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Wiener Studien Band 124/2011Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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Wiener Studien 124/2011, pp. 181-229, 2011/11/07
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
This paper explores the concept ‘trope’ in the text of Augustine. After preliminary remarks on tropus, first, I analyse Augustine’s theory of sign in the second part of De magistro where Augustine defines the sign as a unit consisting of the signifier and the signified and illustrates the pragmatic conditions under which a signifier is interpreted as a sign. Second, I point out that according to the pragmatic dimension of Augustine’s biblical hermeneutics the reference of the biblical texts to the regula fidei is essential to the distinction between the literal and the figurative or tropical meaning and consequently to the extension of ‘trope’ which Augustine describes as meaning one thing in saying another. Third, I explain the tradition, the logical principles, and the classification of the tropes which are found in Augustine. Finally, the paper sheds light on the importance of the knowledge of trope to the biblical exegesis.