Aspects, Aorists and the Classical Tripos (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Harrison, Jane Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1332102352 ISBN 13: 9781332102358

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2019

Synopsis

Excerpt from Aspects, Aorists and the Classical Tripos

To fall in love with a language is an enchanting experience. You feel as though you were born again, you wonder how you could ever have lived without your new love; life seems growing richer every moment, you pity all the poor heathen who have never found the light. It is well to be off with the old love before you are on with the new. Not so. In the free spaces of the spirit there are no exclusions, no jealousies. People come to me and say I hear you have given up Greek and are devoting yourself to Russian.' As if I could give up Greek. It is part of my body and bones. No, thank heaven, the new love has only given new life to the old.

First, to clear the ground, to fall in love with a language is not to fall in love with a literature. It is well to note - a fact too often forgotten - that a rich language does not necessarily mean a rich literature. The stock and notable example is drawn from Semitic languages. Arabic is exceedingly rich in vocabulary, its literature well - oi great specialist interest but singularly jejune. Hebrew is poor and Sparse as a language, but its literature - incomparable: The reason of this distinc tion is clear enough and for my argument important. Lan guage is the unconscious or at least subconscious product of the group, the herd, the race, the nation. Literature is the product more or less conscious of the individual genius, using of course the tools made by the blind herd, but, after the manner of live organisms, shaping these tools even as he uses them. When we love a language as contrasted with a litera ture, we fall under the spell not of a person, an individual genius, but of a people imaged in the Speech they have made.

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Excerpt from Aspects, Aorists and the Classical Tripos in my life, only twice, it has happened to me to fall in love with a language. Once, long ago, with Greek, again, only yesterday as it seems to me, with Russian. To fall in love with a language is an enchanting experience. You feel as though you were born again, you wonder how you could ever have lived without your new love; life seems growing richer every moment, you pity all the poor heathen who have never found the light. It is well to be off with the old love before you are on with the new'. Not so. In the free spaces of the spirit there are no exclusions, no jealousies. People come to me and say 'I hear- you have given up Greek and are devoting yourself to Russian' As if I could give up Greek. It is part of my body and bones. No, thank heaven, the new love has only given new life to the old. First, to clear the ground, to fall in love with a language is not to fall in love with a literature. It is well to note - a fact too often forgotten - that a rich language does not necessarily mean a rich literature. The stock and notable example is drawn from Semitic languages. Arabic is exceedingly rich in vocabulary, its literature wrell - of great specialist interest but singularly jejune. Hebrew is poor and sparse as a language, but its literature - incomparable. The reason of this distinction is clear enough and for my argument important. Language is the tmconscious or at least subconscious product of the group, the herd, the race, the nation. Literature is the product more or less conscious of the individual genius, using of course the tools made by the blind herd, but, after the manner of live organisms, shaping these tools even as he uses them. When we love a language as contrasted with a literature, we fall under the spell not of a person, an individual genius, but of a people imaged in the speech they have made. What was the spell cast by Greek? It was not the spell of Homer or AEschylus or Plato, I could no

About this edition

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1332102352
• ISBN 13: 9781332102358
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 46