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Chapter 15. The past perfect in Cypriot Greek

Innovation because – or irrespective – of contact?
  • Stavroula Tsiplakou , Spyros Armostis , Spyridoula Bella , Dimitris Michelioudakis and Amalia Moser
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Language Variation - European Perspectives VII
This chapter is in the book Language Variation - European Perspectives VII

Abstract

The Cypriot Greek koine displays structural innovations, arguably as a result of prolonged contact with Standard Greek (SG), the ‘H’ variety in the diglossic context of the Greek Cypriot speech community. Periphrastic perfect forms are among such innovations. As regards the Past Perfect, in Standard Greek it has the principal reading of past in the past, as well as a remote past use; in contrast, the Cypriot Greek Past Perfect is largely interchangeable with the Aorist (Simple Perfective Past) and it may be deployed for pragmatic purposes, e.g. to mark an important point in a narrative, possibly due to its relative formality. In recent work it was claimed that this innovation is specific to Cypriot Greek. This paper revisits this hypothesis on the basis of the observation that Standard Greek also seems to display partly similar patterns. Using naturalistic data and data from a grammaticality judgement task, we explore (a) whether such variation is sociolinguistically conditioned and (b) what the semantics and pragmatics of the innovative Past Perfect are in each variety.

Abstract

The Cypriot Greek koine displays structural innovations, arguably as a result of prolonged contact with Standard Greek (SG), the ‘H’ variety in the diglossic context of the Greek Cypriot speech community. Periphrastic perfect forms are among such innovations. As regards the Past Perfect, in Standard Greek it has the principal reading of past in the past, as well as a remote past use; in contrast, the Cypriot Greek Past Perfect is largely interchangeable with the Aorist (Simple Perfective Past) and it may be deployed for pragmatic purposes, e.g. to mark an important point in a narrative, possibly due to its relative formality. In recent work it was claimed that this innovation is specific to Cypriot Greek. This paper revisits this hypothesis on the basis of the observation that Standard Greek also seems to display partly similar patterns. Using naturalistic data and data from a grammaticality judgement task, we explore (a) whether such variation is sociolinguistically conditioned and (b) what the semantics and pragmatics of the innovative Past Perfect are in each variety.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. Language hybridism 9
  6. Chapter 2. Of clocks, clouds and sound change 27
  7. Chapter 3. Evaluations of foreign accent in a purist speech community 53
  8. Chapter 4. C’era i fascisti e i tedeschi 71
  9. Chapter 5. Language change caught in the act 85
  10. Chapter 6. Virtual sociolinguistics 103
  11. Chapter 7. ASPA Tools or how to measure foreign-accentedness and intelligibility in an objective manner 119
  12. Chapter 8. Vowel harmony patterns in Greek dialectal child speech 133
  13. Chapter 9. Tracking change in social meaning 145
  14. Chapter 10. Slit-t in Dublin English 159
  15. Chapter 11. Panel and trend studies 175
  16. Chapter 12. Quotative variation in Bernese Swiss German 191
  17. Chapter 13. Dialect levelling or shift 203
  18. Chapter 14. Complementing in another language 217
  19. Chapter 15. The past perfect in Cypriot Greek 231
  20. Index 245
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.22.15tsi

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. Language hybridism 9
  6. Chapter 2. Of clocks, clouds and sound change 27
  7. Chapter 3. Evaluations of foreign accent in a purist speech community 53
  8. Chapter 4. C’era i fascisti e i tedeschi 71
  9. Chapter 5. Language change caught in the act 85
  10. Chapter 6. Virtual sociolinguistics 103
  11. Chapter 7. ASPA Tools or how to measure foreign-accentedness and intelligibility in an objective manner 119
  12. Chapter 8. Vowel harmony patterns in Greek dialectal child speech 133
  13. Chapter 9. Tracking change in social meaning 145
  14. Chapter 10. Slit-t in Dublin English 159
  15. Chapter 11. Panel and trend studies 175
  16. Chapter 12. Quotative variation in Bernese Swiss German 191
  17. Chapter 13. Dialect levelling or shift 203
  18. Chapter 14. Complementing in another language 217
  19. Chapter 15. The past perfect in Cypriot Greek 231
  20. Index 245
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