The Old and Early Middle Egyptian Stative

Support‐Verb Constructions with Objects:Greek‐CopticInterference in the Documentary Papyri?1

“…10 Both for the indirect object in the sense of a goal or beneficiary and for the direct object with verbs of perception, ⲉ-/ⲉⲣⲟ= e-/ero= can appear instead. Support-verb constructions seem integrated in this system, in that direct objects with ⲙ-/ⲙⲙⲟ= m-/mmo= are available (Reintges 2001;Zakrzewska 2017). With the so-called possessed nouns, object integration by means of suffixation if the object is pronominal is also possible, for example, ⲕ-ϯ-ⲣⲏⲧ-ϥ k-ti-r et-f 2sg-give-name-POSS.3sg 'you are calling him', as it is for simplex verbs outside the imperfective system.…”

“…The term ‘light‐verb construction’, coined by Jespersen (1954: esp. 117–118), has widely been used in language‐contact studies and primarily with reference to the verb ‘to do’ (Bakker 2003: 132; Myers‐Scotton 2002: 134–139; Reintges 2001; Ronan 2012a: 148; Rutherford 2010: 203). Conversely, the term ‘Funktionsverbgefüge’ (function‐verb construction) refers primarily to combinations of a verb and a prepositional phrase, for example, French mettre en relief ‘to emphasise’, but has secondarily been applied to verb‐object structures (Kamber 2008; von Polenz 1987; Storrer 2009).…”

“…On the contrary, it seems that some writers either idiolectally or sociolectally applied object patterns more widely based on the Coptic parallel. Direct objects, marked by a differential object marker, are a regular pattern with Coptic support‐verb constructions (Reintges 2001).…”

“…Coptic extensively relies on the ‘to do’ support‐verb construction when integrating Greek loan verbs into its syntax. Greek loan verbs when used in support‐verb constructions do not differ from native nouns, structurally speaking (Reintges 2001). If the Coptic pattern served as a model, Greek accusative objects would be explicable as pattern replication in the sense of Matras' (2009) pivot‐matching.…”

“…Below, three scenarios are discussed and compared with the situation in classical and postclassical Greek. It appears that support‐verb constructions in Greek are an inherited, established pattern in the language system (e.g., Jiménez López 2016; Schutzeichel 2014) rather than a mechanism to integrate loans in a contact situation (Reintges 2001; Ronan 2012b; Montaut 2016). This explains their alignment with nonsupport‐verb‐construction verb phrases.…”