Abstract
In a number of recent works, verbs and expressions encoding causative alternations have been regarded as a possible test for measuring the basic valency orientation of a language. This paper focuses on the basic orientation of valency in Homeric Greek. The test applied for determining this parameter is that proposed by Nichols et al. (2004, Transitivizing and detransitivizing languages. Linguistic Typology 8(2). 149–211), focusing on 18 causative alternations. The investigation carried out in this paper shows that Homeric Greek belongs to the detransitivizing type, showing an active-middle alternation as the preferred pattern for expressing causative alternations. This study aims to enrich the typological literature on this topic and positions itself among other studies of valency orientation in ancient Indo-European languages, such as Old Hittite, Old Indo-Aryan, Proto-Germanic, and Proto-Slavic, which show transitivizing strategies along with voice alternation patterns.
Acknowledgement
I am very grateful to Silvia Luraghi, Pierluigi Cuzzolin, Leonid Kulikov, and Micheal Cysouw who discussed with me the first drafts of this paper providing insightful comments. Of course, all remaining errors are mine.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
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- Q is for WHAT, WHEN, WHERE?: The ‘q’ spellings for OE hw-
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- Why English is not dead: A rejoinder to Emonds and Faarlund
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- Emanuel J. Drechsel: Language contact in the early colonial Pacific: Maritime Polynesian Pidgin before Pidgin English
- Lucien Tesnière: Elements of structural syntax
- Carlotta Viti, ed.: Perspectives on historical syntax
- Buschfeld, Sarah, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber & Alexander Kautzsch: The evolution of Englishes. The dynamic model and beyond
- 2016. IE2.com. Online lexica for ancient Indo-European languages
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Reading the intentions of be going to. On the subjectification of future markers
- Third-person singular zero in Norfolk English: An addendum
- Q is for WHAT, WHEN, WHERE?: The ‘q’ spellings for OE hw-
- The Romanian alternating gender in diachrony and synchrony
- Particle placement in Late Modern English and Twentieth-century English: Morpho-syntactic variables
- Language norms and language use: Hypercorrections in the Independence period of Chilean Spanish
- Basic valency orientation in Homeric Greek
- Why English is not dead: A rejoinder to Emonds and Faarlund
- Daily jottings: Preposition placement in English diaries and travel journals from 1500 to 1900
- Reviews
- James N. Adams: Social variation and the Latin language
- Emanuel J. Drechsel: Language contact in the early colonial Pacific: Maritime Polynesian Pidgin before Pidgin English
- Lucien Tesnière: Elements of structural syntax
- Carlotta Viti, ed.: Perspectives on historical syntax
- Buschfeld, Sarah, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber & Alexander Kautzsch: The evolution of Englishes. The dynamic model and beyond
- 2016. IE2.com. Online lexica for ancient Indo-European languages