Basic valency orientation in Homeric Greek

Bibliographic Data

ID23211787
AuthorsEleonora Sausa (University of Pavia, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume37
Issue1
Pages205-238
Publication date2016-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0165-4004 • E-ISSN: 1614-7308
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/flih-2016-0007
OpenAlexW2549351038
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited17

In a number of recent works, verbs and expressions encoding causative alternations have been regarded as a possible test for measuring the basic valency orientation of a language. This paper focuses on the basic orientation of valency in Homeric Greek. The test applied for determining this parameter is that proposed by Nichols et al. (2004, Transitivizing and detransitivizing languages. Linguistic Typology 8(2). 149–211), focusing on 18 causative alternations. The investigation carried out in this paper shows that Homeric Greek belongs to the detransitivizing type, showing an active-middle alternation as the preferred pattern for expressing causative alternations. This study aims to enrich the typological literature on this topic and positions itself among other studies of valency orientation in ancient Indo-European languages, such as Old Hittite, Old Indo-Aryan, Proto-Germanic, and Proto-Slavic, which show transitivizing strategies along with voice alternation patterns.

Alternation (linguistics) · Geometry · German · Germanic languages · Linguistics · Modern Greek · Orientation (vector space) · Slavic languages · Typology · Valency · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Mathematics · Philosophy

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