Types of Quotation

The studies that Goodman and Osburn have undertaken offer particularly valid insight for the current study. Goodman centered his philosophical study on differentiating the modes of direct and indirect quotation. Osburn focused his research identifying and categorizing quotations, evaluating their value for textual criticism, it draws primarily on the research of textual critics.

Before exploring Goodman's study, it is prudent to note that, as the following statement of Bakhtin makes clear, Greek quotation is not as obvious in its forms as English quotation is.[1]

One of the more interesting stylistic problems during the Hellenistic period was the problem of quotation. The forms of direct, half-hidden and completely hidden quoting were endlessly varied, as were the forms for framing quotations by a context, forms of intonational quotation marks, varying degrees of alienation or assimilation of another's quoted word.[2]

Goodman begins with Verbal Quotations.[3] In order to quote something verbally one must first have a direct statement. Assuming the presence of a direct statement, the first form of verbal quotation is repeating the original as a name (or title), which Goodman does by enclosing the original statement in quotation marks.[4] The clearest example from Epiphanius is actually found in a compound quotation of scripture from Methodius. Methodius found a way of indicating this type of quotation in the absence of quotation marks by using the Greek word o#ti, which can open indirect or direct quotations, and removing the ambiguity by splitting an articular participle and inserting the statement quoted as a parenthetical.

Panarion 64.50.2 (Rom 7.9): o#ti to/ e)gw\ de\ e)/zwn xwri\j no/mou pote/ lego/menon e)n th|= pro\j 9Rwmai/ouj.

This concept is a necessary building block in the construction of our understanding of the other types of quotation. Unfortunately, these quotations themselves, though interesting, are not relevant for the purposes of the present study, since they reflect the choices of people other than Epiphanius and because the inclusion of compound quotations in text-critical studies of a given author tends to distort the data.

---

^[1] Due to the vagaries of Greek quotation of this period, forms equivalent to those used by Goodman may not always occur in Epiphanius.

^[2] Mikhail M. Bakhtin. The Dialogic Imagination: Four essays by M.M. Bakhtin, ed. Michel Holquist, trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press) 50-57

^[3] Goodman, 41

^[4] ibid.