Morphological interpretations of syncretism in the panorama of Greek

Bibliographic Data

ID21463134
AuthorsMichail Ι Marinis (0000-0002-8258-3726, The Ohio State University , Columbus , OH , USA, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume58
Issue2
Pages541-562
Publication date2024-08-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0165-4004 • E-ISSN: 1614-7308
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/flin-2024-2021
OpenAlexW4394676055
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

This paper explores the nuanced realm of case syncretism, focusing primarily on its synchronic presence in Modern Greek (dialectal variety) and on the diachronic emergence of the phenomenon, classifying the distribution of syncretic cells in the nominal inflectional system of the language. This analysis shows that syncretism has been extended over time to many nouns, no longer limited either to neuter nouns or to the cells for the Nominative and Accusative. I suggest that the distribution of syncretic cells in Greek is influenced primarily by grammatical gender, but it is also affected by the productivity of each inflectional class, which I attribute to the morphomic (in terms of Aronoff [1994]. Morphology by itself: Stems and inflectional classes , vol. 22. MIT Press.) nature of the phenomenon. I propose a decisive new factor preventing a cell from participating in syncretic patterns: inter-paradigmatic similarity of affixes appears to block syncretism. Further, I examine the factors facilitating the development and expansion of syncretic patterns

Linguistics · Panorama · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence

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