•"In the history of linguistic science, the second
part of the Middle Ages, from around
1100 to the close of the period, is the more significant. This was the period of scholastic philosophy, in which linguistic
studies had an important place
and in which a very considerable amount of linguistic work was carried on. This same era is also marked by the flowering of
mediaeval architecture (the
so-called 'Gothic') and literature, and the founding of several of the earliest universities of Europe. The movements of whole
populations had now ceased, and
the ascendancy of the Roman Church, strengthened by the foundation of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders,
provided a central authority
which, despite controversies and antagonisms, united all men's cultural activities as part of the service of God, and
subordinated all intellectual
pursuits to the study of the faith" (Robins 1997:85).
•First grammatical treatise: written by an unknown Icelandic scholar known as the 'First Grammarian.' His work mostly deals with
phonology, and it makes a distinction
in speech sounds very similar to the modern concept of the phoneme.
•Peter Helias:
was a noted medieval grammarian.
•Thomas of Erfurt: described the difference in nominative case marking for nouns versus adjectives.
•William of Ockham: made famous nominalism, which asserts "that universals are words or names only, with no real existence outside
language" (Robins 1997:101).