Particular qualities of the style of Severinus Boethius

Theological treatises stand apart in the corpus of Boethius' writings. They significantly differ in style from Boethius' otherworks, which tend to simplicity and clarity. The style of Boethian theological treatises that is known in the researches as the obscurestyle (stylus obscurus), is called the style of brevity (stylum brevitate) by Boethius himself. The article shows that the style of brevityacquired its name due to the syntactic compression it uses. The use of a stylistic device based on ellipsis is examined, namely, thecopula drop. Syntactic compression is an instance of a general linguistic phenomenon of compression, which at the syntactic level leadsto polysemy. Consequently, the stylistic devices used in the theological treatises aim at creating an artificial ambiguity, which opens apossibility of parallel reading. Copula drop emancipates the existence verb - the most significant element, which begins to function asan autonym. Given the absence of heterogrammatical symbols or any other ways of marking autonyms in written speech, it becomespossible to consider the style of brevity an autonymic means of expression. Quomodo trinitas unus deus ac non tres dii is consideredto be an attempt of a rational explanation of the thesis postulating the unity of the Trinity; however, the object of investigation is not adogma, but a theological construct: the meaning of the connection in the dogma is logically inexpressible, and the elliptical constructionis a syllogism, hence a copula is implied. The form that implicitly contains a copula allows Boethius to place the statement among identitysentences. From investigating the thesis of the Trinity Boethius proceeds to universal analysis and defines the type, to which theologicalstatements belong in general. They are a modification of a metaphysical, namely ontological, statement. Theological statementsas such - statements about God - need special reservations and specifications. Using the style of brevity, Boethius implicitly introducesthe structural rules of construction of theological statement. These rules are placed at a meta-text level and are realized through parallelreading. The est element plays a special role. As a reduced copula, it takes part in creating a parallel text, and as an autonym, in constitutinga philosophical meaning. At this level, philosophical substance receives not a metaphysical, but a semiotic form of expression,yet, due to meta-textual organization, it is perceived, if not consciously, then unconsciously. In the latter case, it influences the formationof discursive structures, which should have had an effect on the development of the philosophical thought of the later centuries.

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