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The ancient Greek and Byzantine notion of dialektos

A criterial approach
  • Raf Van Rooy
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History of Linguistics 2014
This chapter is in the book History of Linguistics 2014

Abstract

By studying the different definitions from the Hellenistic era up to Byzantine times, the present paper aims at contributing to tracing the vicissitudes of the term dialektos – and the concept intertwined with it; for this aspect as yet lacks an extensive and systematic treatment. In particular, it shows that Hellenistic authors conceived of dialektos as an ethnically and/or a diatopically restricted speech form, as an anomalous variety of the koinè, and/or as a speech form vaguely characterized by a certain ‘peculiarity’. Later on, Byzantine authors both adopted and enriched this tradition. The pivotal role of the widely used image of kharaktèr also receives attention.

Abstract

By studying the different definitions from the Hellenistic era up to Byzantine times, the present paper aims at contributing to tracing the vicissitudes of the term dialektos – and the concept intertwined with it; for this aspect as yet lacks an extensive and systematic treatment. In particular, it shows that Hellenistic authors conceived of dialektos as an ethnically and/or a diatopically restricted speech form, as an anomalous variety of the koinè, and/or as a speech form vaguely characterized by a certain ‘peculiarity’. Later on, Byzantine authors both adopted and enriched this tradition. The pivotal role of the widely used image of kharaktèr also receives attention.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & acknowledgments vii
  4. Editors’ introduction ix
  5. Part I. General and particular issues in the history of linguistics
  6. What do we talk about, when we talk about the history of linguistics? 3
  7. On the concept of grammatical tradition and its application to linguistic studies in Brazil 17
  8. The history of the concept of lexicography 31
  9. The relation of gesture to thought and language 43
  10. Part II. Antiquity and Middle Ages
  11. The ancient Greek and Byzantine notion of dialektos 55
  12. On the typology of ancient grammars 69
  13. L’interjection dans la tradition grammaticale latine, de l’Antiquité à l’Humanisme 83
  14. Classifications of words in ancient Sanskrit grammars 97
  15. Part III. Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century Works
  16. Notas sobre la difusión en Portugal del Libellus de constructione octo partium orationis (Londres 1513) durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI 113
  17. Study of the dialogues in the Sprachbücher by Juan Ángel de Zumaran (fl. 1617–1634) 125
  18. Models of language and mankind in the milieu of the ‘Idéologues’ 139
  19. Degérando’s three prize essays and the shift in linguistic thought at the turn of the 19th century 149
  20. Part IV. Nineteenth to Twentieth Century Studies
  21. Anton Marty’s philosophy of language and his dialogue with linguists 163
  22. Voices from the field 177
  23. Saussure et la temporalité 191
  24. Compléments indirects et circonstanciels dans la grammaire française au cours de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle 205
  25. Poétique saussurienne, poétique jakobsonienne 219
  26. A first history of Functional Grammar 233
  27. Polysemy in 19th century linguistic studies in Chile 247
  28. Presupposition and implicitness in the 20th century 257
  29. Name index 269
  30. Subject index 275
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