The book deals with some syntactic and semantic aspects of the shared Balkan Sprachbund properties. In a comprehensive introductory chapter, Tomić offers an overview of the Balkan Sprachbund properties. Sobolev, displaying the areal distribution of 65 properties, argues for dialect cartography. Friedman, on the example of the evidentials, argues for typologically informed areal explanation of the Balkan properties. The other contributions analyze specific phenomena: polidefinite DPs in Greek and Aromanian (Campos and Stavrou), Balkan constructions in which datives combine with impersonal clitics or non-active morphology (Rivero), Balkan optatives (Ammann and Auwera), imperative force in the Balkan languages (Isac and Jakab), clitic placement in Greek imperatives (Bošković), focused constituents in Romanian and Bulgarian (Hill), synthetic and analytic tenses in Romanian (D'Hulst, Coene and Avram), "purpose-like" modification in a number of Balkan languages (Bužarovska), Balkan modal existential “wh”-constructions (Grosu), child and adult strategies in interpreting empty subjects in Serbian/Croatian (Stojanović and Marelj), conditional sentences in Judeo-Spanish (Montoliu and Auwera).

Table of contents

Preface vii Map of the Balkans ix List of abbreviations xi The Balkan Sprachbund morpho-syntactic properties: An introduction Olga Mišeska Tomić 1–55 Spread of the Balkan Sprachbund morpho-syntactic properties On the areal distribution of the syntactic properties in the languages of the Balkans Andrej N. Sobolev 59–100 The Typology of Balkan Evidentiality and Areal Linguistics Victor A. Friedman 101–134 The nominal phrase Polydefinite constructions in Modern Greek and in Aromanian Héctor Campos and Melita Stavrou 136–173 Balkan possessive clitics: The problem of case and category Roumyana Pancheva 175–219 Optional movement of Bulgarian possessive clitics to I: Some implications for Binding Theory Christo Moskovsky 221–233 The root clause Datives and the non-active voice: Reflexive clitics in Balkan languages María Luisa Rivero 237–267 On the clitic switch in Greek imperatives Željko Bošković 269–291 Complementizer-headed main clauses for volitional moods in the languages of South-Eastern Europe: a Balkanism? 293–314 Mood and force features in the languages of the Balkans Daniela Isac and Edit N. Jakab 315–338 On left periphery and focus Virginia Hill 339–354 Syncretic and analytic tenses in Romanian: The Balkan setting of Romance Yves D'hulst, Martine Coene and Larisa Avram 355–374 The complex sentence Subjunctive relatives in Balkan languages Eleni Bužarovska 377–404 The syntax-semantics of modal existential wh constructions Alexander Grosu 405–438 Interpreting empty subjects in nontensed complement clauses: Child and adult Strategies Danijela Stojanovic and Marijana Marelj 439–459 On Judeo-Spanish conditionals César Montoliu and Johan Van der Auwera 461–474 Author Index 475 Index of languages, dialects and toponyms 481 Subject Index 487