What can I do for a Philogical Project?

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Thucydides
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What can I do for a Philogical Project?

Post by Thucydides »

For school I want to do a piece of work/some sort of project to show what I've read about philology.

The trouble is that it seems to be the nature of philology (and of how I've learnt about it) that it tends to be very bitty and disjointed - made up of small facts and observations: I find it hard to think of one fairly substantial coherent project I could put together.

I've been reading, in a rather haphazard way bits of the following:
Sihler
Palmer
Vox Graeca
"A practical introduction to phonetics" - Catford
"An Introduction to Greek Phonology" - ...
"Historical Linguistics" - Lyle Campbell

My current ideas are maybe to do something about Greek phonology and how it can help learning principal parts, or perhaps something on how we reconstruct ancient pronunciation, or perhaps a more general thing on the process of historical linguistics and the comparative method.

Does anyone have any ideas for a basic philogical question I could do the project on?

If they do, I'll be extrememly grateful :)

whiteoctave
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Post by whiteoctave »

i think an analysis of the similarities and differences between the systems of tense and aspect in Latin and Greek would be a rewarding undertaking. you can deal briefly with morphological issues throughout, and the appreciation of the nuances of the Latin and Greek is of not little benefit. Bernard Comrie's works on Tense and Aspect would be of especial interest, though a solid knowledge of grammar in both tongues gives you the basis necessary.
it is a favourite philological essay topic of fellow and student alike at uni.

~D

p.s. an analysis of the phonemic principle and its application in greek and/or latin would also be very interesting.

Thucydides
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Post by Thucydides »

That sounds very interesting but it's not quite what I've been reading about and I don't think I have time to start researching it now.

I'm currently leaning towards something like a primer of greek phonology of something - a collection of the most interesting/useful/basic things like Ablaut, Assimilation, Digamma etc.

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

Then maybe you could compare the various dialects (including Homer :P )? Like what happened to the digamma in some words why do some dialects have thalassa and others thalatta? Just a general comparison of the differences between the dialects or between different authors if you want to narrow it down. How is Herodot different from Plato, where are some words contracted, where not?

whiteoctave
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Post by whiteoctave »

ok; you could discuss the Latin 'Perfect', so called, and incorporate within that discussion of the remnants of ablaut/vowel gradation, reduplication from the true Perfect, and assimilation. similarly, discussion of the conflation of true perfect and aoristic tenses within it could be raised. i find it interesting seeing the semantic range and category of the verbs that retained duplication, including the odd surprise.
since the ambit of this study is not too great, you would be able, i am sure, to do it justice.

~D

Thucydides
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Post by Thucydides »

Emma_85 wrote:Then maybe you could compare the various dialects (including Homer :P )? Like what happened to the digamma in some words why do some dialects have thalassa and others thalatta? Just a general comparison of the differences between the dialects or between different authors if you want to narrow it down. How is Herodot different from Plato, where are some words contracted, where not?
Indeed. For example the disappearing digamma has different effects: e.g. PGrk. monwos > Ionic (Homeric/Herodotus) mounos but Attic monos

or the long alpha/eta thing in doric, ionic and attic

those are the only purely dialectical things I can think of, but if you think of Homer as a dialect then there's a whole host of historical things that come into play

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

Tell us when you've decided :-)

Thucydides
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Post by Thucydides »

What you said about ss/tt Emma actually got me looking into the whole issue of "yodisation"... which led me onto some other interesting facts about verbs... like the -yo suffix... ah...

it all needs be approved though

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