Andreas L.Katonis PhD

Philologist/Linguist

Professor Andreas L. Katonis, Philologist/Linguist

Area of interest, Philology (with specialization in Greek, Latin and Modern Greek Philology), Historical and Indo-European Linguistics (Comparative Philology), Ancient History and Mythology (Greek and Indo-European).

“Philology” interests me in a broader sense. I find especially fascinating comparisons between Greek and Indian literary works, and linguistic facts.  I have delivered lectures comparing classical works and figures like Kannagi in the Tamil Silappatikaram and Sophocles’ Antigone.  I have also written papers that have been published where the tragic fate of the heroine (the Palace Dancer Nati, Srimati) of Tagore’s drama Natir Puja is compared with that of Sophocles’ Antigone.

die historische Betrachtung faßt die Vergangenheit als die rastlose, bis zur Gegenwart […] oft genug in Spiralen sich | steigernde Bewegung auf, eine kontinuierliche Bewegung in allen Sphären der sittlichen Mächte, eine große Arbeit, die die Gegenwart weiterzuführen und der Zukunft zu übermitteln den Beruf hat.
“J.G. Droysen, Historik [©1868] 1937, pp. 267-268”

Les langues suivent […] une sorte de développement en spirale : elles ajoutent des mots accessoires pour obtenir une expression intense ; ces mots s’affaiblissent, se dégradent et tombent au niveau de simples | outils grammaticaux ; on ajoute de nouveau mots ou des mots différents en vue de l’expression; l’affaiblissement recommence, et ainsi sans fin
“A. Meillet, Linguistique historique et linguistique générale I, 1921, pp. 140-141”

The spiral development characteristic of grammaticalisation may […] have an explanation in the creative use of language […] this spiral also has a linguistic aspect […] as part of the far larger cycle
“A.M.S. McMahon, Understanding Language Change 1994, p. 168”