244 From linguistic relativity to cognitive grammar 248 Chapter 11 Saussurean and functionalist linguistics: the study of
language as human communication 254 Saussure and functionalism 254 Saussurean linguistics 254 Functionalist linguistics 263 The study of language as human communication 276 Chapter 12 Paradigms for linguistic analysis: Bloomfieldian linguistics
and the Chomsky revolution 278 The problem of classifying and categorizing data 278 On kinds of inference applicable to linguistic theorizing 280 Bloomfieldian linguistics 284 Chomsky’s disillusionment with the inductivist paradigm 293 The Chomsky revolution 295 Correlating theoretical constructs with the reality they purport to
represent 297 Evaluating linguistic hypotheses: what a theory of language should do 298 An eclectic approach 303 A tale of two paradigms 305 Chapter 13 Linguistic semantics and pragmatics from earliest times 306 Overview 306 Names 307 Signs and symbols, signification, ideas or concepts, and what in the
world is referred to 309 From lexicography to lexical semantics 323 Semantics within syntactic structures: the work of Jerrold J. Katz 333 Alternatives to Katzian semantics 337 The importance of truth conditions 342 The development of formal semantics 344 Anaphora 347 Contextual considerations and the rise of pragmatics 349 A summary history of semantics and pragmatics 360
x Contents
Epilogue 363
List of Figures
Figure 1.1. King Narmer defeats his enemies 1 Figure 1.2. The Sumerian logograph sag “head” 2 Figure 1.3. Sumerian c. 3000 BCE 2 Figure 1.4. The complex logograph for Sumerian geme “slave-girl” 2 Figure 1.5. The k+vowel syllables of Linear B 3 Figure 1.6. Ptolemy cartouche from the Rosetta Stone 3 Figure 1.7a. Normal right-to-left 3 Figure 1.7b. Left-to-right 3 Figure 1.8. The /l/ graphemes in related scripts 4 Figure 1.9. Semitic lep “ox”. The symbol for comes to be used for A in Greek 4 Figure 1.10. A visual analysis of spoken Sit down will you? 6 Figure 1.11. Smileys 18 Figure 1.12 A map of the ancient world 21 Figure 2.1. The Greek inscription in scripta continua on the Rosetta Stone 22 Figure 2.2. Egyptian demotic papyrus c. 1210 BCE 23 Figure 3.1. Apuleius’ square of opposition 52 Figure 3.2. The square of opposition again 54 Figure 3.3. The modal square of opposition 54 Figure 4.1. The Stoic semiotic triangle and that of Ogden and Richards 61 Figure 4.2. Categories of the lekton 61 Figure 4.3. Cases falling from the upright 64 Figure 7.1. Europe in the early middle ages 129 Figure 8.1. Compositio 171 Figure 8.2. Types of transitives 172 Figure 8.3. Modistic analysis of Socrates percutit Platonem 172 Figure 8.4. Modistic analysis of Socrates albus currit bene 173 Figure 8.5. Modistic analysis of Video legentem librum 173 Figure 8.6. Wilkins’ 40 categories 180 Figure 8.7. Virgil’s book 193 Figure 9.1. A vowel diagram constructed from the First Grammatical Treatise 198 Figure 9.2. Hellwag’s Vowel Chart of 1781 201 Figure 9.3. Grimm’s ‘cycle’ (Kreislauf) 212 Figure 10.1. Figure and ground change in an ambiguous figure 243 Figure 11.1. The mood system in an early version of systemic grammar 266
xii List of Figures
Figure 11.2. A lattice in part of the verbal group complex 267 Figure 11.3. Components of the layered structure of a clause in RRG 269 Figure 11.4. An English sentence 269 Figure 11.5. A Japanese question 270 Figure 11.6. English translation of the Dyirbal in Figure 11.7 270 Figure 11.7. Dyirbal translation of the English in Figure 11.6 270 Figure 11.8. Operator projections 271 Figure 11.9. Operator projections: tense and illocutionary force marking 271 Figure 11.10. Operator projection in a Japanese question 272 Figure 11.11. An English NP compared with its Arrernte translation 272 Figure 11.12. The syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of What did Dana give to Pat
yesterday? 275
Figure 12.1. Hockett’s bottom-up analysis of an English sentence 281 Figure 13.1. Relations within the lexicon (Pustejovsky) 333 Figure 13.2 The semantic reading for chase in Katz 1977c: 62 335
List of Tables
Table 2.1. The three constituents of a letter 24 Table 3.1. The consonant triads 47 Table 3.2. Linguistic correlates for Aristotle’s ten categories 48 Table 4.1. The Stoic tense-aspect system 66 Table 4.2. Derivational irregularity 73 Table 4.3. Varro’s use of inflectional characteristics to distinguish parts of speech 75 Table 4.4. A restoration of Varro’s case~gender matrix 76 Table 4.5. Varro’s tense~aspect paradigm 76 Table 6.1. Apollonius’ four categories among the parts of speech 104 Table 6.2. Priscian’s four categories among the parts of speech 104 Table 6.3. Graphemic simplification 113 Table 6.4. A morphophonemic rule 113 Table 6.5. Formation rule 1 for the past imperfect 118 Table 6.6. Formation rule 2 for the past imperfect 118 Table 7.1. Ælfric’s parts of speech 140 Table 8.1. Modi ens and esse, matter and form 168 Table 8.2. The case of the suppositum 172 Table 9.1. Letters 197 Table 9.2. Table of equivalences between Greek and Latin 211 Table 9.3. Examples of Grimm’s law 212 Table 9.4. Consonant correspondences under Grimm’s law 213 Table 9.5. Conditions for Verner’s Law 218 Table 9.6. Correspondences between PIE and its daughters 219 Table 9.7. Ablaut series in the stems of Greek verbs 219 Table 9.8. Ablaut series in the stems of lexically related words 219 Table 9.9. The primitive vowel system in PIE 220 Table 9.10. Hittite h as a reflex of the PIE laryngeal 220 Table 11.1. Associative and syntagmatic relations 256 Table 11.2. Scale and category 267 Table 11.3. Word classes and their typical functions in groups 268 Table 11.4. Aspect-based verb classes 273 Table 11.5. The logical structures of verb classes in RRG 273 Table 11.6 Some thematic roles and typical macroroles 275 Table 11.7. Macroroles are defined on argument positions 275 Table 13.1. A componential table 343 Table 13.2 Sources for implicatures 358
Preface to the first edition When I first read Aristotle in the 1970s I was deeply impressed that many notions in contemporary linguistics were foreshadowed in Aristotle’s works; and by the fact that, by and large, twentieth century linguists did not acknowledge it. My uncharitable suspicion was that most of them were unaware of it. At that time too, and I don’t think there has been much change, undergraduate students were often introduced to linguistics in such a way that they often came to believe that linguistics is a new discipline, at most about a hundred years old. Notable exceptions to the general rule were Francis Dinneen’s Introduction to General Linguistics (Dinneen 1967) and John Lyons’ Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics (Lyons 1968), which did recognize the role of the ancient Greek and Roman grammarians, the medieval schoolmen, and later grammarians and philologists in the development of linguistics. There were historiographers like Robert H. Robins, whose Ancient and Medieval Grammatical Theory in Europe (Robins 1951) was not widely enough known; however, his Short History of Linguistics, first published in 1967, did become a standard reference work for more than 30 years and ran to a fourth edition (1997). When Noam Chomsky sought in Cartesian Linguistics (Chomsky 1966) to establish his intellectual roots in the seventeenth century (which was nowhere near far enough back), it did have a positive effect by extending the history of linguistics for a larger number of linguists and linguistic students. Nevertheless, rather than being a matter of general knowledge among linguists, the history of the discipline remains a specialist interest, well catered for since 1973 by the Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science (John Benjamins) under the general editorship of Konrad Koerner, and since 1974 by the journal Historiographia Linguistica, as well as numerous other publications, many of which are mentioned in the pages of this book. The Western Classical Tradition in Linguistics identifies a tradition which extends from ancient Greece to twenty-first century linguistics, and which has spread from Europe to the other four inhabited continents. It is a story of the various stages of language study that constitute a tradition as each successive stage builds upon, or reacts against, what precedes it. A full history would occupy several volumes; this short one necessarily selects a few particularly worthy works for critical examination and exposition. I must apologize, though, for the fact that many interesting matters have been dealt with all too briefly, others are barely mentioned, and some not referred to at all. Translations in this book are deliberately free and sometimes use anachronistic modern terminology intended to gloss the original in terms familiar to today’s students of linguistics. Snippets of text in the original language are included where that may prove helpful to some readers. Limited space prevented me from including copies of the original text of all translated quotations. KA, November 2006
Preface to the second edition The principal novelty in this second edition is the addition of Chapter 13 ‘Linguistic semantics and pragmatics from earliest times’. Although the first edition did contain snippets of information on the contributions of particular individuals to the study of what we now call semantics and pragmatics it lacked a thematic chapter offering a comprehensive presentation of these closely related topics. Chapter 13 concentrates on developments in semantics and pragmatics not covered elsewhere in the book. In addition to correcting typos and infelicities of expression that crept into the first edition I needed to make a substantial revision to the section in Chapter 1 originally called ‘Why no women?’. In it I had wrongly claimed that until just before the twentieth century no women were recorded as having made a contribution to the Western Classical Tradition. I am grateful to Andrew Linn, Cynthia Allen, Karen Green, and Pedro Chamizo for directing me to some pre-twentieth century women who certainly do merit mention. The section is now renamed ‘Why (almost) no women?’ and, among other additions, the work of two eighteenth century women grammarians is briefly introduced there and later afforded more detailed discussion in Chapter 7, ‘Prescriptivism from the early middle ages on’. All URLs mentioned in the text were accessible on October 9, 2009. KA, Melbourne. October 2009 http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/linguistics/staff/kallan.php
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Monash University for seed funding back in 1993 which led to this project getting started; but then other tasks intervened. Twelve years later, in the second half of 2005, I was granted OSP leave which enabled me to spend time at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, while I made extensive use of the Cambridge University Library. In the Michaelmas term of 2005 I was fortunate to be awarded a Christensen Fellowship by St Catherine’s College, Oxford. I sincerely thank the Master and Fellows, indeed all members and staff of St Catz, for making my visiting fellowship there extremely enjoyable; at the same time I profited greatly from the resources of the Bodleian and other libraries of the University of Oxford, which saved this book from being much poorer than it is. Especial thanks are due to the remarkable JC Smith for convivial companionship and intellectual stimulation at St Catz. I am grateful to Janet Joyce of Equinox, who got me writing, gave much encouragement, and forgave me for delivering 35,000 words over contract for the first edition of this book in 2007. I am even more grateful that she was willing to publish this revised and expanded edition. Thanks are due to Mark Newbrook and especially Peter Mountford for correcting my Greek and Latin; to Anna Margetts for help with German and comments on one of the chapters. Various kinds of valuable advice were offered by Andrew Linn, Anneli Luhtala, Cynthia Allen, David Cram, Eliza Kitis, Jane Griffiths, John Joseph, Jun Yano, Karen Green, Kate Burridge, Mike Balint, Pedro Chamizo Domínguez, Peter Matthews, Pieter Seuren, Richard Ashdowne, Sandra Margolies, and Vít Bubeník, along with snippets from cohorts of fourth year undergraduate students – for which I heartily thank them all. Wendy Allen has my undying gratitude for being a constant genial source of comfort and joy. All faults in the work are, alas, mine alone. I thank Geoffrey Sampson for allowing me to use some diagrams in Chapter 1 from his Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction, London: Hutchinson (1985). I also thank the editor and publisher of Language Sciences for permission to incorporate parts of my ‘Aristotle’s footprints in the linguist’s garden’ (Language Sciences 26, 2004) in Chapter 3 and ‘Linguistic metatheory’ (Language Sciences 25, 2003) in Chapter 12. Several attempts in various media failed to get a response from British Museum Press with respect to my graphics based on Stephen Quirke’s facsimile of the Rosetta Stone and on a demotic papyrus, both of which are found in Richard Parkinson’s Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment (1999) in my discussion of scripta continua in Chapter 2. I thank the BMP for not refusing permission.
Symbols and abbreviations used in the text
[+ date] BCE before CE, the common era [+ date] CE in the common era BP before present fl. [+ date] flourished (used when other dates such as birth date are unknown) c. [+ date] about (from Latin circa) b. [+ date] born d. [+ date] died ibid. (ibidem) the same reference as the previous one op.cit. (opus citatum) the work cited/quoted ∃ the existential quantifier ∀ the universal quantifier p q the logical conjunction of p and q α the intension of α α the extension of α (at a given world and time) λ lambda, the set abstraction operator αM the denotation of α in model M
X → Y X expands into Y X ⇐ Y X derives from Y F ⇒ G F gives rise to G ABL ablative case ACC accusative case ADJ or Adj adjective ADV or Adv adverb DAT dative case DU dual number F feminine gender GEN genitive case IE Indo-European M masculine gender N neuter gender N noun NOM nominative case NP noun phrase PARS (plural PARTES) part of speech (in speculative grammar) PIE Proto-Indo-European PL plural number Pp past participle REL relative pronoun
xviii Symbols and abbreviations
S sentence SG singular number SVO SUBJECTVERBOBJECT V verb VOC vocative case
Chapter 1 Linguistics and the Western Classical Tradition
Linguistics, language, and languages
Linguistics is the study of natural human language and languages; and perhaps ever since human beings become conscious they were using language, some among them have thought about its structure and composition. The earliest writing systems date back about more than 5,000 years and are positive evidence for early linguistic enterprise because the development of a writing system requires the analysis of speech into segments.1 It is fair to say, however, that a writing system is created for some practical purpose such as the keeping of records; it does…