Variation and Morphosyntactic Change in Greek: From Clitics to Affixes(Palgrave Studies in Language History and Language Change)

The development of weak object pronouns in the history of the Greek language has confounded researchers for decades. This book presents the results of a variationist analysis of the last phase of the change during which these elements exhibited both clitic-like and affix-like behavior. The methodology employs both traditional and innovative ways of analyzing textual evidence, while the statistical tools that are used provide the first accurate description of the pattern of variation during the period of Later Medieval and Early Modern Greek. The analysis reveals a number of linguistic parameters that affect the behavior of the weak object pronouns, and it demonstrates that non-linguistic parameters such as the style of the text and its geographical provenance also influence the pattern of variation. Based on these empirical results several previous proposals are evaluated and shown to fall short of a full explanation. An alternative approach launched from a diachronic perspective is proposed and its implications on our understanding of the nature of language change, the status of clitics in morphology and the role of generalizations in linguistic explanation are discussed.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Preface List of Abbreviations Introduction Methodology Data Analysis Linguistic Parameters Non-linguistic Parameters Previous Proposals A Diachronic Perspective Theoretical Implications Appendix Notes References Index

About the Author :
PANAYIOTIS A. PAPPAS is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. His research interests include variation and language change, diachronic syntax and morphology, sociolinguistics and Greek linguistics.

Review :
'...likely to remain the standard reference work on the subject for the foreseeable future...meticulously documented and researched...[its] scholarship [is] always displayed selectively and appropriately. The comparative sections are highly illuminating for those interested in clitics from a more general perspective. Undeniably a major scholarly contribution to its field.' - Professor Geoffrey Horrocks, St John's College, Cambridge