What we say and what no one says: reflection on the use, variation and grammaticality of Latin language in the De constructione, by Priscian (6th c. AD)
Keywords:
Priscian, ratio, usus, language variation, language norm
Abstract
In this paper, we aim at showing that the concept of usus, within Priscian’s De constructione (Inst. gram. XVII e XVIII, 6th c. AD) dissociates itself from the notion of Latinitas from the artes grammaticae, and that, together with the ratio, it has the virtue of explaining phaenomena that theoretically violate the “logical rules” of language. Thus, in relation to previous Latin grammatical treatises (the artes), ratio and usus are understood
differently in the De constructione; so are the phaenomena of barbarism and solecism, once understood as “language vices”.
