Lucilius and Nigidius Figulus on orthographic iconicity

Bibliographic Data

ID9312560
AuthorsMarco Mancini (0000-0001-5319-189X, Dipartimento di Lettere e culture moderne , Sapienza – Università di Roma , Rome , Italy, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume18
Issue1-2
Pages1-34
Publication date2019-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2194-8739 • E-ISSN: 2194-8747
PublisherDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/joll-2019-0005
OpenAlexW3008344857
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited21

The comic poet Lucilius proposed several orthographic prescriptions in the ninth book of his Satirae , written in the period 115–110 BC. In dealing with this topic, Lucilius severely criticized Accius’ statements on orthography, refusing his proposals of doubling vowels (“ geminatio vocalium ”) and overgeneralization of for /i:/. Lucilius’ prescriptions, which were borrowed by the philosopher Nigidius Figulus a century later, clearly follow the iconical principles of the pseudo-Stoic συμπάσχειν -theory. In this paper a new interpretation of the orthographic iconicity in Lucilius’ and Nigidius’ doctrine is proposed, with reference to the case morphemes of *- ŏ - and *- ā - stems. As a matter of fact, “thickening” and “thinning” of the letter-forms ( addĕre vs tenuāre , pinguis vs tenuis ) can be satisfactorily explained only by taking account of and spellings in a cursive script (namely vs ). Finally, the key to explain the technical terms tenuis ‘thin’ vs pinguis ‘thick’ is traced back to an ancient metaphor of the wool-spinning practices

Arbitrariness · Art · Iconicity · Linguistics · Literature · Morpheme · Ninth · Orthography · Physics · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics · Philosophy

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