Pluperfect periphrases in Medieval Greek: a perspective on the collaboration between linguistics and philology

Abstract

AbstractThis article focuses on the history of the Medieval Greek ‘BE + aorist participle’ periphrastic construction with the aim of contributing to the understanding of its development and arguing in favour of a particular methodological perspective for historical linguistics. Specifically, by exploring the diachrony of this verbal construction, which has been neglected in historical accounts of Greek, I propose that an adequate explanation for all its properties will require us to supplement our theoretically informed linguistic approach with parameters pertaining to the textual nature of the historical data. My conclusion will emphasize the necessity of a close collaboration between linguistics and philology.