But there's a far simpler explanation of the data that does not need Porter's overwrought prominence model.
Accents matter.
Take the time to learn Greek accents. Just at a basic level of grammar, the nature of Greek propositions is predicated on its accentual system: the move from old/assumed topic to new/asserted focus wholly relies upon accentuation. If you don't learn accents, then you don't learn the basic language internal structure for interpreting and understanding... Continue Reading →
Prepositional phrases with indefinite NP’s
The question was asked on Facebook about what principles might motivate the occurrence of indefinite noun phrases to take prepositional phrases. It's a good question. Prepositions phrases tend be restrictive when they occur in noun phrases just like other NP modifiers. But they certainly can still be descriptive, too. I ran a quick and dirty... Continue Reading →
Passing grammar notes: Negation scope
Narrow negation, where scope of negation falls on an argument or adjunct rather than on the entire proposition can be marked by the syntactic position of the negator, as in John 12:9: καὶ ἦλθον οὐ διὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν μόνον, ἀλλʼ ἵνα καὶ τὸν Λάζαρον ἴδωσιν ὃν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν. Another example is John 12:30, where the negator with... Continue Reading →
Mark Janse , “Cappadocian Clitics and the Syntax-Morphology Interface”
Mark Janse , “Cappadocian Clitics and the Syntax-Morphology Interface.” Pages 257-281. In Themes in Greek Linguistics II. Edited by Brian D. Joseph, Geoffrey Horrocks, and Irene Philippaki-Warburton. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1998. Mark Janse is a descriptive linguist focusing on Greek dialectology with a particular interests in dialectology, non-standard Greek dialects, and Greek historical linguistics. He... Continue Reading →
Cristofaro (2008) constructionist approach to complementation
Cristofaro, Sonia (2008). A constructionist approach to complementation: Evidence from Ancient Greek. Linguistics 46.3: 571–606. DOI: 10.1515/LING.2008.019 Cristofaro argues against the notion that the meaning of a sentence with complement clause can be view as arising from the lexical entry of verb of the matrix clause by itself. Rather, complement clauses provide their own contribution... Continue Reading →
Deixis, Reference, & Left Dislocation in 4 Baruch 8.3
I encountered this bit of interesting Greek in 4 Baruch 8.2-3: καὶ ἐρεῖς τῷ λαῷ· Ὁ θέλων τὸν κύριον καταλειψάτω τὰ ἔργα τῆς Βαβυλῶνος. 3 καὶ τοὺς ἄρρενας τοὺς λαβόντας ἐξ αὐτῶν γυναῖκας, καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας τὰς λαβούσας ἐξ αὐτῶν ἄνδρας, διαπεράσωσιν οἱ ἀκούοντές σου, καὶ ἆρον αὐτοὺς εἰς Ἰερουσαλήμ· τοὺς δὲ μὴ ἀκούοντάς σου,... Continue Reading →
Fun Data Points in Greek
A presentational/thetic clause with an indefinite null subject: καὶ ἐξῆλθον ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερέων ἐκ τῶν ἁγίων καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων τοῦ λαοῦ ἀσπάσασθαι αὐτὸν εἰρηνικῶς καὶ δεῖξαι αὐτῷ τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν τὴν προσφερομένην ὑπὲρ τοῦ βασιλέως (1 Macc 7:33). This could either be translated: "There came out [some people] from the priests from the holy place and... Continue Reading →
A note on Lambrecht (1994) on sentence accents
In working on research for an article I’m in the process of cleaning up for publication, I have been working through a variety of texts that deal with the interface between intonation and information structure. Lambrecht (1994) is one of the more useful volumes on that regard and requires a close reading. What follows are... Continue Reading →
