Unit:
Κατεύθυνση ΓλωσσολογίαLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Author:
Efstathiou Maria-Iraklia
Supervisors info:
Βασίλειος Σπυρόπουλος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Σπυριδούλα Βαρλοκώστα, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Αμαλία Μόζερ, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Η μορφοσυντακτική αντιπροσώπευση της όψης
Translated title:
The morphosyntactic representation of aspect
Summary:
The aim of the present paper is to investigate the representation of aspect morphologically and syntactically. Aspect is the way in which the speaker chooses to see and present an event independent of its objective temporal reference. In particular the study investigates the question if aspect has its own independent representation in Greek, in other words if aspect is an independent grammatical-functional category, as many researchers have claimed such as Xydopoulos (1996) Alexiadou (1997) and Cinque (1999).
The morphological analysis focuses on the investigation of the way the aspectual categories are expressed. The aspectual categories are the perfective aspect, the imperfective aspect and the perfect aspect. The analysis also focuses on the investigation of the position of aspect in comparison with the other grammatical categories of voice and tense. The analysis showed that sometimes the categories of aspect and voice are fused and as a result they are interchanged in the clause structure which means that there is not a specific and a fixed position for the two categories.
Syntactically, aspect is expressed through aspectual adverbs. The syntactic analysis focuses on the investigation of the position of aspect in the clause structure, therefore the position of adverbs. The studies of Xydopoulos (1996), Alexiadou (1997) and Cinque (1999) are presented, which contribute to a deeper comprehension of the syntactic representation of aspect, its role as a functional category and the order of aspect in the clause structure in comparison to the other functional categories. The main analysis focuses on Cinque who supports the cartographic approach of functional categories, according to which clauses are formed by a fixed system of functional heads in all languages. Cinque argues that there is a universal and fixed hierarchy of functional categories that is confirmed by the specific order of adverbial classes. Each adverbial class corresponds to a functional category. Cinque proposes a rigid and specific order of functional categories which, as he claims, is common to all languages. The main research question is if Cinque’s order applies to Greek. The data consist of constructed clauses and each of them includes at least two adverbial categories. Some tests are carried out in order to test if Cinque’s order applies to Greek. In the end of each test it is noted whether or not Cinque’s prediction for each hierarchical order is confirmed.
The results of the research showed that some aspectual categories do not follow a rigid hierarchical order, but they are placed in whichever order in the clause structure. The explanation that is given for this is that it seems that some categories of aspect are fused under a head.
Main subject category:
Language – Literature
Keywords:
aspect, functional category, cartography of functional categories, Cinque, morphosyntactic representation of aspect, functional categories
