Chapter published in:
Contrastive Studies in Verbal ValencyEdited by Lars Hellan, Andrej L. Malchukov and Michela Cennamo
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 237] 2017
► pp. 298–325
Between Passive and Middle
Evidence from Greek and beyond
Leonid Kulikov | Ghent University
Nikolaos Lavidas | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
This paper focuses on verbs that can appear with two non-active voice morphologies in Greek. The starting point of the study is a comparison to the Vedic verbs that can also have two different, though formally related, non-active morphologies. In Vedic, these belong to the semantic class of verbs denoting decay and destruction as well as some other spontaneous processes. On the contrary, in Greek, there is a tendency for verbs that participate in causative-anticausative alternations to appear with both middle and passive voice morphology (for instance: ‘unbind sth. – be unbound’; ‘cause to lean – lean’). It will be argued that these verbal classes demonstrate a diachronic tendency for change in their voice marking, which often results in the emergence of lability (that is, the same morphological marking for both transitive and intransitive uses). We will also show that the diachrony of Greek displays a clear decrease in the percentage of such verbs. This decrease is related to the ongoing decline of the middle voice. However, it can also be due to the expansion of the labile type in Greek at the expense of verbs of change-of-state that could appear with middle and passive voice morphologies.
Published online: 30 April 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.237.10kul
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.237.10kul
References
References
Abraham, Werner
Alexiadou, Artemis & Doron, Edit
Allan, Rutger J.
Blass, Friedrich, Debrunner, Albert & Rehkopf, Friedrich
Chantraine, Pierre
Drachman, Gaberell, Lavidas, Nikolaos & Malikouti-Drachman, Angeliki
2013 Preverbs in the history of Greek: On predicting and changing idiomatic vs. compositional readings. Paper presented at ICHL 2013, 8 August.
Haspelmath, Martin
Howard, Harry
Jankuhn, Harald
Jespersen, Otto
Kemmer, Suzanne
Kulikov, Leonid
1998b Vedic -ya- presents: Semantics and the place of stress. In Sprache und Kultur der Indogermanen. Akten der X. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, 22.-28 September 1996, Innsbruck [Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 93], Wolfgang Meid (ed.), 341–350. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck.
2012b Voice and valency derivations in Old Indo-Aryan in a diachronic typological perspective: The degrammaticalization of the middle and other trends in the Vedic verbal system. In Usare il presente per spiegare il passato. Teorie linguistiche contemporanee e lingue storiche. Atti del XXXIII Convegno della Società Italiana di Glottologia, Lucio Melazzo (ed.), 161–191. Roma: Il Calamo.
Kulikov, Leonid & Lavidas, Nikolaos
Kühner, Raphael
Lavidas, Nikolaos
Lavidas, Nikolaos & Papangeli, Dimitra
Lazzeroni, Romano
Levin, Beth & Rappaport Hovav, Malka
Luraghi, Silvia
Magni, Elisabetta
Mayser, Edwin
Padučeva, Elena V.
Perseus under Philologic
Perseus Project Texts Loaded under PhiloLogic). http://perseus.uchicago.edu/
Prévot, André
PROIEL
Pragmatic Resources in Old Indo-European Languages). http://foni.uio.no:3000/
Schwyzer, Eduard
Smith, Carlota S.
Stahl, Johann Matthias
Theophanopoulou-Kontou, Dimatra
Theophanopoulou-Kontou, Dimitra
Tsimpli, Ianthi M.
2006 The acquisition of voice and transitivity alternations in Greek as a native and second language. In Paths of Development in L1 and L2 Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 39], Sharon Unsworth, Teresa Parodi, Antonella Sorace & Martha Young-Scholten (eds), 15–55. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Lavidas, Nikolaos
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 january 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.