Greek Compounds Research Articles

Term ‘zlorastvoreniye’ in liturgical texts: loan translation and re-interpretation

The article analyzes the use of an unclear term “zlorastvoreniye” (traced from the ancient Greek compound word δυσκρασία or its Latin analogue intemperies “bad mixing; immoderation”) and its derivatives in Church Slavonic texts. The paper gives examples of these classical language lexemes and explains how these terms reflect ideas dating back to antiquity about the correct, favorable combination of tangible qualities of the weather. Apart from a single example (the expression “zlorastvoreniye vetrov”), translated into Slavonic from Greek, the article provides examples with phraseological units “zlorastvoreniye vozdukhov / zlorastvorennii vozdusi” from the original texts, whose authors most likely copied Latin phraseology. The work explains the meaning of the petitions from the blessing of the bell worship (which has a Rome Catholic origin, although is not a direct translation) — bell ringing was believed to have a beneficial effect on the phenomena occurring in the air. Moreover, we present examples of how, in connection with the wide spread of the miasmatic theory of diseases in Russia, the studied expressions were reinterpreted by authors who were not experienced in the classical languages as bad smell and contagiousness of the air.

Jewish and Christian “signature features” in the Testament of Job

Pseudepigrapha research continues to slowly embrace the “default position” when working with texts of uncertain origin: start by investigating the Christian reception of a text, before attempting to work back toward its purported Jewish provenance. Taking a pseudepigraphon as Christian until proven otherwise—as a theoretical and methodological stance—has led some scholars to break with the general consensus concerning the Jewish origins of the Testament of Job, citing a lack of any identifiable Jewish or Christian “signature features” in the work. While sympathetic to the default position, this paper considers features of the Testament that should each be considered distinctively characteristic of Judaism (the intermarriage prohibition, T. Job 45:3) and Christianity (the use of the Greek compounds ἀπροσωπόληπτός, T. Job 4:8 and προσωπολήπτης, 43:13, attested only in Christian texts). The conclusions drawn from this study support the position that the Testament of Job is a Jewish diaspora text and that the instances of Christian language are most satisfactorily explained as later Christian scribal emendation.

Old Church Slavonic Multi-Word Nominations versus Compounds

The article is devoted to the study of the lexical inventory of the Old Church Slavonic language. The author proceeds from the idea of the lexical fund of the language as consisting not only of words but also phrases. The lexical inventory of the Old Church Slavonic language was created by the elite circle of literati in the process of translation (mainly from Byzantine Greek). Although the Old Church Slavonic language was based on the folk Slavic speech of the time, most of the Old Church Slavonic compounds and multi-word names were created by Slavic bookmen themselves. Many of these names appeared in the Old Church Slavonic lexicon due to the need to nominate concepts related to Christianity and “medieval encyclopedism”. The basis for the formation of these new names was the morphemic and phraseological calquing of Greek counterparts, which interacted with the mechanisms of nomination in the Slavic folk speech. The article demonstrates that the Old Church Slavonic nominations with multi-word names and compounds reveal “spheres of intersection”. As the author believes, these “spheres of intersection” were caused by the main and most difficult task that Slavic bookmen solved in translating both Greek compounds (or derivatives from compounds) and Greek multi-word names – the transfer of semantics of significant roots. Even within the epoch of the existence of the Old Church Slavonic language proper (i. e. 9th–11th centuries), there are variants of the translation of the same Greek compounds by both Old Church Slavonic multi-word names and Old Church Slavonic compounds. The occasionalisms that arose in the process of word-creation of bookmen in the form of compounds and multi-word names could subsequently be fixed in the usus of the language, but they could also remain hapax both within a certain text and within the entire corpus of Old Church Slavonic texts, which is not completely closed and has been studied extremely insufficiently.

N. + N.] compounds in Medieval Greek : Constantine Manasses's Synopsis Chronike as a case study

This paper attempts to provide a descriptive analysis of the newly coined [Ν. + Ν.] compound lexemes in Constantine Manasses's Synopsis Chronike (12th cent.) with a view to tracing the innovations and similarities to the Ancient Greek compound system. First, it provides a brief outline of the main types of Greek compounds according to the underlying syntactic relations between the immediate constituents, referring to the related notion of 'syntagma' (Section 1). Then, it deals with the phonological and morphosyntactic criteria that distinguish compounds from syntactic groups (Section 2). The subsequent section addresses the stress patterns of compounds (Section 3). The final section gives a description of the compounds based on i. the morphemic status of the immediate constituents, namely whether they are free or bound elements, ii. the linear order of the determinatum (dm) and determinant (dt) inside the combination, and iii. the lexical class of the compound as a whole, and equally the class of the compound components (Section 4).

‘Blagorastvoreniye’: Ancient Natural Philosophy in the Church Slavonic Hymnography

The article analyzes the use of obscure Slavic terms (calcified from the ancient Greek compound words εὐκρασία ‘good mixture’ and εὔκρατος ‘well mixed’, respectively) in Church Slavonic texts. The considered fragments of Church Slavonic texts (primarily taken from modern Church Slavonic worship) with the lexemes under study are compared with their Greek originals (if any are available) and with the Greek dictionaries information. Examples of these ancient Greek lexemes having the same meanings in classical texts are given with the accepted literary translation into Russian or English for comparison. It is clarified how the church texts reflect the meanings of these terms (‘right mixture of the elements in the human body’, ‘moderate, favorable force for a human’, ‘good mixture of heat and cold, i.e. the right temperature’), arising from those that have existed since antiquity natural-philosophical ideas about the nature of the world and man. The article also shows how in the era of wide dissemination of the new ideas about nature and man (the miasmatic theory of diseases) in Russia incomprehensible expressions, such as ‘blagorastvoreniye vozdukhov’ were reinterpreted by listeners who were not skilled in the classical languages, as ‘cleanliness and non-sickness of the air’.

Compounding in Greek as Phrasal Syntax

This paper provides a syntactic analysis of two types of compounds in Greek: synthetic and phrasal compounds derived from agentive nominalizations of verbal strings containing an internal argument of the verb. The analysis is couched within a ‘morphology as syntax’ account and uses independently motivated syntactic tools to show that both types of compounds are derived in syntax proper without any need for a separate morphological component. The differences in the syntactic properties of the two types of compounds are explained with reference to the ‘size’ or ‘complexity’ of the projected internal arguments, which can be either ‘roots’, in the case of synthetic compounds, or unquantized nominals projected as NumPs, which require special licensing conditions in the case of phrasal compounds. Differences in prosodic and semantic interpretation are also explained with reference to phase theory and the type/number of phase domains within the structure of the two types of compounds.

Does tvátpitāraḥ = εὐπάτωρ?

Abstract A standard comparison in Indo-European linguistics equates Vedic tvátpitāraḥ ‘having you as father’ and Ancient Greek compounds in -πατωρ, e.g., εὐπάτωρ ‘having a good father, lineage’. Many scholars describe this equation as resulting from “Internal Derivation”: the second-member of the compound would exhibit amphikinetic inflection, internally derived from a noun with hysterokinetic inflection. This paper reassesses the philological evidence for the long-vowel forms of Vedic -pitār-. Because the long-vowel forms are confined to one Vedic school (Taittirīyans), it is argued that the short-vowel forms such as -pitar- reflect the inherited Indic vowel length in these compounds. Following this reassessment, I question to what extent the second-members of possessive compounds (e.g., Gk. -πατωρ) reflect an “amphikinetic” paradigm. I argue that the forms are “amphikinetic” only to the extent that they show an o-grade suffix in Greek, and that defining such second-members as amphikinetic both overgenerates (predicts unattested forms) and undergenerates (fails to predict attested accents).

Root and semi-phrasal compounds: A syntactic approach

We present a syntactic account of the derivation of two types of attributivenominal compounds in Spanish, Russian and Greek. These include right-headed “root” compounds, which exhibit more “word”-like properties and single stress domains, and left-headed “semi-phrasal” compounds with more phrasal properties and independent stress domains for the two compound members. We propose that both compound structures are formed on a small clause predicate phrase, with their different properties derived from the merger of the predicate member of the small clause as a root or as a larger nominal unit with additional functional projections. The proposed structures provide an explanation of observed lexical integrity effects, as well as specific predictions of patterns of compound formation crosslinguistically.

First-language acquisition of synthetic compounds in Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Lithuanian, Russian and Saami

In this first cross-linguistic study of the emergence and early development of synthetic compounds we present the strictly parallel analysis of systematically collected longitudinal data from seven languages: the Finno-Ugric languages Finnish, Saami, Estonian and the Indo-European languages Lithuanian, Russian, Greek and German. The data of spontaneous interactions between children and parents allow insights usually not obtainable via transversal formal tests. For example, the target of acquisition is the specific parental child-directed speech and not the target languages as represented in grammars, dictionaries and adult electronic corpora. The distribution, dates and orders of emergence of various formal and semantic subtypes of synthetic compounds, i.e. instrument, agent, result, action, local deverbal synthetic compounds, differs among the languages studied. These differences are better explained by the relative richness of patterns of synthetic compounds than by other typological criteria such as belonging to, or approaching, the agglutinating vs. the inflecting-fusional language type. The analyses offer support for a building-block model of the rise of morphological complexity, for synthetic compounds being taken up by children as compounds and not as derivations, but being more complex than other types of compounds. Thus, synthetic compounds become productive later than nominal compounds in general.

Ἄτλας ἀστεμφής: Traces of local particles in Greek compounds and the origins of intensive alpha

Ἄτλας ἀστεμφής: Traces of local particles in Greek compounds and the origins of intensive alpha

Greek Compounds in Russian Translation of Aeschylus’ Tragedies by Vyacheslav Ivanov

Greek Compounds in Russian Translation of Aeschylus’ Tragedies by Vyacheslav Ivanov

ترجمة العهد الجدید من الیونانیة إلى العربیة فی ضوء الاختلاف بین اللغتین

تنتمي اللغة اليونانية إلى عائلة اللغات الهندو أوروبية، بينما تنتمي اللغة العربية إلى عائلة اللغات الأفرو أسيوية، ولذلک يوجد العديد من الاختلافات بين اللغتين، وتظهر لنا الدراسات التقابلية بين اللغتين مثل هذه الاختلافات. ومن يقوم بالترجمة من إحداهما إلى الأخرى لابد أن يواجه مثل هذه الاختلافات، وهذا ما حدث في ترجمة العهد الجديد من اللغة اليونانية القديمة إلى العربية، وفي هذه المقالة سوف أناقش - من خلال التطبيق على أشهر الترجمات العربية للعهد الجديد، وهي الترجمة المعروفة باسم فان دايک – أهم الاختلافات بين اللغة اليونانية القديمة واللغة العربية، على النحو التالي: 1- في الاستفهام الاستنکاري تستخدم اللغة اليونانية ظرف النفي (οὐ) عندما تکون الإجابة المتوقعة على السؤال هي الاثبات، بينما تستخدم الظرف (μή) عندما تکون الإجابة المتوقعة على السؤال هي النفي. بينما الترجمة العربية لا تميز بين الاثنين. 2- بعض الأفعال اليونانية تتبع بأکثر من حالة إعرابية للدلالة على المفعول به مثل فعل (ἀκούω) الذي يتبع بحالة النصب أو المضاف إليه. وفعل (προσκυνέω) الذي يتبع بحالة القابل أو النصب. ويختلف معنى الفعل حسب الحالة الإعرابية التي تتبعه کمفعول به، ومع ذلک فإن الترجمة العربية لا تظهر مثل هذا التغيير الذي يحدث للفعل وفقا للحالة الإعرابية التي تتبعه. 3- أحيانا تستخدم الترجمة العربية کلمة عربية واحدة لترجمة أکثر من مترادف في اللغة اليونانية، مثل أفعال: βλέπω, ὁράω, θeάομαι, θeωρέω التي تترجم کلها في اللغة العربية بلفظ أنظر دون ايضاح الفرق بين هذه المترادفات. 4- يوجد للفعل اليوناني سمات تصريفية لا توجد في اللغة العربية، مثل: صيغة الاحتمال Subjenctive، صيغة التمني Optative، عدد الأزمنة الستة، استخدام فعل الأمر في زمن الماضي، ومع الغائب، استخدام البناء للوسط... والترجمة العربية لا تظهر الوظائف الدلالية التي تحملها هذه السمات. 5- کثيرا ما تترجم الأفعال اليونانية المرکبة بمعناها الأول قبل أن تکون مرکبة. 6- التعبيرا الاصطلاحية في اللغة اليونانية (Idioms) کثيرا ما تترجم في العربية ترجمة حرفية لا تعبر عن عمق المعنى المقصود في اللغة اليونانية. 7- تستخدم اللغة اليونانية ظرفي النفي (οὐ μή) معا لتوکيد النفي، بينما الترجمة العربية تترجمها بنفي بسيط. The Greek language belongs to Indo-European family language, and the Arabic language belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family language, So there are many differences between these two languages, the contrastive analysis studies allowed us to recognize these differences clearly, and these differences will meet the translator from the one language to the other, and that what happened in the translation of The New Testament from Greek into Arabic. This paper discusses the most famous Arabic translation which known by the title Van Dyke Arabic Bible, and the common difference between Greek and Arabic in this translation as follows: 1- in interrogation, the Greek language uses οὐ when an affirmative answer is expected, andμή when a negative answer is expected, but the Arabic translation does not distinguish between the both. 2- some Greek verbs are followed by more than one case as a direct object (genitive and accusative like ἀκούω, dative and accusative like προσκυνέω). and the meaning of the verb is changed according to the case which comes with it as a direct object, but the Arabic translation does not shows this change in the meaning of the verb. And from the other different functions of the Greek cases, the Arabic translation is not always selects the suitable one. 3- The Arabic translation sometimes uses one than one Arabic word as a translation for many Greek synonyms like: βλέπω, ὁράω, θeάομαι, θeωρέω which were translated into Arabic by I seeأنظر، أرى = . the Arabic translation is not always selects the suitable Synonym of the Greek word. 4-The Greek verb has morphological features not found in Arabic, like the subjunctive and optative Moods, the six tenses, the aorist imperative, the middle voice. And the Arabic translation not always transfers these semantic functions of these features. 5- The Greek compound words sometimes were translated as uncompounded verbs. 6- the Greek Idioms sometimes were translated literally in Arabic. 7- the Greek uses The particles (οὐ μή) in combination augment the force of the negation, while it were always translated into Arabic in a simple negation.

Morphosyntactic sources for nominal synthetic compounds in English and Greek

Morphosyntactic sources for nominal synthetic compounds in English and Greek

Morphosyntactic sources for nominal synthetic compounds in English and Greek

We analyze English and Greek nominal synthetic compounds like truck driver and truck driving from a syntactic perspective couched within Distributed Morphology. We derive the main differences between the two languages from the different morphosyntactic status of the non-head nouns, which are roots in Greek but categorized words in English. Dieser Beitrag ist ursprünglich im Peter-Lang-Verlag erschienen (https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/plg/jwf/2017/00000001/00000001/art00004)

Stress properties of Greek compounds: Psycholinguistic considerations

AbstractTheoretical accounts of Greek compounds argue for a close relation between their stress properties and their underlying structure. Compounds that preserve and receive stress at the same position as their second constituent are analyzed as stem-word constructions, while those that receive antepenultimate stress are viewed as belonging to the stem-stem category. Using an auditory lexical decision task, we examine the effect of stress change on the processing of compounds in the light of existing theoretical linguistic accounts. Although our experimental results do not reach statistical significance, we believe that they are informative of the cognitive status and role of stress in compound processing. Finally, they relate to existing theories of compounding in Greek and reflect the complex interaction of the psycholinguistic effects of stress and the structural properties of these constructions.

Compounds in modern Greek

The difference between compounds and phrases has been studied extensively in English (e.g., Farnetani, Torsello, & Cosi, 1988; Plag, 2006; Štekauer, Zimmermann, & Gregová, 2007). However, little is known about the analogous difference in Modern Greek (Tzakosta, 2009). Greek compounds (Ralli, 2003) form a single phonological word, and thus, they only contain one primary stress. That means that the individual words lose their primary stress. The present study is the first acoustic investigation of the stress properties of Greek compounds and phrases. Native speakers of Greek produce ten novel adjective + noun compounds and their corresponding phrases (e.g., phrase: [kócino δódi] “a red tooth” vs. compound: [kocinoδódis] “someone with red teeth”) in the sentence corresponding to “The XXX is at the top/bottom of the screen.” Preliminary results confirm the earlier descriptive claims that compounds only have a single stress, while phrases have one on each word. Specifically, the first word (i.e., adjective) in compounds is reduced in F0 (101 Hz), duration (55 ms), and intensity (64 dB) compared to phrases (F0 = 117Hz, duration = 85 ms, and intensity = 67 dB). Also, both words are very similar for all of the measures in phrases. The second word (i.e., noun) is longer than the first word, possibly indicating phrase-final lengthening.

Reading Greek Compounds in Neglect Dyslexia: A Case Study

Reading Greek Compounds in Neglect Dyslexia: A Case Study

Un composé grec calqué en pāli ?

A pali word calque of a Greek compound? A recent study sees in the pali term lekhācariya, supposedly meaning “master in writing, teacher in writing”, an calque of the Greek compound γραμματοδιδάσκαλος. Now a new reading of the text in pali and in Buddhist sanskrit, enlightened by the Burmese commentary of the U Narada Mahathera, leads to a new hypothesis. Based on the commentary’s indications and on the analysis of the discursive characteristics of the text, it attributes to the term pali the meaning of “master in carving/ engraving (of coins) ; royal treasurer”.

The Bare-Stem Constraint in Greek Compound Formation

The Bare-Stem Constraint in Greek Compound Formation

Greek Compounds of the Type ισóεoς 'Equal to a God', αξιóλoγoς 'Worthy of Note', απειρoμαχας 'Ignorant of War', etc.

AbstractIn the majority of Greek compounds the head occurs on the right. Within this system, a number of left-oriented categories are tolerated, chiefly preposition- and verb-first compounds, but also a handful of minor groups. This article aims to provide a more thorough appraisal of a specific subtype of left-oriented compounds: those showing an adjectival head (type ισóεoς, αξιoλoγoς, etc.). It first provides an overview of the various types of left-oriented compounds in Greek (section 2). It then assesses the claim that adjectival left-oriented compounds derive from left-oriented syntactic phrases by supplying a full corpus of such forms, and comparing them to existing syntagms of the type adjective plus noun (section 3). The subsequent sections investigate the autonomous morphological reasons behind the left-headedness of such compounds, which the syntactic model does not adequately explain. Section 4.1 addresses the question of why such compounds could not have been right-oriented. Section 4.2 identifies the morphological features which—as in the case of prepositional compounds—characterise adjectives in left-oriented compounds, and are largely responsible for their placement on the left.