1. Ben Cartlidge Defining Classical Scholarship: The Research / Teaching Interface
Classical Association Conference 2014 15/4/2014
Why compose? Greek Prose Composition and Functional Grammar
1. A. E. Housman, letter to Lucy Housman 21.10.1877: ‘a paper on which was written in
Latin, or what passes for Latin at Oxford’ (Burnett [2007] 1.19)
2. Interfaces: N. Vincent / L. Mycock (2010); Ramchand / Reiss (2007); J. G. Partridge /
H. David (2010).
3. Linguistics and ancient languages:
a. Generative grammar: Sommerstein (1973); Danckaert (2012).
b. Sociolinguistics: Willi (2003); Cartlidge (forthcoming).
c. Bilingualism, multilingualism: Adams (2003); Mullen / Patrick (2012).
4. ‘Why is it that we are all so often appalled by our pupils’ extraordinary readiness to
render Latin into hopeless gibberish? I believe the real reason is that they have not
been convinced that Latin is a language that was spoken by a very sane race... Latin
was a language written by lunatics for lunatics.’ (Trayes [1934] 156)
‘“Ils sont fous, les Romains.”’ (Asterix apud Wüllfing [1983/4] 148)
5. Etymology: Miller (2006); Bachvarova (2007); Sadler (1970); with modifications,
Zuntz (1973-4).
6. Reading: Hutchinson (1944); A. N. Bryan-Brown et al. (1964) xl ‘a test of knowledge
gained by ... reading’; Kynaston (1884) v ‘as long as the works of the Greek
Tragedians live, we must hope that some desire will survive of becoming familiar
with the language in which they wrote’; French (1961) 80 ‘composition should be
regarded as a perhaps unavoidable preliminary to wide reading’.
7. Rijksbaron (1973): (1) ὁ διδάσκαλος παιδεύει τὸν παῖδα.
(2) ὁ παῖς παιδεύεται ὑπὸ τοῦ διδασκάλου.
8. amare, homini, Romam – ‘to ...’; διά ~ γάρ ~ causal participle ~ ἐπεί (etc.)
9. Functional Grammar (FG): Siewierska (1991). Greek applications: Rijksbaron (1973),
(3
2002); Wakker (1994); H. Dik (2007).
10. Teaching => research: γέγονα vs. γεγένημαι
γέγονα % γεγένημαι %
Tragedy (A., S., E.) x 8 66.6 x 4 33.3
Aristophanes x 11 28 x 28 72
Plato x 657 97 x 20 3
Lysias x 34 22 x 123 78
Isocrates x 145 40 x 218 60
Demosthenes x 267 61 x 172 39
Dinarchus x 13 21 x 50 79
Menander x 79 95 x 4 5

2. Ben Cartlidge Defining Classical Scholarship: The Research / Teaching Interface
Classical Association Conference 2014 15/4/2014
11. Research => teaching? Conditionals, a failed experiment
Conditionals ‘open’, ‘real’ ‘closed’, ‘remote’
past / present εἰ + indicative, (then) indicative εἰ + indicative, (then) indicative + ἄν
future ἐάν + subjunctive, (then) future indicative
‘vivid’ variant: εἰ + future indicative
εἰ + optative, (then) optative + ἄν
(1) neutral conditionals – with indicatives, of any tense; present tenses occasionally sceptical; future tenses
often threatening / warning
(2) counterfactual conditionals – present / past, referring to an impossible state-of-affairs
(3) prospective conditionals – ἐάν + subjunctive in the protasis; referring to a conditional which is likely
(neither certain or impossible) to be fulfilled.
(4) potential conditionals – referring to an impossible state-of-affairs, therefore using the optative in both
clauses.
12. Systemic Functional Grammar: M. A. K. Halliday => Jones (2011).
References
J. N. Adams, Bilingualism and the Latin Language (2003)
M. Bachvarova, ‘Actions and attitudes: understanding Greek (and Latin) verbal paradigms’,
Classical World, 100/2 (2007) 123-132
A. N. Bryan-Brown et al. More Oxford Compositions (1964)
A. Burnett, The Letters of A. E. Housman (2007)
B. J. Cartlidge, The Language of Menander (Diss. Oxon., forthcoming)
L. Danckaert, Latin Embedded Clauses: The Left Periphery (2012)
H. Dik, Greek Tragic Word-Order (2007)
A. French, ‘Composition in a Classics course’, GR 8/1 (1961) 75-81
M. E. Hutchinson, ‘Some recent research in the teaching of Latin’, CJ 39/8 (1944) 449-465
R. H. Jones, Functional Grammar in the ESL Classroom (2011)
H. Kynaston, Progressive Exercises in Composition of Greek Iambic Verse (2
1884)
A. Mullen / J. Patrick, Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman worlds (2012)
J. G. Partridge / H. David, Interfaces in Language (2010)
G. Ramchand / C. Reiss The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces (2007)
A. Rijksbaron, Temporal and Causal Conjunctions in Ancient Greek (1973)
A. Rijksbaron, The Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek (3
2002)
J. D. Sadler, ‘Etymology and Latin teaching’, Classical World 64/4 (1970) 117-120
A. Siewierska, Functional Grammar (1991)
A. Sommerstein, The Sound-Pattern of Ancient Greek (1973)
F. E. A. Trayes, ‘Disiecta membra: being some thoughts on the teaching of Latin’ GR 3/9
(1934) 150-160
N. Vincent / L. Mycock (edd.), ‘Special issue: the prosody-syntax connection’ TPhS 108/3
(2010)
G. Wakker, Conditions and Conditionals (1994)
A. J. Willi, The Languages of Aristophanes (2003)
P. Wülfing, ‘Latin reading texts for beginners’ CJ 79/2 (1983/4) 146-152
G. Zuntz, ‘Linguistics and the teaching of Greek’, Arion 1/2 (1973-4) 381-400
benjamin.cartlidge@trinity.ox.ac.uk
Twitter: @benjcartlidge