Thomas of Erfurt

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Thomas von Erfurt lived in Erfurt around 1300 and was there Master Regens (leading teacher) and Rector of the St. Severi and St. Jakob Schools. He became known as a grammar theorist. Almost nothing is known about his life.

The language theory of Thomas von Erfurt

Thomas is best known for his preoccupation with language logic . His Tractatus de modis significandi (often known under the alternative title Grammatica speculativa ), which was thought to be a work by Duns Scotus until the beginning of the 20th century , is considered to be the culmination of the so-called modist language theory (Modisten, Modistae), to their Representatives also included Martinus de Dacia , Boetius von Dacien and Radulphus Brito . Thomas tries to determine the mutual relationships between language, intellect and extra-linguistic reality in order to place the grammar on a scientific basis. Thomas von Erfurt writes in Latin and exclusively about Latin.

According to Thomas, a pars orationis , i.e. H. a word as part of a sentence and a member of a part of speech, not just a sound body ( vox ) with a certain meaning ( significatio ); In addition to the respective meanings, there are always certain co-meanings. There is no word in the language that directly relates to the "white" par excellence. Rather, we can either designate it as an independent being and then use a noun ( white ); or we can call it a being that is inherent in another and then use the adjective white . These connotations are denoted by the term modi significandi (" ways of denoting"). The meanings of all grammatical categories and functions are such modi significandi ; and on them the entire grammar is built. According to modern understanding, grammatical categories are cognitively justified; Thomas expressly rejects structural definitions of grammatical categories.

The modi significandi of a word are, as it were, the representatives of certain modi essendi ("modes of being") in the area of ​​extra-linguistic reality, which are only conveyed to language through the intellect, more precisely: through corresponding modi intelligendi (" modes of perception").

In the universals controversy , Thomas takes the position of moderate realism, as it were: language is fundamentally understood as a reflection of extra-linguistic reality, a reality that therefore also includes universals (otherwise a language could not have abstract terms). At the same time, however, the role of the human intellect, which first gives things their names, is taken into account.

effect

The direction of semiotics founded by Charles S. Peirce (who ascribes the Grammatica Speculativa Duns Scotus) follows on from Thomas von Erfurt. Peirce calls his draft of semiotics, which forms the first part of logic, speculative grammar .

Works

  • De modis significandi , in: Joannis Duns Scoti Opera omnia 1, ed. by Lucas Wadding. Paris 1891.
  • Treatise on the significant modes of behavior of language (Tractatus de Modis significandi) (= Bochum studies on philosophy. Volume 27). Translated and introduced by Stephan Grotz . Grüner, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 1988, ISBN 90-6032-354-8 .
  • Grammatica Speculativa , edited and translated by GL Bursill-Hall, The Classics of Linguistics 1, London 1972.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Modi significandi  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • Christian Lehmann: “Thomas von Erfurt (13th / 14th century)”. Pfordten, Dietmar von der (ed.), Great Thinkers of Erfurt and the Erfurt University. Göttingen: Wallstein; 45-73. ( PDF ).