Chronology, Dialect, and Style in Early Greek Hexameter Poetry
Regular price
€111.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Tom McConnell
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Tom McConnell
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DSBB
Category=HBLA1
Category=NHC
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Pre-order
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Language_English
PA=Not yet available
Price_€100 and above
PS=Forthcoming
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9780198932314
- Weight: 600g
- Dimensions: 164 x 240mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jan 2025
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Early Greek hexameter poetry and its language is the focus of this book, and McConnell addresses the question of why the Greek in which this poetry is composed is so special and unique in ancient literature. It has long been maintained that various features of the artificial dialect of the poems gradually fell out of use as time went by, and therefore that we can use the poems' language to date the texts. This book takes a deep dive into the linguistic features in question and the wider problems in extrapolating chronology from their distribution, all while advocating for the importance of statistical rigour.
Part I contains five chapters which are devoted to different linguistic phenomena, and problems in quantifying them are set out in each. Part II argues that chronology is just one part of a much wider picture, and that not only dialect but also style is a highly salient factor in understanding language variation throughout the poems. This notion of style is linked to the linguistic concept of register, and it is argued that the prehistory of different kinds of poetry led to the creation of different registers for different (sub)genres within the corpus. McConnell therefore takes a linguistic approach to understanding the literary history of early Greek hexameter poetry.
Since completing his DPhil in 2019, Tom has been teaching and researching at Oxford University, at Oriel and Balliol colleges.
