Headedness in diminutive formation: Evidence from Modern Greek and its dialectal variation

The paper deals with the notion of headedness, as applied to dimutive suffixation. Following evidence from Modern Greek and its dialects, we propose that diminutive suffixes are heads of their constructions on the basis of certain criteria. First, the inflectional paradigms of a number of diminutive formations show irregularities and gaps that are not justified by the inflectional behavior of the base. Second, diminutive suffixes may change a semantic feature of the base, specialize its meaning, and transmit to the formation the morphosyntactic features of gender and inflection class. Moreover, they are subject to subcategorization and selectional criteria, as opposed to inflectional markers, the distribution of which is more or less free. Assuming that headedness characterizes derivational suffixes, but not the inflectional ones, we demonstrate that Modern Greek diminution belongs to the derivational domain

Elements with ambiguous morphological status: The marker -idz(o) in Griko

In this paper, we examine some verbal formations with the element -idz(o) in Griko, a Greek-based dialect spoken in South Italy, and argue that -idz(o) has an ambiguous morphological status. We show that in some formations idz(o) seems to have undergone a change from a prototypical derivational suffix to a simple inflection-class indicator. We also propose that this change is triggered by a tendency of the Griko verbal system to level its inflection classes and provide evidence for a grammaticalization case affecting derivational material

Preface

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Asia Minor Greek: Towards a Computational Processing

AbstractIn this paper, we discuss issues concerning the computational aspect of an on-going research project which aims at providing a systematic study of three Greek dialects of Asia Minor (“Pontus, Cappadocia, Aivali: In search of Asia Minor Greek”- AmiGre) In fact, the project constitutes the first attempt to describe dialectal phenomena at a phonological, morphological, and structural level. Furthermore, it also constitutes the first attempt in Greece to combine Informatics and Theoretical Lin- guistics in order to facilitate the above-mentioned task. The aim here is to provide the design principles of the computational component of the project namely, an electronic dictionary and a multimedia database which would provide an innovative mechanism of storing, processing and retrieving oral and written dialectal data

Further investigations into the nature of phrasal compounding

This collection of papers on phrasal compounding is part of a bigger project whose aims are twofold: First, it seeks to broaden the typological perspective by providing data for as many different languages as possible to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon itself. Second, based on these data which clearly show interaction between syntax and morphology it aims to discuss theoretical models which deal with this kind of interaction in different ways. Models like Generative Grammar assume components of grammar and a clear-cut distinction between the lexicon (often including morphology) and grammar. Other models, like construction grammar, do not assume such components and are rather based on a lexicon including constructs. A comparison of these models on the basis of this phenomenon on the morphology-syntax interface makes it possible to assess their descriptive and explanatory power

Further investigations into the nature of phrasal compounding

This collection of papers on phrasal compounding is part of a bigger project whose aims are twofold: First, it seeks to broaden the typological perspective by providing data for as many different languages as possible to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon itself. Second, based on these data which clearly show interaction between syntax and morphology it aims to discuss theoretical models which deal with this kind of interaction in different ways. Models like Generative Grammar assume components of grammar and a clear-cut distinction between the lexicon (often including morphology) and grammar. Other models, like construction grammar, do not assume such components and are rather based on a lexicon including constructs. A comparison of these models on the basis of this phenomenon on the morphology-syntax interface makes it possible to assess their descriptive and explanatory power