Syntax and Semantics of the Perfect Active in Literary Koine Greek

Robert Crellin works for the Greek Lexicon Project, based in the Classics Faculty at the University of Cambridge, UK, and is a former Lecturer in New Testament Greek at the Greek Bible College in Athens, Greece.

• Introduction 1.1 Problem of the Greek perfect active1.2 Existing frameworks for understanding the perfect1.3 Existing frameworks for understanding the Greek perfect1.4 Critical assessment of existing studies1.5 Aims and approach1.6 Corpus1.7 Outline2. The perfect and lexical aspect 2.1 Introduction2.1.1 Events and the Greek perfect2.1.2 The true domain of events2.1.3 Aspect: semantic, pragmatic or morphological?2.1.4 Viewpoint aspect, situation aspect and telicity2.1.5 Tense and aspect in terms of Utterance Time andTopic Time2.1.6 Viewpoint aspect in Greek2.1.7 Lexical aspectual categories: Aristotle, Kenny and Vendler2.1.8 The domain of situation aspect: syntax or lexis?2.1.9 Developing a lexical aspectual framework for Greek2.2 Perfect of homogeneous verbs2.2.1 Introduction2.2.2 Non-durative state verbs2.2.3 Durative state verbs2.2.4 Terminative state verbs2.2.5 Non-state homogeneous verbs2.2.6 Conclusion2.3 Non-durative terminative verbs (describing achievements)2.4 Non-homogeneous durative verbs (describing activitiesand accomplishments)2.4.1 Introduction2.4.2 Non-COS verbs2.4.3 COS verbs2.4.4 Verbs with two perfect active stems2.4.5 Verbs alternating between COS and non-COS readingswithout specialised stems2.4.6 Conclusion2.5 Noise verbs2.6 Conclusion3. Syntactic theoretical frameworks 3.1 Introduction3.2 Neo-Davidsonian tradition3.2.1 Event semantics in the Davidsonian tradition3.2.2 Argument projection in a neo-Davidsonian framework3.2.3 Semantic roles and grammatical relations3.2.4 Determining the number of arguments3.2.5 Formally representing semantic roles in a neo-Davidsonianframework3.2.6 Are states predicates of eventualities?3.2.7 Theme hierarchies and thematic proto-roles3.3 Government-Binding (GB) theory3.3.1 Introduction3.3.2 Unaccusativity hypothesis and (causative) change of state3.3.3 X-bar theory3.3.4 Status of the subject as a verbal argument3.3.5 Subject of state sentences3.3.6 Combining Davidsonian semantics with GB theory3.4 Predicate types3.4.1 Introduction3.4.2 State predicates3.4.3 Change of state and causative change of state3.4.4 Change of state and change of location3.4.5 Accomplishment predicates3.4.6 Activity predicates3.5 Voice alternations and the resultative3.5.1 Passive voice3.5.2 Resultative3.5.3 The middle3.6 Conclusion4. The causative alternation 4.1 Introduction4.1.1 Transitivity in traditional Greek grammar passive4.1.2 The function and development of the Greek middle and passive4.1.3 Voice and argument projection in Greek4.1.4 Transitivity and the Greek perfect4.2 Labile transitivity outside of the perfect4.2.1 Introduction4.2.2 Verbs fully participating in the causative alternation4.2.3 Anticausative denoted by infl ection4.2.4 Anticausative perfective with a root stem4.2.5 Semantic distinction determining participation in thecausative alternation4.2.6 Conclusion4.3 Labile transitivity in the perfect4.3.1 Introduction4.3.2 Causative/anticausative distinctions in the perfect4.3.3 Re-expression of external cause argument by means ofan adjunct phrase4.3.4 Productivity of the specialised causative/anticausativeperfect stems4.3.5 Implications for the meaning of the perfect4.4 Conclusion5. The interaction of the perfect with different predicate types 5.1 Introduction: tense and aspect in a neo-Davidsonianframework5.1.1 Approach5.1.2 Aspectual Interface Hypothesis (AIH)5.1.3 Situation aspect5.1.4 Tense and aspect in a Government-Binding (GB) andneo- Davidsonian framework5.1.5 Constructing the path of an event5.1.6 Role of VAspP5.1.7 Resultative and perfect in English5.1.8 Outline of the present chapter5.2 Homogeneous eventualities5.2.1 Non-durative predicates5.2.2 Durative predicates5.2.3 Conclusion5.3 Non-homogeneous non-COS eventualities5.3.1 Introduction5.3.2 Activity predicates5.3.3 Accomplishment predicates5.3.4 Conclusion5.4 COS accomplishment predicates5.4.1 Introduction5.4.2 Unaccusative and anticausative predicates5.4.3 Causative COS predicates5.4.4 Unaccusativised activity predicates5.4.5 Delimiting the post-state5.5 COS achievement predicates5.5.1 COS predicates5.5.2 Causative COS predicates5.6 Conclusion6. The interaction of the perfect with COS predicates 6.1 Introduction6.2 Extent predicates6.2.1 COS and extent predicates6.2.2 Achievements in a difference scale framework6.2.3 Non-COS extent predicates6.2.4 Disambiguation of extent and temporal readings6.2.5 Viewpoint aspect and difference scales6.2.6 Tense and extent predicates6.2.7 The resultative construction6.2.8 Extent predicates in Greek6.2.9 Implications for the semantics of the perfect6.3 Temporal versus extent readings of perfect predicates6.3.1 Introduction6.3.2 Prestate not logically present in time6.3.3 Prestate logically present in time6.3.4 Metaphorical extension of extent predicates tonon-distance scales6.4 Suppression of the internal argument in non-causative COS predicates6.5 Suppression of the external argument6.6 A special case6.7 Conclusion7. Deriving homogeneous atelic eventualities from states and non-states 7.1 Introduction7.2 Deriving a homogeneous atelic eventuality by negation7.3 Telic state predicates7.4 Activity predicates7.5 Non-COS accomplishment predicates7.6 Causative COS predicates7.7 Deriving states from states: the perfect of atelic state predicates7.7.1 Introduction7.7.2 Pure state predicates7.7.3 Continued state predicates7.7.4 COS predicates7.8 Obligatory anteriority in derived states7.9 Semantic contribution of the Greek perfect7.10 Tense and the time adverbial problem7.11 Noise predicates7.12 Conclusion8. Conclusion: the semantics of the Greek perfect