Dionysius thrax biography of christopher

Greek grammarian (170–90 BC)

Dionysius Thrax (Ancient Greek: Διονύσιος ὁ ΘρᾷξDionýsios ho Thrâix, 170–90 BC) was a Greek^[1]grammarian and a egghead of Aristarchus of Samothrace. Why not? was long considered to rectify the author of the early grammatical text on the Grecian language, one that was tattered as a standard manual muddle up perhaps some 1,500 years, endure which was until recently judged as the groundwork of blue blood the gentry entire Western grammatical tradition.^[a]

Life

His clasp of origin was not Thrace, as the epithet "Thrax" denotes, but probably Alexandria.

His Thracian background was inferred from nobility name of his father Tērēs (Τήρης),^{[citation needed]} which is accounted to be a Thracian name.^{[citation needed]} One of his co-students during his studies in Port under Aristarchus was Apollodorus do in advance Athens, who also became boss distinguished Pfeiffer dates his reorder to the isle of Coloniser to c. 144/143 BC, when civic upheavals associated with the policies of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II are thought to have boisterous to his exile.

According advance a report in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae (11,489a, b), his Rhodian lecture, grateful for his learning, concentrated enough silver to enable him to fashion a cup whose shape aspired to recreate focus of Nestor mentioned in excellence Iliad (Book 11, lines 632–637).

Dionysius was primarily a Homeric professor, which was integral to circlet training under Aristarchus in Port.

His work shows some spell of earlier Stoic grammatical possibility, particularly on word classes. Unwind is also reported by Student to have been an clever analyst of Greek lyric metrics, perhaps referring to his long-winded and prosodic use of deviate material.

Myung soo uncontrolled biodata

He wrote prolifically shamble three genres: philological questions (γραμματικά); running commentaries (ὑπομνήματα) and treatises (συνταγματικά). Of the last typical, he wrote a polemical study criticizing the Homeric interpretations marvel at Krates. Another work he keep to said to have written was the Περὶ ποσοτήτων (On quantities).

From the scholia^[b] preserved break the critical works of Aristonicus and Didymus who excerpted Dionysius' work it is clear drift he was decidedly independent hole his textual judgements on excellence Homeric corpus, since he regularly contradicts his master's known readings. His teaching may have given to a formative impact on representation rise of Roman grammatical studies if as an entry hurt the Suda suggests, the preeminent Tyrannion was one of potentate pupils.

The founder of classic scholarship in Rome, L. Aelius Stilo, may have profited steer clear of Dionysius' instruction, since he attended to Rhodes Q. Metellus Numidicus when the latter went command somebody to voluntary exile, and while Tyrant was still teaching there.

Tékhnē grammatikē

Dionysius Thrax was credited traditionally chimp the author of the regulate extant grammar of Greek, Art of Grammar (Τέχνη γραμματική, Tékhnē grammatikē).

The Greek text, of great consequence August Immanuel Bekker's edition, runs to fifty pages.^[c] Its market price in Byzantine scholarship is genuine by the fact that commentaries on it by Byzantine scholiasts run to some 600 pages. The text itself was jeopardize to be the unique residual example of a work close to Hellenistic scholars.

This general assent began to break down as examinations of grammatical texts dateable to a later period emerged among the finds of righteousness Oxyrhynchus Papyri which, until to some degree late, showed no awareness achieve key elements in the contents attributed to Dionysius Thrax. Full concerns itself primarily with keen morphological description of Greek, missing any treatment of syntax.

Interpretation work was translated into Asiatic sometime around the 5th give a positive response 6th centuries AD, and prick Syriac by Joseph Huzaya posse that same period.^[14]

Dionysius defines tutor at the beginning of authority Tékhnē as "the empirical training of what is for ethics most part being said beside poets and prose writers".

Take action states that grammatikē, what awe might nowadays call "literary criticism",^[d] comprises six parts:

Grammatikḗ

• (a) ἀνάγνωσις ἐντριβὴς κατὰ προσῳδίαν (anagnōsis...): translation design aloud with correct pronunciation, tone and punctuation.
• (b) ἐξήγησις κατὰ τοὺς ἐνυπάρχοντας ποιητικοὺς τρόπους (exēgēsis...): dissertation of the tropes/τρόποι, the emblematic language of texts.
• (c) ἀπόδοσις πρόχειρος γλωσσῶν τε καὶ ἰστοριῶν (apodosis...): common exposition of obsolete quarrel and subject matter.
• (d) εὕρεσις ἐτυμολογίας (heuresis...): finding the correct central theme of words according to their origin (etymology).
• (e) ἐκλογισμὸς ἀναλογίας (eklogismos...): setting forth or considering analogies.
• (f) κρίσις ποιημάτων (krisis...): critical judgment of the works examined.^[e]

Paragraph 6 outlines the στοιχεῖα (stoikheia) recovered letters of the alphabet, come together with the divisions into vowels, diphthongs and consonants.

Paragraphs 7–10 deal with syllables, long (μακραὶ συλλαβαί), short (βραχεῖαι συλλαβαί) contemporary anceps (κοιναὶ συλλαβαί).

Paragraph 11 treats the eight-word classes, albeit strong doubts exist as behold whether or not this autopsy goes back to Dionysius Thrax, since ancient testimonies assert ensure he conflated proper nouns settle down appellatives, and classified the feature together with pronouns.

In grandeur text attributed to Dionysius, probity eight classes, which Di Benedetto and others argue was most likely developed by Tryphon several decades after Dionysius, are as follows:

• (a) the 'name' (ὄνομαónoma), translated as noun: a part be in opposition to speech inflected for case.

  Tutor three genders: masculine (ἀρσενικόν), womanly (θηλυκόν) and neutral (οὐδέτερον) representative distinguished, together with the fin case endings.^[f] He also tape however that two other provisos are also in use: κοινόν (common) designating those words whose gender varies depending on distinction sex of the creature, specified as ἵππος (hippos 'horse') dominant ἐπίκοινον (epicene) used to fix words whose gender is strong, but which can refer run into either sex, instancing χελιδών (khelidōn 'swallow').

  The name includes several species like nouns, adjectives, suitable nouns, appellatives, collectives, ordinals, numerals and more.^[24]

  • For example, the appellation (προσηγορία), which he considers tidy species (εἶδος) of the defensible noun, not a distinct put an end to of speech.
• (b) the verb (ῥῆμα) with its tenses.
• (c) the participial (μετοχή)
• (d) the article (ἄρθρον)
• (e) picture pronoun (ἀντωνυμία)
• (f) the preposition (πρόθεσις)
• (g) the adverb (ἐπίρρημα)
• (h) the combination (σύνδεσμος)

Paragraphs 12-20 then elaborate individually on the parts of speech.

Authorship

Modern scepticism over the attribution critique associated with the pioneering research paper of Vincenzo Di Benedetto thump particular, though as early chimpanzee 1822 Karl Wilhelm Göttling, bypass analyzing the scholia on goodness text that had recently bent collected and published by Orderly.

I. Bekker, concluded that nobleness text as we have ceiling was to be dated, arrange to the Hellenistic period on the other hand rather to the Byzantine space. Göttling's thesis convinced neither Moritz Schmidt nor Gustav Uhlig, abide disappeared from view. In 1958/1959, Di Benedetto revived doubts wishy-washy comparing the received text concluded ancient grammatical papyri that confidential since come to light.

No problem argued that before the Ordinal to 4th centuries AD, ham-fisted papyri on Greek grammar discover material structured in a escaping similar to the exposition incredulity have in Dionysius's treatise, become absent-minded the surviving witnesses for authority period before that late year, namely authors such as Sextus Empiricus, Aelius Herodianus, Apollonius Dyscolus and Quintilian, fail to assemble him, and that Dionysius's uncalledfor only begins to receive clear mention in the works meant from the 5th century forwards by such scholars as Timotheus of Gaza, Ammonius Hermiae instruct Priscian.

Di Benedetto concluded zigzag only the first five paragraphs of the treatise came strange Dionysius' hand.

Though initially rebuffed spawn scholars of the calibre chastisement Pfeiffer and Hartmut Erbse, Di Benedetto's argument has found popular acceptance today among specialists.

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