Grammatical Theory and Philosophy of Language in Antiquity

Book excerpt: This collective volume contains studies in the field of ancient grammar, poetics and philosophy of language. The contributions, written by specialists in the field, focus on central themes in the historiography of ancient linguistics, such as the status of grammar as a discipline in Antiquity, the relationship between poetics and grammatical theory, the constitution and development of the word class system, the descriptive format of grammars, the nature and description of specific word classes, the development of grammatical argumentation. In addition, several methodological issues in the study of ancient grammar and philosophy of language are dealt with: the problem of continuity vs. discontinuity in the history of linguistic thought, the role of schoolroom activities in the development of grammatical description and theory-formation, and problems concerning "tradition", "influence" and "originality" in ancient linguistics. The volume is rounded off with extensive indices of proper names, concepts and technical terms.