Speculative Grammar

speculative grammar, a linguistic theory of the Middle Ages, especially the second half of the 13th century. It is “speculative” not in the modern sense but as the word is derived from the Latin speculum (“mirror”), indicating a belief that language reflects the reality underlying the physical world. In accordance with this belief, speculative grammarians searched for a universal grammar, valid for all languages despite the “accidents” of their differences. The categories of this grammar would correlate with the categories of logic, epistemology, and metaphysics; e.g., nouns and pronouns were thought to express the metaphysical category of “permanence,” whereas verbs and participles expressed “becoming.” Speculative grammarians took over Priscian grammar but relabeled the parts of speech to show their “modes of signifying.” So many of their works were titled De modis significandi (“The Modes of Signifying”) that they have come to be called the Modistae.

The search by speculative grammarians for a universal grammar has been criticized as the result of their shortsightedness: the privileged, predominant position of Latin in their culture made “universality” seem more likely. Nevertheless, speculative grammar was more coherent and theoretical than any previous grammar, and its proponents investigated ideas still of interest today, such as deep structure, the incorporation of meaning into grammatical systems, and universals.