On the So-Called Progressive in Romeyka
-
Metik Bağrıaçık
Abstract
It has been asserted in previous literature that progressive aspectuality in Greek spoken in Trabzon, Turkey, is encoded with a prefix that attaches to the so-called imperfective forms of action predicates. A quick investigation of the available corpora, however, reveals that the imperfective forms of the same predicates without the prefix can also unambiguously receive a progressive reading. One must then conclude either that the two configurations — one with, and one without the prefix — are two variants in competition, or that the true nature of the imperfective forms with the prefix has not been completely understood. Based on corpus analysis enriched with native speaker judgments, we show that the two configurations are distinct in their functions. That is, while progressive aspectuality is expressed with the imperfective, the prefix defines a temporal phase immediately before a change-of-state, where the change-of-state is hierarchically ranked into (a) culmination of a set terminus, (b) subintervals close to the set terminus, and (c) the initiation of the eventuality, in this order. The progressive/ continuous reading, which the literature attributes to the prefix, emerges only as a coercion effect with accomplishment verbs.
Abstract
It has been asserted in previous literature that progressive aspectuality in Greek spoken in Trabzon, Turkey, is encoded with a prefix that attaches to the so-called imperfective forms of action predicates. A quick investigation of the available corpora, however, reveals that the imperfective forms of the same predicates without the prefix can also unambiguously receive a progressive reading. One must then conclude either that the two configurations — one with, and one without the prefix — are two variants in competition, or that the true nature of the imperfective forms with the prefix has not been completely understood. Based on corpus analysis enriched with native speaker judgments, we show that the two configurations are distinct in their functions. That is, while progressive aspectuality is expressed with the imperfective, the prefix defines a temporal phase immediately before a change-of-state, where the change-of-state is hierarchically ranked into (a) culmination of a set terminus, (b) subintervals close to the set terminus, and (c) the initiation of the eventuality, in this order. The progressive/ continuous reading, which the literature attributes to the prefix, emerges only as a coercion effect with accomplishment verbs.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Figures and Charts IX
- List of Tables XI
- Abbreviations
- In Honour of Mark Janse 1
-
Part I: Greek Through the Ages — From Homer to Byzantium
- Hyperbaton and Homeric Colometry: A First Exploration 15
- Aspect in the Gortyn Law Code: The Subjectivity of the Category 41
- Tense, Aspect, Iterativity and Related Textual Criticism: A Case Study Based on Herodotos, Historiai 4.78 65
- The Tragic Aorist: A Well-defined and Homogeneous Group? 101
- Changes in Word Order: Scribal Corrections to the Placement of Clitic Pronouns 127
- Κένταυρος, Κέρβερος and Their Possible Etymological Relatives 139
- Light from Gothic on the Post-Classical Greek Lexicon 161
- The Theory of Semantic Fields and the Greek Lexicon: The Case of ΠΟΝΗΡΟΣ and its Semantic Congeners in the History of the Greek Language 167
- Figs and the City: A Comic Cocktail (Aristophanes, fr. [dub.] 955 Kassel-Austin, PCG) 197
- Musings on an Attic Muse: Three Ancient Responses to a Passage from Xenophon’s Anabasis 215
- ἐρρωμένος μοι διατελοῖς μετὰ τῶν φιλτάτων κύριέ μου ἀσύγκριτε: The Social Semiotics of Formulaic Extravagance in the Ancient Greek Epistolary Frame 237
- Homer in Byzantium: Comment parler des livres que l’on n’a pas lus? 271
- Koineization in Ancient Epirus: Some Additional Insights from Onomastics 301
- The Papyrus of the Curse of Artemisia: Dialect and Interference 333
-
Part II: Greek in Contact — Dialect and Diversity in the Modern Era
- On the So-Called Progressive in Romeyka 353
- The Exploitation of Turkish Dialectal Lexicography: Dialectal Turkish Loanwords in the Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects 381
- Investigating Derivational Borrowability in the Cappadocian Greek Dialectal Landscape: The Emergence of allo-morphomes 401
- Aivaliot Morphology: Selected Phenomena from Prefixization and Verb Borrowing 429
- Innovation and Retention in Silliot Greek 459
- The Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects as a Contribution to the Study of Variation and Change 477
- List of Contributors 503
- Index Rerum
- Index Nominum
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Figures and Charts IX
- List of Tables XI
- Abbreviations
- In Honour of Mark Janse 1
-
Part I: Greek Through the Ages — From Homer to Byzantium
- Hyperbaton and Homeric Colometry: A First Exploration 15
- Aspect in the Gortyn Law Code: The Subjectivity of the Category 41
- Tense, Aspect, Iterativity and Related Textual Criticism: A Case Study Based on Herodotos, Historiai 4.78 65
- The Tragic Aorist: A Well-defined and Homogeneous Group? 101
- Changes in Word Order: Scribal Corrections to the Placement of Clitic Pronouns 127
- Κένταυρος, Κέρβερος and Their Possible Etymological Relatives 139
- Light from Gothic on the Post-Classical Greek Lexicon 161
- The Theory of Semantic Fields and the Greek Lexicon: The Case of ΠΟΝΗΡΟΣ and its Semantic Congeners in the History of the Greek Language 167
- Figs and the City: A Comic Cocktail (Aristophanes, fr. [dub.] 955 Kassel-Austin, PCG) 197
- Musings on an Attic Muse: Three Ancient Responses to a Passage from Xenophon’s Anabasis 215
- ἐρρωμένος μοι διατελοῖς μετὰ τῶν φιλτάτων κύριέ μου ἀσύγκριτε: The Social Semiotics of Formulaic Extravagance in the Ancient Greek Epistolary Frame 237
- Homer in Byzantium: Comment parler des livres que l’on n’a pas lus? 271
- Koineization in Ancient Epirus: Some Additional Insights from Onomastics 301
- The Papyrus of the Curse of Artemisia: Dialect and Interference 333
-
Part II: Greek in Contact — Dialect and Diversity in the Modern Era
- On the So-Called Progressive in Romeyka 353
- The Exploitation of Turkish Dialectal Lexicography: Dialectal Turkish Loanwords in the Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects 381
- Investigating Derivational Borrowability in the Cappadocian Greek Dialectal Landscape: The Emergence of allo-morphomes 401
- Aivaliot Morphology: Selected Phenomena from Prefixization and Verb Borrowing 429
- Innovation and Retention in Silliot Greek 459
- The Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects as a Contribution to the Study of Variation and Change 477
- List of Contributors 503
- Index Rerum
- Index Nominum
