The Contribution of French Classic Period Grammars on English Grammatical Theories of the 17th and 18th Centuries: Theories of Parts of Speech

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the influence of French grammarians of Classic Period upon some early English grammars, and what was the grammatical mutation during this period. Both French and English grammarians proposed a classification of 8 word classes contrasted on a flexional basis. But English grammarians faced serious problems in their practice to apply Latin classification to the English word classes because of reduced English inflexions. Therefore, they tried to find other solutions and some were attracted to French Grammarians. The Port-Royal grammarians clearly distinguished the adjectives from the substantives, but these two parts of speech remained within the same category, noun. Brightland who introduced the Port-Royal grammar into England, definitely separated these two categories for the first time in the history of English and French grammars. The independence of the adjectives has shaken the entire division of parts of speech because the grammarians tried to retain the same number of speech parts as before. The participle, which generally had stayed as a separate part of speech, became a part of the verb category. The article was recognized as an independent part of speech in the beginning of the 17th century in France but the majority of the English grammarians described the article as a nominal sign or particle. The English grammars generally deemed the article a separate word class in the middle of the 18th century.