1 Verbal valency and classes of verbs in Ancient Greek - Google Sites

CONTRASTIVE STUDIES OF VERBAL VALENCY IN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES 45TH ANNUAL MEETING OF SOCIETASLINGUISTICAEUROPAEA STOCKHOLM, 29 AUGUST-1 SEPTEMBER 2012

Verbal valency and classes of verbs in Ancient Greek – Bivalent verbs in Homer Silvia Luraghi*, Barbara McGillivray#, Eleonora Sausa* *University of Pavia, #Oxford University Press [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 1. Digital resources 1.1. The Perseus Treebank -- 315,193 words y http://nlp.perseus.tufts.edu/syntax/treebank/greek.html y Epic: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod y 5th century Attic: Aeschylus’ Tragedies, Sophocles' Ajax, Plato's Euthyphro Æ Under construction: Plato’s Apology (10,089), Crito (4,875), Sophocles’ Antigone (8,758) y Dependency annotation y analytical layer from Prague Dependency Treebank y Guidelines y http://nlp.perseus.tufts.edu/syntax/treebank/agdt/1.2/docs/guidelines.pdf 1.2. The Proiel Treebank -- 202,751 words • http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/proiel// • 6th-5th century Ionic: Herodotus Books 1, 4 (other books 105,300 word under construction) • New Testament 2. Extracting argument structure – Problems FIG. 1 ANNOTATION IN THE PERSEUS TREEBANK

FIG. 2 MISSING ARGUMENTS

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2.1. Impersonal verbs, non-nominative subjects Doássato ‘it seems’ (1.) hôs ára hoi phronéonti doássato kérdion eînai thus PTC3SG.DAT think:PTCP.PRS.DAT seem:AOR.MID.3SG better be:INF.PRS “Then, as he pondered, that seemed to him the better.” Od. 5.474 (=x7) Mélei ‘it matters’, also nom-dat (2.) méle gár hoi eōn en dōmasi númphēs matter:IMPF.3SG PTC 3SG.DAT be:PTCP.PRS.NOM in palace:DAT.PL nymph:GEN “It troubled her that he abode in the dwelling of the nymph.” (Od. 5.6) (3.) eím’ Oduseùs Laertiádēs, hòs … | be:PRS.1SG Odysseus:NOM.SG son.of.Laertes:NOM.SG REL.NOM.SG ánthrṓpoisi mélō ... man:DAT.PL care:PRS.1SG ‘I am Odysseus, son of Laertes, of great interest to men.’ (Od. 9.19-20.) Khrē ‘need’, acc-gen or impersonal (4.) muthēseai hótteó se khrē say:FUT.MID.2SG REL.GEN 2SG.ACC need ‘You will say what you need’ (Od. 1.125) 2.2. Voice TABLE 1. THE GREEK VOICE SYSTEM TENSE/ASPECT

PRESENT

AORIST/FUTURE

PERFECT

VOICE

ACTIVE/MEDIO-PASSIVE

ACTIVE/MIDDLE/PASSIVE

ACTIVE/MEDIO-PASSIVE

MORPHOLOGY: active and middle have distinct endings, in the aorist and future passive is formed with derivational suffix + active endings Voice in Homer “Chez Homère, la voix passive n’est pas un fait de langue, mais un fait qui relève de la parole, c’est-à-dire que le moyen (avec l’aoriste en –ēn ou –thēn) peut, à l’occasion, prendre la valeur que nous appelons passive” (Chantraine: 1953: 180). (‘passive future’: 2 occurrences with ‘middle’ meaning) TABLE 2. VOICE ALTERNATION

ANIMATE VERBS ‘laugh’-‘make laugh’ ‘die’-‘kill’ ‘sit’-‘seat’ ‘eat’-‘feed’ ‘learn’-‘teach’

induced periphrasis kteínō hízō bóskō dédae didáskō deíknumi kholóō deidíssomai keúthō

strategy transitivizing suppletion voice alternation(labile active) suppletion augmentation, voice alternation

‘see’-‘show’ ‘be angry’-‘anger’ ‘fear’-‘frighten’ ‘hid’-‘hide’

plain geláō thnḗskō hézomai, hízomai esthíō *dáō didáskomai horáō kholoúmai deídō keúthomai

INANIMATE VERBS ‘boil’-‘boil’ ‘burn’-‘burn’ ‘break’-‘break’ ‘open’-‘open’ ‘be(come) dry’-‘dry’ ‘be(come) long’-‘lenghten’ ‘hang’-‘hang’ ‘turn over’-‘turn over’ ‘fall’-‘drop’

zéō kaíomai rḗgnumai oígnumai térsomai tanúomai krémamai stréphomai píptō

kaíō rḗgnumi oígō tersaínō tanúō kremánnumi stréphō híēmi

voice alternation(labile middle) voice alternation(labile middle) voice alternation voice alternation voice alternation voice alternation voice alternation suppletion

suppletion voice alternation augmention voice alternation

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3. The Corpus Homeric Poems - Running words 232,573 3.1. Frequencies TABLE 3: VERBS IN HOMER Bivalent verbs

Verbs + acc

Verbs + dat

Verbs + gen

Total

Tokens

Tot

Tok

Freq

%

Tot

Tok

Freq

%

Tot

Tok

Freq

%

2,035

14,604

1,239

10,911

8.8

60.9%

516

2,549

4.93

25.3%

280

1,144

4.08

13.7%

3.2. Verbal semantics: preliminary classification TABLE 4: VERB CLASSES GROUP

SUBGROUP

MEANING

1 experiencer predicates

1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 3a 3b

emotion bodily sensation perception mental activity lacking, depriving movement/location away from perlative multidirectional make use of

5a 5b 5c 5d 6 6a 6b 6c 6d 7a 7b

hitting touching locative directional motion miscellaneous meet, oppose communication be like, in agreement with help change of state change of position miscellaneous unclassified beneficiary [non-argumental]

2 sec.arg ablative 3 nondirect. motion 4 intentional activity 5 second arg locative 6 verbs of social interaction

7 change of state 9 10

4. Correspondence analysis (see Fig. 3-6) The horizontal axis represents 61.5% of total variation and indicates an opposition between the accusative and the genitive; the vertical axis represents 38.5% and shows the (much more limited) opposition between the dative and the other cases. 5.

Experiential predicates

5.1. Akoúō ‘hear’ (mostly active-middle=active) Dative (listen to) (5.) dúnasai dè sù pántos’ akoúein anéri kēdoménō (…) can:FUT.2SG PTC 2SG.NOM everywhere hear:INF.PRS man:DAT suffer:PTCP.PRS.M/P.NOM “But everywhere you can listen to a man that is in a sorrow” (Il. 16.515-516) Genitive (listen to) 3

(6.) hótti hoi ōk’ ḗkouse mégas theòs euxaménoio that 3SG.DAT quickly hear:AOR.3SG great:NOM god:NOM pray:PTCT.PRS.M/P.GEN “(And was glad) that the great god had quickly heard his prayer.” (Il. 16.531) (hear about) (7.) dákru d’ apò blephárōn chamádis bále patrós tear:ACC PTC from eyelid:GEN.PL to.the.ground throw:AOR.3SG father:GEN akoúsas hear:PTCP.AOR.NOM “Tears from his eyelids he let fall upon the ground, when he heard about his father.” (Od. 4.114) Genitive (middle, stimulus) (8.) ou gár pō sphin NEG PTC yet 3PL.DAT

akoúeto laòs hear:IMPF.M/P.3SG men:NOM.SG

autês DEM.GEN

“For their host had not as yet heard the war-cry.” (Il. 4.331) Genitive and accusative coordinated (stimulus) (9.) mukēthmoû t’ ēkousa boôn aulizomenáōn oiôn lowing:GEN PTC hear:AOR.1SG cow:GEN.PL lodge:PTCP.PRS.M/P.GEN.PL sheep:GEN.PL te blēkhēn PTC bleating:ACC “I heard the lowing of the cattle lying (in the courtyard) and the bleating of the sheep.” (Od. 12.265-266) 5.2. Akouázomai ‘listen to’ Genitive (10.) daitumónes d’ anà dṓmat’ akouázōntai aoidoū banquetier:NOM.PL PTC on palace:ACC.PL listen:PRS.M/P.3PL ministrel:GEN “Banqueters in the halls listen to a minstrel.” (Od. 9.7) (11.) prṓtō gàr kaì daitòs akouázesthon emeîo first PTC and dinner:GEN listen:PRS.M/P.3DU POSS.1SG.GEN “For the two of you are the first to be invited to the feast.” (Il. 4.343) 5.3. Onínēmi ‘enjoy’ Genitive (middle) (12.) daitòs ónēso dinner:GEN profit:IMPR.AOR.MID.2SG “be satisfied with the dinner!” (Od. 19.68) Accusative (active or middle, causative: reward) (13.) tôi ké me póll’ ṓnēsen ánax, ei autóthi gḗra thus PTC 1SG.ACC much profit:AOR. 3SG king:NOM if here grow.old:SBJ.AOR.3SG “Therefore would my master have richly rewarded me, if he had grown old here” (Od. 14. 67) 5.4. Térpō ‘enjoy’ Accusative (active or middle, causative: cheer up) (14.) (…) énth’ horóōn phréna térpsomai wherefrom see:PTCP.PRS.NOM heart:ACC enjoy:FUT.MID.1SG “Wherefrom I will gaze and make glad my heart.” Il. 20.23 (15.) hêstó te kaì tòn éterpe lógois (…) be:PPF.3SG PTC and DEM.ACC enjoy:IMPF.3SG word:DAT.PL “And was making him glad with talk.” Il. 15.393 Dative (middle, rejoice) (16.) autàr epeì phresìn hêsi tetárpeto daídala but when heart:DAT.PL POSS.3SG.DAT.PL enjoy:PF.M/P.3SG armor:ACC.PL 4

leússōn gaze:PTCP.PRS.NOM “But when in his soul he had taken delight looking at his armor.” (Il. 19.19) (middle, enjoy) (17.) kaì múthois térpesthe (…) and story:DAT.PL enjoy:IMPR.2.PL “And enjoy the stories.” (Od. 4.239) (18.) ainôs gár múthoisin épessi te soîsin akoúôn terrifyingly PTC word:DAT.PL word:DAT.PL PTC POSS.2SG.DAT.PL listen:PTCP.PRS.NOM térpomai enjoy:PRS.M/P.1SG “For wondrous is the pleasure I take in listening to your tales and thy speech.” (Od. 4. 598-599) Genitive (middle or passive, enjoy) (19.) eunês hês alókhou tarpēmenai ēdè kaì húpnou bed:GEN POSS.3SG.GEN wife:GEN enjoy:INF.AOR.P PTC and sleep:GEN “The heart of Odysseus had had its fill of pleasure with his wife and of sleep” (Od. 23.346) (20.) tō d’ epeì oûn philótētos etarpētēn erateinês DEM.NOM.DU PTC when PTC love:GEN enjoy:AOR.PASS.3DU glad:GEN “But when the two had had their fill of the joy of love.” (Od. 23.300) (21.) erésthai xeínous, hoí tinés eisin, epeì ask:INF.AOR.MID stranger:ACC.PL 3PL.NOM INDEF.NOM.PL be:PRS.3.PL when tárpēsan edōdês enjoy:AOR.P.3PL food:GEN “Ask and enquire of the strangers who they are, since now they have had their joy of food” (Od. 3.69-70) Genitive and dative coordinated (middle) (22.) daití te térpētai kaì aoidês húmnon feast:DAT.SG and enjoy:PRS.M/P.3SG and song:GEN hymn:ACC akoúōn. listen:PTCP.PRS.NOM “He may take pleasure in the feast, and in hearing the strains of the song.” (Od. 8.429) 5.5. Phthonéō ‘begrudge, envy’ Dative (begrudge sbd) (23.) têi d’ ouk àn phthonéoimi podôn hápsasthai emeîo. 3SG.DAT PTC NEG PTC begrudge:OPT.PRS.1SG foot:GEN touch:INF.AOR.MID 1SG.GEN “Such a one I would not grudge to touch my feet.” (Od. 19.348) Genitive (grudge, envy - stimulus) (24.) (…) oudé tí se khrē allotríōn phthonéein: (…) NEG INDEF.ACC 2SG.ACC need:NOM other:GEN.PL envy:INF.PRS “And you have no need to be jealous for the goods of other folk.” (Od. 18.17-18) 5.6. Kholóō ‘be(come) angry’ Accusative (active, causative: ‘anger’) (25.) deûr’ áge peirēthētō, epeí m’ ekholōsate líēn, here lead:IMPR.2.SG attempt:AOR.IMPR.P.3SG when 1SG.ACC anger:AOR.2PL very “Let him come hither and make trial-for you have greatly angered me-” (Od. 8.205) Dative (middle-human stimulus) (26.) Hērēi d’ oú ti tóson nemesízetai oudè kholoûtai Hera:DAT PTC NEG INDEF.ACC such indignate:PRS.M/P.3SG NEG anger:PRS.M/P.3SG 5

“But at Hera he is not so greatly indignant or angry.” (Il. 8.421) Genitive (middle-reason, topic of anger) (27.) (…) kekhólôso dè kêr hetároio anger:PPF.IND.M/P.2SG PTC heart:NOM comrade:GEN “Your heart was full of wrath for your comrade.” (Il. 16.585) 5.7. Experiential predicates: dative vs. genitive stimuli 5.7.1. Be angry at - Stimulus typically in the dative = verbs of human interaction (no possible case alternation) nemesízomai ‘be indignant’, aposkudmaínō ‘be enraged with’, epimēníō ‘be angry at’, kotéō ‘be angry at’, skudmaínō ‘be angry with’, kholóō ‘be angry at’ (see above), khōómai ‘be angry at’. 5.7.2. Long for, love, desire - Stimulus typically in the genitive = verbs of hitting, touching, striving for (may alternate with the accusative) éldomai (gen) ‘love’, ‘desire’ (hum, abstr); (acc) ‘desire’ (concr); epimaíomai (gen) ‘strive for’ (acc ‘touch’; éramai ‘love’ (only gen); imeírō ‘long for’, ‘desire’ (only gen); lilaíomai ‘long’ (only gen); pothéō ‘long for’, ‘yearn after’ (only acc). 6. Motion verbs 6.1. Directional motion verbs with prefixes - Allative prefixes mostly take the accusative; occasionally they can take the genitive or the dative (lexically determined). Ablative prefixes always take the genitive. 6.2. Unprefixed motion verbs 6.2.1. Eîmi ‘go’ Genitive (inanimate direction) (28.) ê ithùs sês mētròs íō soîo dómoio? or straight POSS.2SG.GEN mother:GEN. go:SUBJ.PRS.1SG POSS.2SG.GEN house:GEN “Or shall I go straight to thy mother's house?” (Od. 15. 511) (29.) all’ oú pēi khroòs eísato but NEG PTC flesh:GEN go:FUT.MID.3SG “Yet in no wise reached him his flesh.” (Il. 13. 191) Dative (human direction) (30.) nûn dè épos eréōn pálin ággelos eîm’ Akhilêi now PTC word:ACC say:PTCP.NOM back messanger:NOM go:PRS.1SG Achilles:DAT “And now will I go back again as messenger to Achilles” (Il. 11.652) Accusative (less frequent - perlative, direction mostly with =de) (31.) hoi d’ ísan ekbántes leíēn hodón 3SG.NOM.PL PTC go:IMPF.3PL dismount:PTCP.PRS.NOM.PL smooth:ACC way:ACC “They dismounted and went along a smooth road” (Od. 10.103) (32.) hé rá th’ hupò brontês patròs Diòs eîsi pédonde DET.NOM PTC PTC under thunder:GEN father:GEN Zeus:GEN go:PRS.3SG earth:ACC=PTC “(the blast) that rushes upon the earth beneath the thunder of father Zeus” (Il. 13.796) 6.2.2. Erkhomai ‘go’ Accusative: Perlative, directional only with =de (33.) pollà d’ ánanta kátanta párantá te dokhmiá t’ many:ACC.PL PTC up-hill downhill sideways PTC across PTC

êlthon go:AOR.3PL 6

“And ever upward, downward, sideward, and aslant they fared.” (Il. 23. 116) (34.) Nûn d’ êlthon pedíonde’ apò nēôn: now PTC go:AOR.3PL earth:ACC=PTC from ship:GEN.PL “And now am I come to the plain from the ships” (Il. 24.401) 7. Verbs of communication Eipon ‘say’, ‘tell’ (aorist) Dative addressee (35.) eukhómenos d’ ára eîpen hekēbólōi Apóllōni: pray:PTCP.PRS.M/P.NOM PTC PTC speak:AOR.3SG archer:DAT Apollo:DAT “Then in prayer he spoke to Apollo attaining his aim” (Il. 16.513) Accusative topic, content of communication (36.) kaì dè tód’ eipémenai pukinòn épos and PTC DEM.ACC INF.AOR.MID cautious:ACC word:ACC “(Let him) declare this wide suggestion.” (Il. 7.375) Occasionally, in trivalent constructions, a topic can occur in the genitive: (37.) eipè dé moi patrós te kaì huiéos say:IMPR.AOR PTC 1SG.DAT father:GEN PTC and son:GEN “Tell me of my father and my son.” (Od. 11.174) Cf. (37) with the accusative, gen~acc stimuli with perception verbs (ex. 6, 8), and reason in (26): (38.) ándra moi énnepe, Moûsa man:ACC 1SG.DAT say:IMPR.AOR Muse:VOC “Oh Muse, tell me of the man...” (Od. 1.1) 8.

Further steps • • • • • •

Personal/impersonal constructions Animacy of arguments Monovalent verbs Trivalent verbs Development of voice Change in argument realization over time

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References Bamman, David, Francesco Mambrini and Gregory Crane 2009. An Ownership Model of Annotation: The Ancient Greek Dependency Treebank. Proceedings of the Eight International Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories (TLT 8). Milan; 5-15 Chantraine, Pierre 1953. Grammaire homérique. Tome 2.: Syntaxe. Paris: Klinksiek Conti, Luz 1998. Zum Passiv von griechischen Verben mit Gen. bzw. Dat. als zweitem Komplement, Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft (MSS), 58:13-50. Conti, Luz 2010a. Weiteres zum Genitiv als Semisubjekt im Altgriechischen: Analyse des Kasus bei impersonalen Konstruktionen, Historische Sprachforschungen 122, 2009 (2010):182207. Conti, Luz 2010b. Análisis del dativo en construcciones impersonales: Los conceptos de sujeto y de semisujeto en griego antiguo, Emerita 78.2:249-273 Conti, Luz and Silvia Luraghi fortch. The Ancient Greek partitive genitive in typological perspective. In S. Luraghi and T. Huumo (eds.) Patitives. Crane, Gregory 1991. Generating and parsing Classical Greek. Literary and Linguistic Computing 6/4: 243-245 Haug, Dag T. T. and M. L. Jondal 2008. Creating a parallel Treebank of the old Indo- European Bible translations. In Proceedings of Language Technologies for Cultural Heritage Workshop (LREC 2008). Marrakech, pp. 27-34 Levin, Beth and Malka Rappaport Hovav 2005. Argument realization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Luraghi, Silvia 2010 The extension of the passive construction in Ancient Greek. In Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 42/1: 60-74 Luraghi, Silvia 2011. Two theoretical approaches to cases in comparison. In Th. Krisch et. al (eds.): Zum Dialog zwischen Indogermanistik und Allgemeiner Sprachwissenschaft. Akten der XIII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Wiesbaden: Reichert Luraghi, Silvia and Barbara McGilivray 2012. A corpus study of argument structure in Homeric Greek. Presentation at the International Conference Exploring Ancient Languages through Corpora (Oslo, 14-17 June 2012) Nichols, Johanna, David Peterson and Jonathan Barnes. 2004. Transitivizing and detransitivising languages. Linguistic Typology 8/2: 149-211 Sausa, Eleonora 2011. L’orientamento della valenza in greco omerico. MA Thesis, Pavia

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FIG. 3. CORRESPONDENCE ANALYSIS A 9

FIG. 4. CORRESPONDENCE ANALYSIS B 10

FIG. 5 ASSOCIATION PLOT A 11

FIG. 6 ASSOCIATION PLOT

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