Full Description
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.
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
