Support‐Verb Constructions with Objects: Greek‐Coptic Interference in the Documentary Papyri?¹

Abstract

Support‐verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that fill the predicate slot, for example, to make a suggestion in I made the suggestion yesterday. The article examines direct‐object structures with support‐verb constructions in Greek documentary papyri from fourth‐ to mid‐seventh‐century Egypt. By the fourth century, Greek and Egyptian (at this stage called Coptic) had co‐existed in Egypt for about a millennium and the latter was gaining ground. The article focusses on the support‐verb‐construction families surrounding ἐξουσίαν exousian ‘power’ and ἐγγύην egguēn ‘surety’ as well as on a selection of structures with ποιέομαι poieomai ‘to do’. The article finds that direct‐object structures in the data sample have differing explanations. Direct‐object patterns are a marginal pattern in classical Greek already, such that some patterns can be explained by inheritance or the extension of a pattern to new contexts. However, some writers either idiolectally or sociolectally applied object patterns more widely based on the Coptic parallel. The syntax of support‐verb constructions in Greek does not run counter to the verbal syntax otherwise, which may aid the fact that they do not introduce systemic changes.