261–262
Stranger
Str. Then let us now investigate names, just a we spoke a while ago about ideas and letters; for in that direction the object of our present search is coming in sight.
Theaetetus
Theaet. What do we need to understand about names?
Stranger
Str. Whether they all unite with one another, or none of them, or some will and some will not.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Evidently the last; some will and some will not.
10
Stranger
Str. This, perhaps, is what you mean, that those which are spoken in order and mean something do unite, but those that mean nothing in their sequence do not unite.
Theaetetus
Theaet. How so, and what do you mean by that?
Stranger
Str. What I supposed you had in mind when you assented; for we have two kinds of vocal indications of being.
Theaetetus
Theaet. How so?
Stranger
Str. One called nouns, the other verbs. The science of language, in all its branches, was young in the time of Plato. Words of general meaning were necessarily used in a technical sense. So here ὄνομα and ῥῆμα are used as parts of grammatical terminology in the sense of verb and noun, though Plato elsewhere employs them with their ordinary meanings. Similarly the distinction between vowels and consonants (Plat. Theaet. 203; cf. Plat. Soph. 253) was at least relatively new, as was that between the active and the passive voice. How important Plato’s part was in the development of linguistic study can no longer be accurately determined.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Define each of them.
Stranger
Str. The indication which relates to action we may call a verb.
