Les grammaires latines en France

Abstract

Bernard Colombat : Latin grammars in France. The aim of this article is to show that while France contributed little to the theoretical development of Latin grammar in the 18th Century, it produced truly new works for learning Latin. The big 17th-century grammars, too complex for children with no real competence in the language, were replaced by much shorter works, even when, like Lhomond's, they were in the traditional style. At the same time there appeared more original methods, like that of Frémy, who claimed to reduce all of Latin syntax to a single rule, inter-line translations (Du Marsais and many others) or methods based on the reading of authors (Chompré, Pluche). The work by Radonvilliers shows a real concern for pedagogical progress and provides interesting remarks on word order. Now Latin was learnt through a knowledge of French grammar and implied an analysis of the differences between French and Latin, or what was precisely called the "method".