Clitics in Greek


Book Description

This monograph investigates the morpho-syntactic and other properties of clitic pronouns in Greek and offers a grammar of proclisis and enclisis in light of Chomsky s (1995, 2001a, 2005) Minimalist Program. It explores the nature of clitics as syntactic topicalizers which are probed by structurally higher verbal heads to which they move and into which they incorporate morpho-syntactically. A theory is advanced according to which cliticization derives from syntactic agreement between (the phi-features of) a clitic pronoun and a phase head, v* in the case of proclisis and CM in the case of enclisis. Incorporation of the clitic into its host is argued to depend on two factors, i.e. the fact that the clitic only contains a subset of the features of its host, and the fact that the edge of the host is accessible. Also, the syntax of strong pronouns and their relation to clitics, of negated imperatives, of surrogate imperatives and of free clitic ordering in Greek enclisis are also discussed. This monograph would appeal to syntacticians and morphologists as well as to those interested in Greek and more generally in clitic syntax."




Clitics in Phonology, Morphology and Syntax


Book Description

This book contains fourteen articles that reflect current ideas on the phonology, morphology, and syntax of clitics. It covers the forms and functions of clitics in various typologically diverse languages and presents data from, e.g. European Portuguese, Macedonian, and Yoruba. It extensively deals with the prosodic structure of clitics, their morphological status, clitic placement, and clitic doubling. The form and behavior of clitics with respect to tonal phenomena and in verse are discussed in two articles (Akinlabi & Liberman, Reindl & Franks). Other articles address the prosodic representation of clitics in Irish (Green), the differences in the acquisition of clitics and strong pronouns in Catalan (Escobar & Gavarro), the similarities between clitics and affixes or words in Romance and Bantu languages (Cocchi, Crysmann, Monachesi, Ortman & Popescu), the semantics of clitics in the Greek DP and in Spanish doubling (Alexiadou & Stavrou, Uriagereka), and complex problems concerning verbal clitics in Romanian and Balkan languages (Legendre, Spencer, Tomic).




Variation and Morphosyntactic Change in Greek


Book Description

An alternative approach launched from a diachronic perspective is proposed and its implications for our understanding of the nature of language change, the status of clitics in morphology, and the role of generalizations in linguistic explanation are discussed."--BOOK JACKET.




Clitic Phenomena in European Languages


Book Description

This book is concerned with a number of central issues in the theory of clitics, a topic that has become much debated in recent years. Mainly written within a recent generative framework, its contrastive approach discusses these issues against the background of a number of European languages, among which the Balkan Slavic languages figure prominently. The question as to whether clitics are to be located in the syntax or in the phonology or in both is addressed in articles by Boškovi?, Progovac and Franks, who also provides a thorough introductory essay to the volume. There are detailed studies on clitic behavior in Greek relative clauses (Alexiadou and Anagnostopolou), Bulgarian and English DPs (Dimitrova-Vulchanova), the various Romance languages (Franco), Slovene (Golden and Milojevi? Sheppard), Albanian and Greek (Kallulli) and Macedonian (Tomi?). Finally, the book contains a discourse-related description of clitic doubling in Balkan Slavic languages (Schick). The book should be of interest to any scholar, theoretical or descriptive, whose research touches upon the central phenomenon of cliticisation.




Classical Greek Syntax


Book Description

In Classical Greek Syntax: Wackernagel's Law in Herodotus, David Goldstein offers the first theoretically-informed study of second-position clitics in Ancient Greek and challenges the long-standing belief that Greek word order is ‟free” or beyond the reach of systematic analysis. On the basis of Herodotus’ Histories, he demonstrates that there are in fact systematic correspondences between clause structure and meaning. Crucial to this new model of the Greek clause is Wackernagel’s Law, the generalization that enclitics and postpositives occur in ‟second position,” as these classes of words provide a stable anchor for analyzing sentence structure. The results of this work not only restore word order as an interpretive dimension of Greek texts, but also provide a framework for the investigation of other areas of syntax in Greek, as well as archaic Indo-European more broadly.




Studies in Greek Syntax


Book Description

This volume contains thirteen studies on various aspects of Greek syntax, as well as a general introduction by the editors. In recent years, the study of Greek has become important for the development of generative theory. The various contributions to this volume demonstrate clearly how much the field of Greek syntax has grown both in range and depth. The topics investigated include the phrase structure of clauses and nominal phrases, clitics in standard Greek and in dialects, the licensing of negative polarity items, the nature of sentential operators, control, argument structure and compounds. The studies highlight the importance of Greek for the development of a satisfactory theory of comparative syntax.




Clitics in the Languages of Europe


Book Description

The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.




Clitic and Affix Combinations


Book Description

In this volume, the relationship between clitics and affixes and their combinatorial properties has led to a serious discussion of the interface between syntax, morphology, semantics, and phonology that draws on a variety of theoretical perspectives (e.g., HPSG , Optimality Theory, Minimalism). Clitic/affix phenomena provide a rich range of data, not only for the identification of an affix vs. clitic, but also for the best way to explain ordering constraints, some of which are contradictory. A range of languages are considered, including Romance and Slavic languages, as well as Turkish, Greek, Icelandic, Korean, and Passamaquoddy. Moreover, several articles consider dialectal microparameterization, notably in Spanish, French, and Occitan. This volume thus reflects current debate on issues such as clitic ordering constraints, the relationship of clitics to inalienable possession and the left periphery, and templatic approaches to affixes vs. clitics while examining a broad range of languages.




On the Placement and Morphology of Clitics


Book Description

Using data from a variety of languages, this book investigates the place of clitics in the theory of language structure, and their implications for the relationships between syntax, morphology and phonology. It is argued that the least powerful theory of language requires us to recognise at least two classes of clitics, one with the syntax of independent phrases and the other with the syntax of inflectional affixes. It is also argued that prosodic conditions may influence the surface position of clitics beyond what may be accomplished by filtering potential syntactic structures. Finally, the relationship between syntactic, morphological, and phonological constituents within wordlike elements is explored.




Themes in Greek Linguistics


Book Description

This volume brings together 65 papers which were presented at this Conference, the aim of which was to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas between scholars with expertise in various aspects of the Greek language. For this reason the volume contains the majority of the contributions. It should provide the linguistic community with a comprehensive work presenting the state-of-the-art in Greek Linguistics and covering a wide multidisciplinary spectrum of current research. The papers are organised into six sections. Section I contains the papers of the four invited speakers. George Babiniotis discusses the contribution of linguistic theory to the teaching of Greek, Dimitra Theophanopoulou-Kontou and Angeliki Malikouti-Drachman each present an overview of the relevance of, respectively, syntactic and phonological theories to Greek, and Brian D. Joseph explores a specific theoretical issue, the pro-drop parameter. Section II brings together papers on syntax, semantics and pragmatics which examine theoretical and descriptive issues within current models such as Principles & Parameters, HPSG, Relevance Theory and others. Section III covers phonology and phonetics and also presents research on theoretical issues such as government phonology, the phonology-morphology interface, as well as descriptive issues including the instrumental investigation of selected phonetic phenomena. Section IV covers discourse and style and deals with spoken and written discourse including miscommunication, metaphor and issues on politeness. Section V on variations and extensions consists of papers on Ancient and Modern Greek dialects such as Macedonian, Cypriot, and Pontic, as well as issues on social and geographical varieties, diglossia and language acquisition. Section VI presents papers relating to the use of computers for the analysis, translation and teaching of Greek. Finally, an index of authors, languages and main key words completes the volume.