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Thematische Rollen und Relationen: Eine Studie über die Schnittstelle zwischen Grammatik und Kognition

Dieses Buch präsentiert einen Vorschlag zur besseren Definition thematischer Beziehungen, indem es die Beziehung zwischen Sprache und Kognition untersucht. Es analysiert die Beziehung zwischen grammatisch definierten Rollen wie Agent und Patient (semantische Rollen) und elaborierten thematischen Relationen (ETRs), die den Sprachbenutzern tatsächlich zugänglich sind. Es wird gezeigt, dass viele Phänomene, die zuvor als grammatikalisch analysiert wurden, auf einfachere und bequemere Weise beschrieben werden können, indem eine direkte Verbindung zwischen syntaktischen Ergänzungen und kognitiven Beziehungen, die in dem durch das Verb hervorgerufenen Schema vorhanden sind, postuliert wird. Der Band konzentriert sich auf ein Thema, das in der jüngeren Literatur viel diskutiert wurde, nämlich die Definition und Abgrenzung semantischer Rollen, und schlägt neue Lösungen für einige wichtige theoretische und praktische Probleme bei der Beschreibung der lexikogrammatischen Struktur von Sprachen und insbesondere der Verbvalenz vor. Es wird gezeigt, dass in vielen Fällen eine direkte Beziehung zwischen morphosyntaktischen Einheiten und Funktionen einerseits und ETRs andererseits hergestellt werden kann, ohne die Vermittlung von grammatisch definierten semantischen Rollen. Dadurch wird es möglich, traditionell problematische thematische Relationen, wie z.B. den Patienten, auf linguistisch einfache und kognitiv gut motivierte Weise zu analysieren. Thematische Beziehungen - Eine Studie über die Schnittstelle zwischen Grammatik und Kognition ist ein nützliches Hilfsmittel für Linguisten, die sich mit der Analyse natürlicher Sprachen beschäftigen, insbesondere mit der Valenz von Verben, der Subkategorisierung von Verben und der thematischen Struktur, den semantischen (thematischen) Rollen, ihrer Definition und syntaktischen Kodierung, der Beziehung zwischen grammatischer Struktur und kognitiven Schemata (Frames) und der Struktur des Lexikons.

Theme and Thematic Progression in Chinese College Students’ English Essays

This book focuses on how instruction affects English learners’ use of Theme and thematic progression (thematic organization). While thematic organization in learner English has been extensively studied, little research has been done to investigate the effects of instruction on the use of Theme and thematic progression. Adopting a Systemic Functional Grammar approach, this study explores how a ten-week instruction on thematic organization affects Chinese college students’ use of Theme and thematic progression by comparing their English essays before and after the instruction, with native-speaker essays as the research baseline. Second-language acquisition researchers, curriculum developers and foreign language teachers will find this book useful as it not only presents a clear and detailed report of how Chinese college students learn to make better thematic choices, but also provides a well-developed instructional package on Theme and thematic progression.

Themes in Arabic and Hebrew Syntax (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory #53)

The aim of this enterprise is to assemble together in one volume works on various syntactic aspects of Arabic and Hebrew, in the hope that it will spur further comparative work within the Semitic family at the level of richness achieved in other language families such as Germanic and Romance. Although a substantial amount of work on the syntax of Arabic and Hebrew already exists in various forms, volumes of the type we have attempted are still practically non-existent. Moreover, apart from some notable exceptions, existing studies rarely take a systematic within-family comparative stance towards the phenomena they discuss, although cross-references between studies on Arabic and Hebrew are not uncommon. Obviously, we would ideally have preferred the volume to include papers on numerous other Semitic languages, including the languages of the Ethio­ Semitic branch as well as numerous spoken varieties of Arabic that have yet to be explored. Unfortunately, this was not possible due to circumstances beyond our control. We very much hope that the existence of this volume will make more inclusive volumes on the syntax of the Semitic languages only a matter of time.

The Themes of Elizabeth Gaskell

Theocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire

Theocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire discusses many of Theocritus's Idylls with emphasis on how these poems construct space--its contours and borders, along with the people, animals, and objects that fill it--and the equally important role of absence. Drawing on spatial theory from anthropology and cultural geography, author William G. Thalmann studies each poem in itself and in its connections with other poems, so that a loose coherence emerges among them. Spatially, the Ptolemaic empire provides a setting and reference point for the various types of Idylls (bucolic, urban, mythological, and encomiastic poems), in ways that help legitimate it. In all the idylls, however, space is constructed selectively from particular perspectives, so that it reflects and shapes people's relations with each other and humans' relations with nature. The bucolic Idylls in particular raise questions about being in and out of place and relations between self and other that would have been important under the conditions of mobility and intercultural contact in the early Hellenistic period. Yet theirs is a fictional world, defined more by its margins than by its center, and visions of fullness and presence of nature are always distanced from the reader. Absence is constitutive of this world, just as absence of the beloved is the precondition for the desire of bucolic characters and prompts their singing. Their desire mirrors the desire of readers for the absent bucolic world that the poems arouse and that keeps them reading.

Theocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire

Theocritus: Space, Absence, and Desire discusses many of Theocritus's Idylls with emphasis on how these poems construct space--its contours and borders, along with the people, animals, and objects that fill it--and the equally important role of absence. Drawing on spatial theory from anthropology and cultural geography, author William G. Thalmann studies each poem in itself and in its connections with other poems, so that a loose coherence emerges among them. Spatially, the Ptolemaic empire provides a setting and reference point for the various types of Idylls (bucolic, urban, mythological, and encomiastic poems), in ways that help legitimate it. In all the idylls, however, space is constructed selectively from particular perspectives, so that it reflects and shapes people's relations with each other and humans' relations with nature. The bucolic Idylls in particular raise questions about being in and out of place and relations between self and other that would have been important under the conditions of mobility and intercultural contact in the early Hellenistic period. Yet theirs is a fictional world, defined more by its margins than by its center, and visions of fullness and presence of nature are always distanced from the reader. Absence is constitutive of this world, just as absence of the beloved is the precondition for the desire of bucolic characters and prompts their singing. Their desire mirrors the desire of readers for the absent bucolic world that the poems arouse and that keeps them reading.

Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich

First published in Germany to popular and critical acclaim, this is a unique portrait of the life and work of Theodor Fontane, the greatest German novelist of his age, as well as a major poet and theater critic and much loved travel writer. Gordon A. Craig, one of the foremost scholars of German history, interpolates a cohesive historical biography of Fontane with his own reflections on the art, culture, and politics of Fontane's world. The ideas and impressions of Fontane and Craig echo one another throughout the book in compelling and fascinating ways. Fontane's travel accounts of Scotland and Prussia are enriched by Craig's discussion of Germany's increasingly national vision of itself and the world at the time of unification. Similarly, Craig's mastery of German military history dovetails remarkably well with Fontane's reportage on Germany's wars with Denmark, Austria, and France. Interesting are Fontane's ruminations over his great contemporary Otto von Bismarck, whom he revered as founder of the Reich but whose policies he feared would in the end be self-defeating. Although Fontane's Wanderings through the Mark Brandenburg and his novels are more widely read in Germany today than they were in his own time, and although his masterpiece Effi Briest was the basis for a famous Fassbinder film, Fontane remains little known in the English-speaking world. Theodor Fontane is the ideal introduction to this major European writer, a master of social analysis and one of the great letter writers of his age.

Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich

First published in Germany to popular and critical acclaim, this is a unique portrait of the life and work of Theodor Fontane, the greatest German novelist of his age, as well as a major poet and theater critic and much loved travel writer. Gordon A. Craig, one of the foremost scholars of German history, interpolates a cohesive historical biography of Fontane with his own reflections on the art, culture, and politics of Fontane's world. The ideas and impressions of Fontane and Craig echo one another throughout the book in compelling and fascinating ways. Fontane's travel accounts of Scotland and Prussia are enriched by Craig's discussion of Germany's increasingly national vision of itself and the world at the time of unification. Similarly, Craig's mastery of German military history dovetails remarkably well with Fontane's reportage on Germany's wars with Denmark, Austria, and France. Interesting are Fontane's ruminations over his great contemporary Otto von Bismarck, whom he revered as founder of the Reich but whose policies he feared would in the end be self-defeating. Although Fontane's Wanderings through the Mark Brandenburg and his novels are more widely read in Germany today than they were in his own time, and although his masterpiece Effi Briest was the basis for a famous Fassbinder film, Fontane remains little known in the English-speaking world. Theodor Fontane is the ideal introduction to this major European writer, a master of social analysis and one of the great letter writers of his age.

Theodor Fontane: Sammlung Metzler, 114 (Sammlung Metzler)

Theodor Fontane (Sammlung Metzler)

Theodor Fontane gilt noch heute als einer der meistgelesenen Autoren des 19. Jahrhunderts. Charlotte Jolles führt akribisch in das umfangreiche Gesamtwerk ein und beleuchtet zugleich den biografischen Hintergrund Fontanes. Auch der zeithistorische Horizont wird erörtert. Im Anhang mit einer ausführlichen Bibliografie und einem Personenregister.

Theodor Fontane: Realismus, Redevielfalt, Ressentiment

Das literarische Werk Theodor Fontanes ist erstaunlich gegenwärtig geblieben. Denn er gestaltete Individuen in gesellschaftlichen Verstrickungen, deren Muster bis heute fortbestehen. Dabei registrierte er, wie die jüngste Forschung zeigt, neue Entwicklungen in Politik, Kultur, Medien, Technik. Dieses Buch stellt Fontanes modernen Realismus als eine Kunst dar, Redevielfalt zu inszenieren: Gruppensprachen und Sprachspiele, Diskurse und Ideologien, Mentalitäten und Vorurteile. So regen seine Werke Nachdenken an über Weisheiten und Dummheiten, soziale Distinktionsregeln, Geschlechterrollen, Nationalstereotype. Sie führen sogar Ressentiments des Autors selbst wie etwa gegenüber Juden oft so vor, dass Leser sie durchschauen und sich von ihnen distanzieren können.

Theodor Fontane: Irony and Avowal in a Post-Truth Age (New Directions in German Studies)

What happens when fashionable forms of unserious speech prove to be contagious, when they adulterate and weaken communicative spheres that rely on honesty, trust, and sincerity? Demonstrating how the tension between irony and avowal constitutes a central conflict in Fontane's works, this book argues that his best-known society novels play out a struggle between the incompatible demands of these two modes of speaking. Read in this light, the novels identify an irreconcilable discrepancy between word and deed as both the root of emotional discord and the proximate cause of historical and political upheaval. Given the alarm since 2016 over unreliability, falsehood, and indifference to truth, it is now easier to perceive in Fontane's novels a profound concern about language that is not sincere and not meant to be taken literally. For Fontane, irony exemplifies a discrepancy between language and meaning, a loosening of the ethical bond between words and the things to which they refer. His novels investigate the extent to which human relationships can continue to function in the face of pervasive irony and the erosion of language's credibility. Although Fontane is widely regarded as an ironic writer, Tucker's analyses reveal a critical distance between his works and the prospect of irony as a dominant idiom.Revisiting Fontane's novels in a post-truth age brings the conflict between irony and avowal into sharper relief and makes legible the stakes and contours of our own post-truth condition.

Theodor Fontane: Irony and Avowal in a Post-Truth Age (New Directions in German Studies)

What happens when fashionable forms of unserious speech prove to be contagious, when they adulterate and weaken communicative spheres that rely on honesty, trust, and sincerity? Demonstrating how the tension between irony and avowal constitutes a central conflict in Fontane's works, this book argues that his best-known society novels play out a struggle between the incompatible demands of these two modes of speaking. Read in this light, the novels identify an irreconcilable discrepancy between word and deed as both the root of emotional discord and the proximate cause of historical and political upheaval. Given the alarm since 2016 over unreliability, falsehood, and indifference to truth, it is now easier to perceive in Fontane's novels a profound concern about language that is not sincere and not meant to be taken literally. For Fontane, irony exemplifies a discrepancy between language and meaning, a loosening of the ethical bond between words and the things to which they refer. His novels investigate the extent to which human relationships can continue to function in the face of pervasive irony and the erosion of language's credibility. Although Fontane is widely regarded as an ironic writer, Tucker's analyses reveal a critical distance between his works and the prospect of irony as a dominant idiom.Revisiting Fontane's novels in a post-truth age brings the conflict between irony and avowal into sharper relief and makes legible the stakes and contours of our own post-truth condition.

Theodor Geisel (Lives and Legacies Series)

Dr. Seuss's infectious rhymes, fanciful creatures, and roundabout plots not only changed the way children read but imagined the world. And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, Green Eggs and Ham,The Cat and the Hat, these and other classics have sold hundreds of millions of copies and entertained children and adults for decades. After graduating from Dartmouth, Theodor Geisel used his talents as an ad-man, political provocateur, and social satirist, gradually but irrevocably turning to children's books. Theodor SEUSS Geisel tells the unlikely story of this remarkable transformation. In this compact and engrossing biography, Donald Pease reveals the evolution of Dr. Seuss's creative persona while offering an honest appraisal of his life. The book also features many of Dr. Seuss's lesser-known illustrations, including college drawings, insecticide ads, and wartime political cartoons-all of which offer a glimpse of his early artistic style and the visual origins of the more famous creatures that later populated his children's books. As Pease traces the full arc of Dr. Seuss's prolific career, he combines close textual readings of many of Dr. Suess's works with a unique look at their genesis to shed new light on the enduring legacy of America's favorite children's book author.

Theodor SEUSS Geisel (Lives and Legacies Series)

Dr. Seuss's infectious rhymes, fanciful creatures, and roundabout plots not only changed the way children read but imagined the world. And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, Green Eggs and Ham,The Cat and the Hat, these and other classics have sold hundreds of millions of copies and entertained children and adults for decades. After graduating from Dartmouth, Theodor Geisel used his talents as an ad-man, political provocateur, and social satirist, gradually but irrevocably turning to children's books. Theodor SEUSS Geisel tells the unlikely story of this remarkable transformation. In this compact and engrossing biography, Donald Pease reveals the evolution of Dr. Seuss's creative persona while offering an honest appraisal of his life. The book also features many of Dr. Seuss's lesser-known illustrations, including college drawings, insecticide ads, and wartime political cartoons-all of which offer a glimpse of his early artistic style and the visual origins of the more famous creatures that later populated his children's books. As Pease traces the full arc of Dr. Seuss's prolific career, he combines close textual readings of many of Dr. Suess's works with a unique look at their genesis to shed new light on the enduring legacy of America's favorite children's book author.

Theodor Storm (Sammlung Metzler)

Erläutert wird die Poetik von Lyrik und früher Novellistik in engem Zusammenhang mit der Persönlichkeitsstruktur Storms. Die Orientierung an den sich im Frühwerk herausbildenden Motivkonstanten erlaubt zudem eine differenzierende Darstellung der Novellistik bis hin zum 'Schimmelreiter'. Die Bemühungen der Forschung galten - nach der faschistischen Funktionalisierung Storms - seit den sechziger Jahren vorrangig der Entdeckung der gesellschaftlichen Potenziale von Storms Werk.

Theodora, A Novel: by Dorothea Du Bois (Chawton House Library: Women's Novels)

Theodora, A Novel by Dorothea Du Bois, published in 1770, is an entertaining and frequently shocking tale of a young woman’s efforts to regain her position in high society after her aristocratic father’s abandonment of and denial of marriage to her mother. The two-volume work is a thinly-veiled fictionalisation of Du Bois’s eventful personal history and the novel represents just one prong of what was a very public campaign to assert what she believed was her rightful place among the nobility of Ireland and Britain. Central to the narrative of Theodora is the powerlessness of women in the face of a system, moral, social and legal, that was designed to enshrine and protect patriarchal interests. In this manner Theodora exposes the gross injustices of eighteenth century society. This scholarly edition of Du Bois’s novel introduces readers to a unique voice in women’s writing of the eighteenth century that has been undeservedly dismissed by literary history for far too long.

Theodora, A Novel: by Dorothea Du Bois (Chawton House Library: Women's Novels)

Theodora, A Novel by Dorothea Du Bois, published in 1770, is an entertaining and frequently shocking tale of a young woman’s efforts to regain her position in high society after her aristocratic father’s abandonment of and denial of marriage to her mother. The two-volume work is a thinly-veiled fictionalisation of Du Bois’s eventful personal history and the novel represents just one prong of what was a very public campaign to assert what she believed was her rightful place among the nobility of Ireland and Britain. Central to the narrative of Theodora is the powerlessness of women in the face of a system, moral, social and legal, that was designed to enshrine and protect patriarchal interests. In this manner Theodora exposes the gross injustices of eighteenth century society. This scholarly edition of Du Bois’s novel introduces readers to a unique voice in women’s writing of the eighteenth century that has been undeservedly dismissed by literary history for far too long.

Theodore De Banville: Constructing Poetic Value in Nineteenth-century France

Theodore de Banville (1823-1891) was a prolific poet, dramatist, critic and prose fiction writer whose significant contribution to poetic and aesthetic debates in nineteenth-century France has long been overlooked. Despite his profound influence on major writers such as Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine and Mallarme, Banville polarised critical opinion throughout his fifty-year career. While supporters championed him as a virtuoso of French verse, many critics dismissed his formal pyrotechnics, effervescent rhythms and extravagant rhymes as mere clowning. This book explores how Banville's remarkably coherent body of verse theory and practice, full of provocative energy and mischievous humour, shaped debates about poetic value and how to identify it during a period of aesthetic uncertainty caused by diverse social, economic, political and artistic factors. It features a detailed new reading of Banville's most infamous and misunderstood text, the Petit Traitede poesie francaise, as well as extended analyses of verse collections such as Les Stalactites, Odes funambulesques, Les Exiles, Trente-six Ballades and Rondels, illuminated by wide reference to Banville's plays, fiction and journalism. Evans elucidates not only aesthetic tensions at the heart of nineteenth-century French verse, but also a centuries-old tension between verse mechanisms and an unquantifiable, mysterious and elusive poeticity which emerges as one of the defining narratives of poetic value from the Middle Ages, via the Grands Rhetoriqueurs and Dada, to the experiments of the OuLiPo and beyond.

Theodore De Banville: Constructing Poetic Value in Nineteenth-century France

Theodore de Banville (1823-1891) was a prolific poet, dramatist, critic and prose fiction writer whose significant contribution to poetic and aesthetic debates in nineteenth-century France has long been overlooked. Despite his profound influence on major writers such as Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine and Mallarme, Banville polarised critical opinion throughout his fifty-year career. While supporters championed him as a virtuoso of French verse, many critics dismissed his formal pyrotechnics, effervescent rhythms and extravagant rhymes as mere clowning. This book explores how Banville's remarkably coherent body of verse theory and practice, full of provocative energy and mischievous humour, shaped debates about poetic value and how to identify it during a period of aesthetic uncertainty caused by diverse social, economic, political and artistic factors. It features a detailed new reading of Banville's most infamous and misunderstood text, the Petit Traitede poesie francaise, as well as extended analyses of verse collections such as Les Stalactites, Odes funambulesques, Les Exiles, Trente-six Ballades and Rondels, illuminated by wide reference to Banville's plays, fiction and journalism. Evans elucidates not only aesthetic tensions at the heart of nineteenth-century French verse, but also a centuries-old tension between verse mechanisms and an unquantifiable, mysterious and elusive poeticity which emerges as one of the defining narratives of poetic value from the Middle Ages, via the Grands Rhetoriqueurs and Dada, to the experiments of the OuLiPo and beyond.

A Theodore Dreiser Encyclopedia (Non-ser.)

For a century, Theodore Dreiser has represented for many readers a rebellious modernism whose novels both critiqued the American dream and embodied a bleakly deterministic perception of life. His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), was reluctantly published and then ignored by its publisher, who thought the book immoral. Another publisher withdrew his fifth novel, The Genius (1915), rather than face prosecution on obscenity charges. Dreiser did not enjoy widespread popularity and critical acclaim until his masterpiece, An American Tragedy, appeared in 1925. This reference is an authoritative guide to his life and works.Included are several hundred entries on each of Dreiser's books and short stories, as well as magazine and newspaper pieces he collected during his life. Noteworthy uncollected and posthumously collected works are given separate entries, as are major characters in the novels, family members, friends, and other persons important to understanding his writings. There are also entries on Dreiser's publishers, his major influences, the places and events important to his life, and the literary and social contexts of his works. Expert contributors wrote each of the entries, many of which cite works for further reading. The volume closes with a selected bibliography of works by and about Dreiser.

Theodore Dreiser Recalled (Clemson University Press)

Theodore Dreiser (1871–1946) has long been recognized as a pivotal figure in twentieth-century American literary and cultural history. His fiction played (and still plays) a major role in the vigorous debate over the relationship of art to social reality and political purpose, and his complex and compelling personality has always attracted much attention. From about 1912–15 to his death he was often considered the greatest American writer of the period. Theodore Dreiser Recalled collects for the first time commentary on this literary giant by those of his own time who knew him well. The book includes seventy-six recollections by friends, lovers, and literary associates, ranging in time of publication from 1912 to 1995. Presented with both expert and general readers in mind, the book not only clarifies and extends our knowledge of many aspects of Dreiser’s life and career but also makes excellent reading. In their various ways—from H. L. Mencken’s acerbic accounts of their friendship to one of Edgar Lee Masters’s most powerful poems to Kirah Markham’s bittersweet memories of their affair and to Esther McCoy’s compelling narrative of Dreiser’s death—the recollections demonstrate Dreiser’s ability to move others to recall him not only in full detail but with panache.

Theodore Metochites: Patterns of Self-Representation in Fourteenth-Century Byzantium (New Directions in Byzantine Studies)

The statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites was one of the most important personalities of the fourteenth-century Byzantine Empire. A close advisor to the emperor Andronikos II and restorer of the famous monastery of Chora in Constantinople, Metochites left various writings including orations, poems, essays and commentaries on classical and religious texts, in which he discusses the numerous problems that troubled him and his contemporaries, such as the decline of the state and the tension between public life and that of the philosopher.In this book, Ioannis Polemis provides the first in-depth study of Metochites' oeuvre, revealing the complex way he represented the authorial self to critique the politics and mores of his day, whilst at the same time shielding himself from potential criticism. Polemis details the way Metochites deftly manipulated figures and tropes from classical antiquity and early Christianity to justify his role in public life, which was traditionally shunned by scholars in the pursuit of 'logos'. The book provides unique insights into one of the late Empire's most important figures, as well as more widely deepening our understanding of classical reception in Byzantium and the social, political and intellectual climate of Constantinople in the fourteenth century.

Theodore Metochites: Patterns of Self-Representation in Fourteenth-Century Byzantium (New Directions in Byzantine Studies)

The statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites was one of the most important personalities of the fourteenth-century Byzantine Empire. A close advisor to the emperor Andronikos II and restorer of the famous monastery of Chora in Constantinople, Metochites left various writings including orations, poems, essays and commentaries on classical and religious texts, in which he discusses the numerous problems that troubled him and his contemporaries, such as the decline of the state and the tension between public life and that of the philosopher.In this book, Ioannis Polemis provides the first in-depth study of Metochites' oeuvre, revealing the complex way he represented the authorial self to critique the politics and mores of his day, whilst at the same time shielding himself from potential criticism. Polemis details the way Metochites deftly manipulated figures and tropes from classical antiquity and early Christianity to justify his role in public life, which was traditionally shunned by scholars in the pursuit of 'logos'. The book provides unique insights into one of the late Empire's most important figures, as well as more widely deepening our understanding of classical reception in Byzantium and the social, political and intellectual climate of Constantinople in the fourteenth century.

Theodore Syncellus: The Homilies ‘On the Robe’ and ‘On the Siege’ (Translated Texts for Historians #87)

Theodore Syncellus was a prominent member of the clergy in Constantinople in the 620s, being a close advisor to Patriarch Sergius. As such he was chosen to participate in a delicate mission to the Avar khagan during the siege of the city in 626 and to deliver celebratory sermons. The first, ‘On the Robe’, commemorated the restoration of the miraculous relic of the Virgin’s Robe to the shrine at Blachernae, just outside the city walls, after it had been removed to protect it from Avar looting in 623. The second, ‘On the Siege’, analysed and gave thanks for the city’s escape from a joint attack by Avars and Persians in 626. The two speeches provide important evidence for popular devotion in the capital, especially to the Virgin Mary who now acquires the status of the city's special protector, for the role of Patriarch Sergius and others in leading the city during the long absence on campaign of the emperor Heraclius, and for how contemporary events could be fitted into Biblical contexts to elevate Constantinople and its inhabitants to the status of the new Israel. This new English translation of these two sermons (the first complete translation of 'On the Robe' and the first of 'On the Siege') sheds light on both the religious history of the eastern Roman Empire at the end of antiquity and on events in seventh-century Constantinople.