Placeholder text

Go to cart

Greek Forms of Address ' from Herodotus to Lucian ' (Ocm)

By Eleanor Dickey

Greek Forms of Address ' from Herodotus to Lucian ' (Ocm) Social Sciences

Greek Forms of Address ' from Herodotus to Lucian ' (Ocm)

0 - Default Title
Description
How did an Athenian citizen address his wife? - his children, his slaves, and his dog? How did they address him? This book is the first major application of linguistic theories of address to an ancient language. It is based on a corpus of 11,891 vocatives from twenty-five prose authors from Herodotus to Lucian, and on comparative data from Aristophanes, Menander, and other sources; the data are analysed using techniques and evidence from the field of sociolinguistics to shed light on some long-standing problems in Greek. A separate section discusses the theoretical problems which arise from the attempt to reconstruct conversational Greek on the basis of written texts and concludes that this enterprise is indeed possible, provided that the right sources are selected. Analysis of the Greek address system leads to a reconsideration of the meanings of individual addresses and thus of the interpretation of specific passages; it also challenges the validity of some alleged sociolinguistic 'universals'. In particular, Eleanor Dickey examines some of the idiosyncratic aspects of Socrates' language, offering an exceptionally interesting and novel contribution to the problem of the 'historical Socrates'. Highly original, lucid, and jargon-free, this book offers many significant insights on both the literature and language of ancient Greece.
Product details
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
360
Release Date:
1996-11-28
Publication Date:
1996-10-03
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
0198150547
ISBN13:
9780198150541
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
639 g
Height:
145 cm
Width:
222 cm
Thickness:
25 cm
Buy on Amazon
Currently sold out