Category Archive: Books

There is a lot of significant work on Ancient Greek that came out in the 19th century. Some of it was by native Greek speakers. The challenge is that during that period, the politics of language in Greece was a source of constant debate and argument. Many times the ancient language was used as a meant to prop up one’s understanding of the modern one (or as a cudgel against those whose way of speaking one disapproved of). I picked up this book last year and only recently started reading it. It has been an extremely helpful book and has given insight into the various forces that can have an effect on grammar writing, even when you are seeking to be as objective as possible.

And it’s a stern reminder: Even academic work is not done in a vacuum and it cannot escape the political climate in which it is produced.

Language and National Identity in Greece, 1766-1976 by Peter Mackridge

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Robert Crellin’s Ph.D. dissertation is now available in monograph form at an incredibly reasonable price (retail of $40, currently $33 on Amazon) in the Publications of the Philological Society Series.

The syntax and semantics of the perfect active in literary Koine Greek (Amazon)1119243548-1

It’s an excellent piece of research. He and I have some differences on theoretical issues–I do not at all like Klein (1994) Time in Language, which Crellin uses heavily.

That issues aside, however, his conclusions are basically in agreement with my own simply within a different terminology set and framework and I wholeheartedly recommend his work. I’d like to review it at some point, but my writing is pretty busy for now.

Perhaps this fall.

Of course, you can also read my own analysis of the Greek perfect on Academia.edu here: Aubrey (2014) The Greek perfect and the categorization of tense and aspect.

 

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