Latin Grammarians Echoing the Greeks: The Doctrine of Proper Epithets and the Adjective
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Javier Uría
Abstract
Among Greek grammarians a distinction is recognized between a class of nouns capable of referring to several nouns and a class referring to just one proper name. This distinction is very poorly (and problematically) attested in the works of Latin grammarians. This paper explores and discusses some connections so far overlooked, and tries to correct some misinterpretations. In the light of the distinction of proper vs. common epithets, the controversial phrase mediae potestatis is elucidated, by stressing that it refers to the ‘semantic incompleteness’ of the adjective. Finally, the assumption that the concept of ‘adjective’ was not known within Latin grammatical tradition before the fourth century is revised. We bring forward evidence against this assumption implying an early ‘linguistic’ tradition with respect to the adjective which was to some degree independent from the well-known ‘rhetorical’ doctrine on epithets.
© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany
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Articles in the same Issue
- Il dio nato due volte: l′etimologia nelle Baccanti tra fede religiosa e critica del mito
- Monumenti d’autore e storie di testi (Isocrate, Ennio, Orazio)
- Posidippo, Ep. 52 Austin-Bastianini (P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309 col. VIII 2530): In morte di Timone o di Aste?
- Mystérieuse ἅπλωσις dans l′En.VI, 9[9] de Plotin
- St Gregory of Nazianzus and the Classical Tradition. The Poemata Arcana qua Hymns
- Three Further Echoes of Lactantius in Jerome
- Latin Grammarians Echoing the Greeks: The Doctrine of Proper Epithets and the Adjective
- „… jhre alte Muttersprache … unvermengt und unverdorben“: Zur Rezeption der taciteischen Germania im 17. Jahrhundert
- Bemerkungen zur Zahl der Nereiden in Hesiods Theogonie
- Note on Afran. 95-6 R.3
- New Citizens from Gades: A Note on Cicero Balb. 50
- Lumina solis o luminis oras?
- Due proposte al testo delle Metamorfosi di Apuleio (5, 28e 11, 23)
- A Babel of Tongues. The Ancient Names of the Balearic Islands and their Meaning
