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Expressive content

Christopher Potts

in The Logic of Conventional Implicatures

This chapter enters the expressive dimension, focusing on epithets, swears, and Japanese honorifics. These items are quite different from supplements (Chapter 4), but they are intimately connected to ... More

This chapter enters the expressive dimension, focusing on epithets, swears, and Japanese honorifics. These items are quite different from supplements (Chapter 4), but they are intimately connected to them via Grice’s definition. The opening sections make the case for treating these items as conventional-implicature contributors. Quantification is challenging from this perspective, so special attention is given to the effects that this emotive language can have in quantified statements. A scope-shifting alternative to the theory is defined and rejected. The chapter closes with a case study: the German discourse subjunctive.Less

Choreia and the Musical Text

A. P. David

in The Dance of the Muses: Choral Theory and Ancient Greek Poetics

This chapter develops the notion of χορεία, according to Plato’s usage of the term, as the proper, restored rubric within which to understand the rhythm and harmony of ancient Greek poetry in both ... More

This chapter develops the notion of χορεία, according to Plato’s usage of the term, as the proper, restored rubric within which to understand the rhythm and harmony of ancient Greek poetry in both its stichic and lyric forms. The approach to such poetry via the ancient dictum, ‘art is imitation’, is given a brief developmental history and then critiqued. The importance of dance origins for Greek metres is discussed, with comparisons to examples of modern European ‘survivors’ of danced epic verse as preparation for a new accounting of such peculiar phenomena in Homeric poetry as noun-and-epithet phrases (understood to be analogous to ‘signature lines’ in opera) and ring composition. A case is made that Homeric and other Greek texts are not language in themselves, but musical scores instructing the production of performed speech.Less

The ‘Choral Signifier’: The Shaping of Homeric Speech

A. P. David

in The Dance of the Muses: Choral Theory and Ancient Greek Poetics

This chapter considers the influence of a performance mode depicted by Homer — Demodocus the singer surrounded by a dancing circle — upon the phonological and semantic features of Homeric verse. A ... More

This chapter considers the influence of a performance mode depicted by Homer — Demodocus the singer surrounded by a dancing circle — upon the phonological and semantic features of Homeric verse. A circle dance is a locus of conjuration and chanted noun-and-epithet phrases, delimited metrically by the turning points of the dance, become uniquely evocative ‘choral signifiers’. Paolo Vivante’s aesthetic theory of these phrases thereby receives a grounding in attested performance practice, although ‘choral theory’ is required to account for both the poetics and the aesthetics of Homeric verse. The effects of a non-linguistic dance rhythm upon Homeric and Hesiodic phonology, morphology, and diction are discussed. It is shown that ‘poetic license’ is a necessary component in an honest analysis of epic usage. Gregory Nagy’s derivation of the hexameter from smaller, later lyric metrical segments is critiqued in light of Pierre Chantraine’s observation that the Greek language is demonstrably maladapted to the hexameter, as is not the case with lyric metres. The choral signifier cannot be reduced to a purely linguistic phenomenon.Less

The Lyric Orchestra

A. P. David

in The Dance of the Muses: Choral Theory and Ancient Greek Poetics

This chapter applies the new theory of the accent in a choral analysis of lyric verse. The first section, ‘The Lord of the Dance’, calls attention to a new relationship between the poet and his ... More

This chapter applies the new theory of the accent in a choral analysis of lyric verse. The first section, ‘The Lord of the Dance’, calls attention to a new relationship between the poet and his orchestra in lyric as against epic, and the implications of this new relationship for lyric usage and its interpretation. Gone is the evocative music of the noun-and-epithet phrases in favour of adjectival predication. A section on ‘Prosodic Agreement’ showcases accentual rhyme in the strophic systems of Pindar’s Olympian 1 and three heuristic principles for the choreographic analysis of lyric verse, each discussed in theory and practice: (i) ‘one syllable one step’; (ii) the dactyl as the fundamental element of all lyric rhythm in relation to the cadential cretic; and (iii) the accentual determination of ictus (distinguished from the ictual determination of quantity and accent, more characteristic of epic). A discussion of ‘period’ and ‘strophe’, highlighting the remarkable isochrony of both ancient and modern Greek dance, leads to a discussion and demonstration of the kind of poetic epiphany that choral verse can achieve.Less

Genocidal Language Games 1

Tirrell Lynne

in Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech

This chapter examines the role played by derogatory terms (e.g. ‘inyenzi’ or cockroach, ‘inzoka’ or snake) in laying the social groundwork for the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. The ... More

This chapter examines the role played by derogatory terms (e.g. ‘inyenzi’ or cockroach, ‘inzoka’ or snake) in laying the social groundwork for the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. The genocide was preceded by an increase in the use of anti-Tutsi derogatory terms among the Hutu. As these linguistic practices evolved, the terms became more openly and directly aimed at Tutsi. Then, during the 100 days of the genocide, derogatory terms and coded euphemisms were used to direct killers to their victims. Understanding these speech acts helps to illuminate the important ways that power is enacted through discourse, how speech acts can prepare the way for physical and material acts, and how speech generates permissions for actions hitherto uncountenanced. Studying the role of speech acts and linguistic practices in laying the groundwork of the genocide illuminates how patterns of speech acts become linguistic practices that constitute permissibility conditions for non-linguistic behaviors. Further, the analysis presented here helps to make sense of the view that a steady, deep, and widespread derogation of a group can be part and parcel of genocide, not only an antecedent to it.Less

Mapping Ethnography

Joseph E. Skinner

in The Invention of Greek Ethnography: From Homer to Herodotus

This chapter demonstrates the relatively high levels of interest in and engagement with a wide variety of foreign or mythical peoples in the years prior to the Persian Wars. It then goes on to ... More

This chapter demonstrates the relatively high levels of interest in and engagement with a wide variety of foreign or mythical peoples in the years prior to the Persian Wars. It then goes on to examine the interlocking systems of knowledge and understanding through which they found order and expression. Mapping out this “ethnography before ethnography” entails consideration of individual categories such as epic poetry and list songs, epithets, and stereotyping. However, it also stresses their essential connectivity within an overarching imaginaire, unhampered by epistemic distinctions that privilege rational and objective prose—“fact” over fiction.Less

Some Greek Influences on English Poetry

KENNETH HAYNES

in English Literature and Ancient Languages

This chapter examines aspects of the language of English poetry that have been inspired by ancient language, particularly, Greek. It discusses several aspects of the Greek language — compound ... More

This chapter examines aspects of the language of English poetry that have been inspired by ancient language, particularly, Greek. It discusses several aspects of the Greek language — compound epithets, poetic negative of privative adjectives, and metres — and how it spurred writers to emulate them in their own literary languages. Moreover, it explains that there were instances when imitating Greek has been a means by which poets have explored the strange value, desired or threatening, of Greece.Less

Further Differences between English (Germanic) and Italian (Romance)

Guglielmo Cinque

in The Syntax of Adjectives: A Comparative Study

This chapter discusses three additional differences between English (Germanic) and Italian (Romance). These include epithets with prenominal and postnominal adjectives; idiomatic readings with ... More

This chapter discusses three additional differences between English (Germanic) and Italian (Romance). These include epithets with prenominal and postnominal adjectives; idiomatic readings with prenominal and postnominal adjectives; and a constraint on Romance prenominal adjectives.Less

Sentence Construction: Modification

Jeanne Fahnestock

in Rhetorical Style: The Uses of Language in Persuasion

Outside of the subject, verb, and object in an independent clause, everything else in a sentence is modification, the specifying detail that often carries or constrains an argument. Patterns of ... More

Outside of the subject, verb, and object in an independent clause, everything else in a sentence is modification, the specifying detail that often carries or constrains an argument. Patterns of modification depend on the types of modifier used, their placement, and the overall amount of modification. This chapter sorts through the arguer's modifying options first according to the grammatical profile of the unit involved. At the highest level are adverb and adjective clauses (subordinate or relative; noun clauses, though not actually modifiers, are also covered here). Next are phrases divisible into three types: those based on verbs (participial and infinitive phrases), those based on nouns (appositives and absolute, resumptive or summative structures), and prepositional phrases. Finally there are single-word modifiers, sometimes grouped in chains according to how dissociable they are from the word modified. Modifiers can be multiplied or embedded, and individual texts can carry heavy modification in proportion to the predication. The point of this chapter is not simply to review these sentence constituents but to see their potential argumentative consequences as in the epithetical style. For example, an appositive offers, sometimes tendentiously, an apparently equivalent term, and constructions like the absolute phrase allow the arguer to promote a feature of a mentioned noun into attention. Infinitive phrases often attribute purposes for actions and participial phrases subordinate one action to another. Depending on where modifiers are placed in relation to the main predication, they often predispose audiences to the arguer's interpretation of evidence or events.Less

Religious Registers

ANDREAS WILLI

in The Languages of Aristophanes: Aspects of Linguistic Variation in Classical Attic Greek

‘Register’ is the linguistic code that is used in the creation of text that belongs to a ‘genre’. In other words, register is the signifiant (e.g., the language used in a culinary recipe), ‘genre’ ... More

‘Register’ is the linguistic code that is used in the creation of text that belongs to a ‘genre’. In other words, register is the signifiant (e.g., the language used in a culinary recipe), ‘genre’ the signifié (the recipe itself). Register variation seems to occur in all languages, although the number and registers may vary. This chapter discusses register variations, register dimensions, religious language, prayers and hymns, forms of invocation, epithets, speech-act verbs, register-specific vocabulary in prayers, prayer syntax, and hymn syntax.Less

Re-Imagining the Possibility of Friendship

in Philosophy and Friendship

This chapter examines the extent to which ethical epithets are relevant to relations between friends. It explores ideas of friendship as an ethical relationship, the moral worth of friendship and the ... More

This chapter examines the extent to which ethical epithets are relevant to relations between friends. It explores ideas of friendship as an ethical relationship, the moral worth of friendship and the contested place of duty, and inclination and choice within such a conception. The chapter explains that one of the challenges in discussing friendship is how we are to think of it in terms that allow us to appreciate both the personal significance of our social engagement with our friends and the morally significant dimension of that engagement.Less

Names and Epithets

Robert Parker

in Greek Gods Abroad: Names, Natures, and Transformations

This chapter is about the names and epithets of Greek gods, in particular the system of the ‘cultic double name’ by which in cult gods were mostly referred to by both their own name and an epithet, ... More

This chapter is about the names and epithets of Greek gods, in particular the system of the ‘cultic double name’ by which in cult gods were mostly referred to by both their own name and an epithet, which might be either local (‘of Brauron’) or functional (‘of horses’). It discusses the history and implications of the frequent practice of omitting the name in favour of the epithet. It also treats usages in which gods were referred to by titles rather than proper names. It shows how Greek ways of referring to gods are like and unlike ways of referring to humans, and how these differences illuminate the perceived differences between the two categories of being.Less

Queenly Fig Trees: Figures of Speech and Decorum

Colleen Ruth Rosenfeld

in Indecorous Thinking: Figures of Speech in Early Modern Poetics

Chapter three examines how artifice at its most conspicuous assigns an original set of values to the people and objects that populate imaginative worlds. Attending to the work of the epithet in Mary ... More

Chapter three examines how artifice at its most conspicuous assigns an original set of values to the people and objects that populate imaginative worlds. Attending to the work of the epithet in Mary Wroth’s Urania, I argue that an indecorous poetics—one that manufactures stylistic surplus and excess—actively revises traditional hierarchies of value in order to generate an imaginative world that revels in the superlative degree. It may be, as Demetrius suggested in On Style, that using figures of speech to describe a wobbling teacup produces an indecorous alignment of words to things but such a use also distinguishes imaginative realms and their alternative constructions of possibility.Less

Epithets

Chris Collins and Paul M. Postal

in Imposters: A Study of Pronominal Agreement

This chapter compares imposters and camouflage determiner phrases (DPs) with epithets (for example, the fool and the idiot). The values of epithets are typically determined by their antecedents. And ... More

This chapter compares imposters and camouflage determiner phrases (DPs) with epithets (for example, the fool and the idiot). The values of epithets are typically determined by their antecedents. And just like imposters, epithets might well be non-pronominal DPs that take antecedents. In this case, however, antecedents cannot be first or second person imposters. In their incompatibility with imposter antecedents, epithets contrast with third person pronouns that can take imposter antecedents. The chapter discusses the constraint related to the ultimate antecedents of epithets and the Principle C phenomenon.Less

Evaluative Language and Evaluative Reality

Matti Eklund

in Thick Concepts

This paper addresses the following two questions: (1) What it is for a linguistic expression or a concept to be evaluative (or normative)? (2) What it is for a property or a fact to be evaluative (or ... More

This paper addresses the following two questions: (1) What it is for a linguistic expression or a concept to be evaluative (or normative)? (2) What it is for a property or a fact to be evaluative (or normative)? The most natural answers to these two questions are discussed, and serious problems with these answers are stressed. Important in the discussion is consideration of different kinds of evaluative concepts – thin concepts, thick concepts and epithets. No particular positive view is defended. Instead two rather different positive views are highlighted: a view suggested by Ralph Wedgwood's recent work, and presentationalism, according to which evaluativeness is properly seen as a feature of our representations of reality and not reality itself.Less

N-word vs. F-word, Black vs. Gay: Uncovering Pendejo Games to Recover Intersections

Catherine R. Squireso

in Critical Rhetorics of Race

This chapter shows how dominant media stories pitted and ranked one marginalized group (blacks) against another (LGBTQ) by highlighting the anti-gay epithets made by black male celebrities, who ... More

This chapter shows how dominant media stories pitted and ranked one marginalized group (blacks) against another (LGBTQ) by highlighting the anti-gay epithets made by black male celebrities, who served as responsible exemplars for the larger black U.S. culture. Such logics reduced all gays to being white males and all blacks (especially black males) to being straight and homophobic. Indeed, allegations about black homophobia are a recurring topic in media discourse, such as rappers' homophobic lyrics, black men “on the down low,” and black clergy supporting anti-gay ballot initiatives. In doing so, the media framed black and gay communities as distinctive and essentially de-intersecting black and gay identities.Less

Tagalog Anaphora

Norvin Richards

in Diagnosing Syntax

In this chapter, a variety of binding phenomena are used as diagnostics for properties of Tagalog syntax, including basic sentence structure and the nature of various kinds of movement. It is ... More

In this chapter, a variety of binding phenomena are used as diagnostics for properties of Tagalog syntax, including basic sentence structure and the nature of various kinds of movement. It is concluded that the consequences of Tagalog scrambling and ‘topicalization’ for binding, and the lack of a feeding relation between these two types of movement, can best be accounted for in a framework in which spell‐out to LF and PF need not be simultaneous.Less

A test bed for grammatical theories

Pieter A. M. Seuren

in From Whorf to Montague: Explorations in the Theory of Language

In this chapter, a number of crucial observations are presented and discussed that prove the inadequacy of current theories of grammar—especially ‘cognitivist’ approaches—which deny any universals ... More

In this chapter, a number of crucial observations are presented and discussed that prove the inadequacy of current theories of grammar—especially ‘cognitivist’ approaches—which deny any universals and claim that language in the speaker’s mind is merely the result of statistical frequencies. In this sense, the chapter provides a ‘test bed’ for any theory, with the troublesome observations divided into class A and class B facts. The former are typically not the result of language acquisition or language teaching but are brought to awareness via immediate intuition on the basis of even imperfect knowledge of the language in question and are thus strong evidence in favour of language universals. The latter follow from ‘abstract’ rules and principles forming part of specific grammars and thus require a high level of competence in the language at issue. The final conclusion is that ‘abstract’ rules and principles cannot be done without. It is now up to the cognitivists and close relations to provide answers.Less