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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Introduction: Language teaching and grammatization in the colonial empires
- I Iberian Mission Lands
- II The Sinic World
- III West Africa
- IV East Africa
- V Middle East
- VI Southeast Asia
- VII Europe
- List of abbreviations (Index)
- Index of names
- Index of languages and script names
2 - A contribution to the history of missionary grammars and Romance languages grammars: The commensurability of metalanguage and categories in the sixteenth century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Introduction: Language teaching and grammatization in the colonial empires
- I Iberian Mission Lands
- II The Sinic World
- III West Africa
- IV East Africa
- V Middle East
- VI Southeast Asia
- VII Europe
- List of abbreviations (Index)
- Index of names
- Index of languages and script names
Summary
Abstract: This chapter is based on a comparison of two kinds of grammars written in the sixteenth century: Romance language grammars and grammars written within the framework of missionary linguistics. Despite their different contexts of production and their different objectives and scope, all these grammars books share some historical characteristics. They were written in the early period of grammatization of the described languages, and they are the result of the technical and theoretical transfer of the Latin model toward the description of new languages, so they inherited the same categories, description proceedings, and terminology. The focus is on the terminology that grammarians used to refer to the difference between the target language and Latin grammar, mainly when they observed the absence of Latin categories or specific forms in the language described.
Résumé : Cette étude procède de la comparaison de grammaires écrites au seizième siècle: des grammaires de langues romanes et des grammaires écrites dans le cadre de ce qu’on appelle habituellement la linguistique missionnaire. Malgré leurs différents contextes de production et leurs différents objectifs, toutes ces grammaires partagent certaines caractéristiques historiques. Elles ont été élaborées au début de la grammatisation des langues décrites ; elles sont le résultat du transfert technique et théorique du modèle latin vers la description de nouvelles langues, de sorte qu’elles héritent des mêmes catégories, des mêmes procédures de description et de la même terminologie. L’accent est mis ici sur la terminologie que les grammairiens utilisent pour faire référence à la différence entre la langue cible et la grammaire latine, principalement lorsqu’ils observent, dans la langue qu’ils décrivent, l’absence de catégories latines ou de formes spécifiques pour un contenu fonctionnel.
Keywords: Missionary grammars. Romance languages grammars. Extended Latin grammar. Linguistic categories. Grammatical terminology. Circumlocution.
Mots-clés: Grammaires missionnaires. Grammaires des langues romanes. Grammaire latine étendue. Catégories linguistiques. Terminologie grammaticale. Circonlocution.
Introduction
In the sixteenth century, descriptions of languages in geographical areas colonized by Europeans or where they had established commercial ties began to emerge. The evangelization effort would constitute a vector for the description of languages in these regions, particularly in the Americas. With an eminently practical aim, missionaries strove to guarantee both communication and the propagation of the Christian faith. Inscribed within a specific historical context, their grammars of a new kind were documented in the field.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language Learning and Teaching in Missionary and Colonial ContextsL'apprentissage et l'enseignement des langues en contextes missionnaire et colonial, pp. 143 - 166Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023