Elena Anagnostopoulou

• Professor at University of Crete

Many three-gendered languages have in common that some nouns are assigned conceptual gender – where the value of gender correlates with the interpretation of the noun – while other nouns are assigned arbitrary gender – where there is no such correlation. Strikingly, however, such languages do not always pattern together in how they resolve agreemen...

Many three-gendered languages have in common that some nouns are assigned conceptual gender-where the value of gender correlates with the interpretation of the noun-and some nouns are assigned arbitrary gender-where there is no such correlation (Kramer 2015 and references therein). Strikingly, however, such languages do not always pattern together...

In this paper, we investigate zero-derived nouns based on irregular verbs in Greek. This is an under-explored area in Greek morpho-syntax, and in this paper, we will make three main contributions. First, we will discuss the fact that the overwhelming majority of these nouns are feminine, while neuter nouns are considerably less represented and masc...

In this paper, we investigate zero-derived nouns based on irregular verbs in Greek. This is an under-explored area in Greek morpho-syntax, and in this paper, we will make three main contributions. First, we will discuss the fact that the overwhelming majority of these nouns are feminine, while neuter nouns are considerably less represented and masc...

This paper deals with the distribution of the use of the accusative as an indirect object in two major dialect groups of Modern Greek, namely Northern Greek and Pontic Greek. The loss of the dative in Medieval Greek (c. 10th c. AD) resulted in the use of the genitive as an indirect object in the southern varieties and of the accusative in Northern...

In this paper, we identify the parallels and the differences between language and life as evolvable systems in pursuit of a framework that will investigate language change from the perspective of a general theory of evolution. Despite the consensus that languages change similarly to species, as reflected in the construction of language trees, the f...

The DiGreC (DIachrony of GREek Case) treebank is a corpus of selected sentences from Greek texts, ranging from Homer to Modern Greek, which have been annotated morphosyntactically and semantically. The corpus comprises excerpts from 655 texts, for a total of 3385 sentences and 56,440 word tokens; automated tagging and lemmatisation has been supplem...

Control, typically defined as a specific referential dependency between the null-subject of a non-finite embedded clause and a co-dependent of the matrix predicate, has been subject to extensive research in the last 50 years. While there is a broad consensus that a distinction between Obligatory Control (OC), Non-Obligatory Control (NOC) and No Con...

In this paper, we discuss the diachronic change in the internal structure of direct and indirect objects in Greek. We do so by comparing the properties of dative and genitive objects in Classical vs. (Standard and Northern) Modern Greek. We argue that there are two distinct modes of dative and genitive objective case assignment: they are either pre...

This volume brings together the latest diachronic research on syntactic features and their role in restricting syntactic change. The chapters address a central theoretical issue in diachronic syntax: whether syntactic variation can always be attributed to differences in the features of items in the lexicon, as the Borer-Chomsky conjecture proposes....

In this paper, we compare the properties of dative and genitive objects in Classical vs. Modern Greek. Based on the difference in behavior of dative/genitive objects of ditransitives and monadic transitives in the two periods of Greek which correlates with a range of systematic alternations in the case realization of Modern Greek IO arguments depen...

In this paper, we use the domain of object experiencer verbs in Greek to discuss the behavior of non-agentive causative construals of this verb class with clear implications for the syntax of causative predicates in general. We argue that eventive causative object experiencer verbs are best analyzed as instances of transitive internally caused chan...

A comparative study of English and Greek tough-movement constructions In this paper, we discuss tough-movement constructions in Greek, which we compare to their English counterparts. We argue that Greek provides evidence for a base generation analysis of tough-movement constructions. We furthermore offer an explanation for the fact that only very f...

This article discusses novel experiencer‐object verbs (NEOs) and proposes to align their syntax as well as the syntax of nonagentive experiencer‐object verbs to the syntax of verbs undergoing the causative alternation under similar restrictions. We provide support for the view that (i) volitional agents do not occupy the same structural position as...

This constraint, which is extremely robust cross‐linguistically, is known as the person case constraint (PCC), comes in several versions (Strong, Weak, Ultrastrong, and Me‐First), and has been related to a number of other phenomena showing restrictions on person agreement. This survey concentrates on different syntactic approaches to the PCC, as th...

In this chapter I investigate the syntax of clitic doubling constructions focusing on the question of variation within and across languages. In the course of the discussion, two different patterns of clitic doubling emerge, with different factors causing variation across languages in each case. In the first case – direct object (DO) clitic doubling...

The field of morphology is particularly heterogeneous. Investigators differ on key points at every level of theory. These divisions are not minor issues about technical implementation, but rather are foundational issues that mold the underlying anatomy of any theory. The field has developed very rapidly both theoretically and methodologically, givi...

This article presents and discusses evidence that genitive and dative objects regularly become nominative in Ancient Greek passives of monotransitives and ditransitives. This is a typologically and theoretically significant state of affairs for two reasons. (i) As is well known, nonaccusative objects are, in many languages, not allowed to enter int...

This book is an exploration of the syntax of external arguments in transitivity alternations from a cross-linguistic perspective. The empirical focus is the causative/anticausative alternation and the formation of (adjectival) Passives. The bulk of the discussion, couched within Distributed Morphology, is devoted to the properties of the (anti-)cau...

This book is an exploration of the syntax of external arguments in transitivity alternations from a cross-linguistic perspective. The empirical focus is the causative/anticausative alternation and the formation of (adjectival) Passives. The bulk of the discussion, couched within Distributed Morphology, is devoted to the properties of the (anti-)cau...

This book is an exploration of the syntax of external arguments in transitivity alternations from a cross-linguistic perspective. The empirical focus is the causative/anticausative alternation and the formation of (adjectival) Passives. The bulk of the discussion, couched within Distributed Morphology, is devoted to the properties of the (anti-)cau...

This book is an exploration of the syntax of external arguments in transitivity alternations from a cross-linguistic perspective. The empirical focus is the causative/anticausative alternation and the formation of (adjectival) Passives. The bulk of the discussion, couched within Distributed Morphology, is devoted to the properties of the (anti-)cau...

This book is an exploration of the syntax of external arguments in transitivity alternations from a cross-linguistic perspective. The empirical focus is the causative/anticausative alternation and the formation of (adjectival) Passives. The bulk of the discussion, couched within Distributed Morphology, is devoted to the properties of the (anti-)cau...

This volume brings together chapters that discuss the nature of roots, the core elements of word meaning. It looks not only at their syntax, but also their phonology, semantics, and morpho-phonological role (or lack thereof), insofar as these do turn out to bear on their interaction with syntax. To what degree these roots carry syntactic and/or sem...

In this paper, we provide evidence based on case alternations in passives in favor of the view that dative is a mixed case. Dative, but also other cases, has the property of being either inherent/lexical or structural. We propose an analysis of datives aiming to account for their mixed status within and across languages. Building on Řezáč’s (2008)...

Economic crisis consists a major problem, globally that affects negatively all aspects of human life. The aim of the present study was to explore Nursing students' views of Athens Technological Institute about the economic crisis in Greece. Method and material: The sample studied consisted of 450 Nursing students, of Technological Institute of Athe...

Diagnosing Syntax

The aim of this paper is to address two main counterarguments raised in Landau (2007) against the movement analysis of Control, and especially against the phenomenon of Backward Control. The paper shows that unlike the situation described in Tsez (Polinsky & Potsdam 2002), Landau's objections do not hold for Greek and Romanian, where all obligatory...

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This volume is a collection of articles on clitic doubling, a phenomenon that has preoccupied generative linguists since the 1980s, when its theoretical importance was noted. Clitic doubling is prevalent in the Balkan languages. However, generative studies initially dealt with its properties in Romance languages, with the Balkan patterns coming inc...

Luigi Rizzi (ed.), The structure of CP and IP: the cartography of syntactic structures, vol. 2 (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. vii+367. - - Volume 42 Issue 3 - ELENA ANAGNOSTOPOULOU

1. Goals The causative/anticausative alternation has been the topic of much typological and theoretical discussion in the linguistic literature. This alternation is characterized by verbs with transitive and intransitive uses, such that the transitive use of a verb V means roughly 'cause to V-intransitive' (see Levin 1993). The discussion revolves...

In the recent literature there is growing interest in the morpho-syntactic encoding of hierarchical effects. The paper investigates one domain where such effects are attested: ergative splits conditioned by person. This type of splits is then compared to hierarchical effects in direct-inverse alternations. On the basis of two case studies (Lummi in...

Agreement plays a central role in modern generative grammar. The present collection brings together contributions from experts on various aspects of agreement systems in the world’s languages in an attempt to formulate formal and substantive universals in this domain. All the papers contained here focus on the formalization of the mechanisms of agr...

Fox and Pesetsky (henceforth F&P) propose an architecture for the mapping between syntax and phonology which relates a number of different constraints on movement to the way in which phrase structure is linearized. They investigate Object Shift (henceforth OS) and Quantifier Movement (henceforth QM) in Scandinavian and argue that the restrictions o...

This chapter argues that the patterns of voice morphology can be accounted for if there are at least three structures involved in the formation of anticausatives in Greek. It proposes that anticausatives are formed on the basis of an intransitive vBecome/Result which embeds either an AdjectiveP, or a VoiceP, or a possessive construction. The chapte...

The phenomenon of unaccusativity is a central focus for the study of the complex properties of verb classes. The Unaccusative Hypothesis, first formulated in 1978, claimed that there are two classes of intransitive verbs: the unaccusative (Jill arrived) and the unergative or agentive (Jill sings). The hypothesis has provided a rich context for deba...

The essays in this collection celebrate Ken Hale's lifelong study of underdocumented languages and their implications for universal grammar. The authors report their latest research in syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, and phonetics. Contributors Elena Anagnostopoulou, Noam Chomsky, Michel DeGraff, Kai von Fintel, Morris Halle, James Harris...

The article establishes a novel generalization concerning the placement of arguments by Spell-Out. It centers on the principles that force arguments to leave the VP across languages. The empirical domain consists of constructions where subject movement is not required for reasons that have to do with the Extended Projection Principle. In these envi...

The selection of clausal complement type by embedding predicates constitutes a privileged domain for the assessment of interface issues between different modules of the grammar. This article addresses the selectional problem posed by embedded if-questions (of semantic type 〈t, t〉) appearing as arguments of noninterrogative predicates like 'admit' o...

In view of its exploratory nature, Chomsky's 'minimalist' model has undergone multiple changes, triggering in response numerous proposals that are consistent with the tendencies that it follows or anticipates, and numerous proposals that offer alternatives to it. A good illustration of the variety of 'parallel' proposals is provided in the present...

The last decades have seen a particular growth of syntactic studies in Greek from different aspects within the principles and parameters framework. In this article we present an overview of the main areas of investigation. Reasons of space prevent us from an exhaustive presentation of all the issues examined in the literature. In what follows, we c...

0. Introduction Baker (1996:88) suggests that polysynthetic languages (Mohawk) and languages with optional clitics/agreement morphemes (Romance, Bantu) differ in that (1), which derives from the Morphological Visibility Condition, 1 holds in the former but not in the latter group: (1) All Case assigning heads must have agreement morphemes Baker fur...

This book is concerned with a number of central issues in the theory of clitics, a topic that has become much debated in recent years. Mainly written within a recent generative framework, its contrastive approach discusses these issues against the background of a number of European languages, among which the Balkan Slavic languages figure prominent...

Reinhart and Reuland (1993) propose the following typology of anaphoric expressions: SELF anaphors (+SELF, −R), SE anaphors (−SELF, −R), and pronouns (−SELF, +R). We argue that the Greek anaphor o eaftos tu ‘the self his exemplifies a fourth type, predicted by Reinhart and Reuland's typology but not instantiated in their system: an inalienable poss...

Reinhart and Reuland (1993) propose the following typology of anaphoric expressions: SELF anaphors (+ SELF, -R), SE anaphors (-SELF, -R), and pronouns (-SELF, +R). We argue that the Greek anaphor o eaftos tu 'the self his' exemplifies a fourth type, predicted by Reinhart and Reuland's typology but not instantiated in their system: an "inalienable p...

In Chomsky (1995), it is assumed that checking of strong nominal features of a non-substantive category takes place in a Spec-head configuration. In this system it is actually the presence of such a strong feature that forces the structural realization of the specifier of a given head. A case in point is the checking of the Extended Projection Prin...

A central concern of linguistic theory has been to determine the algorithm by virtue of which the arguments of a given lexical item are projected syntactically.

The paper investigates a number of asymmetries in the behavior of subjects in Germanic, Celtic/Arabic, Romance, and Greek. The languages under investigation divide into two main groups with respect to a cluster of properties, including the availability of pro-drop with referential subjects, the possibility of VSO/VOS orders, the A/A status of subje...

1. Overview In the recent literature the phenomenon of long distance agreement has become the focus of several studies as it seems to violate certain locality conditions which require that agreeing elements in general stand in clause-mate relationships. In particular, it involves a verb agreeing with a constituent which is located in the verb's cla...

1 For this reason Sportiche (1992) proposes to unify the two, an approach which has become quite standard in the relevant literature ever since. 2

GOALS Theme of this year's meeting: Syntactic Theories and the Syntax of Greek. Broad question addressed in this presentation: 1 What is our current understanding of the Syntax of Greek, based on research that has been carried out in the Principles and Parameters framework (Chomsky & Lasnik 1993) and Minimalism (Chomsky 1995, 2000, 2001 and related...