7 Byzantine literature in “classicised” genres: Some grammatical realities (V–XIV CE)
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Geoffrey Horrocks
Abstract
This chapter examines the phenomenon of interference from contemporary Medieval Greek in the classicising register of Greek traditionally used in the Byzantine period for literary genres with an ancient heritage (examples are taken from the fifth/sixth and thirteenth/fourteenth centuries). The focus lies on expressions of futurity and modality, and it is argued that, while authors are careful to replicate ancient morphology, which was consciously mastered and deployed, the actual uses of the relevant forms are heavily influenced by contemporary syntactic and semantic categories, which, being far more abstract, were subconsciously employed in even the most ancient-looking texts. Such interference was in fact almost inevitable in the absence of any thorough description of Classical Greek syntax in the grammatical tradition. Accordingly, Atticised Greek of the medieval period is best seen as a register of Medieval Greek in which the abstract syntactic and semantic properties of the contemporary language are conventionally realised by means of certain superficially obvious formal adaptations and the systematic substitution of ancient morphology.
Abstract
This chapter examines the phenomenon of interference from contemporary Medieval Greek in the classicising register of Greek traditionally used in the Byzantine period for literary genres with an ancient heritage (examples are taken from the fifth/sixth and thirteenth/fourteenth centuries). The focus lies on expressions of futurity and modality, and it is argued that, while authors are careful to replicate ancient morphology, which was consciously mastered and deployed, the actual uses of the relevant forms are heavily influenced by contemporary syntactic and semantic categories, which, being far more abstract, were subconsciously employed in even the most ancient-looking texts. Such interference was in fact almost inevitable in the absence of any thorough description of Classical Greek syntax in the grammatical tradition. Accordingly, Atticised Greek of the medieval period is best seen as a register of Medieval Greek in which the abstract syntactic and semantic properties of the contemporary language are conventionally realised by means of certain superficially obvious formal adaptations and the systematic substitution of ancient morphology.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Contents VII
- List of contributors XI
- The Greek Alphabet XV
- List of abbreviations XVII
- 1 Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Novel questions and approaches 1
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Part I: VARIETIES OF POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 2 Tracking down lects in Roman Egypt 17
- 3 Idiolect in focus: Two brothers in the Memphis Sarapieion (II BCE) 39
- 4 Imposing psychological pressure in papyrus request letters: A case study of six Byzantine letters written in an ecclesiastical context (VI–VII CE) 75
- 5 Greek in Egypt or Egyptian Greek? Syntactic regionalisms (IV CE) 115
- 6 In search of an Egyptian Greek lexicon in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 141
- 7 Byzantine literature in “classicised” genres: Some grammatical realities (V–XIV CE) 163
- 8 From highly classicizing to common prose (XIII–XIV CE): The Metaphrasis of Niketas Choniates’ History 179
- 9 Back to the future: Akritic light on diachronic variation in Cappadocian (East Asia Minor Greek) 201
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Part II: DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION IN POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 10 Tense variation in Ptolemaic papyri: Towards a grammar of epistolary dialogue 243
- 11 The Classical norm and varieties of Post-classical Greek: Expressions of anteriority and posteriority in a corpus of official documents (I–II CE) 265
- 12 Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE–800 CE) 299
- 13 The Greek phonology of a tax collector in Egypt in the first century CE 327
- 14 Metrical variation in Byzantine colophons (XI–XV CE): The example of ἡ μὲν χεὶρ ἡ γράψασα 353
- 15 Arguing and narrating: Text type and linguistic variation in tenth-century Greek 369
- 16 The distinctiveness of syntax for varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Linguistic upgrading from the third century BCE to the tenth century CE 381
- Index locorum 415
- Index nominum 423
- Index rerum 425
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Contents VII
- List of contributors XI
- The Greek Alphabet XV
- List of abbreviations XVII
- 1 Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Novel questions and approaches 1
-
Part I: VARIETIES OF POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 2 Tracking down lects in Roman Egypt 17
- 3 Idiolect in focus: Two brothers in the Memphis Sarapieion (II BCE) 39
- 4 Imposing psychological pressure in papyrus request letters: A case study of six Byzantine letters written in an ecclesiastical context (VI–VII CE) 75
- 5 Greek in Egypt or Egyptian Greek? Syntactic regionalisms (IV CE) 115
- 6 In search of an Egyptian Greek lexicon in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 141
- 7 Byzantine literature in “classicised” genres: Some grammatical realities (V–XIV CE) 163
- 8 From highly classicizing to common prose (XIII–XIV CE): The Metaphrasis of Niketas Choniates’ History 179
- 9 Back to the future: Akritic light on diachronic variation in Cappadocian (East Asia Minor Greek) 201
-
Part II: DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION IN POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 10 Tense variation in Ptolemaic papyri: Towards a grammar of epistolary dialogue 243
- 11 The Classical norm and varieties of Post-classical Greek: Expressions of anteriority and posteriority in a corpus of official documents (I–II CE) 265
- 12 Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE–800 CE) 299
- 13 The Greek phonology of a tax collector in Egypt in the first century CE 327
- 14 Metrical variation in Byzantine colophons (XI–XV CE): The example of ἡ μὲν χεὶρ ἡ γράψασα 353
- 15 Arguing and narrating: Text type and linguistic variation in tenth-century Greek 369
- 16 The distinctiveness of syntax for varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Linguistic upgrading from the third century BCE to the tenth century CE 381
- Index locorum 415
- Index nominum 423
- Index rerum 425
