[Milton-L] 'Myth' of "Unfallen" language

[carl bellinger]

O for such lecutures! Sign me up, Prof. Skulsky.
-Carl

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Skulsky" <hskulsky at email.smith.edu>
To: <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 12:50 AM
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] 'Myth' of "Unfallen" language


> "I am trying to understand where eloquence, music, and style attach to 
> language, granted such an initial definition."
>
>         Style and prosody are aspects of language use that piggy-back on 
> grammar, vocabulary, and meaning assignment.
>         Classical rhetoric codifies them with great subtlety (under the 
> headings of "tropes," "schemes," "figures of meaning,"
>         "figures of words," among others). The modern study of so-called 
> speech acts, conversational implicature, plus-sum
>         games, and pragmatic convention pioneered by Paul Grice, J.L. 
> Austin, John Searle, David Lewis, and others has
>         sharpened the terms of analysis considerably. But modern 
> pragmatics has only underscored the cunning and
>         psychological acuteness of classical rhetoricians--Aristotle, 
> Hermogenes, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Quintilian among
>         others--not to mention their sensitivity to the morally two-edged 
> use of rhetorical techniques as devices of social
>         control. When the serpent rears up and begins his exordium to Eve, 
> Milton pointedly invokes the art of Demosthenes and
>         Cicero.
>
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