Melita Stavrou

A. Alexiadou

G.C. Horrocks

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.

Studies in Greek Syntax

Arhonto Terzi

This collection of original research focuses on various lesser studied aspects of Greek syntax. The articles combine a sound empirical coverage within current developments of generative theory and cover a wide spectrum of areas. The syntax of sentential structure is dealt with by two articles, one is an extensive analysis of the distribution of goal and beneficiary dative DPs in Greek (and cross-linguistically) and the other addresses the relation agree in small clauses (and between adjectives and nouns). Two articles study the acquisition of the left periphery and of eventivity and one focuses on the historical evolution of participles in Greek, out of which gerunds emerged. The syntax and semantics of wh-clauses in DP positions and of the non-volitional verb ?elo are the focus of two articles situated in the syntaxsemantics interface. The DP domain is approached by two theoretical articles, one on a Greek possessive adjective and another on determiner heads. The final contribution studies the acquisition of the Greek definite article.

In Honor of Dimitra Theophanopoulou-Kontou

Advances in Greek Generative Syntax

Artemis Alexiadou

Liliane Haegeman

The goal of this book is twofold. On the one hand we want to offer a discussion of some of the more important properties of the nominal projection, on the other hand we want to provide the reader with tools for syntactic analysis which apply to the structure of DP but which are also relevant for other domains of syntax. In order to achieve this dual goal we will discuss phenomena which are related to the nominal projection in relation to other syntactic phenomena (e.g. pro drop will be related to N-ellipsis, the classification of pronouns will be applied to the syntax of possessive pronouns, N-movement will be compared to V-movement, the syntax of the genitive construction will be related to that of predicate inversion etc.). In the various chapters we will show how recent theoretical proposals (distributed morphology, anti-symmetry, checking theory) can cast light on aspects of the syntax of the NP. When necessary, we will provide a brief introduction of these theoretical proposals. We will also indicate problems with these analyses, whether they be inherent to the theories as such (e.g. what is the trigger for movement in antisymmetric approaches) or to the particular instantiations. The book cannot and will not provide the definitive analysis of the syntax of noun phrases. We consider that this would not be possible, given the current flux in generative syntax, with many new theoretical proposals being developed and explored, but the book aims at giving the reader the tools with which to conduct research and to evaluate proposals in the literature. In the discussion of various issues, we will apply the framework that is most adequate to deal with problems at hand. We will therefore not necessarily use the same approach throughout the discussion. Though proposals in the literature will be referred to when relevant, we cannot attempt to provide a critical survey of the literature. We feel that such a survey would be guided too strongly by theoretical choices, which would not be compatible with the pedagogical purposes this book has. The book is comparative in its approach, and data from different languages will be examined, including English, German, Dutch (West-Flemish), Greek, Romance, Semitic, Slavic, Albanian, Hungarian, Gungbe.

Melita Stavrou

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