On the relation between labilizations and neuter gender: Evidence from the Greek diachrony

Abstract

This paper considers labile verbs, i.e., verbs that use the same morphology for the causative and the anticausative reading, and how this lability pattern has evolved and spread in relation to case alignment and, specifically, to the lack of case distinctions between the nominative and the accusative with neuter DPs. In the first part of the study, we examine the voice distinctions in the history of the Greek language, showing that the use of the same voice morphology (i.e., active) for causative and anticausative readings increases in Hellenistic Greek and spreads progressively until Early Modern Greek, as indicated by empirical evidence in dialectal texts. The second part of the study attributes this pattern to the lack of the nominative-accusative case distinction in neuter nouns that in turn can be interpreted as either objects of a transitive (causative) verb or subjects of an intransitive verb (anticausative). In this aspect, neuter nouns demonstrate a type of split ergativity in the Greek labile alternations which thus require a split ergativity analysis based on DP features.

Lability in Western Peninsular Spanish

“…It is not surprising that Spanish presents this phenomenon, as many other languages (related or not between each other) have a higher or lower degree of lability. Virtually all the articles that deal with it point out that verbs of movement or change of state are more inclined to be labilised (see Karantzola & Lavidas , Jiménez Fernández & Tubino Blanco , Letuchiy , Letuchiy ).…”

“…In fact, the behaviour of entrar (‘to enter’) as labile in current western Peninsular Spanish follows the opposition perfective–imperfective rather than the semantics of the subject or the object. Karantzola and Lavidas () have even found that certain constructions with a post‐verbal neuter noun phrase have triggered lability in Greek.…”

“…This split is manifested in Georgian or Italian, specifically in verbs of achievement or unaccusative lexemes with patient‐like subjects (Harris , Hewitt , Van Valin ). Likewise, the tense, aspect and mood are also important, since, for example, Dutch perfects exhibit two auxiliaries, depending on the telicity or atelicity contrast; Vedic (Kulikov 1999a, 1999b and 2003) and Greek (Karantzola & Leonidas ) are subjected to mood, tense and, in the latter case, even to the gender of the noun phrase dependant on the verb. Acehnese and Tsova‐Tush languages also take into account agentivity to develop split intransitivity (Durie ).…”

Patrones de ergatividad en el español peninsular

“…De hecho, el comportamiento de entrar como lábil en el español peninsular occidental actual sigue la oposición perfectivo-imperfectivo más que la semántica del sujeto u objeto. Karantzola & Lavidas (2014) incluso han encontrado que ciertas construcciones con un sintagma nominal neutro en posición posverbal han motivado la labilidad en griego.…”