Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​For everything that acts is body; and voice acts by approaching the hearers from those who utter it. And diction, as Diogenes says, is voice in written letters, for example "Day." Speech is significant voice emitted from intellect, for example "It is day." Dialect is diction stamped in a specific ethnic and Greek manner, or regional diction, that is, of a particular character according to dialect, as in Attic "Thalatta" (sea), but in Ionic "Hemere" (day). The elements of diction are the twenty-four letters. "Letter" is spoken of in three ways: the element itself, the written character of the element, and its name, for example "Alpha."

​Of the elements, seven are vowels: α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω; and six are mutes: β, γ, δ, κ, π, τ. Voice and diction differ in that voice is also mere noise, whereas diction is articulate sound alone. Diction differs from speech in that speech is always significant, whereas diction can also be meaningless, like "blituri," while speech never is. Saying also differs from uttering; for vocal sounds are uttered, but things are said, which indeed happen to be expressibles (lekta). The parts of speech are five, as Diogenes says in his On Voice and Chrysippus: proper name, appellative, verb, conjunction, and article; Antipater, however, also posits the adverbial mean in his work On Diction and Things Said.

​An appellative is, according to Diogenes, a part of speech signifying a common quality, for example "Human," "Horse." A proper name is a part of speech indicating an individual quality, for example "Diogenes," "Socrates." A verb is a part of speech signifying an uncombined predicate, as Diogenes holds, or, as some say, an indeclinable element of speech signifying something combinable concerning someone or some things, for example "I write," "I speak." A conjunction is an indeclinable part of speech binding together the parts of speech. An article is a declinable element of speech distinguishing the genders and numbers of nouns, for example: Ὁ, Ἡ, Τό, Οἱ, Αἱ, Τά.

​The virtues of speech are five: correct Greek usage, clarity, conciseness, propriety, and artistic finish. Correct Greek usage is expression that is faultless in technical and non-arbitrary usage. Clarity is diction that presents what is thought in an intelligible manner. Conciseness is diction that contains only the things necessary for the indication of the matter. Propriety is diction appropriate to the matter. Artistic finish is diction that has escaped vulgarity. Among vices, barbarism is diction contrary to the custom of esteemed Greeks, while solecism is speech combined incongruously.

​A verse, as Posidonius says in his Introduction on Diction, is metrical or rhythmic diction that has departed from the prosaic style along with embellishment; and that which is rhythmic is like: "Mighty earth and ether of Zeus." Poetry is significant verse, containing an imitation of divine and human things. A definition is, as Antipater says in the first book of On Definitions, speech enunciated adequately by way of analysis, or, as Chrysippus says in On Definitions, the assignment of a proper characteristic. A sketch is speech leading typologically into things, or a definition displaying the power of a definition in a simpler way. A genus is the comprehension of multiple and inseparable concepts, for example "Animal"; for this comprehends the particular animals.