Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ancient Greek linguistics'

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2008.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-91).<br>This thesis is about phonetic events, phonetic representations, and the grammatical constraints on those representations, with respect to one particular phonetic dimension: time. It focuses on a process called beat mapping, whose clearest manifestation is in singing (as opposed to "ordinary" speech). This is the mapping of a sequence of syllables/segments onto a sequence of timing units or beats. The empirical ground is provided by Ancient Greek musical scores. We analyze the way that sensitivity to syllable weight manifests itself in beat mapping. In Ancient Greek, the musical quantity of syllables (their duration, counted in beats) is tightly controlled by their type. Taking this as a robust example of a weight-sensitive process, we set out to demonstrate that syllable weight is not about syllables, but about segments; this is contrary to what current theories of syllable weight assume (see Gordon 2004). We attempt to derive both syllable weight and syllable constituency itself from constraints on the beat mapping of segments. This beat mapping grammar is developed within the general framework of Generalized Correspondence Theory (McCarthy and Prince 2005), and exploits certain properties of correspondence relations, notably non-linearity and reciprocity (bidirectionality). The mapping of segments onto beats respects their linear order but does not reflect them: it is a many-to-many mapping. Correspondence also provides the basis for a new definition of "syllable," which rests on two things: the reciprocity of correspondence relations, and a principle of "salience matching" in mappings between non-homologous domains.<br>by J.D. Hill.<br>S.M.

This thesis investigates the linguistic and philological characteristics of the primary interjections in Ancient Greek drama. It employs Ameka’s definition and classification from 1992 as its theoretical base, and provides a comprehensive research survey. The thesis has a data-driven approach, and is based on all items traditionally classified as interjections. In the chapter on morphology and syntax, the unique characteristics of interjections are presented. E.g., NPs co-occurring with interjections form an interjection phrase, which follows a specific pattern, in accordance with a phrase schema. The chapter on semantics, which is the main part of the thesis, employs an analytical model based on a moderate minimalism approach. This assumes that all items have a core meaning that can be identified without the aid of context, yet allows different, but related, meanings. The definition adopted in the present thesis states that interjections share only formal characteristics, and thus can be divided into categories based on their semantic features, which are defined using Kaplan’s notion of informational equivalence. The thesis deals with three such categories, each with its individual semantic properties: expressive interjections, express the speaker’s experience of emotion and/or cognition; conative interjections, express what the speaker wants the addressee or auditor to do; imitative interjections, depict or reproduce sounds or events. Items in category 1 are the most frequent and thus receive most attention. In the chapter on pragmatics, it is proposed that the primary function of interjections is to express the core semantics in a specified context. Felicity conditions are suggested for an utterance to convey the primary meaning of an interjection. Interjections are also shown to have various secondary functions, e.g. that of strengthening markers. Finally, a lexicon is provided, which offers individual informational equivalents of all interjections under study.

This doctoral thesis investigates dialect contact, identity and change in the ancient Greek colonies of Magna Graecia in the fourth and third centuries BC, as evidenced in the surviving epigraphic sources. South Italy is an area of the ancient Greek-speaking world in which a comprehensive investigation of the linguistic evidence has not previously been attempted. By considering linguistic questions within their broader socio-historical environment, I propose a radical redrawing of the dialect map of this area. I first present the historical context, the linguistic evidence and the methodological framework of my research in the introduction. In the first chapter I reject previous hypotheses about dialect contact in South Italy around 300 BC on the basis of both historical and linguistic arguments. I then propose a new and empirically better supported explanation for the development of the ‘severior’ long-vowel system in the dialect of the southern city of Locri, which previous studies have generally attributed to influence from the dialect of the important northern city of Taras and taken as evidence for Taras’ linguistic influence over the rest of Magna Graecia, and possibly also for the existence of a local Doric koina (i.e. a common dialect). In the second chapter I offer a new analysis of the inscriptional record from Locri and show that, in the absence of compelling evidence for influence from the dialect of Taras, a high level of prestige remained attributed to the traditional local dialect until at least the mid-third century. At the same time, the southern colonies in general, including Locri, can be shown to have been exposed to the koine before the northern ones, such as Taras, as a result of frequent contact with the Greeks of near Sicily in the fourth and early third centuries. In the third chapter I complete my investigation by assessing the use of dialectal features in literary texts produced in South Italy around the same period (both metrical inscriptions and literary works transmitted in manuscripts). The evidence of these texts, combined with that of documentary inscriptions, provides a deeper insight into matters of dialect identity and prestige in this area. After summarising the results of my research, I conclude my investigation with a brief discussion of the socio-historical reasons why a Doric koina did not develop in South Italy as in other areas.

More than sixty years after Michael Ventris’ decipherment of the Linear B script, 14 of its 87 syllabic signs still have no sound-values assigned to them. This group of ‘undeciphered’ signs represent a significant gap in our ability not only to read the Linear B script, but also to understand its development and use. Chapter 1 of this thesis analyses the origins and usage of signs with known sound-values to establish what types of values are in principle most likely to be found amongst the undeciphered signs: this investigation also enables an exploration of the development of Linear B, its relationship with its parent script Linear A, and the motivating factors underlying the creation of new Linear B signs. Chapter 2 consists of studies of each individual undeciphered sign, including a palaeographic analysis of their forms, discussion of their corpus of attestations, and an examination of their prospects of decipherment and possible sound-values in the light of the results of Chapter 1. Finally, Chapter 3 employs this group of signs in a case-study to explore the potential of palaeographic analysis to contribute to our understanding of wider issues concerning the Linear B script and its context of use within the Mycenaean palaces. This case-study focuses in particular on two main uses of palaeography: as a means of assigning a relative chronology to Linear B texts, and as evidence for the reconstruction of the Mycenaean scribes’ administrative work and training.

This thesis combines a philosophical interpretation of Epicurean attitudes to language with literary analysis of the language of DRN. Chapters 1-2 describe Epicurean attitudes to diachronic and synchronic linguistic phenomena. In the first chapter I claim that the Epicurean account of the first stage of the development of language involves pre-rational humans acting under a ‘strong’ form of compulsion. The analogies with which Lucretius describes this process were motivated by a structural similarity between the Epicurean accounts of phylogenetic and ontogenetic psychology. Chapter 2 explores the Epicurean account of word use and recognition, central to which are ‘conceptions’. These are attitudes which express propositions; they are not mental images. Προλήψεις, a special class of conception, are self-evidently true basic beliefs about how objects in the world are categorized which, alongside the non-doxastic criteria of perceptions and feelings, play a foundational role in enquiry. Chapter 3 offers a reconstruction of an Epicurean theory of metaphor. Metaphor, for Epicureans, involves the subordination of additional conceptions to words to create secondary meanings. Secondary meanings are to be understood by referring back to primary meanings. Accordingly, Lucretius’ use of metaphor regularly involves the juxtaposition in the text of primary and secondary uses of terms. An account of conceptual metaphor in DRN is given in which the various conceptual domains from which Lucretius draws his metaphorical language are mapped and explored. Chapter 4 presents a new argument against ‘atomological’ readings of Lucretius’ atoms/letters analogies. Lucretian implicit etymologies involve the illustration, via juxtaposition, of language change across time. This is fully in keeping with the Epicurean account of language development. Chapter 5 describes Lucretius’ reflections on and interactions with the Greek language. I suggest that the study of lexical Hellenisms in DRN must be sensitive to the distinction between lexical borrowing and linguistic code-switching. I then give an account of morphological calquing in the poem, presenting it as a significant but overlooked strategy for Lucretian vocabulary-formation.

The thesis comprises an investigation of three aspects of sentence structure in Classical Greek (henceforth CG) dramatic poetry: order of the main sentence elements (subject, verb, and object) within the clause, the emphatic position at the start of the clause, and the structure of inter-clausal linking. It is argued that these three features, usually considered separately, are interdependent, and that intra-clausal word order is directly related to the structure of compound and complex sentences. The discussion undertakes a systematic survey of subject, verb, and object order in a corpus of texts, proposes an explanation for the observed order, and develops a model which explains how prominence within the clause is exploited in clause linking to produce the complement structures observed in Homeric and tragic complementation.

Cette étude porte sur l'emploi d'adjectifs neutres en fonction adverbiale en grec ancien, sur un corpus constitué de l'ensemble de la poésie archaïque, d'Homère à Pindare. Les données recueillies ont été, autant que possible, confrontées aux données des auteurs classiques et des poètes alexandrins, et replacées dans la perspective de la linguistique indo-européenne. Une étude morphologique montre le caractère récent des adverbes en ως en grec homérique, alors que le neutre adverbial semble constituer un procédé d'adverbialisation ancien et courant. Un examen sémantique des neutres adverbiaux et des adverbes en ως fait apparaître que ces derniers présentent des traits sémantiques typiques d'une catégorie d'adverbes en cours de développement, puisqu'il s'agit presque exclusivement d'adverbes de manière, alors que les neutres adverbiaux apparaissent, chez Homère, dans presque toutes les catégories d'adverbes, ce qui est le propre d'un procédé d'adverbialisation qui a déjà connu une forte productivité. Enfin, une étude syntaxique souligne les limites de la thèse traditionnelle qui voit dans nombre d'adjectifs neutres employés comme adverbes des accusatifs d'objet interne : cette hypothèse ne tient pas compte de l'existence de nombreux neutres adverbiaux qui ne sauraient s'expliquer ainsi, et elle suppose que l'on ait pu substantiver sans restriction des adjectifs au neutre singulier, ce qui n'est pas le cas chez Homère. Cette étude syntaxique met enfin en lumière les étapes du développement des adverbes en ως : ceux-ci sont d'abord apparus dans des contextes où le sujet avait un contrôle sur l'action, ainsi que dans des contextes où l'adverbe est orienté vers le sujet<br>The object of this work is to describe and explain the use of neuter adjectives as adverbs in Ancient Greek. It is based on a corpus comprising all archaic Greek poetry, from Homer to Pindar. Whenever possible, this data is compared with the data of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, and put into an Indo-European perspective. The examination of the morphology of adverbs in archaic Greek shows that the adverbs in ως are a recent development in Homer, whereas adverbial neuters seem to have been the default way of deriving an adverb from an adjective shortly before the archaic period. The semantics of the adverbs in ως displays typical features of a relatively new adverbial formation: in Homer, the suffix ως is only found in adverbs expressing manner. On the other hand, neuter adjectives used as adverbs are found in almost every adverbial function, which is the expected behaviour of a very productive adverbial formation. Finally, a syntaxic study of the adjectives in archaic Greek shows that the use of neuter adjectives as adverbs cannot be explained as a special case of internal accusative: this hypothesis is unable to account for numerous neuter adjectives used as adverbs, and implies that neuter adjectives could be used as substantives in singular without any restriction, which is not the case in Homer. This syntaxic study also sheds light on the development of the adverbs in ως: they first appeared in contexts where the subject controlled the process, and in contexts where the adverb is subject-oriented

Comment dire le désir érotique et ses concrétisations ? Des épopées homériques aux odes de Pindare, de la cosmogonie hésiodique à l’invective moraliste et à la passion des lyriques, la présente étude passe au crible l’ensemble des textes grecs de la période archaïque pour éclairer ce phénomène linguistique. Le désir et la sexualité sont traités comme une langue à part, au sein du grec, convoquant un lexique, une syntaxe et une stylistique spécifiques. Le lexique détoure les mots de la langue commune et bâtit les concepts du désir dans une chronologie particulière, détaillant ce que le français construit souvent comme synonymes. Le désir se fait force implacable et artefact magique redoutable. La syntaxe de l’union et de la procréation – au cœur de l’élaboration des généalogies, notamment – se déploie sous de fortes contraintes. Elle oscille entre le frein de la bienséance – érotisme perçu comme inconvenant, alors qu’il joue un rôle incontournable dans la construction des personnages et la structuration de l’univers – et l’excès obscène qui le change en arme morale. Difficile à dire, l’érotisme s’énonce à demi-mot, ou mots grossis, dans un système complexe de conventions. Sa stylistique, enfin, lui donne corps : elle le dessine comme un objet palpable, proche des parures travaillées et des amulettes, lui donnant matière et éclat ; elle le met en scène, surtout dans la nature, qui reflète en profondeur ses ambivalences, entre fascination et danger. Les métaphores érotiques et sexuelles convoquent paysages, plantes et animaux pour ancrer l’homme et son désir dans le monde. La grammaire du désir est un mécanisme complexe qui joue de connivence et questionne la nature humaine<br>How to express erotic desire and its success? From Homeric epics to Pindar’s odes, from Hesiod’s cosmogony to the harsh moral invective, and the passion of lyrics poets, this study examines all the linguistic material from the archaic period to show that process. Desire and sexuality are considered an idiom of their own, within ancient Greek, using their own words, syntax and stylistics. Their words dwell in those of the common tongue and build concepts of desire inside a specific timeline. French is often blind to such a differentiation. Desire turns into an overpowering force and a formidable magical artefact. The syntax of sexual congress and procreation – at the heart of genealogies – thrives through strong constraints, such as decency – and, although eroticism is fundamental in building characters or structuring the world, it is seen as inappropriate – and obscene excess, while fighting for morality. Eroticism is hard to express: it uses the implicit or the caricature, and follows complex conventions. Its stylistics, at last, words its embodiment: desire becomes an object one can touch, wear like an amulet or an ornament, and see, thanks to its glow and material. It is staged, especially in nature, because it reflects its inner ambivalence, between fascination and danger. Erotic and sexual metaphors call out landscapes, plants, and animals, in order to insert desiring human beings into the world. The grammar of desire forms a complex mechanism based on complicity and the questioning human nature

La Lycie antique, aire de polyglossie située sur la côte sud-occidentale de l’Asie Mineure, fut un lieu de contact entre le lycien et le grec. La langue lycienne, qui appartient au groupe anatolien des langues indo-européennes, est attestée dans deux cents inscriptions environ et sur des monnaies datant du Ve et du IVe siècle avant J.-C. À partir du IIIe siècle, en effet, le grec s’est imposé dans la région, à l’écrit du moins, au détriment de la langue locale. L’onomastique indigène a cependant persisté en Lycie jusqu’aux premiers siècles de notre ère, comme en témoigne le nombre important d’anthroponymes lyciens que l’on trouve dans les inscriptions grecques des époques hellénistique et romaine. Cette thèse étudie donc le contact entre le lycien et le grec à partir des emprunts onomastiques réciproques, avec quatre objectifs principaux. Le premier est de collecter tous les anthroponymes indigènes de Lycie dans les sources lyciennes et grecques, afin d’en offrir un répertoire complet. Nous offrons ensuite une description phonologique et phonétique du lycien à partir des équivalences onomastiques identifiées, en traitant également de problèmes spécifiques comme celui des consonnes géminées. Il s’agit, troisièmement, d’examiner les différentes formations à l’œuvre dans l’anthroponymie lycienne — noms à un radical, à deux radicaux, raccourcis de composés, Satznamen ou encore noms inanalysables — et les lexèmes employés. Nous étudions, enfin, les processus morphologiques de l’emprunt de noms étrangers en lycien, mais aussi et surtout en grec, où plusieurs suffixes sont utilisés<br>Ancient Lycia, a polyglossian area located on the south-western coast of Asia Minor, was a place of contact, especially between Lycian and Greek. The Lycian language, which belongs to the Anatolian group of Indo-European languages, is documented in about two hundred inscriptions and on coins dating from the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. From the 3rd century onwards, Greek became predominant in the region, at least in writing, to the detriment of the local language. However, indigenous names persisted in Lycia until the first centuries A.D., as evidenced by the large number of Lycian personal names found in Greek inscriptions from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. This dissertation therefore studies the contact between Lycian and Greek, drawing on reciprocal name borrowings, with four main objectives. The first one is to collect all the Lycian names from sources in Lycian and in Greek, in order to give a complete repertoire. We then offer a phonological and phonetic description of Lycian, based on the identified name equivalences, while also addressing specific problems such as that of geminated consonants. The third objective is to examine the different formations used in Lycian personal names — one stem names, two stem names, shortened compounds, Satznamen, or unanalysable names — and the lexemes used. Lastly, we study the morphological processes of the borrowing of foreign names in Lycian, but most of all in Greek, where several suffixes are used

Orientador: Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari<br>Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-13T02:57:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leite_LetticiaBatistaRodrigues_M.pdf: 1418684 bytes, checksum: dcba9242e98f69da82780d668c4d90bb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009<br>Resumo: O objetivo central desta dissertação é problematizar como a relação linguagem/discurso aparece intimamente relacionada à questão do sexo/gênero, no âmbito dos trabalhos dos estudiosos que se propuseram a tratar dos fragmentos poéticos de Safo. Para tanto, realizase um exercício de tradução e leitura analítica de quatro fragmentos da poetisa grega Safo de Lesbos (VII-VI a.C.). Exercício este, que visa destacar alguns aspectos formais e de conteúdo presentes nestes fragmentos, tendo em vista que alguns estudiosos buscam, a partir destes, sublinhar uma singularidade presente nos compostos sáficos, que seria atribuível ao fato de que estes dariam a ouvir uma voz feminina. Nessa perspectiva, buscarse-á, também, apontar e problematizar os principais pressupostos teóricos que, em diferentes medidas, perpassam os trabalhos destes estudiosos - no que diz respeito as suas concepções da relação linguagem/discurso e sexo/gênero daquele que enuncia. Para tanto, propor-se-á, aqui, uma discussão acerca das maneiras pelas quais as questões relativas à linguagem, em interface com as discussões de caráter feminista, aparecem, sobretudo, no âmbito da disciplina histórica e da literatura. Assim como, chamar a atenção para as particularidades que devem ser levadas em consideração, no trato com as composições gregas de caráter poético produzidas no Período Arcaico (VIII - VI a.C.)<br>Abstract: The main objective of this dissertation is to discuss how the relation between language/discourse is closely connected with the question of sex/gender, in the work of scholars who seek to study the fragments of Sappho's poems. To accomplish this, there will be an exercise in translating and analytically reading four fragments by the Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos (VII-VI BC). This exercise aims to highlight some formal and contentoriented aspects present in these fragments, since some scholars have sought to stress a singularity in this sapphic compositions, owing to the fact that they would allow us to hear a female voice. Accordingly, this research wants to emphasize and study the theoretical assumptions that, in different ways, permeate the work of these scholars - regarding the conceptualization of the liaison between language/discourse and sex/gender of who enounces. In order to do so, a discussion will be held on the manners in which the issues of language, in interface with the discussions of feminist character, appear, especially in History and literature, drawing attention to the particularities that should be taken into account when dealing with the Greek poetic compositions produced in the Archaic period (VIII - VI BC)<br>Mestrado<br>Historia Cultural<br>Mestre em História