The Logical Grammar of Abelard (The New Synthese Historical Library, 51)

Abelard is one of the foremost protagonists of the "twelfth-century Renaissance". He 'picks up the baton' from Boethius resuming the activity of commenting on Aristotle's works. The present book focuses on the logical-grammatical analysis of natural language, which for Abelard is a fragment of "scientific Latin". Tools of modern categorial grammar are employed to clarify many of the problems raised by historiography (such as meaning, abstract entities and universals). Among the merits of the volume is the fact that it has enlightened the radical interplay between the traditions of Aristotle's and Priscian's commentators and, in this context, Abelard's peculiar role in exploring a new field of linguistic inquiry. An ample analysis of grammatical sources and critical literature allows to evaluate the progress which is at the basis of the forthcoming terministic logic. The book is aimed at scholars of medieval philosophy as well as historians of logic and linguistics.

This book focuses on Abelard’s logical-grammatical analysis of natural language. Tools of modern categorial grammar are employed to clarify many of the problems raised by historiography. The book’s ample analysis of grammatical sources and critical literature allows one to evaluate the progress which is at the basis of the forthcoming terministic logic. The book is aimed at scholars of medieval philosophy and historians of logic and linguistics.

Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-5 Grammatical Sources....Pages 7-40 Categories and Lexicon....Pages 41-77 Grammatical Composition....Pages 79-121 Meaning....Pages 123-157 Predication and Truth....Pages 159-196 Back Matter....Pages 197-235