Dictionary or Encyclopaedia? ‘Proper Names’, Semiotics, and Meaning-Making in Byzantium
The idea of framing into a digital grammar the linguistic data extracted from schoolbooks for studying high-register Medieval Greek, as produced in the circles of Maximos Planoudes and Manuel Moschopoulos, challenges the researchers of the MELA project (https://www.mela.ugent.be/) to find a framework capable of organizing a vast array of evidence.
This paper explores how, by applying the concept of ‘proper names’ (Searle 1958) and interpreting the elements that make up a language as ‘semiotic objects,’ it is possible to compile a grammar that goes beyond merely listing abstract rules and instead accounts for the primary purpose of language: to signify. The paper also discusses examples from Manuel Moschopoulos’ Schedography and Maximos Planoudes’ Attikismoi.