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This book explains how the grammarians of the Graeco-Romance world perceived the nature and structure of the languages they taught. The volume focuses primarily on the early centuries AD, a time when the Roman Empire was at its peak; in this period, a grammarian not only had a secure place in the ancient system of education, but could take for granted an established technical understanding of language. By delineating what that ancient model of grammar was, P. H. Matthews highlights both those aspects that have persisted to this day and seem reassuringly familiar, such as 'parts of speech', as well as those aspects that are wholly dissimilar to our present understanding of grammar and language. The volume is written to be accessible to students of linguistics from undergraduate level upwards, and assumes no knowledge of Latin or Ancient Greek.
List of contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Grammar
- 3: Units
- 4: Words
- 5: The eight parts
- 6: Accidents
- 7: Inflectional categories
- 8: Speaking correctly
- 9: Utterances
- 10: Parts of utterances and their constructions
- 11: Derivations
- 12: Final comments
- Ancient writers referred to
- Guidance on background reading
- References
- Index of Greek and Latin terms
- General index
About the author
P. H. Matthews is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He has formerly held positions at Bangor University and the University of Reading, and has been an Honorary Member of the Linguistic Society of America since 1994. His many books include The Positions of Adjectives in English (OUP 2015), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (3rd edn; OUP 2014), Syntactic Relations: A Critical Survey (CUP 2007), Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction (OUP 2003), and A Short History of Structural Linguistics (CUP 2001).
Summary
This book explains how the grammarians of the Graeco-Romance world perceived the nature and structure of the languages they taught. It discusses aspects that have persisted to this day and seem reassuringly familiar, such as 'parts of speech', and aspects that are wholly dissimilar to our present understanding of grammar and language.
Additional text
Matthews has undertaken a massive endeavor and has acquitted himself well. He has not only scrupulously provided refrences to many of the original Greek and Latin texts but has also quoted and translated them -- accurately I might add -- and has used them as points of departure for his analyses, exactly as he should have. That I would beg to differ with him on occasion is only to be expected and does not detract from his accomplishment.
Report
This little volume is learned, accessible, and delightful to read. James B. Prothro, Ave Maria University, Religious Studies Review
