Syntactic Doubling and the Structure of Chains

A recent survey of 267 dialects of Dutch (SAND; Barbiers et al. 2005) provides 6 cases of doubling in syntactic chains

Easily in the Middle*

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the nature of adverbial modification in Germanic middles. I present new arguments against semantic/pragmatic accounts and in favour of a ‘structural’ approach: the adverb is required in languages that lack a syntactically represented Agent in order for the latter to be recoverable via identification with the adverb’s Experiencer/Benefactor. This enables us to make sense of the fact that French and Greek middles do not require adverbial modification: these are languages, whose middles have a syntactically active Agent, and hence do not require adverbial modification as a means of recovering it

Marking definiteness multiply: evidence from two varieties of Greek

Θέμα της μελέτης μας είναι οι πολυοριστικές δομές σε δύο νεοελληνικές ποικιλίες, την πρότυπη ελληνική (ΠΕ) και την καππαδοκική διάλεκτο (ΚΕ). Παρά την επιφανειακή ομοιότητα, οι δομές αυτές διαφέρουν ως προς τις συντακτικές και σημασιολογικές τους ιδιότητες. Για την ΠΕ υιοθετούμε την ανάλυση των Lekakou & Szendrői (2007, 2009, 2012, 2013), σύμφωνα με την οποία οι πολυοριστικές δομές είναι ένα είδος ονοματικής επεξήγησης, με την ιδιαιτερότητα ότι περιέχουν δομή ονοματικής απαλοιφής (noun ellipsis). Στην ΚΕ, η υποχρεωτική φύση του φαινομένου μας οδηγεί στην πρόταση ότι πρόκειται για ένα είδος μορφοσυντακτικής συμφωνίας. Συγκεκριμένα, τα άρθρα που συνοδεύουν το επίθετο είναι δείκτες ονοματικής συμφωνίας ως προς την οριστικότητα και προκύπτουν μετα-συντακτικά, στο θεωρητικό πλαίσιο της Κατανεμημένης Μορφολογίας. Υποστηρίζουμε ότι μια ενιαία ανάλυση της οριστικότητας στις δύο ποικιλίες είναι εφικτή, εφόσον δεχτούμε ότι σημασιολογική οριστικικότητα δεν εκφράζει κανένα από τα εκπεφρασμένα άρθρα, αλλά ένας φωνολογικά κενός τελεστής

In the middle, somewhat elevated: The semantics of middles and its crosslinguistic realizations

This study explores the ways in which the semantics of personal middle construc tions is encoded across languages. In Dutch, German and English, middles are syntactically unergative and the implicit Agent is syntactically inert. In Greek and French, middles are syntactically indistinguishable from generic passives: they exhibit a derived subject and a syntactically represented Agent. What unites the two types of middle is the interpretation they receive. The cross-linguistic variation invites the following question: what determines the choice of structure employed to convey the middle interpretation Any attempt to address this question requires a characterization of the mid dle interpretation itself. I make the following novel proposal: middles ascribe a dispositional property to the understood object. Disposition ascriptions are subject-oriented generic sentences. The core properties that middles share across languages follow: the genericity of an otherwise eventive predicate the promotion to subject position by syntactic movement or base-generation, and the interpre tation of the otherwise internal argument: the demotion and interpretation of the otherwise external argument. The crosslinguistic variation relates to the following two factors. First, the different means available to languages to encode genericity distinguishes between unergative and imaccusative middles. Unaccusative middles obtain in languages like French and Greek, which encode genericity in the morphosyntax in the form of imperfective aspect . Languages where genericity is not expressed by aspectual morphology, i.e. German. Dutch and English, employ unergative structures. An additional factor at play within Germanic is the nature of the anaphoric system. I attribute the illicit ness of zich in middles to the nature of the Dutch reflexive paradigm, which includes a complex anaphor, zichzelf. In the absence of a com plex anaphor in German, sich can function as an argument but also as a marker of valency reduction its occurence in middles is expected. The approach makes predictions for other structures besides middles and other Germanic languages, such as Afrikaans and Frisian

Impersonal middles in German

We develop an analysis of impersonal middles in German which capitalizes on the observed similarities between personal and impersonal middles, and on Lekakou’s (2005) treatment of the former as disposition ascriptions. We argue that the disposition in impersonal middles is ascribed to an event(uality), rather than an event participant. The non-omissible ‘it’ subject pronoun functions as the syntactic and semantic subject. We further propose that the pronoun refers to the event denoted by the verbal predicate by virtue of taking as its associate the vP. The additional modifier is required for pragmatic reasons, namely in order to restrict the generalization made

The identity of the Greek seafarer’s wife. Attitudes and perceptions towards the seafaring profession. The case of Chios Island.

Greece is the dominant force in global shipping and the Greek-owned fleet represents 54,28% of the European Union (EU) fleet in dwt and almost 20% of the world fleet in dwt. Even though there have been many studies for the Greek seafarers, there are no studies for the contribution of the seafarers’ wives to the so-called “Greek shipping miracle”. The purpose of this research is to record and highlight the social profile and the aspects of the daily life of the Greek seafarers’ wives. Furthermore, the research aims to shed light on the attitudes and perceptions of seafarer’s wives towards the seafaring profession. 145 wives of active seafarers, from Chios Island, filled out questionnaires specially made for the purposes of this research. Additionally, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted, in order to analyze and clarify some important findings that were obtained from the completion of the questionnaires

Polydefinites in Greek: Ellipsis, close apposition and expletive determiners

Greek polydefinites are cases of adjectival modification where the adjective features its own definite determiner. We propose an account of the phenomenon that treats it as an instance of close apposition. Like close appositives, polydefinites in Greek instantiate multiple definite determiners, display a freedom in word order, and involve a restrictive interpretation. We propose that close apposition in Greek forms a complex DP out of two DPs which are in a sisterhood relationship through identification of the Referential roles within the DPs. This operation, semantically tantamount to set intersection, is constrained to apply only when the resulting set is not co-extensive with either initial set. This ensures the restrictive interpretation of one DP over the other. The fact that in polydefinites, it is always the DP containing the adjective that obligatorily satisfies the constraint has to do with the presence of noun ellipsis within that DP: (noun) ellipsis is known to come with a disanaphora requirement. We show that noun ellipsis is also responsible for the distribution of adjectives and adjective interpretations, as well as those discourse effects of polydefinites that have been thought of as the result of a DP-internal Focus projection. Finally, we make a proposal for the encoding of definiteness in Greek, consonant both with the existence of polydefinites in the language and with the prerequisite for set intersection among DPs: the overtly realized Greek definite determiner does not itself contribute an iota operator but preserves the denotation at the DP level. Our proposal thus deals not only with the multiple occurrence of definite determiners in a construction that picks out a single discourse referent, but also with the compositionality problem that such a situation gives rise to. In the final part we tie the cross-linguistic (un)availability of expletive determiners of the Greek type to the (un)availability of morphologically realized case

Liberalization assessment: The Greek cruise market

More than thirty years, after the metamorphosis of the cruise industry from an expensive type of vacation for the elite to an affordable alternative for the mass market, cruise shipping records high rates of growth. The Greek cruise market has been liberalized since 1999, when the Regulation of the European Commission 3577/92 came into force, allowing cruise ships flying European flags to operate in Greek waters and to use national ports as homeports. Restrictions were in force only for the non EU flagged cruise ships until 2010, when the Greek Government voted the National Law 3872/2010, which liberalized the market. Until the 1990s Greek companies were pioneers and very active in the international market. However, lately the shrinking of the Greek market is observed. Today, there is only one Greek Cypriot company with just two vessels under the Greek flag. At the same time Greece, according to the European Cruise Council (ECC, 2011) data, is among the top three most popular European destinations. The paradox is that only a slight percentage of cruise companies select Greek ports for home porting. The paper gives an overview of the Greek cruise industry, the cruise cabotage reform, focusing especially on the process and the different opinions expressed by the stakeholders. In addition, the process of deregulation and its potential impacts is evaluated from stakeholders’ viewpoint, particularly the effect on retaining and attracting cruise vessels under the Greek flag in the context of a national cruise policy