Dr Philomen Probert

Position: University Lecturer in Classical Philology and Linguistics

Address:  Centre for Linguistics and Philology, Walton Street, Oxford OX1 2HG

Email: philomen.probert@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

Tel: +44-1865-270765

Research interests and profile:

Philomen Probert is interested in ancient Greek, Latin, Anatolian and Indo-European linguistics, and in the Graeco-Roman grammatical tradition. She very much likes working on ancient Greek accentuation, and on historical syntax. She has written on the prehistory of the Greek accentuation system, its contribution to historical linguistics and phonological theory, and its description in ancient grammatical texts. She has written on relative clauses in Anatolian and in Mycenaean Greek (yes, she really thinks we have some Mycenaean relative clauses), and is currently working on a book on the early history of Greek relative clauses.

Publications:

Ancient Greek Accentuation: Synchronic Patterns, Frequency Effects, and Prehistory (OUP 2006).

A New Short Guide to the Accentuation of Ancient Greek (Duckworth/Bristol Classical Press 2003).

‘Ancient Greek Accentuation in Generative Phonology and Optimality Theory’, Language and Linguistics Compass 4 (2010), 1–26. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00176.x

‘Roman authors on colloquial language’, in E. Dickey and A. Chahoud (eds), Colloquial and Literary Latin (CUP 2010), pp. 12-41 (with R. Ferri).

‘Phonology’, in E. J. Bakker (ed.), A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language (Wiley-Blackwell 2010), pp. 85-103.

‘Early Christianity and the Greek Language’, Omnibus 60 (2010), 10–12.

‘Comparative Philology and Linguistics’, in G. Boys-Stones, B. Graziosi and P. Vasunia (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies (OUP 2009), 697–708.

‘Mycenaean o- is accusative; jo- is nominative’, Glotta 84 (2008[2009]), 126–68.

‘Clause Boundaries in Old Hittite Relative Sentences’, Transactions of the Philological Society 104 (2006), 17–83. (Accessible to subscribers via http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/trps.)

‘Accentuation in ancient Greek deverbative ā-stems, in D. Kölligan and R. Sen (eds), Oxford University Working Papers in Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics 11 (2006), 122–42. (Accessible at http://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/download/OWP2006.pdf)

‘Accentuation in Old Attic, Later Attic, and Attic’, in J.H.W. Penney (ed.), Indo-European Perspectives: Studies in Honour of Anna Morpurgo Davies (OUP 2004), 277–91.

‘Giving Directions in Euripides’ Hecuba’, Omnibus 49 (2004), 3–4 (with E. Dickey).

‘Greek Accents Loud and Clear’, in Ad Familiares 26 (2004), 3–4.

‘On the Prosody of Latin enclitics’, in I. J. Hartmann and A. Willi (eds), Oxford University Working Papers in Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics 7 (2002), 181–206. (Accessible at http://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/download/OWP2002.pdf)


Reviews:

Review of S. J. Bakker, The Noun Phrase in Ancient Greek: A Functional Analysis of the Order and Articulation of NP Constituents in Herodotus, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.05.17 (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2010/2010-05-17.html).

Review of H. Dik, Word Order in Greek Tragic Dialogue and N. Baechle, Metrical Constraint and the Interpretation of Style in the Tragic Trimeter, in Mnemosyne 63 (2010), 304–14.

Review of J. Clackson and G. Horrocks, The Blackwell History of the Latin Language, in Classical Review 59 (2009), 445–7.

Review of H. A. Hoffner, Jr. and H. C. Melchert, A Grammar of the Hittite Language, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.05.49 (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-05-49.html).

Review of M. Slavova, Phonology of the Greek inscriptions in Bulgaria, in Journal of Hellenic Studies 126 (2006), 205–6.

Review of C. H. George, Expressions of Agency in Ancient Greek, in Classical Review 56 (2006), 100–2.

Review of T. Meissner, S-Stem Nouns and Adjectives in Greek and Proto-Indo-European: A Diachronic Study in Word Formation, in Journal of Classics Teaching 9 (2006), 40.

Review of D. Sedley, Plato’s Cratylus, in Classical Review 55 (2005), 428–30.

Review of G. L. Cooper, Greek Syntax i-iv, in Journal of Hellenic Studies 24 (2004), 178–9.

Review of R. Cribiore, Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.05.15 (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2003/2003-05-15.html).

Review of A.M. Devine and L.D. Stephens, The Prosody of Greek Speech, in Classical Review 51 (2001), 87–8.