The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

by Agathon. Yet what
difference is there between introducing such choral interludes, and
transferring a speech, or even a whole act, from one play to
another.
XIX
    It remains to speak of Diction and Thought, the other parts of
Tragedy having been already discussed. concerning Thought, we may
assume what is said in the Rhetoric, to which inquiry the subject
more strictly belongs. Under Thought is included every effect which
has to be produced by speech, the subdivisions being: proof and
refutation; the excitation of the feelings, such as pity, fear,
anger, and the like; the suggestion of importance or its opposite.
Now, it is evident that the dramatic incidents must be treated from
the same points of view as the dramatic speeches, when the object
is to evoke the sense of pity, fear, importance, or probability.
The only difference is that the incidents should speak for
themselves without verbal exposition; while effects aimed at in
should be produced by the speaker, and as a result of the speech.
For what were the business of a speaker, if the Thought were
revealed quite apart from what he says?
    Next, as regards Diction. One branch of the inquiry treats of
the Modes of Utterance. But this province of knowledge belongs to
the art of Delivery and to the masters of that science. It
includes, for instance—what is a command, a prayer, a statement, a
threat, a question, an answer, and so forth. To know or not to know
these things involves no serious censure upon the poet’s art. For
who can admit the fault imputed to Homer by Protagoras—that in the
words, ‘Sing, goddess, of the wrath, he gives a command under the
idea that he utters a prayer? For to tell some one to do a thing or
not to do it is, he says, a command. We may, therefore, pass this
over as an inquiry that belongs to another art, not to poetry.
XX
    Language in general includes the following parts: Letter,
Syllable, Connecting Word, Noun, Verb, Inflection or Case, Sentence
or Phrase.
    A Letter is an indivisible sound, yet not every such sound, but
only one which can form part of a group of sounds. For even brutes
utter indivisible sounds, none of which I call a letter. The sound
I mean may be either a vowel, a semivowel, or a mute. A vowel is
that which without impact of tongue or lip has an audible sound. A
semivowel that which with such impact has an audible sound, as S
and R. A mute, that which with such impact has by itself no sound,
but joined to a vowel sound becomes audible, as G and D. These are
distinguished according to the form assumed by the mouth and the
place where they are produced; according as they are aspirated or
smooth, long or short; as they are acute, grave, or of an
intermediate tone; which inquiry belongs in detail to the writers
on meter.
    A Syllable is a nonsignificant sound, composed of a mute and a
vowel: for GR without A is a syllable, as also with A—GRA. But the
investigation of these differences belongs also to metrical
science.
    A Connecting Word is a nonsignificant sound, which neither
causes nor hinders the union of many sounds into one significant
sound; it may be placed at either end or in the middle of a
sentence. Or, a nonsignificant sound, which out of several sounds,
each of them significant, is capable of forming one significant
sound—as amphi, peri, and the like. Or, a nonsignificant sound,
which marks the beginning, end, or division of a sentence; such,
however, that it cannot correctly stand by itself at the beginning
of a sentence—as men, etoi, de.
    A Noun is a composite significant sound, not marking time, of
which no part is in itself significant: for in double or compound
words we do not employ the separate parts as if each were in itself
significant. Thus in Theodorus, ‘god-given,’ the doron or ‘gift’ is
not in itself significant.
    A Verb is a composite significant sound, marking time, in which,
as in the noun, no part is in itself significant. For ‘man’ or
‘white’ does not express the idea of ‘when’; but ‘he walks’ or ‘he
has walked’ does connote time, present or past.
    Inflection belongs both to the noun and verb, and expresses
either the relation ‘of,’ ‘to,’ or the like; or that of number,
whether one or many, as ‘man’ or ‘men’; or the modes or tones in
actual delivery, e.g., a question or a command. ‘Did he go?’ and
‘go’ are verbal inflections of this kind.
    A Sentence or Phrase is a composite significant sound, some at
least of whose parts are in