The Periphrastic Perfect in Ancient Greek: A Diachronic Mental Space Analysis1

Abstract

AbstractIn the present article, I apply Fauconnier’s mental spaces theory to the diachronic analysis of the Ancient Greek periphrastic perfect. I argue that the periphrastic construction started out as a ‘resultative’ perfect, with FOCUS and EVENT located in the same mental space. I show that, contrary to what is sometimes believed, the construction was not limited to a purely stative meaning, but underwent the cross‐linguistically attested semantic shift from resultative to anterior, whereby an additional non‐FOCUS EVENT‐space was constructed. In fourth‐century Classical Greek, we witness the further extension of the periphrastic construction with regard to semantics, morphology and discourse context. I close the article with some remarks on the possible aoristicisation of the periphrastic perfect.