Philology: A Historical Journey Through Language Studies
Ancient Greece
Philology is the study of language in terms of history.
Cratylus is a dialogue about the origins of language and the nature of meaning.
- Hermogenes argued that language originated as a product of convention. He believed the relationship between words and things is arbitrary, stating, “for nothing has its name by nature but only by usage and custom.”
- Cratylus posited that language came into being naturally, and therefore an intrinsic relationship exists between words and things.
Aristotle saw the reality of a name as lying in its formal properties or shape, with its relationship to the real world being secondary and indirect. He stated that no name exists by nature but only by becoming a symbol.
- Regularity (Analogy): Language was seen as essentially regular, displaying symmetries in its rules, paradigms, and meaning.
- Irregularity (Anomaly): Attention was focused on the many exceptions to these rules, such as the existence of irregular verbs or the lack of correspondence between gender and sex.
The Stoics established more formally the basic grammatical notions. They grouped words into parts of speech, organized their variant forms into paradigms, and devised names for them.
Dionysius wrote the first formal grammar of Greek.
Ancient Rome
Marcos Terentius Varro wrote the codification of Latin grammar, taking into account several differences between Latin and Greek. He held the view that language is first and foremost a social phenomenon with a communicative purpose, and only secondarily is it a tool for logical and philosophical inquiry.
Aelius Donatus wrote a Latin grammar that was used right into the Middle Ages. Evidence of this is that it was the first to be printed in wooden type and had a shorter edition for children.
Priscian wrote about grammatical categories and produced an influential work that continued to be used during the Middle Ages. It remains the most complete grammar of the age.
The main result of the Romans was a model of grammatical description that was handed down through many writers in Europe. It ultimately became the basis of language teaching in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Ancient India
Hindu priests noted that their language had diverged from their oldest sacred texts, the Vedas, in both pronunciation and grammar. Certain religious ceremonies needed to reproduce accurately the original form of these texts. Change was not seen as corruption, as in Greece, but as profanation. Disciplines such as phonetics, etymology, and grammar grew up to overcome this problem.
Their solution was to establish the facts of the old language clearly and systematically, thus producing an authoritative text.
Eight books, dealing mainly with rules of word formation, are composed in such a condensed style that they have required extensive commentary. They are remarkable for their detailed phonetic descriptions.
The Middle Ages
Trivium: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.
- Grammar was seen as the foundation for the whole of learning.
- The Modistae looked to philosophy for the ultimate explanation of the rules of grammar.
- This period saw the development of Western lexicography and the field of translation.