Book section : Chapter
Taking stock of Greek support-verb constructions: synchronic and diachronic variability in the documentary papyri
- Abstract:
- Support-verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that act as the predicate, as ‘made the suggestion’ in I made the suggestion that she join. They are frequent, variable, and ambiguous across texts. E.g. he took a picture does not involve a physical frame or he took heart barbaric behaviour. Understood correctly, support-verb constructions inform about the speakers’ background (e.g. US to take a shower vs. Britain to have a shower) or communicative settings (e.g. written to make a contribution vs. spoken to make a comment). The chapter assesses the synchronic and diachronic variability of support-verb constructions in the documentary papyri, focusing on the early Byzantine period (4th to 8th cent. CE). The synchronic perspective relates to their applicability as dependant on the communicative setting (register), text type (genre), and writer (style) along with their fit in the lexicon-grammar of the papyri. The diachronic perspective relates to the transition from an analytic syntagm (a noun-verb structure) through a non-analytic syntagm (a lexical unit) to a word, as dependant on the processes of grammaticalisation and lexicalisation. Focusing on support-verb constructions with χρ∊ίαν ‘need’ and φροντίδα ‘concern’, the chapter shows that support-verb constructions form a heterogenous group of constructions regarding their synchronic distribution and diachronic developments.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 377.1KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1515/9783111648644-017
Authors
+ Leverhulme Trust
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/012mzw131
- Grant:
- ECF-2020-181
- Publisher:
- De Gruyter
- Host title:
- Advances in Ancient Greek Linguistics
- Pages:
- 297-314
- Series:
- Trends in Classics – Greek and Latin Linguistics
- Series number:
- 5
- Place of publication:
- Berlin/Boston
- Publication date:
- 2025-08-22
- Edition:
- 1
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2940-6382
- ISSN:
-
2940-6374
- EISBN:
- 9783111648644
- ISBN:
- 9783111633619
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
-
Chapter
- Pubs id:
-
2298897
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2298897
- Deposit date:
-
2025-10-09
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston, Genthiner Straße 13, 10785 Berlin.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the chapter. The final version is available online from De Gruyter at https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111648644-017
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record