Middle Voice in Modern Greek: Meaning and Function of an Inflectional Category

301 Pages·2000·1.208 MB·Studies in Language Companion Series

by  Linda Joyce Manney

MIDDLE VOICE IN MODERN GREEK
STUDIES IN LANGUAGE COMPANION SERIES
(SLCS)
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IN LANGUAGE, International Journal,
sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of language”.
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Volume 48
Linda Joyce Manney
Middle Voice in Modern Greek
Meaning and function of an inflectional category
MIDDLE VOICE
IN MODERN GREEK
Meaning and function of
an inflectional category
LINDA JOYCE MANNEY
University of La Verne, Athens Campus
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
8 of American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Manney, Linda Joyce.
Middle voice in modern Greek: meaning and function of an inflectional category / Linda Joyce
Manney.
p. cm. -- (Studies in language companion series, ISSN 0165-7763 ; v. 48)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Greek language, Modern--Middle voice. I. Title. II. Series.
PA1087.93 .M36 1998
489’.35 21--dc21 98-044715
ISBN 90 272 3051 X (Eur.) / 1 55619 934 1 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
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Dedicated with love to the memory of
Aliki Litsas-Kalogera
and
Dimitris Panayiotis Kalogeras

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Refrain from a popular song by Yiorgos Dalaras,
Music and lyrics by Yiorgos Zikas.

Acknowledgements
This work presents my views on the form and function of inflectional middle
voice in Modern Greek, and is based on the results of a twelve year study, parts
of which were carried out in London, England, San Diego, California, and
Thessaloniki, Greece. The original impetus for my interest came from a seminar
on the Modern Greek language which I attended at Kings College London,
University of London, Department of Greek Studies, during the academic year
1986-1987. The professor who organized the seminar, Roderick Beaton, raised
some extremely interesting issues on the semantics of voice inflection in Modern
Greek, and it was this initial orientation that alerted me to the vast number of
questions one could ask in a study of the inflectional middle system of Modern
Greek. My stay in London during the 1986-87 academic year was extremely
productive and memorable, thanks to the generosity and kindness of several
very special people who were tremendously supportive of all my endeavors:
Xanthi and Desmond Lauder, Ted and Roula Petropoulos, Kostas Mavroeidis,
Panos Kalogeras, Yiorgos Kalogeras, Sally Laird, and Costas Douzinas. I am
also grateful to Neil Smith, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, Univer-
sity College London, for helping me obtain an Overseas Research Student
Scholarship to fund my studies in London, and for providing a safe haven for
me in his department during my stay.
The present work, which aims to provide a clear description of a wide
range of uses of the Modern Greek middle system, owes a great deal to the
Greek language consultants who have worked with me over the years, and
who have spent literally hundreds of hours explaining to me the numerous
subtleties of the Greek inflectional middle system as it occurs in actual usage
events. To these people I express my very deepest appreciation for all the
insights into the Greek language which they were able to share so eloquently
with me: in London, England, Nikos Papakostas, Kostas Eleftheriadis, and
Xanthi Lauder; in San Diego, California, Fotis Zaharanglou, Elizabeth