Apollonius Dyscolus

Studies in the History of the Language Sciences #23

by Fred W. Householder (Translator)

Apollonius Dyscolus was the first formal syntactician in Graeco-Roman linguistics. He considered the nature of language to be logical and rule-governed, and assumed an underlying structure for all levels of language. It might be said that from the work of his predecessors, he extracted syntax. This volume contains an English translation of ― mainly ― Uhlig’s 1910 edition of De Constructione Libri Quattor (Peri Suntaxeōs) , with commentary, an introduction, and an article on Apollonius Dyscolus and the Origins of Deep Structure.

287 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Zoran Zeković]

The Syntax of Apollonius Dysclus (Hardcover)
by Fred W. Householder

Householder has added an excellent introduction to the book(pp 1-17). His introduction is divided into two sections. The first one is entitled "introduction"(pp 1-4). It is full of technicalities. The second one is much much better. It is entitled "Apollonius Dyscolus and the origins of Deep Structure"(pp 4-17). In fact, it is the best part of the book. According to Householder, it is Apollonius Dyscolus who can be seen as the "inventor of the abstract base"(page 17). And what is the abstract base(„τὸ ἑξῆς“ or "ordo")? It might be equivalent to the concept of "deep structure" used by some modern linguists.

Generally speaking, Householder 's introduction deserves 5 stars, but......the rest of the book is nothing special(e.g. the Greek language text of Apollonius Dyscolus has been omitted. ) In short, Fred W. Householder is an excellent historian of linguistics, but he does not seem to be an excellent philologist. That 's why 2 stars only.