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    Participle-Adjective Formation in Modern Greek: Dept. of Computational Linguistics Universität Des Saarlandes (Uds)

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    This document discusses participle-adjective formation in Modern Greek. It argues that words ending in "-menos" are participles rather than adjectives, as they can take arguments like agents. While these participles can function as adjectives referring to a result state, their formation is best explained by Bresnan's proposal that links participles to predicates with a [-r] argument. The conversion to adjectives follows from the participles referring to a result state.

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    Participle-Adjective Formation in Modern Greek: Dept. of Computational Linguistics Universität Des Saarlandes (Uds)

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    This document discusses participle-adjective formation in Modern Greek. It argues that words ending in "-menos" are participles rather than adjectives, as they can take arguments like agents. While these participles can function as adjectives referring to a result state, their formation is best explained by Bresnan's proposal that links participles to predicates with a [-r] argument. The conversion to adjectives follows from the participles referring to a result state.

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    This document discusses participle-adjective formation in Modern Greek. It argues that words ending in "-menos" are participles rather than adjectives, as they can take arguments like agents. While these participles can function as adjectives referring to a result state, their formation is best explained by Bresnan's proposal that links participles to predicates with a [-r] argument. The conversion to adjectives follows from the participles referring to a result state.

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    55 views10 pages

    Participle-Adjective Formation in Modern Greek: Dept. of Computational Linguistics Universität Des Saarlandes (Uds)

    Uploaded by

    vamshichandra
    This document discusses participle-adjective formation in Modern Greek. It argues that words ending in "-menos" are participles rather than adjectives, as they can take arguments like agents. While these participles can function as adjectives referring to a result state, their formation is best explained by Bresnan's proposal that links participles to predicates with a [-r] argument. The conversion to adjectives follows from the participles referring to a result state.

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    of 10

    Participle-Adjective Formation in

    Modern Greek
    Valia Kordoni
    Dept. of Computational Linguistics
    Universität des Saarlandes (UdS)
    Email: [email protected]
    WWW: http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~kordoni/

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    1
    Modern Greek words in -menos

    What are they: adjectives or participles?

    •If they are adjectives, then the expression ime... –menos (be... –menos) are
    phrase structures consisting of the auxiliary ime (be) and a complement (cf.,
    Mozer (1994))
    • If they are participles, then the structures ime... –menos (be... –menos) are
    periphrastic expressions of the Passive Present Perfect (Present Perfect B´; cf.,
    Veloudis (1990))
    • Researchers who adopt the former view claim that the semantics of words
    ending in –menos is the same as the semantics of Modern Greek deverbal
    adjectives ending in –tos  ine anigmenos/klismenos and ine anihtos/klistos
    (be open/closed) convey the same meaning (cf., Mozer (1994))

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    2
    MG words in –menos: Participles rather than Adjectives

    • Markantonatou et al. (1996) have shown that words ending in –menos bear
    more verbal characteristics than Modern Greek deverbal adjectives in –tos 
    words ending in –menos are participles rather than adjectives
    • In example (1) the expression itan rameno supports two complements, one
    denoting the "agent" (ton rafti) and the other denoting the "instrument" (me
    hrisi klosti)
    • Both of these complements correspond to verbal complements, i.e., the subject
    and the instrument supported by the verbal head in example (3)
    • In contrast, deverbal adjectives ending in –tos do not allow the co-appearance
    in the same sentence of such complements (see example (2)), showing thereby
    that their nature is "less verbal"

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    3
    Modern Greek Participles in –menos: examples

    (1) To nifiko itan ra-meno apo ton rafti


    the wedding-dress.NEUT.N was sew.PRTC.NEUT.N by the tailor
    me hrisi klosti.
    with golden thread
    "The wedding dress was sewn by the tailor with golden thread".
    (2) To nifiko itan raf-to (*apo ton
    the wedding-dress.NEUT.N was sewn.ADJ.NEUT.N (*by the
    rafti) (*me hrisi klosti).
    tailor) (*with golden thread)
    "The wedding dress was sewn (*by the tailor) (*with golden thread)".
    (3) O raftis erapse to nifiko me hrisi klosti
    the tailor.N sew.PAST.3S the wedding-dress.A with golden thread
    "The tailor sewed the wedding dress with golden thread".

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    4
    Modern Greek Participles in –menos as Adjectives

    • Markantonatou et al. (1996) have shown that Modern Greek participles


    in –menos can appear in the typical position of adjectives (the examples are
    from Markantonatou et al. (1996)):

    (4) Vrikan tin porta anig-meni me losto.


    they-found the door.FEM.A open.PRTC.FEM.A with metal-bar
    "They found the door opened with a metal bar".
    (5) To kotopulo itan pio psi-meno apo to
    the chicken.NEUT.N was more roast.PTRC.NEUT.N than the
    arni pu itan shedon apsi-to.
    lamb.NEUT.N which was almost uncooked.ADJ.NEUT.N
    "The chicken was cooked more than the lamb which was almost
    uncooked".

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    5
    Participle-Adjective Formation in Modern Greek

    Why can Modern Greek Participles in –menos appear in the typical position of
    adjectives?

    •The conversion of Modern Greek Participles in –menos to adjectives, and their


    appearance in the typical position of adjectives follows from the fact that they
    refer to the result state of the action denoted by the verb they are derived from
    • Both anig-meni (open.PRTC) in example (4) and psi-meno (roast.PRTC) in
    example (5) refer to the result state of the action denoted by the verbs they
    are derived from (anigo (open) in example (3) and psino (roast), respectively)
    • This conclusion is in agreement with Bresnan´s (1996) proposal for participle-
    adjective formation

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    6
    Participle-Adjective Formation in Modern Greek (cont.)

    • Participle-Adjective Formation in Modern Greek may also obey Ackerman´s


    (1992) and Markantonatou´s (1995) predictions that adjectival participles are
    related to predicates which have a [-r] argument:

    (6) I giagia magirepse to fagito.


    the grandmother.N cook.PAST.3S the food.A
    "The grandmother cooked the food".
    magirevo <AGENT THEME>
    IC -o -r
    Mapping Principles SUBJ OBJ
    (7) To fagito ine magire-meno/*magiref-to apo tin giagia.
    the food.N is cook.PRTC.N/cook.ADJ.N by the grandmother
    "The food is cooked by the grandmother".

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    7
    Participle-Adjective Formation in Modern Greek (cont.)

    • But:

    (8) O Gianis ipie poli krasi htes vradi sto parti


    the Gianis.N drank much wine.A yesterday night at-the party
    "John drank too much wine at the party last night".
    pino <AGENT THEME>
    IC -o -r
    Mapping Principles SUBJ OBJ
    (9) O Gianis itan pio-menos htes vradi sto parti
    the Gianis.N was drunk yesterday night at-the party
    "John was blind drunk at the party last night".

    • Thus: Bresnan´s (1996) proposal is more reliable when it comes to Participle-


    Adjective Formation in Modern Greek

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    8
    Conclusions

    • Modern Greek words ending in –menos bear one semantic argument more than
    the deverbal adjectives in –tos: the agent or the cause that brings about the
    action denoted by the verb (see examples (1)-(3) and (6)-(7))  Modern
    Greek words in –menos are participles rather than adjectives

    • Modern Greek participles in –menos, though, may also function as adjectives


    with a more enriched semantics than their corresponding adjectives in –tos

    • Participle-Adjectives Formation in Modern Greek is better accounted for in


    the spirit of Bresnan´s (1996) proposal for Participle-Adjective Formation in
    English

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    9
    References

    Ackerman, F. (1992). Complex Predicates and Morphological Relatedness: Locative Alternation in


    Hungarian. In I. A. Sag and A. Szabolcsi (Eds.), Lexical Matters. CSLI Lecture Notes
    no. 24, pp. 55-84. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications
    Bresnan, J. (1996). Lexicality and Argument Structure. Invited paper given at the Paris Syntax and
    Semantics Conference, October 12-14, 1995. Corrected version: April 15, 1996. 27 pages.
    Available at http://www-lfg.stanford.edu/lfg/bresnan/download.html
    Markantonatou, S. (1995). Modern Greek deverbel nominals: an LMT approach. Journal of Linguistics
    31, 267-299
    Markantonatou, S., V. Kordoni, V. Bouboureka, A. Kalliakostas, and V. Stavrakaki (1996). Modern
    Greek deverbal adjectives in –tos: a lexical semantic approach. Studies in Greek
    Linguistics, Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of the Department of Linguistics of
    the University of Thessaloniki.
    Mozer, A. (1994). The interaction of Lexical and Grammatical Aspect in Modern Greek. In Themes in
    Modern Greek Linguistics. Benjamins.
    Veloudis, G. (1990). The meta-linguistic character of the Perfect: Perfect B´. Studies in Greek
    Linguistics 11.

    LFG 2002, 3-5 July 2002, Athens, Greece


    10

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