1. Introductory remarks
In his commentary on Aristotle’s De intepretatione (Busse 11,1 ff.), Ammonius raises the question of why, of the eight parts of speech distinguished by the grammarians, Aristotle only mentions onoma and rhêma. In this context, Ammonius refers to and criticises the view, which he ascribes to Alexander of Aphrodisias, that epirrhêmata, ‘adverbs’, fall under the rubric of onomata. Ammonius gives some hints about Alexander’s reasons for endorsing such a view and gives a series of arguments against it. Ammonius’s criticism of Alexander seems quite sensible – in fact, so sensible that it is hard to imagine that a plausible view could have prompted Ammonius’s comments. Since Alexander’s commentary on De interpretatione is not preserved, we do not have access to the text Ammonius presumably refers to. However, I intend to show that, mainly based on some evidence in Alexander’s commentary on the Topics, we can reconstruct at least some of the things Alexander could hav...
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