A Pragmatic Theory of Everyday Imposition of Words in an Anonymous Thirteenth-Century Commentary on De anima (MS Prague, Metropolitan Chapter, M. 80, ff. 54vA–55rB)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer an edition of three anonymous questions on De anima II.8, contained in MS Prague, Metropolitan Chapter, M. 80, ff. 54vA–55vB and dated 1250–1260. The text offers an original theory of the everyday imposition of words. To present it, I (i) analyze the contemporary question-commentaries on De anima II.8; (ii) I present the theory of everyday imposition by discussing the analogies with, and differences from, Bacon’s contemporary pragmatic theory; and (iii) I discuss the hypothesis of the attribution of the text to Roger Bacon.

Keywords

• Anonymous of Prague
• Commentaries on De anima
• Medieval Pragmatics
• Medieval Semantics
• Roger Bacon