Towards a typological classification of modern greek

In the area of the Modern Greek verb, phenomena which consistently appear are headmarking, many potential slots before and/or after the verb root, noun and adverb incorporation, addition of adverbial elements by means of affixes, a large inventory of bound morphemes, verbal words as minimal sentences, etc. These features relate Modern Greek to polysynthesis. The main bulk of this paper is dedicated to the comparison of affixal and incorporation patterns between Modern Greek and the polysynthetic languages Abkhaz, Cayuga, Chukchi, Mohawk, and Nahuatl. Ultimately, a typological outlook for Modern Greek is proposed

Polysynthetic Tendencies in Modern Greek

The aim of this paper is to provide a more accurate typological classification of Modern Greek. The verb in MG shows many polysynthetic traits, such as noun and adverb incorporation into the verbal complex, a large inventory of bound morphemes, pronominal marking of objects, many potential slots before the verbal head, nonconfigurational syntax, etc. On the basis of these traits, MG has similarities with polysynthetic languages such as Abkhaz, Cayuga, Chukchi, Mohawk, Nahuatl, a.o. I will show that the abundance of similar patterns between MG and polysynthesis point to the evolution of a new system away from the traditional dependent-marking strategy and simple synthesis towards head-marking and polysynthesis. Finally, I will point to the risk of undertaking a direct comparison of different language systems by discussing the pronominal head-marking strategies in MG and the North American languages

Attitudinal compounds in English

This paper deals with the empirical validation of evaluative operations in English compounds first presented in Charitonidis (2014). The object of investigation are 103 English compounds expressing positive or negative stance, taken from Algeo's (1991) dictionary of neologisms. In the validation task, the valence (emotional positivity) ratings in Warriner, Kuperman and Brysbaert (2013) are used. The non-compositional patterns are explained with reference to the difference rate between the mean values of constituents and/or negative standard-deviation shifts in the evaluative heads

Verbalternationen und Verbspaltung im Neugriechischen

This paper deals with a group of five alternations for the Modern Greek verb in the syntactic frame NPi__NP for the active form and NP__ for the corresponding active or passive form. The alternations causative/auto, causative/reflexive, causative/reciprocal, causative/control, and passive participle are presented. It is shown how the interpretation of some of these alternations is influenced by the context. The second part deals with the splitting of the verbs kapnízo and potízo into homophonous lexical units and explains why the alternations component must be favoured in comparison to the conceptual structures and semantic fields component. The proposed model incorporates a version of Ray Jackendoff's conceptual structures

Greek -ízo Derivatives: A Conceptual Analysis

This paper deals with the semantic structures of the Event -ízo derivatives in Modern Greek, appearing in the syntactic frames NPi __ NP and NP __ . The present analysis incorporates a version of Ray Jackendoff's conceptual semantics (1983, 1990, 1992). Special attention is paid to the semantic under-determination of word-formation rules. Semantic fields, conceptual functions, formation rules, and mechanisms/rules involved in -ízo derivation are presented. A principled account of various ambiguous structures is also provided. In the last part, the conceptual structures in -ízo derivation are finally laid down and the question of keeping these structures minimal while extending the semantic fields is once more addressed

Context norms and multiword expressions:Revisiting John Sinclair’s attitudinal functions

This study deals with the attitudinal functions ‘difficulty’ and ‘reluctance/inability’ that, according to Sinclair (2004), are mapped onto word sequences containing the phrases naked eye and true feelings, respectively. The methods build on Snefjella Kuperman (2016) who proposed context norms for English words calculated on ratings of valence, arousal, and concreteness. 149 concordances for naked eye from the British National Corpus (BNC) and 2607 concordances for true feelings from the English Web Corpus (enTenTen15) were considered. Using the software R as a text-mining tool, values of context valence, arousal, and concreteness were computed. The binary logistic method was applied on deviant subclasses (stages). The results show that a categorical switch of attitudinal function occurs in true feelings alone, and only regarding context valence and concreteness

THE MORPHOLOGY-PRAGMATICS INTERFACE IN MODERN GREEK COMPOUNDING

This study deals with the morphology-pragmatics interface in Modern Greek compounding. The object of investigation are 64 compounds explicitly marked for stance. It is shown that the linking of denotational (semantic and/or categorial) and socio-expressive (pragmatic) heads defines the different classes of compounds in a highly restrictive manner. The threefold negative socio-expressive structure of the verbal derivatives in - (i) az(o) shows up in the compounds as well. It is concluded that, in both verbal derivation and compounding, the morphology-pragmatics interface recruits specific denotational structures for its expression

Semantic prosody of extended lexical units: A case study

Semantic prosody is typically referred to as an evaluative function of certain words or multiword items appearing within collocates of positive or negative meaning. The present study deals with the semantic prosody (context properties) of extended lexical units (ELUs) according to the psycholinguistic variables ‘valence’ (emotional positivity), ‘arousal’ (excitement, mood-enhancement), and ‘concreteness’. The object of investigation are the verbal phrases feel blue (unambiguous idiomatic ELU, without a literal counterpart) and see red (ambiguous ELU, idiomatic or literal). The study builds on Snefjella & Kuperman (2016) who propose context norms for English words on the basis of a USENET mega-corpus. For the detection of ELU representations, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted with speakers of American English. For the detection of the context values of ELUs, a corpus research was carried on by using the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the News on the Web corpus (NOW). The results suggest that ELU contexts largely conform to the averaged context norms of ELU constituents. ELU representations are strongly dissociated from contexts

"Παράλληλες" ζωές και χορευτικές παραδόσεις: Το ελληνικό táncház στην Ουγγαρία

Η παρουσία μιας μουσικοχορευτικής παράδοσης στο σύγχρονο αστικό πλαίσιο αποτελεί μια θεωρητική πρόκληση που αφορά στην έννοια του «παραδοσιακού» χορού και τις ποικίλες εκφάνσεις και λειτουργίες του. Εστιάζοντας στη ζωή της Ελληνικής μειονότητας στην πρωτεύουσα της Ουγγαρίας (Βουδαπέστη), παρατηρούμε τη διαμόρφωση, στη βάση διαφορετικών τοπικών παραδόσεων (των τόπων προέλευσης), μίας κοινής «υπερ-τοπικής» μουσικοχορευτικής παράδοσης τόσο σε «παραστασιακό» (presentational) όσο και σε «συμμετοχικό» (participatory) πλαίσιο (Nahachewsky, 1995). Σκοπός της έρευνας είναι η μελέτη της μουσικοχορευτικής παράδοσης των Ελλήνων (πολιτικών) προσφύγων στην Ουγγαρία, όπως αυτή διαμορφώθηκε στο δεύτερο μισό του 20ού αιώνα, όταν ο Εμφύλιος Πόλεμος είχε ως αποτέλεσμα τον εκπατρισμό ενός μεγάλου μέρους του πληθυσμού από τη Βόρεια κυρίως Ελλάδα προς χώρες της Ανατολικής Ευρώπης. Ξεχωριστό πεδίο εφαρμογής αυτής της πολιτισμικής «ζύμωσης» αποτέλεσε στα μέσα της δεκαετίας του 1970, η υιοθέτηση από τους Έλληνες της Ουγγαρίας του ουγγρικού μοντέλου του táncház (dance-house), μιας συγχρόνως ψυχαγωγικής και εκπαιδευτικής χορευτικής πρακτικής με ρίζες στη μουσικοχορευτική παράδοση της Τρανσυλβανίας. Χρησιμοποιώντας τα μεθοδολογικά εργαλεία της «νέας» αναστοχαστικής εθνογραφίας -συμμετοχική παρατήρηση, συνεντεύξεις και βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση, υπό το πρίσμα της «πυκνής περιγραφής» (Geertz, 2003)-, η έρευνα εστιάζει στο φαινόμενο του ελληνικού táncház, και διερευνά τον σύνθετο χαρακτήρα αυτής της έκφανσης του «ελληνικού παραδοσιακού χορού» μακριά από τον τόπο καταγωγής του. Από την ανάλυση των εθνογραφικών δεδομένων, αναδεικνύονται οι διαφορετικές «υπάρξεις» (existences) της χορευτικής παράδοσης των Ελλήνων της Ουγγαρίας, υπό το θεωρητικό πρίσμα της διχοτόμησης μεταξύ «πρώτης» και «δεύτερης ύπαρξης» του παραδοσιακού χορού (Hoerburger, 1965, 1968). Συμπερασματικά, στο παράδειγμα του ελληνικού táncház, η έρευνα τεκμηριώνει έναν «ενδιάμεσο» χώρο, ένα σημείο συνάντησης και «συν-ύπαρξης» (co-existence) χαρακτηριστικών των δύο παραπάνω θεωρητικά αντιτιθέμενων εννοιών, σε επίπεδο «φορέων», τρόπου βίωσης ή ανα-βίωσης, τρόπου εκμάθησης/ενσωμάτωσης και χαρακτηριστικών γνωρισμάτων του ίδιου του χορού ή του «χορεύειν».The presence of a dance culture in the contemporary urban context forms a great theoretical challenge regarding the concept of “folk/traditional” dance and its various aspects or functions. Focusing on the life of the Greek minority in the capital city of Hungary (Budapest), we realize the formation of a common “supra-local” dance tradition -both in “participatory” and “presentational” contexts (Nahachewsky, 1995)- based on different local traditions (according to the place of origin). The aim of the research is to study the dance culture of the Greek (political) refugees in Hungary, revealing the way it was configured during the second half of the 20th century, when the Civil War resulted in the expatriation of a large part of the population -mainly originating from North Greece- to countries of East Europe. During the middle of 1970s, the adaptation of the Hungarian dance-house (táncház) model -a simultaneously recreational and educational dance practice originating from Transylvanian dance culture- by the Greek population in Hungary, constituted an individual scope of this cultural “fermentation”. Using the methodological tools of “new” reflexive anthropology -participatory observation, interviews and literature review, in the light of “thick description” (Geertz, 2003)-, the research focuses on the phenomenon of the Greek dance-house and investigates the complex nature of this peculiar aspect of “Greek traditional dance”, far away from its place of origin. The analysis of the ethnographic data through Hoerburger’s (1965, 1968) conceptual dichotomy of “first” and “second existence”, highlights the diverse “existences” of Greek traditional dance in Hungary. Consequently, considering the “bearers”, the way of (re-)living, learning or incorporating and the features of the dance or dancing, the research documents upon the example of Greek dance-house, an “in-between” area, a “common ground” where characteristics from both opposing theoretical concepts “co-exist”