“General and rational grammar of Port-Royal” , “Port-Royal Grammar” ( fr. Grammaire générale et raisonnée de Port-Royal ) - a book published by the abbots of the Por-Royal Monastery Antoine Arnaud and Claude Lansloe in 1660 . It was developed for a series of Port-Royal textbooks along with the manual on logic [1] [2] . She became the first fundamental grammatical composition attributable to universal grammars , in which grammatical categories are explained through the categories of thinking and perception of reality by a person [3] .
The full title of the book is as follows: “A universal and rational grammar containing the basics of the art of speech, set out clearly and naturally; the rational basis of what is common to all languages, as well as the main differences between them; and also numerous remarks on the French language " [4] .
The basis of the theory set forth in the Port-Royal Grammar is a description of the “operations of the mind, ” through which the surrounding reality is perceived, analyzed and comprehended; according to the authors of "Grammar ...", these operations are comprehensible exclusively through language and are expressible only with its help [3] .
To identify universal points that are mandatory in all specific languages, the authors mainly use the facts of the French language , drawing for comparison examples from the Greek , Latin , Hebrew , Spanish , Italian , English and German languages. Thus, the authors follow the inductive method of proof. However, the induction of "Grammar ..." is incomplete, and therefore the results obtained cannot claim to be universal. "Grammar ..." is rather a characterological description of the French language in comparison, on the one hand, with a logical structure, and on the other - with some languages [5] .
Content
Book structure
"Grammar ..." is divided into two parts. The first one is called “Words as Sounds” and consists of six chapters. The second part is called “Words as a means of expression and transmission of thought”; it consists of 24 chapters. It contains provisions on the “basic operations of the mind” ( representation , judgment , inference ) and the corresponding categories of language [3] . The operations correspond to the differences between the parts of speech : nouns , adjectives , pronouns and articles correspond to the representation, verbs - to the judgment; the capacity for reasoning is expressed in a coherent text . However, the authors of grammar recognized it necessary to determine the parts of speech, taking into account the role of words in a sentence .
Key ideas
Grammar is defined by the authors as “the art of speaking” . At the same time, “to speak is to express one’s thoughts with signs that people have invented for this purpose” [4] . The authors base themselves on the fact that since “the art of thinking” ( logic ) is universal and does not depend on the language the individual speaks and thinks, the grammar should be universal [5] .
"Common" and "private" in language
In "Grammar ..." there are "common" - logical-semantic categories, one way or another expressed in the vocabulary and grammar of languages - and "particular" , that is, the grammatical organization of individual languages. To establish whether the category is common to all languages, according to the authors of the grammar, it is possible by studying the particular facts of languages [3] .
Ratings and criticism
A discussion of the ideas contained in the Port-Royal Grammar and the Port-Royal Logic can be found in N. Chomsky ’s Cartesian Linguistics [6] .
Notes
- ↑ Arnauld, A., Nicole, P. La logique, ou L'art de penser .
- ↑ Edelstein Yu. M. Port-Royal Grammar // The Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 t.] / Ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 N. Yu. Bokadorova. Universal grammars // Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary / Editor-in-Chief V. N. Yartseva . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1990. - 685 p. - ISBN 5-85270-031-2 .
- ↑ 1 2 Arnaud A., Lanslo K. Grammar, General and Rational Port Royal: Trans. with fr., comments. and afterword N. Yu. Bokadorova / Tot. ed. and entry Art. Yu. M. Stepanova. - M .: Progress, 1990. - 272 p.
- ↑ 1 2 Levitsky Yu. A., Boronnikova N. V. History of linguistic studies. - M .: High School, 2009. - 302 p. - ISBN 978-5-06-006157-4 .
- ↑ Chomsky N. Cartesian linguistics. Chapter from the history of rationalistic thought: Trans. from English / Preface B.P. Narumov. - M .: KomKniga, 2005. - 232 p. - (History of linguophilosophical thought). - ISBN 5-484-00181-1 .
Literature
- Arnauld, A., Lancelot, C. Grammaire générale et raisonnée de Port-Royal . - Seconde édition. - Paris: Bossange et Masson, 1810.
- Arno A., Lanslo K. Grammar, General and Rational Port Royal: Trans. with fr., comments. and afterword N. Yu. Bokadorova / Tot. ed. and entry Art. Yu. M. Stepanova. - M .: Progress, 1990. - 272 p.