This article investigates a peculiar pattern of subject case-marking in the Greek of southern Italy. Recent fieldwork with native speakers, coupled with the consultation of some written sources, reveals that, alongside prototypical nominative subjects, Italo-Greek also licenses accusative subjects, despite displaying a predominantly nominative-accusative alignment. Far from being random replacements within a highly attrited grammar, the distribution of these accusative subjects obeys specific structural principles, revealing similarities with historical attestations of the so-called ‘extended accusative’ in early Indo-European. On the basis of these data, Italo-Greek is argued to be undergoing a progressive shift towards an active-stative alignment, a claim supported by additional evidence from auxiliary selection, adverb agreement and sentential word order.

(2020). Changing alignments in the Greek of southern Italy [journal article - articolo]. In JOURNAL OF GREEK LINGUISTICS. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10446/278470

Changing alignments in the Greek of southern Italy

Ledgeway, Adam;
2020-01-01

Abstract

This article investigates a peculiar pattern of subject case-marking in the Greek of southern Italy. Recent fieldwork with native speakers, coupled with the consultation of some written sources, reveals that, alongside prototypical nominative subjects, Italo-Greek also licenses accusative subjects, despite displaying a predominantly nominative-accusative alignment. Far from being random replacements within a highly attrited grammar, the distribution of these accusative subjects obeys specific structural principles, revealing similarities with historical attestations of the so-called ‘extended accusative’ in early Indo-European. On the basis of these data, Italo-Greek is argued to be undergoing a progressive shift towards an active-stative alignment, a claim supported by additional evidence from auxiliary selection, adverb agreement and sentential word order.
articolo
2020
Ledgeway, Adam Noel; Schifano, Norma; Silvestri, Giuseppina
(2020). Changing alignments in the Greek of southern Italy [journal article - articolo]. In JOURNAL OF GREEK LINGUISTICS. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10446/278470
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10446/278470
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