Language
By: edited by Stephen Everson.
Contributors: Everson, Stephen.
Series: Companions to ancient thought ;; 3
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Brand: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
Subjects: Language and languages -- Philosophy -- History.; Philosophy, Ancient.
Description: This third Companion is devoted to ancient theories of language. The chapters range over more than eight hundred years of philosophical enquiry, and provide critical analyses of all the principal accounts of how it is that language can have meaning and how we can come to acquire linguistic understanding. The discussions move from the naturalism examined in Plato's Cratylus to the sophisticated theories of the Hellenistic schools and the work of St Augustine.

The relations between thought about language and metaphysics, philosophy of mind and the development of grammar are also explored. The essays will interest those studying ancient philosophy and philosophy of language, the history of thought about language, and linguistics.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-263) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Plato on understanding language / David Bostock; title: Cratylus' theory of names and its refutation / Bernard Williams; title: Aristotle on names and their signification / David Charles; title: Epicurus on mind and language / Stephen Everson; title: The Stoic notion of a lekton / Michael Frede; title: Parrots, pyrrhonists, and native speakers / David K. Glidden; title: Analogy, anomaly, and Apollonius / David Blank; title: Usage and abusage : Galen on language / R.J. Hankinson; title: Augustine on the nature of speech / Christopher Kirwan; title: The verb "to be" in Greek philosophy / Lesley Brown.