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Title:
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Verbal Alternations in Greek: A semantic analysis
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Author:
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Katerina Zombolou
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Email:
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Reading
, School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Linguistic Science Division
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Degree Date:
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2004
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Morphology
Semantics
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Subject Language(s):
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Greek
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Director(s):
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Irene Philippaki-Warburton
Spyridoula Varlokosta
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Abstract:
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This work presents a semantic analysis for the passive voice affix -me found in (modern) Greek. In order to avoid the conclusion that the passive voice affix in Greek (PA-morphology) is both syntactically and lexically polyfunctional, since this verbal affix is able to express eleven different readings apart from the passive voice reading, this thesis undertakes an aspectual analysis within the framework of the decomposition theory (Dowty 1979, Bierwisch 1983; Pustejovsky 1989, Kaufmann 1995; Stechow 1995; Rapp 1997; Wunderlich 1997). The results of this inquiry show that the different functions of the PA-morphology converge to a basic one from which the others derive, that is to say the PA-morphology in Greek has a unitary function.
More specifically, the present investigation shows that the function of the PA-morphology is related to the underlying causative structure of the verbs: the PA-morphology changes a causative structure to a non-causative one by selecting a subevent out of a causative structure [x CAUSE (BECOME (BE (y)))], whether it is an achievement structure [x BECOME (BE)] or a state structure [x BE]. In other words, this work presents an analysis of the PA-morphology as a de-causativiser.
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