Darrigolen gramatikaz

Abstract

This article presents the main grammatical ideas expressed by Jean-Pierre Darrigol (1790-1829) in his Dissertation critique et apologétique sur la langue basque. Darrigol ́s starting point is a logicistic analysis of the Basque language, whose clear antecedents can be found in the French general grammar of a rationalistic orientation (e.g., Girard, Du Marsais, Beauzée...). Within that perspective, he presents (or retakes) proposals such as the existence of the indefinite as a separate number, a case system which is conceived as different from the Latin model, the idea that there are only two real verbs (niz 'to be' and dut 'to have'), and the typological implications of combining a freer word order together with the existence of declension in the language, among others.