Clitic doubling from Ancient to Asia Minor Greek

Bibliographic Data

ID23232877
AuthorsMark Janse (0000-0002-2824-3894, Ghent University, corresponding author)
Year2008
Pages165-202
Publication date2008-11-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueClitic doubling in Balkan languages (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/la.130.11jan
OpenAlexW2317172049
ISBN9789027255136
LanguageEN
Citations received9

In Modern Greek, clitic doubling is a grammatical device that marks clitic doubled object NPs as topics. Clitic doubling involving the fronting of the clitic doubled NP is called topicalization or, if combined with a boundary pause, topic left-dislocation. Topic left-dislocation is obligatory in the presence of a preverbal focused NP. Clitic doubling involving the backing of the clitic doubled NP is called backgrounding or, if combined with a boundary pause, topic right-dislocation. Right-dislocated topics are interpreted as an afterthought. In Ancient Greek, clitic doubling was an occasional mnemotechnic device to clarify the referent of a left-dislocated topic usually separated by an intervening clause from the verb on which it depended. Topic right-dislocation existed in Ancient Greek as a device to clarify or specify the referent of a clitic pronoun. The grammaticalization of clitic doubling can be traced back to the use of hanging topics, in which case the doubling clitic was needed to specify the grammatical relation of the corresponding hanging topic as direct or indirect object. The construction was grammaticalized in the Medieval period, when clitic doubling positively marked clitic doubled NPs as topics. In Asia Minor Greek, clitic doubling serves exactly the same purposes as in Medieval and Standard Modern Greek. Turkish interference appears in the existence of a definite and an indefinite accusative to mark topic and focus respectively and possibly the preponderance of SOV as the unmarked order.

Clitic · Linguistics · Modern Greek · Object (grammar) · Pronoun · Referent · Verb · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · linguistics and terminology studies · Philosophy

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