Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology - Böcker

This volume is a collection of papers revealing the largely unexplored boundary between linguistic and literary approaches to classical texts. Eleven contributions by various scholars discuss a wide range of linguistic and literary apects of classical texts: the narratee in the prologues of Sophocles’ Trachiniae and of Euripides, the chronology in Pindar’s Odes, the relation between tense-aspect and Discourse Modes in Thucydides, Xenophon, Vergil and Ovid, the use of aspect in the Law Code of Gortyn, expressions of futurity and the word order of adjectives in Herodotus, and, finally, ancient and modern views on word order. Following an interdisciplinary approach, all contributions aim at bridging the gap between linguistic and literary study of classical texts.

The structure of the noun phrase in Ancient Greek is extremely flexible: the various constituents may occur in almost every possible order and each constituent may or may not be preceded by an article. However, the use and function of the various options have received very little attention. This book tries to fill that gap. A functional analysis of the structure of the NP in Herodotus illucidateswhich arguments lead a native speaker in his choice to select one of the various possible NP patterns. The results do not only increase our knowledge of the NP, but also lead to a better interpretation of Ancient Greek texts.

This volume includes fourteen original articles, written by a diverse group of distinguished scholars in honor of Philip Baldi (Penn State University). The contributions all focus on some aspect of classical linguistics, by which is meant Latin, Greek, Etruscan, and Indo-European. Some focus more on historical linguistic issues, while others deal with synchronic grammatical or semantic problems. The volume also offers a complete bibliography of the works of Philip Baldi, as well as a personal sketch.

In De cura pro mortuis gerenda Augustine interweaves an assessment of burial near the memorial of a martyr with a series of dream narratives. The seeming lack of coherence between argument and narrative in this treatise has puzzled many scholars. Combining an analysis of the overall structure of the argument and a detailed philological commentary, this study shows that Augustine’s text forms a well-composed unity. The study is based on discourse-linguistic and narratological concepts as well as an analysis of the global structure of the narratives. Relying on this combined approach Rose demonstrates how Augustine explores the full breadth of his narrative material in the service of his argument. In addition, this book situates Augustine’s text in its cultural-historical context.