Prog Imperfective Drift in Ancient Greek? ReconsideringEimi‘Be’ with Present Participle¹

Abstract

In this paper, I reconsider the diachrony of the Ancient Greek periphrastic construction of εἰκί with present participle by means of Bertinetto's recently proposed model for the development of progressive grams (a process called 'PROG imperfective drift'). While Bertinetto's proposal sheds new light on the diachronic development of the construction, at the same time the evidence from Ancient Greek brings to light the need for modification and further refinement of the model (most importantly with regard to the role of what I call the 'stative' function, next to the diachronic source(s) of the construction). I furthermore show that εἰκί with present participle never fully developed a (focalized) progressive function, which can be explained in terms of 'constructional competition'.

The four types of Welsh YN

“…Such preposition + verbal noun constructions are not uncommon in the languages of the world (e.g. Dillon : 312; Comrie : 100–2; Hewitt ; Mittendorf & Poppe : 121–2; Bentein ), so it is prima facie possible that the construction developed independently in the various branches of Celtic, not to mention Middle English. Significantly perhaps, it is not attested in the remnants of Gaulish and the other ancient Continental Celtic languages (Fife : 16).…”

The Oscan Perfect in ‐TT‐

“…See especially Alexander (), Björck (), Rosén (), Gonda (), Aerts (), Rydbeck (), Dietrich (: 199‐209), Coseriu (: 10‐18), Amenta (: 64‐84), Bentein ().…”

“…Moreover, Bentein () has recently stressed that, in addition to locatival source constructions (‘X is in/at doing Y’), stative ones (‘X is being Y’) should also be taken into account; for the latter too, stand would be as natural an auxiliary as be. …”