Suffixation and the expression of time and space in modern Greek

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to comment on the headship status of evaluative affixes and, second, to propose a lexical-semantic approach to evaluative morphology with a focus on Greek diminutives. The proposed analysis militates against the idea that the derivation vs. inflection distinction should be identified with the head-nonhead asymmetry and, as a result, it cannot be maintained that the derivational status of Greek diminutives should render these affixes heads of their formations. As far as lexical semantics is concerned, the analysis allows one to elaborate upon the differences between the mechanisms of subordination of functions with and without indexation of arguments.

Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 2015

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)áz(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.

… Working Papers in …, 2009

This paper analyses first constituents of complex morphological structures with a vague status. More specifically, using data from Standard Modern Greek and its dialectal variation, we investigate the phonological, semantic and structural properties of so-/ sjo-, sa-, kso-, kalo-, kako-, kutso-, poli-, miso-and olo-and the role of these properties in the change of the elements' status. We argue that the characteristics under investigation can form a hierarchy of restrictions that could indicate the morphological status of each element within the morphological continuum (cf. . Among these, phonological change is a contributive factor, however not the one that could solely determine this change, while semantic shift is the one that activates transition from compounding to prefixation. Crucially, the transition from a less towards a more grammatical status seems to be determined on the basis of the structural relations established between the morphological elements of a formation.

Yearbook of Morphology, 1998

Morphology-syntax interface: AN compounds vs. AN constructs in Modern Greek* ANGELA RALLI AND MELITA STAVROU 1. INTRODUCTION The main object of this article is the description and the analysis of two-word combinations consisting of an inflected adjective and an ...

Transactions of the Philological Society, 123(1): 77-96, 2025

The research is a contribution to the investigation of the grammatical status of toponyms from the point of view of inflectional paradigmatic morphology. By examining data from Standard Modern Greek, as well as select data from its historical development, the analysis reveals that the inflectional morphology of toponyms shows significant differences not only from that of homonymous common nouns but also from certain categories of proper names, such as anthroponyms. Specifically, I conclude that (1) toponyms must have a tantum inflectional paradigm (either pluralia or singularia), and (2) they may present anti-defective phenomena in their paradigm when they are compared with common nouns and other proper names. In the broader framework of Canonical Morphology, I introduce the term anti-defectiveness to describe the second idiosyncratic property of toponyms: their capacity to circumvent the restrictions that lead to defective paradigms in other nouns of the same class.

This paper focuses on the semantics of Greek and English verb-forming suffixes. It will be illustrated that Modern Greek verb-forming suffixes exhibit more semantic categories than their English counterparts. Furthermore, it will be shown that not all semantic categories are equally possible for all Greek and English suffixes (cf. also and that certain semantic categories imply the presence of others. In addition, it will be argued that the semantics of verb-forming suffixes (in both languages under scrutiny) can offer evidence for proposing a Meaning Hierarchy, which predicts (a) that the order and availability of meanings of verb suffixation is not arbitrary, (b) that verbal suffixes share a core meaning, and (c) that some meanings (i.e. the performative, similative, etc. meanings) lie outside the core meaning (i.e. a causative, ornative, locative frame) of verb-forming suffixes.

SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics [online]. 2024, vol. 21, no. 2 , 2024

This paper explores the system of prefixes in Standard Modern Greek from both onomasiological and semasiological perspectives, aiming to uncover the complex connections between prefixes and specific semantic categories. It focuses on identifying the various types of semantic categories encoded through prefixation and analyzes their overall distribution within the prefixation system. Additionally, the study examines issues related to the heterogeneity of semantic categories and the polysemy of prefixes. It also investigates the interplay between semantic and lexical categories in prefixation, focusing on the heterocategorial combinations allowed and emphasizing the key role of meaning in word formation.

Patras Working Papers in linguistics Vol I, 2009

In this paper, we deal with the formation of agent nouns in Modern Greek. We present the formal and semantic properties of Greek masculine and feminine agent nouns and compare them to relevant cross-linguistic data. We argue that: a) both masculine and feminine agent suffixes are attached directly to verbal stems, b) masculine and feminine agent nouns should be considered as coderivatives and c) the feminine suffixes -tria and -tra are competing suffixes with overlapping domains. Moreover, we discuss some controversial issues related to agent noun formation, such as the formalization of cases that display co-occurrence of two derivational processes and the pragmatic restrictions imposed on agent noun coining. We make use of a Construction Morphology framework (Booij 20010), which handles agent noun formation adequately and offers interesting insights to Morphological Theory in general.

The aim of this paper is to examine the factors involved in Modern Greek verb forming processes. My evidence comes from the Modern Greek causative suffix -(η)άδσ [(i)ázo], which usually carries an evaluative connotation. After a presentation of the suffix in section 1, section 2 discusses various issues concerning the allomorphic variation of the suffix. Section 3 describes the principal meanings of -(η)άδσ verbs. Section 4 deals with the role of the meaning of the base in the creation of the meaning. Section 5 discusses the relation between the phonetic shape of the suffix and its evaluative meaning. In section 6, I discuss how the role of the word formation process and the rivalry with other suffixes influences the meaning and the productivity of -(η)άδσ. The last section briefly summarizes the main findings of the article.

I discuss the distribution of the suffixes -tos and -menos in Greek adjectival participles, and I propose that -tos is the default realization of the stativizing head Asp attaching at the root level (inner cycle) and -menos the default realization of Asp attaching above the little v head (outer cycle), following Embick's (2003) analysis of the distribution or 'regular' and 'irregular' participial morphology in English. However, particular roots are never listed fortos vs. -menos in the outer cycle in Greek, unlike English which has "irregular" participial morphology for specific roots in this cycle. I propose that this difference relates to the fact that root irregularity in Greek is systematically dependent on properties of Viewpoint Aspect, while root irregularity in English is dependent on the higher head Tense.