The continuum between coordination and subordination in Archaic Greek: On the grammaticalization of ἅμα

Abstract

The syntax of subordination in the early stages of ancient Indo-European languages is still a debated issue (cf. Cristofaro 2003, Viti 2013, Probert 2015 and references therein). Indeed, not all subordination strategies rely on specific lexical items or explicit markers, making it challenging to identify clause-linking patterns in many of the world's languages (cf. Haspelmath 2004, Gast & Diessel 2012). From a typological perspective, it is widely held that adverbs and prepositions are among the primary sources of both coordinating and subordinating markers, which are considered the result of a grammaticalization process (cf. Haumann 1997; Kortmann 1998). By using the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae database (TLG) as a digital corpus of Homeric Greek texts, this paper investigates the semantic and syntactic developments of ἅμα ‘together; at the same time’ (cf. Beekes 2010: 79), aiming to demonstrate that it can be considered the source of a grammaticalization process that gives rise to new linking strategies. From a synchronic perspective, the analysis of all the occurrences of ἅμα in Iliad and Odyssey shows that this is a multifunctional term that involves a great variety of meanings, behaving as (i) an adverb with either spatial (‘in the same place’), comitative, or temporal value (simultaneity), (ii) a preposition governing dative NPs, (iii) a preverb added to a specific class of verbs, with which it tends to constitute a syntactic and semantic unit, (iv) a connective adverb functioning as a coordinating conjunction, (v) a preposition introducing a subordinate clause. From a diachronic perspective, based on different syntactic contexts, it turns out to undergo multiple grammaticalization processes (polygrammaticalization), evolving either from adverb into preposition or from adverb into conjunction, according to an evolution path that has been observed in other ancient Indo-European languages. Moreover, it is hardly surprising that a comitative marker can be recruited to express a conjunctive relationship (Mithun 1988: 338; Haspelmath 2004: 15). Indeed, previous studies have already classified Ancient Greek ἅμα as a ‘conjunctive adverb’ (Crespo 2011: 39; Jiménez Delgado 2018: 212; cf. Verano 2018: 127). In particular, it has been suggested that ἅμα functioned as a conjunctive adverb as early as Homer. However, it has been argued that such a function was limited to smaller syntactic units, such as NPs, APs, and AdvPs, and that only in the post-Homeric age did ἅμα extend to link broader clause or sentence-level structures (Conti 2012: 60-61). Unlike what was previously assumed (Schwyzer 1950: 534; Conti 2012: 45), I will attempt to show that already in Homer ἅμα began to function as a clause linking strategy. This development aligns with typological predictions suggesting that comitative markers like ‘with’ typically grammaticalize into clause-connecting markers only after an intermediate stage where they coordinate noun phrases (cf. Author 2025 and references therein). It is thus hypothesized that a former comitative adverb ἅμα underwent a grammaticalization process, giving rise to new categories such as conjunctive adverb and preposition, while still preserving its lexical adverbial function, conforming to the basic principle of functional and formal persistence in grammaticalization (Hopper 1991: 22; Lichtenberk 1991: 75). Gradually, both the conjunctive adverb and the preposition expanded into new syntactic contexts. On the one hand, in line with the well-known grammaticalization path COMITATIVE > NP-AND > SENTENCE-SND (Heine & Kuteva 2004: 83), ἅμα extended its coordinating function from NP to sentence level, connecting independent clauses. On the other hand, given the close typological correlation between the comitative function and the temporal meaning of simultaneity that gives rise to the grammaticalization path COMITATIVE > TEMPORAL (cf. Heine & Kuteva