Consentius
Encyclopedia
Consentius was a 5th century Gallic
grammarian and the author of two treatises, which are perhaps the fragments of a complete grammar: one on the noun and the verb, much used during the Carolingian
period, and the other on barbarism
s and metaplasm
.
Some of Consentius' ideas are surprisingly modern for a "Dark Age" scholar. He explicitly differentiates signifié
and signifiant, the word itself and the thing signified by it. He explains grammatical gender
by saying that masculine or feminine gender was ascribed, either randomly or by some consensus (seu licenter seu decenter), to some entities which lack natural gender.
Gauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
grammarian and the author of two treatises, which are perhaps the fragments of a complete grammar: one on the noun and the verb, much used during the Carolingian
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
period, and the other on barbarism
Barbarism (grammar)
Barbarism refers to a non-standard word, expression or pronunciation in a language, particularly one prescriptively regarded as an error in morphology, while a solecism is something prescriptively regarded as an error in syntax. The term is used mainly for the written language...
s and metaplasm
Metaplasm
A metaplasm is a change in the orthography of a word. Originally it referred to techniques used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, or processes in those languages' grammar.-Sound change:...
.
Some of Consentius' ideas are surprisingly modern for a "Dark Age" scholar. He explicitly differentiates signifié
Sign (linguistics)
There are many models of the linguistic sign . A classic model is the one by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. According to him, language is made up of signs and every sign has two sides : the signifier , the "shape" of a word, its phonic component, i.e...
and signifiant, the word itself and the thing signified by it. He explains grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
by saying that masculine or feminine gender was ascribed, either randomly or by some consensus (seu licenter seu decenter), to some entities which lack natural gender.
External links
- Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliography
- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04284a.htm