Diction as a whole Footnote 1A translator is bound to render this chapter, since the balance of evidence is in favour of its inclusion. But the readaer is advised to skip it, since it is written from the point of view of grammar and philology, and does not, like the succeeding chapter, deal with the literary use of words. It is also very obscure. Students should refer to Bywater’s edition. is made up of these parts: letter, syllable, conjunction, joint, Footnote 2A joint,
as defined below, appears to be a word which indicates the beginning or end of a clause. noun, verb, case, phrase.
A letter is an indivisible sound, not every such sound but one of which an intelligible sound can be formed. Animals utter indivisible sounds but none that I should call a letter.
Such sounds may be subdivided into vowel, semi-vowel, and mute. A vowel is that which without any addition has an audible sound; a semivowel needs the addition of another letter to give it audible sound, for instance S and R; a mute is that which with addition has no sound of its own but becomes audible when combined with some of the letters which have a sound. Examples of mutes are G and D.
Letters differ according to the shape of the mouth and the place at which they are sounded; in being with or without aspiration; in being long and short; and lastly in having an acute, grave, or intermediate accent. But the detailed study of these matters properly concerns students of metre.
A syllable is a sound without meaning, composed of a mute and a letter that has a sound. GR, for example, without A is a syllable just as much as GRA with an A. But these distinctions also belong to the theory of metre.
A conjunction is a sound without meaning, which neither hinders nor causes the formation of a single significant sound or phrase out of several sounds, and which, if the phrase stands by itself, cannot properly stand at the beginning of it, e.g. μέν, δή, τοί, δέ; or else it is a sound without meaning capable of forming one significant sound or phrase out of several sounds having each a meaning of their own, e.g. ἀμφί, περί.
A joint is a sound without meaning which marks the beginning or end of a phrase or a division in it, and naturally stands at either end or in the middle. Footnote 3This paragraph remains a cause of despair. Bywater’s notes suggest a restoration.
A noun is a composite sound with a meaning, not indicative of time, no part of which has a meaning by itself; for in compounds we do not use each part as having a meaning of its own, for instance, in Theodorus,
there is no meaning of δῶρον (gift).
A verb is a composite sound with a meaning, indicative of time, no part of which has a meaning by itself—just as in nouns. Man
or white
does not signify time, but walks
and has walked
connote present and past time respectively.
A case (or inflection) of a noun or verb is that which signifies either of
or to
a thing and the like;or gives the sense of one or many
e.g. men and man; or else it may depend on the delivery, for example question and command. Walked?
and Walk!
are verbal cases
of this kind.
A phrase Footnote 4There is no exact English equivalent of this meaning of λόγος, which has been used already in 7 above without explanation. Statement
and proposition
also cover part of its meaning. is a composite sound with a meaning, some parts of which mean something by themselves.
It is not true to say that every phrase
is made up of nouns and verbs, e.g. the definition of man Footnote 5Probably one of the two definitions given in the Topics, a two-footed land animal
and an animal amenable to reason.
; but although it is possible to have a phrase
without verbs, yet some part of it will always have a meaning of its own, for example, Cleon in Cleon walks.
A phrase
may be a unit in two ways; either it signifies one thing or it is a combination of several phrases.
The unity of the Iliad, for instance, is due to such combination, but the definition of man is one phrase
because it signifies one thing.