Volume 61, Issue 1 - 1

Aim of this issue is to bring together studies in Greek phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics that share a typological perspective on language description. Cross-linguistic comparison expands the range of data that linguistic generalizations account for and is expected to contribute to our knowledge about the grammar of the object language in testing hypotheses that cannot be proved in a data set from a single language. The articles discuss several facets of the relation between differences within grammars and differences between grammars.

Greek has always been assumed to possess a verbal system organized on the basis of aspect, with tense playing only a secondary part, and to have retained this state of affairs throughout its history. This article claims that it has changed substantially, moving from the expression of oppositions of Aktionsart (states – telic activities – atelic activities) to the expression of oppositions of grammatical aspect (perfective – imperfective) and tense (past – non past and later past – present – future). The current system is claimed to display an almost perfect balance between tense and aspect.

This paper investigates the existence of a compound marker in Modern Greek and other typologically different languages. It argues that its presence relates to a parameter of an overtly realized paradigmatic inflection, and that its systematic or non-systematic character depends on the type of constituency with respect to the categories of stem or word that are involved in compound formation. It also shows that with respect to its origin, the marker may be the synchronic residue of a phonological epenthesis, or the product of evolution of other functional or lexical elements that have undergone the process of morphologization.

In this paper, we review the basic morphosyntactic and phonological properties of object clitic pronouns in Standard Greek. More specifically, we discuss the constraints on the combinatorial properties of clitic clusters and present evidence in support of the out-of-cycle adjunct status of clitic-doubled DP-objects. We then account for the distribution of object clitics with respect to the verb by means of a cliticization movement rule. Finally, we show that there is an asymmetry in the way object clitics are prosodically organized, depending on their position in relation to the verb. Being always a part of the phonological word of their verbal host, enclitics choose to incorporate to it whereas proclitics opt for prosodic adjunction.

While motion verbs in some languages display selectional restrictions for their spatial complements, motion verbs in other languages freely combine with any type of spatial complement. In the course of Greek history, two inter-related typological transitions take place: In Classical Greek, selectional restrictions emerge in the subcategorization frames of motion verbs as a result of reanalysis; in Post-Classical Greek, prepositions, cases, and adverbs abandon the distinction between static and dynamic spatial relations.

The Greek reciprocal expression o énas ton álon represents an interesting transitional stage in the development from a transparent spelling out of the reciprocal relation to a lexicalized reciprocal expression filling an argument position of transitive verbs. This is indicated by a number of morphosyntactic and semantic properties of the expression. The corresponding expressions in other languages undergo the same changes. We point at shared properties of the Greek reciprocal and its English, Spanish and Basque counterparts.

This paper examines the syntactic behavior of experiencer objects in Chinese, Korean, Turkish and Modern Greek. It is shown that, while in Modern Greek, experiencer objects differ from canonical direct objects, this is not the case in Chinese, Korean and Turkish. This difference is explained by the range of paradigmatic alternatives that are available in the respective languages for the coding of experiential situations.