Editing History of linguistics (section)

===Greece===
The Greeks developed an [[alphabet]] using symbols from the [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenicians]], adding signs for vowels and for extra consonants appropriate to their idiom (see Robins, 1997). In the [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenicians]] and in earlier Greek writing systems, such as [[Linear B]], graphemes indicated syllables, that is sound combinations of a consonant and a vowel. The addition of vowels by the Greeks was a major breakthrough as it facilitated the writing of Greek by representing both vowels and consonants with distinct graphemes. As a result of the introduction of writing, poetry such as the [[Homeric poems]] became written and several editions were created and commented on, forming the basis of [[philology]] and criticism.

Along with written speech, the Greeks commenced studying grammatical and philosophical issues. A philosophical discussion about the nature and origins of language can be found as early as the works of Plato. A subject of concern was whether language was man-made, a social artifact, or supernatural in origin. [[Plato]] in his [[Cratylus (dialogue)|''Cratylus'']] presents the [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic]] view, that word meanings emerge from a natural process, independent of the language user.  His arguments are partly based on examples of compounding, where the meaning of the whole is usually related to the constituents, although by the end he admits a small role for convention. The [[sophists]] and [[Socrates]] introduced dialectics as a new text genre. The Platonic dialogs contain definitions of the meters of the poems and tragedy, the form and the structure of those texts (see the ''Republic'' and ''Phaidros'', ''Ion'', etc.).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://plato-dialogues.org/works.htm|title=Plato and his dialogues: a list of Plato's works|first=Bernard F.|last=SUZANNE|website=plato-dialogues.org}}</ref>

[[Aristotle]] supports the conventional origins of meaning. He defined the logic of speech and of the argument. Furthermore, Aristotle's works on [[rhetoric]] and [[poetics]] became of the utmost importance for the understanding of tragedy, poetry, public discussions etc. as text genres. Aristotle's work on logic interrelates with his special interest in language, and his work on this area was fundamentally important for the development of the study of language (''logos'' in Greek means both "language" and "logic reasoning"). In [[Categories (Aristotle)|''Categories'']], Aristotle defines what is meant by "synonymous" or univocal words, what is meant by "homonymous" or equivocal words, and what is meant by "paronymous" or denominative words. He  divides forms of speech as being:

* Either simple, without composition or structure, such as "man," "horse," "fights," etc.
* Or having composition and structure, such as "a man fights," "the horse runs," etc.

Next, he distinguishes between a subject of predication, namely that of which anything is affirmed or denied, and a subject of inhesion. A thing is said to be inherent in a subject, when, though it is not a part of the subject, it cannot possibly exist without the subject, e.g., shape in a thing having a shape. The categories are not abstract platonic entities but are found in speech, these are substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action and affection. In ''[[de Interpretatione]]'', Aristotle analyzes categoric propositions, and draws a series of basic conclusions on the routine issues of classifying and defining basic linguistic forms, such as simple terms and propositions, nouns and verbs, negation, the quantity of simple propositions (primitive roots of the quantifiers in modern symbolic logic), investigations on the excluded middle (which to Aristotle isn't applicable to future tense propositions — the Problem of future contingents), and on modal propositions.

The [[Stoics]] made linguistics an important part of their system of the cosmos and the human. They played an important role in defining the linguistic sign-terms adopted later on by [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] like "significant" and "signifié".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/stoicism/|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|first=Dirk|last=Baltzly|chapter=Stoicism |editor-first=Edward N.|editor-last=Zalta|date=5 June 2018|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|via=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref>  The Stoics studied phonetics, grammar and etymology as separate levels of study. In [[phonetics]] and [[phonology]] the [[articulators]] were defined. The [[syllable]] became an important  structure for the understanding of speech organization. One of the most important contributions of the Stoics in language study was the gradual definition of the terminology and theory echoed in modern linguistics.

Alexandrian [[Alexandrine grammarians|grammarians]] also studied speech sounds and [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]]; they defined [[parts of speech]] with notions such as "noun", "verb", etc. There was also a discussion about the role of analogy in language, in this discussion the grammatici in Alexandria supported the view that language and especially morphology is based on analogy or paradigm, whereas the grammatic in schools in Asia Minor consider that language is not based on analogical bases but rather on exceptions.

Alexandrians, like their predecessors, were very interested in meter and its role in [[poetry]]. The metrical "[[Foot (prosody)|feet]]" in the Greek was based on the length of time taken to pronounce each syllable, with syllables categorized according to their weight as either "long" syllables or "short" syllables (also known as "heavy" and "light" syllables, respectively, to distinguish them from long and short vowels). The foot is often compared to a musical measure and the long and short syllables to whole notes and half notes. The basic unit in Greek and Latin prosody is a [[mora (linguistics)|mora]], which is defined as a single short [[syllable]]. A long syllable is equivalent to two moras. A long syllable contains either a long [[vowel]], a [[diphthong]], or a short vowel followed by two or more consonants.

Various rules of elision sometimes prevent a grammatical syllable from making a full syllable, and certain other lengthening and shortening rules (such as [[correption]]) can create long or short syllables in contexts where one would expect the opposite. The most important Classical meter as defined by the Alexandrian grammarians was the dactylic hexameter, the meter of Homeric poetry. This form uses verses of six feet. The first four feet are normally dactyls, but can be spondees. The fifth foot is almost always a dactyl. The sixth foot is either a spondee or a trochee. The initial syllable of either foot is called the ictus, the basic "beat" of the verse. There is usually a [[caesura]] after the ictus of the third foot.

The text [[Art of Grammar|''Tékhnē grammatiké'']] (c. 100 BCE, Gk. ''gramma'' meant letter, and this title means "Art of letters"), possibly written by [[Dionysius Thrax]] (170 – 90 BCE), is considered the earliest grammar book in the Greek tradition.<ref name="Bod"/> It lists eight parts of speech and lays out the broad details of Greek morphology including the [[declension|case]] structures.  This text was intended as a pedagogic guide (as was Panini), and also covers punctuation and some aspects of prosody.  Other grammars by [[Charisius]] (mainly a compilation of Thrax, as well as lost texts by [[Remmius Palaemon]] and others) and [[Diomedes]] (focusing more on prosody) were popular in [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] as pedagogic material for teaching Greek to native [[Latin]]-speakers.

One of the most prominent scholars of Alexandria and of the antiquity was [[Apollonius Dyscolus]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://schmidhauser.us/apollonius/|title = Apollonius Dyscolus}}</ref> Apollonius wrote more than thirty treatises on questions of syntax, semantics, morphology, prosody, orthography, dialectology, and more. Happily, four of these are preserved—we still have a ''Syntax'' in four books, and three one-book monographs on pronouns, adverbs, and connectives, respectively.

[[Lexicography]] become an important domain of study as many grammarians compiled dictionaries, thesauri and lists of special words "λέξεις" that were old, or dialectical or special (such as medical words or botanic words) at that period. In the early medieval times we find more categories of dictionaries like the dictionary of [[Suida]] (considered the first encyclopedic dictionary), etymological dictionaries etc.

At that period, the Greek language functioned as a ''lingua franca'', a language spoken throughout the known world (for the Greeks and Romans) of that time and, as a result, modern linguistics struggles to overcome this. With the Greeks a tradition commenced in the study of language. The terminology invented by Greek and Latin grammarians in the ancient world and medieval period continue as a part of our everyday language. Think, for example, of notions such as the word, the syllable, the verb, the subject etc.