@article{jbp:/content/journals/10.1075/hl.7.1-2.18rob, author = "Robins, Robert H.", title = "Functional Syntax in Medieval Europe", journal= "Historiographia Linguistica", year = "1980", volume = "7", number = "1-2", pages = "231-240", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.7.1-2.18rob", url = "https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/hl.7.1-2.18rob", publisher = "John Benjamins", issn = "0302-5160", type = "Journal Article", abstract = "SUMMARYIn contrast to the fairly fully developed theories of phonological and morphological description achieved by classical antiquity, no general theory of syntax (sentence structure) was presented in the works of the classical grammarians such as Apollonius Dyscolus and Priscian, but rather a voluminous and detailed discussion of individual constructions in which words of different classes were involved. The creation and exposition of a general theory of sentence structure was a central part of the work of the late mediaeval speculative grammarians, and their identification of supposition (grammatical subject) and opposition (grammatical predicate) and the relation of compositio between them, together with other syntactic relations and the general relation of dependentia, provided a framework for the syntactic analysis of all the basic sentence patterns of Latin (and, by implication, of other languages). Though their system of syntactic analysis was not maintained by their successors, several key terms and concepts in syntax today are direct inheritances from mediaeval speculative grammar.RÉSUMÉEn regard des theories phonologiques et morphologiques assez bien develop-pees de l'antiquite classique, on ne trouve pas de theorie ge'nerale de la syntaxe (structure de la phrase) chez les grammairiens classiques tels Apollonius Dyscolus et Priscien, mais plutot une ample discussion detaillee des constructions indivi-duelles. La creation et la presentation d'une theorie ge'nerale de la structure de la phrase a ete au centre des preoccupations des grammairiens speculatifs de la fin du Moyen Age. Les notions de suppositum (sujet grammatical), de appositum (predicat grammatical) et de la relation qui existe entre les deux compositio ainsi que d'autres relations syntaxiques et la relation generate de dependentia ont fourni un cadre pour l'analyse syntaxique de toutes les structures des phrases de base du latin et,.de facon implicite, de d'autres langues. Bien que ces me'thodes d'analyse syntaxique n'aient pas ete retenues par la suite, plusieurs concepts de base et des expressions cles de la syntaxe contemporaine ont a leur source les travaux des grammariens speculatifs du Moyen Age.", }