These studies are offered to Gwil Owen on the occasion of his 60th birthday with respect, gratitude and affection. Their writers are all either pupils of his or younger scholars who, while not formally his pupils, would wish to acknowledge the stimulus of his talk and thought at a formative stage in their own philosophical histories. The volume contains fifteen chapters, all concerned in one way or another with aspects of the role played by reflection upon language in the thought of Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek philosophers. It would have been as easy and as appropriate to persuade a quite different team of authors to write essays in Gwil Owen's honour on some quite different subject – say, Greek science and philosophy of science – no less close to his heart. So this book is dedicated to him with the good wishes, expressed by many to the editors, of a much greater number of pupils and others, on both sides of the Atlantic, than are assembled between these covers. Our thanks go to all who have helped us by their co-operation or advice, particularly our publisher Jeremy Mynott, who has made the project possible.