Search results for " Homeric Greek"
showing 10 items of 10 documents
Going in Homer: The Role of Verb-Inherent Actionality Within Self-Propelled Motion-Event Encoding
2019
The paper aims at investigating the encoding of self-propelled motion events in Homeric Greek in the light of the typology of motion events, taking into account the case of to go. The verbal class of the self-propelled motion refers to those verbs expressing the idea of a simple translational motion, such as to go, to move, without any information about the manner of motion (see, by contrast, the class of the manner-of-motion verbs, such as to run, to swim) or about the path of motion (see, by contrast, the class of the path verbs, such as to enter, to exit). According to Talmy (2000), world languages can be distinguished depending on whether they prototypically express the semantic compone…
The Homeric compound Ὑπερίων and the sun in the Indo-European culture
2017
This paper aims at reconstructing the semantic meaning of Homeric Ὑπερίων, the epithet of the sun, whose etymology is still not clear. After presenting the modern interpretations, which describe it as an adjective in the comparative form derived from the adverbial particle ὑπέρ ‘up, above’, the ancient grammarians’ hypothesis on Ὑπερίων as a compound is tested, taking into consideration the textual analysis of those discourse contexts in which the terms for sun are used in archaic Greek and Vedic Sanskrit in comparative perspective. In particular, the co-occurrence with the motion verb go, i.e. εἶμι and i from the same IE root *h1ey-, in the Homeric poems and in the Rigveda respectively, mi…
Reaching an Endpoint: Verbal Root Telicity and Motion Event Encoding in Homeric Greek
2020
Έχοντας ως βάση το θεωρητικό πλαίσιο του Talmy (Talmy 1985, 2000), το παρόν άρθρο στοχεύει στο να φωτίσει την κωδικοποίηση γεγονότων μεταφορικής κίνησης στα Ομηρικά ελληνικά, δείχνοντας το ρόλο που διαδραματίζει η λεξική όψη (Aktionsart), κυρίωςτο τέλειο ποιόν ενεργείας, ως εγγενές σημασιολογικό χαρακτηριστικό αναφερόμενο στη λεξική ρίζα. Αυτή η μελέτη, βασιζόμενη σε μία κειμενική ανάλυση της Ιλιάδας και της Οδύσσειας, εξετάζει το πώς τα ρήματα κινήσεως στα Ομηρικά ελληνικά μπορούν να συνεπάγονται την άφιξη του Figure (δηλαδή του κινούμενου αντικειμένου) στο Ground (δηλαδή στο αντικείμενο αναφοράς) ανάλογα με την τέλεια λεξική όψη. Συγκεκριμένα, η ανάλυση λαμβάνει υπόψη τα ομηρικά ρήματα γι…
Spatial Cognition and Frames of Reference in Indo-European
2022
The development of Frames of Reference (FoRs) as coordinate systems in space language has gained increasing attention in current linguistic, neurolinguistic, and psycholinguistic research (Diessel 2013: 687; Kemmerer 2010). Previous studies on typology of spatial expressions have traditionally been based on the universal status of the egocentric or relative FoR found in the Indo- European languages, in which the relation between Figure and Ground is specified by the deictic observer’s viewpoint (Mühlhäusler 2001). However, there is growing crosslinguistic evidence that many non-Indo-European languages do not make use of such deictic or ternary FoR, but interpret spatial relations by referri…
From Thinking to Raging: Reflexes of Indo-European *men- Polysemy in Homer
2020
This paper aims at investigating the semantic value of the verb μαίνομαι “to rage, to be furious” in Homeric Greek, in order to clarify the striking semantic relationship between the common ‘irrational’ meaning of the verb and the original ‘rational’ meaning of the Indo-European root *men- “to think”, to which the verb traces back. The corresponding words for μαίνομαι in other Indo-European languages (e.g. OInd. mányatē; Av. mainyeite; OIr. (do)moiniur; OCS mъnjo; Lit. miniu) can be translated as “to think”, thus showing an opposite meaning. From a textual analysis of all the occurrences of μαίνομαι in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the study aims at finding semantic traces of the original mean…
Sul suppletivismo verbale in Omero: l’apporto della prospettiva tipologica talmiana
2020
This paper aims at investigating the partially uncertain relationship on which the suppletion of the Homeric verbal forms within the paradigm for ‘go’ is based. For this purpose, the Homeric distribution of some motion verbs for ‘go’, as well as their contexts of use, are taken into account. In the light of Talmy’s theoretical framework of the lexicalization patterns, the analysis focuses on the motion events expressed by ἔρχομαι and ἦλϑον (fut. ἐλεύσομαι, pf. εἰλήλουϑα) and their cooccurring spatial elements, i.e. particles, adverbs, nominal case markers, which encode the path followed by the moving object. Building on telicity as a verb-inherent actional feature (i.e. Lexical Aspect), and…
All’origine della deissi indoeuropea. Un approccio linguistico cognitivo
2020
This paper focuses on the existence of temporal deixis in Indo-European, questioning the traditional view according to which metaphors of time in ancient Indo-European languages originated from projecting the human body coordinates onto space. In particular, it aims at interpreting data from historical-comparative linguistics by using the cognitive linguistic framework, without disregarding the most recent results from typological studies, spatial language acquisition, and neurolinguistic research on spatiotemporal deixis. Contrary to what previously assumed, the comparative analysis between the Rigveda and the Homeric poems shows that earlier spatial metaphors of time are still deictically…
Homeric Evidences of an Inherently Actional Opposition: ἔρχομαι vs ἦλθον
2020
The paper aims at analyzing the paradigmatic relationship between the verbs ἔρχομαι and ἦλθον in Homeric Greek. Both verbs convey the idea of going within a Homeric suppletive paradigm. Although suppletivism between ἔρχομαι, εἶμι, ἐλεύσομαι (future), ἦλθον (aorist), εἰλήλουθα (perfect) is generally accepted, there is still uncertainty on both etymology and semantic features involving inherent actionality, with particular reference to ἔρχομαι. Therefore, the actional status of ἔρχομαι and its relationship with ἦλθον need further investigation. A textual analysis of the Homeric occurrences of both ἔρχομαι and ἦλθον, focusing on the semantic-syntactic discourse context, has shed light on their…
Lexical Aspect and Motion Event Encoding in Homeric Greek: A Case Study - poster
2017
Lexical Aspect and Motion Event Encoding in Homeric Greek: A Case Study This paper aims to investigate the role that lexical aspect (Aktionsart) plays in motion event encoding in Homeric Greek. In particular, the role of telicity as an inherent semantic property of the verb has been recently re-evaluated within the verbal system of early Indo-European languages (Bartolotta 2016). On the basis of textual analysis of the Iliad and the Odyssey, I will argue how Homeric Greek motion verbs appear to be compatible with the entailment of the arrival of the Figure to the Ground according to their inherent telicity (see Bartolotta forthcoming). Specifically, I will focus on the Homeric verbs for ̔ru…
Lexical aspect and motion event encoding in homeric greek: a case study
2017
This paper aims to investigate the role that lexical aspect (Aktionsart) plays in motion event encoding in Homeric Greek. In particular, the role of telicity as an inherent semantic property of the verb has been recently re-evaluated within the verbal system of early Indo-European languages (Bartolotta 2016). According to Talmy (1985; 2000), a translational motion event consists of an object (Figure) that moves (Motion) through a path (Path) with respect to another reference object (Ground).On the basis of textual analysis of the Iliad and the Odyssey, I will argue how Homeric Greek motion verbs turn out to be compatible with the entailment of the arrival of the Figure to the Ground accordi…