Lexical Aspect and Motion Event Encoding in Homeric Greek: A Case Study - poster

Abstract

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 ̔run̕ as a case study, i.e. the atelic verbs θέω and τρέχω, and the telic (aorist) ἔδραμον. These verbs may co-occur with both directional (e.g. ἐπί ̔to, over̕, εἰς/ἐς ̔to̕) and locative spatial particles (e.g. περί ̔around̕, παρά ̔beside̕). However, data show a significant variation within the distribution of such particles due to a prototypical semantic compatibility between telic verbs and directional particles. These latter show indeed a more advanced stage of grammaticalization with ἔδραμον since they always co-occur as preverbs, with a few cases of tmesis that are interpretable as verb-particle constructions (see Bertrand 2014; Pompei 2010: 412). Furthermore, the analysis of larger narrative discourse contexts shows that ἔδραμον refers to motion events that entail the arrival of the Figure to the Ground, with both directional and locative particles. Differently, θέω and τρέχω refer to motion events that do not entail the arrival of the Figure to the Ground, even when they occur with directional particles.