Novas achegas ao debate gramatical na Academia Galega na década de 60 da anterior centuria

Abstract

The article begins with a critical introductory review of traditional ideas about grammar and the symbolic importance of a grammatical standard, before focusing on the abortive attempt by the Real Academia Galega (RAG) in the 1960s to create an official grammar of the Galician language. Using a range of contemporary sources, many of them unpublished until now, the paper offers new insight into the process instigated by Sebastián Martínez-Risco during the early years of his presidency of the RAG, including the challenges and difficulties faced by the grammar committee and the report by Ramón Piñeiro that led to the project’s suspension. The article also explores the successful completion of two other grammar projects during the same period, by Ricardo Carvalho Calero and Leandro Carré Alvarellos, respectively: the first, with the institutional endorsement and support of the influential Galaxia publishing group; the second, as a solitary endeavour by the author, without any official backing or recognition. The paper concludes with a review of the date, authorship and contents of the never-published Short Grammar of the Galician Language, commissioned by the RAG at the end of the 1960s, offering a critical appraisal of the quality and importance of the work as a whole.