Author Description
The Reconstruction Of The Prosody Of A Dead Language Is, On The Face Of It, An Almost Impossible Undertaking. However, Once A General Theory Of Prosody Has Been Developed From Reliable Data In Living Languages, It Is Possible To Exploit Texts As Sources Of Answers To Questions That Would Normally Be Answered In The Laboratory. In This Work, The Authors Interpret The Evidence Of Greek Verse Texts And Musical Settings In The Framework Of A Theory Of Prosody Based On Crosslinguistic Evidence And Experimental Phonetic And Psycholinguistic Data, And Reconstruct The Syllable Structure, Rhythm, Accent, Phrasing, And Intonation Of Classical Greek Speech. Sophisticated Statistical Analyses Are Employed To Support An Impressive Range Of New Findings Which Relate Not Only To Phonetics And Phonology, But Also To Pragmatics And The Syntax-phonology Interface.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This work investigates the feasibility of reconstructing the prosodic features of Classical Greek by applying modern linguistic theories to ancient textual and musical evidence. The authors, A. M. Devine and L. D. Stephens, leverage crosslinguistic data alongside experimental phonetic and psycholinguistic frameworks to bridge the gap between dead languages and laboratory-based analysis. By treating Greek verse and musical settings as empirical data, they construct a model that accounts for the rhythmic and intonational patterns of the language.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Reconstruction of syllable structure, rhythm, accent, phrasing, and intonation in Classical Greek.
- Application of crosslinguistic prosodic theories to ancient texts.
- Utilization of sophisticated statistical analyses to evaluate linguistic evidence.
- Examination of the syntax-phonology interface and pragmatic implications of speech patterns.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars in the field of classical philology and historical linguistics recognize this text as a rigorous, data-driven approach to a historically elusive subject. Readers frequently note the high level of technical density, which requires a foundational understanding of both phonology and the Greek language to fully appreciate the authors' methodology.
Page Count:
586
Publication Date:
1994-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press, Incorporated
ISBN-10:
0195359038
ISBN-13:
9780195359039
Philology
Linguistics
Greek language
Phonetics
Ancient Greek
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