Greek Texts & Translations

There are, as stated by Diogenes ^note in his treatise on Language and by Chrysippus, five parts of speech : proper name, common noun, verb, conjunction, article. To these Antipater in his work On Words and their Meaning adds another part, the "mean." ^note

A common noun or appellative is defined by Diogenes as part of a sentence signifying a common quality, e.g. man, horse ; whereas a name is a part of speech expressing a quality peculiar to an individual, e.g. Diogenes, Socrates. A verb is, according to Diogenes, a part of speech signifying an isolated predicate, or, as others ^notedefine it, an un-declined part of a sentence, signifying something that can be attached to one or more subjects, e.g. "I write," "I speak." A conjunction is an indeclinable part of speech, binding the various parts of a statement together ; and an article is a declinable part of speech, distinguishing the genders and numbers of nouns, e.g. ὁ, ἡ, τό, οἱ, αἱ, τά. ^note

There are five excellences of speech - pure Greek, lucidity, conciseness, appropriateness, distinction. By good Greek is meant language faultless in point of grammar and free from careless vulgarity. Lucidity is a style which presents the thought in a way easily understood ; conciseness a style that employs no more words than are necessary for setting forth the subject in hand ; appropriateness lies in a style akin to the subject ; distinction in the avoidance of colloquialism. Among vices of style barbarism is violation of the usage of Greeks of good standing ; while there is solecism when the sentence has an incongruous construction.

Posidonius in his treatise On Style defines a poetical phrase as one that is metrical or rhythmical, thus mechanically avoiding the character of prose ; an example of such rhythmical phrase is :

O mightiest earth, O sky, God's canopy. ^note

And if such poetical phraseology is significant and includes a portrayal or representation of things human and divine, it is poetry.

A term is, as stated by Antipater in his first book On Terms, a word which, when a sentence is analysed, is uttered with complete meaning ; or, according to Chrysippus in his book On Definitions, is a rendering back one's own. ^note Delineation is a statement which brings one to a knowledge of the subject in outline, or it may be called a definition which embodies the force of the definition proper in a simpler form. Genus (in logic) is the comprehension in one of a number of inseparable objects of thought : e.g. Animal ; for this includes all particular animals.

A notion or object of thought is a presentation to the intellect, which though not really substance nor attribute is quasi-substance or quasi-attribute. ^note Thus an image of a horse may rise before the mind, although there is no horse present.

Species is that which is comprehended under genus : thus Man is included under Animal. The highest or most universal genus is that which, being itself a genus, has no genus above : namely, reality or the real ; and the lowest and most particular species is that which, being itself a species, has no species below it, e.g. Socrates.

Division of a genus means dissection of it into its proximate species, thus : Animals are either rational or irrational (dichotomy). Contrary division dissects the genus into species by contrary qualities : for example, by means of negation, as when all things that are are divided into good and not good. Subdivision is division applied to a previous division : for instance, after saying, "Of things that are some are good, some are not good," we proceed, "and of the not good some are bad, some are neither good nor bad (morally indifferent)."

Partition in logic is (according to Crinis) classification or distribution of a genus under heads : for instance, Of goods some are mental, others bodily.

Verbal ambiguity arises when a word properly, rightfully, and in accordance with fixed usage denotes two or more different things, so that at one and the same time we may take it in several distinct senses : e.g. in Greek, where by the same verbal expression may be meant in the one case that "A house has three times" fallen, in the other that "a dancing-girl" has fallen.

Posidonius defines Dialectic as the science dealing with truth, falsehood, and that which is neither true nor false ; whereas Chrysippus takes its subject to be signs and things signified. Such then is the gist of what the Stoics say in their theory of language.