Annemieke Drummen
E-Mail: drummen@uni-heidelberg.de
Within our project, I am working on the particle use in Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. The lively discourse situations of drama, performed by physically present interlocutors, leads to a fascinating variety of language use. We can see, for example, different ‘discourse patterns’ within tragedy: pairings of a communicative format (a dialogue, monologue, or choral song) and certain linguistic features (e.g. a high or low frequency of a particle). In my research, I try to focus both on such larger-scale patterns of distribution, and on the analysis of individual particles in their contexts. For example, it seems that the abundant use of γε in comic dialogue can sometimes be explained by its compatibility with emotional contexts, whereas in other cases it has to do more with the turn-taking practices of conversation, and the joint construction of discourse by several participants.
During my bachelor and master studies of Classics in the Netherlands, I have developed a preference for linguistics, and specifically for pragmatics. I think we should always consider language primarily as communication between a speaker and an addressee. Since particles are a particularly rewarding topic for this approach, I feel very fortunate that I can devote my attention to these fascinating words for my PhD research.
My interests in tragedy, comedy, linguistics, and particles are combined with an intense passion for acting—which of course also explains my special love for drama texts. In 2009, I had the opportunity to play the role of Antigone; in the summer semester of 2012, I returned once more to the original text, by teaching a reading course on Sophocles’ play at our department.
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