STEPHANUS ON "ON INTERPRETATION" [Aristotle page 16a1]

It remains for him to state what a noun or a verb is, and so on for the rest. As for what they are, as we have often said, original: "ouk esti labein" — it is not possible to grasp except through a definition; for it is not clear to us.

p. 16a1 What a noun is and what a verb is. Some have inquired into the order of these, asking why he placed the noun onoma: in Greek grammar, this refers to both nouns and names before the verb. We say that he placed it first because it is more universal
5 than the more specific. For a verb is sometimes called a "noun" (in the sense of a word), but a noun is never called a "verb." Aristotle himself, going further down, says: "Verbs, when spoken by themselves, are nouns." Indeed, we often say that Plato used "beautiful words," original: "onomata" even though he used not only nouns but also verbs and other parts of speech. Furthermore, the noun is
10 indicative of existence and substance, ousia: the essential nature or "being" of a thing while the verb signifies the activity of that substance. Since substance precedes activity, it is reasonable that the noun should be placed before the verb. For as things are in reality, so should be the accounts given of them. Some were puzzled as to why, though there are many parts of speech, he mentioned only these two: the noun and the verb.
15 If someone were to say that only these two, when woven together, make a complete sentence while the others do not, they would be mistaken. For a participle, metoche: a word sharing the nature of both noun and verb the so-called infinitive, and the pronoun can also be woven together to make a complete sentence. For example, a pronoun and a verb: "I walk"; original: "ego peripato" a participle and a verb: "the running man walks"; or whole infinitive verbs: "to philosophize is to be happy." original: "to philosophein eudaimonein estin"
20 We say, therefore, that he refers all these back to the noun and the verb. If they hold the place of the subject, hypokeimenon: the "underlying thing" that the sentence is about he calls them nouns, whether they are verbs,
f. 37v participles, pronouns, or | what grammarians call nouns. For example, if a noun holds the rank of a subject, as in "Socrates is just," he calls "Socrates" a noun because it holds the place of the subject. If it is a verb, as in
25 "to philosophize is to be happy," he considers it right to call "to philosophize" a noun. If it is a participle, as in "the running man walks," the participle is also called a noun by him. And if a pronoun should happen to be used, it receives the designation of a noun, as in "I walk," because it holds the rank of the subject. He is also accustomed to calling everything that holds the rank of a predicate kategoroumenon: what is said or "categorized" about the subject a verb, whatever
30 part of speech it may be. For instance, in "the animal is a substance," he says "substance" is a verb—even though it is a noun—because it is predicated of "the animal." He did not mention the other parts of speech used by grammarians because they are not "parts of speech" in the primary sense. Rather, some of them—as in the case of adverbs—only signify the relationship
35 of the predicate to the subject, such as "he walks well," "he discourses well," and "he breathes necessarily." For just as with a ship, we say the planks are "parts," but the glue, the nails, and the bolts are not "parts" but things that contribute to the parts. In the same way, these are not parts of the sentence logos: can mean word, sentence, or rational argument but parts of the expression original: "lexis" of which the sentence is also a part.