Chapter Two. Pragmatic Presupposition And Complementation In Classical Greek

Abstract

Many cognitive verbs in Classical Greek can be complemented by both participle phrases and finite ?t?-clauses, apparently without any difference in meaning. This chapter argues that there is in fact a difference between the two constructions, which concerns their information structure. In analyzing the difference it makes use of the concept of presupposition. In the author's opinion there is considerably more to be said about this difficult notion than has been customary in Greek linguistics. As the number of instances the chapter looks at is large, this analysis is of a provisional nature. The verbs selected for the investigation are the cognitive verbs da, s and pstaµa; the text sample consists of a number of Classical prose texts, but the chapter refers to other texts as well. In the chapter, the concept of presupposition is defined in pragmatic and information-structural terms. Keywords: Classical Greek; cognitive verb; pragmatic presupposition