1,721,003 research outputs found
Innovation in inflectional paradigms: the Greek imparisyllabic plurals between allomorphy and overabundance
Get PDFThis paper takes into account the issue of the imparisyllabic plurals of Modern Greek as a case of allomorphy and compares it with the situation observed in earlier linguistic stages of Greek, where the imparisyllabic plural forms coexist with imparisyllabic ones, thus resulting in a situation of morphological overabundance. In the first place, the status of MG imparisyllabic plurals as an instance of allomorphy is assessed and briefly discussed in the light of some recent contributions on the topic. Then, the paper focuses on the diachronic development of imparisyllabic plurals in the history of Greek, particularly in the Medieval and Early Modern phases, whereby some instances of coexistence of competing plural stems is framed as a case of morphological overabundance. Finally, the diachronic development observed in Greek from a situation of overabundance to one of allomorphy is discussed and some provisional conclusions on the relationship between the two phenomena are drawn
L’influenza dell’opera di Saussure ‘linguista storico’ nella riflessione di Saussure ‘linguista generale’
No full textNella lunga tradizione di esegesi dell’opera saussuriana, è unanimemente riconosciuto che la proiezione di Saussure verso la descrizione dei meccanismi di funzionamento del linguaggio, documentata dal Cours e dagli altri scritti di carattere generale, ebbe un’influenza profonda sul suo modo di analizzare e di presentare i dati delle lingue storiche che costituivano l’oggetto privilegiato dei suoi studi (nonché l’unico oggetto dei suoi studi pubblicati). Meno indagata è, invece, la dinamica di segno opposto, ovvero come la consuetudine con l’analisi storico-comparativa delle lingue indoeuropee (e con il processo di ricostruzione linguistica, per Saussure corollario imprescindibile della comparazione) ha influito sulla teoresi saussuriana sul linguaggio. Pure, se si dà credito all’affermazione di Saussure contenuta in una celebre lettera ad Antoine Meillet (pubblicata in BENVENISTE 1964), secondo cui la necessità di mostrare “quelle espèce d’objet est la langue en général” era subordinata al “plaisir historique” dato dall’indagine sui dati delle lingue indoeuropee, è lecito attendersi che la riflessione generale di Saussure sul linguaggio sia stata parimenti influenzata e stimolata dalla sua attività di linguista storico-comparativo. Seguendo questo filo conduttore e rimarcando la profonda unitarietà del pensiero linguistico saussuriano, la comunicazione indagherà e discuterà alcune possibili ‘tracce’ di questa influenza così come emergono nella trattazione di aspetti generali del linguaggio da parte di Saussure
Giovanna Marotta, Francesca Strik Lievers (a c. di), Strutture linguistiche e dati empirici in diacronia e sincronia, Pisa, Pisa University Press (“Studi Linguistici Pisani” 8), 2017, 268 pp.
No full textRobert S. P. Beekes, with the assistance of Lucien Van Beek, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2010
No full textRoots and Word Classes between Indo-European Reconstruction and Greek Historical Evidence: Some Insights from Nominal Composition
Get PDFThe process of nominal composition is very widespread in ancient Indo-European languages, which often show an extremely high degree of morphological complexity. By taking into account some peculiarities about the relationship between agent nouns, action nouns and compounding in Ancient Greek, this paper argues that the morphological process of nominal composition closely reflects the ongoing evolution of the system of word classes in this language from an archaic phase, where the boundaries between classes were more blurred, to one that is characterised by a more clear-cut differentiation within the lexicon
On Greek -ωρ Nouns
No full textThe communication will focus on Greek nouns ending in -ωρ, excluding agent nouns in -τωρ and compounds of the type εὐήνωρ. The first part of the communication will be devoted to a preliminary survey of the Greek forms ending in -ωρ, aimed at distinguishing the basic core of -ωρ nouns from other kind of formations, which only by chance came to acquire such a phonological form. The second part of the communication will concentrate on the role and status of -ωρ nouns within Ancient Greek lexicon. It is widely known that these nouns make up a very ancient and recesseive noun class, which basically continues Indo-European neuter -ōr nouns with heteroclitic inflection; however, it will be shown that this class had an (albeit very restricted) productivity in early phases of the history of Greek and that its members maintained a relative internal cohesion, based on three parameters: neuter gender, heteroclitic inflection, and 'collective' meaning
ΠΟΛΥΜΗΤΙΣ : Mélanges en l’honneur de Françoise Bader, textes réunis par Alain Blanc, Laurent Dubois et Charles de Lamberterie, avec la collaboration d’Isabelle Boehm, Jean Hadas-Lebel et Bruno Helly, Leuven-Paris, Peeters, 2012
Get PDFScheda bibliografica del volume di studi in onore di Françoise Bader
Ἐν πολυμήλῳ (πολυμάλῳ?)Σικελίᾳ : nota su una controversa lezione pindarica (Ol. 1.12)
Get PDFThis paper deals with a philological problem in Pindar’s first Olympic. At verse 12 most manuscripts read ἐν πολυμάλῳ Σικελίᾳ “in Sicily rich in fruits”, while the variant πολυμήλῳ “rich in sheep” appears only in three manuscripts. Though philological at first glance, the problem is dealt with from a linguistic perspective. After a brief survey of the most important views on this topic, an analysis of the main linguistic features is proposed, focusing on phonological, morphological, semantic and lexical aspects. As a result, it is shown that some of the arguments which are traditionally used to support the reading πολυμάλῳ are in fact insubstantial. In conclusion, even though a final solution to this philological problem will perhaps never be found, it is argued that the reading πολυμήλῳ is at least as probable as the reading πολυμάλῳ
Towards a database of Homeric nominal compounds
No full textIn the study of Ancient Greek language the classification and analysis of compounds is a challenging matter.
In particular, Homeric language provides us with a very ancient and problematic corpus of compounds, as it comprises items that date back to different stages of formation and often show peculiarities due to the artificial character of epic poetry.
Within this framework, an interesting possibility is to create a digital database of the Homeric compounds, that on the one hand paves the way to deepen our knowledge of compounds in Greek and of the process of compounding in general, and on the other hand provides a useful analysis tool for both linguists and philologists.
This database, currently under development by us, will first of all list all the compounds occurring in the Homeric texts, along with their principal meanings. Then, the database will provide the reader with information about the lexical and morphological status of both the compound (compositional and lexical category) and its members (lexical category and etymology). To offer exhaustive information for each compound, all its occurrences in the texts will be listed (possibly with links to online corpora), together with the most relevant bibliographical references.
Moreover, since Homeric compounds are often found in later stages of the development of Ancient Greek, the research will investigate whether semantic shifts took place in diachrony, and what kind of them.
At the present stage of research, we have arranged the material as raw data in a MS Excel chart. For the construction of an online database, a preliminary study is to be done on the dependency relationships between the various fields of the db, since the structure of a relational db fits more our needs. So far, we have listed all the compounds in the Homeric corpus (ca. 1700 items) with the indication on the form of their First Members (FM) and Second Members (SM), alongside with a provisional hypothesis of classification.
The major issues with the elaboration of the db involve the adequate account of the frequent allomorphy of both FM and SM and the fact that in some cases a compound may be listed under two different classes.
Moreover, it is worthwhile to note that the goal of our db is not to do the linguistic analysis,. The latter is indeed a linguist’s task, given that the analysis necessarily implies a thorough survey of the occurrences of the compounds in the texts. As a consequence, our aim is to make the data available in the most clear way, after their manual upload by the linguist.
This tool will therefore allow for comparative analyses and cross queries and thus will help the user easily pinpoint similarities and differences between compounds sharing common features.
As a final remark, the classification of the compounds will imply reflecting on what classification criteria to propose. To this extent, the project of this digital database of Homeric compounds is conceived of as part of a wider research on composition in its general issues, not only in Greek but possibly in other ancient Indo-European languages
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