In this section, we acknowledge the receipt of recent works on Greek itself or with substantial Greek content that have come to our editorial attention, and offer a brief characterization of their contents. All of the notices are authored by Brian Joseph.
Bianconi, Michele, Marta Capano, Domenica Romagno, and Francesco Rovai, eds., 2022. Ancient Indo-European languages between linguistics and philology: Contact, variation, and reconstruction. Leiden: Brill, pp. xvi, 314.
This volume is a collection of 12 articles covering different aspects of Indo-European phonetic, semantic, lexical, poetic, and mythological developments, all with an eye to the relevance of language contact to the various analyses proposed. All of the chapters in this well-edited volume are well argued and make for interesting reading, but several can be singled out as having Greek as their primary focus. Among those contributions are: “Divine witnesses in Greece and Anatolia: Iliad 3.276–280 between contact, variation, and reconstruction”, by Michele Bianconi; “Phenomena of spirantization and language contact in Greek Sicilian inscriptions”, by Marta Capano; “Egyptian Greek: A contact variety”, by Sonja Dahlgren; “Natural language use and bilingual interference: Verbal complementation patterns in Post-Classical Greek”, by Victoria Fendel; “Where does Dionysus
De Decker, Filip Johannes, 2022. Studies in Homeric speech introductions and conclusions. Alexandria: Edizioni dell’ Orso, pp. xvi, 541.
Based on the author’s Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München doctoral thesis from 2015, A morpho-syntactic analysis of speech introductions and conclusions, but building on research by the author since 2015, this study extends the findings of the thesis along several dimensions. As De Decker himself explains, these new directions cover “tense and aspect, the use of the augment, the Greek moods, the use of the modal particle and the use of the moods in constructions referring to the “unreal” (p. 2)” and they constitute the meat of the matter in this work, with substantial chapters (5 through 9, respectively) on each topic. The book contains as well brief chapters on methodology (Chapter 1) and types of verbs of speaking (Chapter 3), a survey of the extensive literature, reaching back to the 19th century (Chapter 2), and substantial chapters on “double introductions” (Chapter 4), i.e., those involving “the appearance of two or more finite forms of a verbum dicendi within the same speech introduction” (p. 21). An important feature of the overall work is the author’s explicit stance of following a basic exegetical tenet of “
Λεκάκου , Μαρίκα & Νίνα Τοπιντζή , επιμ , 2022. Εισαγωγή στη Γλωσσολογία . Θεμελιώδεις έννοιες και βασικοί κλάδοι με έμφαση στην ελληνική γλώσσα [Introduction to Linguistics. Fundamental concepts and basic branches with an emphasis on the Greek language]. Athens: Gutenberg, pp. 771.
Designed for use in Greek higher education, this edited volume contains, in addition to an introductory essay by the editors, 14 chapters, all co-authored, by 28 noted and mostly Greek linguists, who work in diverse areas of linguistics. As the title indicates, the volume is aimed at providing a foundation in basic concepts by surveying the primary subfields within the discipline, drawing on data from Greek to the fullest extent possible. Thus there are chapters on phonetics by Mary Baltazani and Katerina Nikolaidou, on phonology by Ioanna Kappa and Nina Topintzi, on morphology by Angeliki Efthimiou and Evangelia Thomadaki, on syntax by Elena Anagnostopoulou and Marika Lekakou, on semantics by Anna Roussou and Anastasios Tsangalidis, on pragmatics by Amalia Mozer and Spyridoula Bella, on discourse analysis by Marianthi Georgalidou and Costas Canakis, on historical linguistics by Io Manolessou and Nikos Pantelidis, on sociolinguistics by Panayiotis A. Pappas and Brian D. Joseph, on dialectology and Modern Greek dialects by Dimitris Papazachariou and Angeliki Ralli, on computational linguistics by Christina K. Alexandri and Katerina Frantzi, on psycholinguistics by Despina Papadopoulou and Ianthi Tsimpli, on neurolinguistics by Spyridoula Varlokosta and Arhonto Terzi, and on linguistic ideologies and myths by George Xydopoulos and Stavroula Tsiplakou.
Olander, Thomas, ed., 2022. The Indo-European Language Family: A phylogenetic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. xvi, 297.
This book offers chapters on each of the major branches of the Indo-European language family viewed in a phylogenetic perspective, by which is meant an attention to the matter of subgrouping within the family, that is, which branches show greater genealogical affinity to which other branches. In addition there are three chapters on the methodology of determining subgrouping. Greek figures in this volume in two ways. There is a chapter specifically on Greek, by Lucien van Beek, in which the author first presents detailed evidence for a separate Greek branch, and then considers the subgrouping of dialects within Greek itself, turning after that to interrelations between Greek and other branches, ultimately arguing for a particularly close connection between Greek and Phrygian. This Graeco-Phrygian grouping figures also in the chapter on Albanian by Adam Hyllested and Brian D. Joseph, who, in considering where Albanian fits into the larger family picture, argue for a chronologically deeper Graeco-Albanian “node” in a family tree, from which emerged Graeco-Phrygian and ultimately, along an “Illyric” line of descent, Albanian. Similarly, the chapter on Armenian by Birgit Anette Olsen and Rasmus Thorsø refers to Graeco-Phrygian in the course of an extensive discussion of parallels between Armenian and Greek.
Tarpomanova, Ekaterina, Petya Asenova, & Boris Vounchev, eds., 2022. ΓΛΑΓΟΛΑΤΗ . Balkan verb typology. Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, pp. 476.
This data-rich volume contains 16 chapters aimed at presenting a comparative perspective on the verb and verbal categories in various languages of the Balkan Sprachbund, including Modern Greek. The chapters and topics covered are as follows: “Indo-European verb morphology” by Nikola Krastev and Bilyana Mihaylova, “Aspect and aspectuality” by Christina Markou, “The correlation between the simple and complex preterites” by Petya Asenova, “Imperfect” by Bilyana Mihaylova, Marina Dzhonova, and Ekaterina Tarpomanova, “Pluperfect” by Ekaterina Tarpomanova and Bilyana Mihaylova, “Future perfect” by Ekaterina Tarpomanova, “Future perfect in the past” by Ekaterina Tarpomanova and Boris Vounchev, “Modal functions of verbal tenses” by Petya Asenova, “Grammaticalization and modality of future tense forms I. Modal uses of future tense” by Petya Asenova and Zlatka Guentchéva, “Grammaticalization and modality of future tense forms II. Modality on the way to temporality: Verb phrases with a future meaning” by Petya Asenova and Christina Markou, “Future in the past and conditional” by Ekaterina Tarpomanova and Bilyana Mihaylova, “The Balkan type of conditional” by Petya Asenova, “Presumptive” by Ekaterina Tarpomanova and Krasimira Aleksova, “Expressing evidentiality in the Balkan languages” by Petya Asenova and Christina Markou, “Reflexive and middle voice” by Petya Asenova and Zlatka Guentchéva, and “Periphrastic passive” by Ekaterina Tarpomanova and Marina Dzhonova. Collectively these papers treat the synchronic status of these various verbal categories and offer a diachronic viewpoint as well.
