Tense-Switching in Classical Greek

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-316-51715-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 300 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 638 g

Tense is at its most interesting when it behaves badly. In this book Arjan Nijk investigates the variation between the past and present tenses to refer to past events in Classical Greek and beyond. Adopting a cognitive approach to the issue, he argues that the use of the present for preterite depends on the activation of implicit conceptual scenarios in which the gap between the past and the present is bridged. The book is distinguished from previous accounts by its precision in describing these conceptual scenarios, the combination of linguistic theorising with philological and statistical methods, the size of the corpus under investigation and the explicitly cross-linguistic scope. It provides a complete overview of the phenomenon of tense switching in Classical Greek, as well as new theoretical perspectives on deixis and viewpoint, and is important for classicists, narratologists and linguists of every stamp.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nijk, Arjan A.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; 1. General conceptual model; 2. Scenic narrative and the mimetic present; 3. Summary narrative and the diegetic present; 4. Zero-degree narrativity and the registering present; Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Nijk, Arjan A.
ARJAN NIJK is a Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.