Fields of interest

- Greek Linguistics
- History of the Theory of Language
- Greek Philosophical
- Scientific Texts

Research

-  EARLY GREEK INTELLECTUALS ON LANGUAGE 
 (Post-doctoral Research as Part of the NWO Project , supervised by Prof. dr. Ineke Sluiter)

The aim of this research project is to assess the views on language of the early (Pre-Platonic) Greek intellectuals. These 'intellectuals' include 'philosophers', 'sophists', 'medical writers' (the anonymous authors from the Corpus Hippocraticum), and 'historians' (Herodotus); they present themselves as working in a tradition of a literature of wisdom originated by Homer and Hesiod. How did they conceptualise 'language', the 'spoken (and written) word' and its powers, and the relationship between 'words' and 'reality'? And how do these views on language relate to these authors' application of literary and rhetorical strategies in the (written or spoken) texts in which they communicate their ideas?
This study adopts an interdisciplinary approach that uses the methods of cognitive linguistics for conceptual analysis; philosophical analysis and history of ideas for the cultural contextualisation of ideas on language; literary and rhetorical analysis (including close reading, intertextuality, discourse analysis) for the study of the interaction between views of language and literary practice; and philological exegesis for the assessment of the texts of our primary sources.
By adopting this broad perspective, it aims to avoid the traditional bias that favours 'real' philosophers over the 'sophistic' or 'rhetorical' writings from the sophists and the Hippocratics.  All these authors are, in their own terms, to be taken as offering a serious contribution to the 'sophia' available to Greek society.   

- THEOPHRASTUS DE VENTIS.
Preparation of a new edition with translation and commentary of Theophrastus' opusculum On Winds, in collaboration with Dr Marlein van Raalte.

Curriculum Vitae

Adriaan Rademaker (1965, Voorburg, The Netherlands) studied Classics at Leiden University. He took a PhD in Classics at Leiden University (May 2004). He is currently working as a lecturer in Greek Language and Literature, and partly as a post-doctoral research fellow in het Project The Limits of Language, supervised by Prof. Ineke Sluiter (Greek Language and Literature).

Teaching activities

Current teaching at University includes introductory courses in Ancient Greek Language (BA Classicss, first year) and a seminar on the linguistic analysis of Thucydides (BA, 3rd year). Current teaching also includes a number of guest lectures for secondary school students on Plato's Symposium. Other teaching topics include Tragedy, Epic Poetry, Semantics and the Interpretation of Western Classical Music.

Publications

Rademaker, A.M. (26-05-2004). Sôphrosynê: Polysemy, Prototypicality & Persuasive Use of an Ancient Greek Value Term. Universiteit Leiden, 280 pp. (Leiden: Eigen beheer). ((Co-)promot.: prof.dr I. Sluiter).

Rademaker, A.M. (2003). Most Citizens are Euryprôktoi Now: (Un)manliness in Aristophanes. In Rosen, R.M. & Sluiter, I. (Ed.), Andreia: Studies in Manliness and Courage in Classical Antiquity.  (pp. 115-126). Leiden/Boston: Brill.

Rademaker, A.M. (2005). Euripides Medea 627-641: Übermäßiger Eros und mangelnde Sôphrosunê. Mnemosyne, 58(4), pp. 112-117.

Rademaker, A.M. (2005). Sophrosyne and the Rhetoric of Self-Restraint. Mnemosyne Supplementa, 259. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 376 pp.

Rademaker, A.M. (2007). 'Talking About Myself: A Pragmatic Approach to the Use of Aspect Forms in Lysias 12.4-19', Classical Quarterly 57.2, 458-476 (with H. Lamers)