Page:The grammar of Dionysios Thrax.djvu/14

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Grammar of Dionysios Thrax.

objects—of singular, as Ἀθῆναι, Θῆβαι (Athens, Thebes)—of dual, as ἀμφότεροι (both).

There are five Cases, the right, the generic,[1] the dative, the accusative, and the vocative. The right case is called also the nominative and the direct; the generic, the possessive, and the patrial; the dative, the injunctive; while the accusative is named from cause, and the vocative is called the allocutive.

The following terms, expressive of accidents belonging to the noun, are also called Species: proper, appellative, adjective, relative, quasi-relative, homonym, synonym, pheronym, dionym, eponym, national, interrogative, indefinite, anaphoric (also called assimilative, demonstrative, and retributive), collective, distributive, inclusive, onomatopoetic, general, special, ordinal, numeral, participative, independent.

A Proper noun is one signifying a peculiar substance,[2] as Homer, Sokrates. An Appellative is one that signifies a common substance, as man, horse. An Adjective noun is one that is applied homonymously[3] to proper or appellative nouns, and signifies either praise or blame. It is derived from three sources, from the soul, the body, and external things: from the soul, as sage, licentious; from the body, as swift, slow; from external things, as rich, poor. A Relative noun is such as father, son, friend, right (hand). A quasi-Relative is such as night, day, death, life. A Homonym is a noun predicated homonymously of many things, as of proper nouns, e.g. Telamonian Aias, Oïlean Aias; of aplative nouns, as sea-mouse, land-mouse. A Synonym is a noun which, by several designations, signifies the same thing, as glaive, sword, bludgeon, blade, brand. A Pheronym is a name given from some accident, as Tisamenos and Megapenthes. A Dionym is a couple of names applied to the same proper noun, as Alexander and Paris, without there being any reciprocity in their signification; e.g., if one is Alexan-


  1. Γενική, on no account to be rendered by genitivus (genitive), as the Romans did. Vid. Max Müller, Lectures, 1st Series, p. 180 sq. (Eng. edit.); Schmidt, Beiträge, pp. 320 sqq.
  2. Cf. Aristotle, Categ., cap. v.
  3. Cf. Aristotle, Categ., cap. i.: "Things which have a common name, but whereof the notions corresponding to that name are different, are said to be homonymous."