Contract Verbs

Grammar questions which are not related to any specific text.
Post Reply
Matthew Longhorn
Posts: 756
Joined: November 10th, 2017, 2:48 pm
Contact:

Contract Verbs

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Are there any works that deal with the development of the contract verbs diachronically? I am interested in knowing if there was originally a principle that determined whether a verb took an epsilon, alpha or omicron contract (or indeed none).
MAubrey
Posts: 1090
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 8:52 pm
Contact:

Re: Contract Verbs

Post by MAubrey »

There are books that deal with the history of the Greek verb generally.

Curtius' very old volume the Greek Verb is still worth reading, but some of his discussion is out of date. https://amzn.to/2r2Flim

Most recently is Willi's new book (2018): The Origin of the Greek Verb: https://amzn.to/2HAmMx9

Van de Laar has an excellent volume that mostly consistent of data rather than discussion/prose, but it's very useful: https://amzn.to/2r6mXoM

There are also the comparative grammars, such as Sihler's: https://amzn.to/2jejOj7

Then there are, of course, numerous volumes on Proto-Indo-European over the past century that discuss the Greek verb in terms of its relevance to reconstruction of PIE.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
Matthew Longhorn
Posts: 756
Joined: November 10th, 2017, 2:48 pm
Contact:

Re: Contract Verbs

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Mike, as always - thanks.
The price of the purchase of “the origin of the Greek verb” will be added to my list of reasons for staying single soon!
Matthew Longhorn
Posts: 756
Joined: November 10th, 2017, 2:48 pm
Contact:

Re: Contract Verbs

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Mike, do you think that Caragounis’ “Development of Greek and the New Testament” would also be a good resource for this?
Stephen Carlson
Posts: 3350
Joined: May 11th, 2011, 10:51 am
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: Contract Verbs

Post by Stephen Carlson »

MAubrey wrote: April 28th, 2018, 5:22 pm Most recently is Willi's new book (2018): The Origin of the Greek Verb: https://amzn.to/2HAmMx9
I have just read this book. It is super-technical, especially on the PIE and pre-PIE side. Fascinating, with original, provocative proposals, and possibly more right than wrong. I'll have to see what the other Indo-Europeanists do with it. The main thing it does NOT cover is the -(θ)η- system.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Matthew Longhorn
Posts: 756
Joined: November 10th, 2017, 2:48 pm
Contact:

Re: Contract Verbs

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Nice update, thanks Stephen.
I seem to have swamped myself with books from all angles at the moment so won’t be getting to that one soon, but good to hear praise for it
MAubrey
Posts: 1090
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 8:52 pm
Contact:

Re: Contract Verbs

Post by MAubrey »

Stephen Carlson wrote: August 22nd, 2018, 8:29 pm
MAubrey wrote: April 28th, 2018, 5:22 pm Most recently is Willi's new book (2018): The Origin of the Greek Verb: https://amzn.to/2HAmMx9
I have just read this book. It is super-technical, especially on the PIE and pre-PIE side. Fascinating, with original, provocative proposals, and possibly more right than wrong. I'll have to see what the other Indo-Europeanists do with it. The main thing it does NOT cover is the -(θ)η- system.
I think the best piece research on -(θ)η- is:
García Ramón, José Luis. “From Aktionsart to Aspect and Voice: On the Morphosyntax of the Greek Aorists with -η- and -θη-.” Pages 149–82 in The Greek Verb: Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics: Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of Greek Linguistics, Agrigento, October 1–2, 2009. Edited by Annamaria Bartolotta. BCLL 128. Leuven: Peeters, 2014.
Rachel has a high opinion of it...mostly because it confirmed basically everything that she herself was hypothesizing about -(θ)η-'s origins.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
Post Reply

Return to “Grammar Questions”