Passives in the history of Greek: Evidence for the role of the passive suffix
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Nikolaos Lavidas
The article examines a change in passive constructions in the diachrony of Greek: the use of the nonactive suffix as a specialized marker of passive constructions is a later development in Greek, starting from Late Hellenistic/ Early Byzantine. Evidence is provided mainly by examples of active passives and nonactive transitives in Ancient Greek but not in later periods. The historical data provide arguments in favor of an analysis that postulates the presence of the external argument in passive constructions in the same position as in transitive constructions, and blocking by the nonactive suffix either of (a) one of the internal arguments (Ancient Greek) or (b) the internal argument in the accusative case (Late Hellenistic/Early Byzantine).
© 2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Note from the editor
- The Hittite neuter a-stems and the amorphous neuter
- Motion events in English: the emergence and diachrony of manner salience from Old English to Late Modern English
- Passives in the history of Greek: Evidence for the role of the passive suffix
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Note from the editor
- The Hittite neuter a-stems and the amorphous neuter
- Motion events in English: the emergence and diachrony of manner salience from Old English to Late Modern English
- Passives in the history of Greek: Evidence for the role of the passive suffix
- Words for ancient Eurasian grain legumes in the hypothetical Altaic family
- How to measure replacement: Auxiliary selection in Old Spanish bibles
- Investigating the emergence of the definite article in Old English: About categorization, gradualness and constructions
- Book Reviews
