The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited
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Dimitra Melissaropoulou
Abstract
This paper examines the emergence of innovative Present Perfect structures in the Cypriot Greek koiné through a quantitative study supplemented by naturalistically sampled data. The results of the study indicate that innovative Present Perfect structures are emergent in contemporary Cypriot Greek, at least among its younger, more educated speakers. Although such innovation on the morphosyntactic level may well be a result of language contact with Standard Greek, it does not entail perfect acquisition or transfer of the full range of associated semantic features of Standard Greek Present Perfect. Conversely, it seems that transfer of the exclusively resultative semantics of extant, non-innovative Cypriot Greek Present Perfect structures onto the innovative Present Perfect is not operative either.
Abstract
This paper examines the emergence of innovative Present Perfect structures in the Cypriot Greek koiné through a quantitative study supplemented by naturalistically sampled data. The results of the study indicate that innovative Present Perfect structures are emergent in contemporary Cypriot Greek, at least among its younger, more educated speakers. Although such innovation on the morphosyntactic level may well be a result of language contact with Standard Greek, it does not entail perfect acquisition or transfer of the full range of associated semantic features of Standard Greek Present Perfect. Conversely, it seems that transfer of the exclusively resultative semantics of extant, non-innovative Cypriot Greek Present Perfect structures onto the innovative Present Perfect is not operative either.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Where is syntactic variation? 1
- Phonological variation in Catalan and Alemannic from a typological perspective 27
- Language ideologies and language attitudes 45
- Late language acquisition and identity construction 57
- The variation of gender agreement on numerals in the Alpine space 69
- ‘Standard usage’ 83
- Code alternation patterns in bilingual family conversations 117
- A variationist approach to syntactic change 129
- Children’s switching/shifting competence in role-playing 145
- The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited 159
- Chain shifts revisited 173
- And the beat goes on 187
- Migrant teenagers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 201
- The sociophonology and sociophonetics of Scottish Standard English (r) 215
- Stance and code-switching 229
- A town between dialects 247
- Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech 267
- The case of [nən] 281
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Where is syntactic variation? 1
- Phonological variation in Catalan and Alemannic from a typological perspective 27
- Language ideologies and language attitudes 45
- Late language acquisition and identity construction 57
- The variation of gender agreement on numerals in the Alpine space 69
- ‘Standard usage’ 83
- Code alternation patterns in bilingual family conversations 117
- A variationist approach to syntactic change 129
- Children’s switching/shifting competence in role-playing 145
- The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited 159
- Chain shifts revisited 173
- And the beat goes on 187
- Migrant teenagers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 201
- The sociophonology and sociophonetics of Scottish Standard English (r) 215
- Stance and code-switching 229
- A town between dialects 247
- Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech 267
- The case of [nən] 281
- Index 295
