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Il dialogo tra tipologia e diacronia mette a confronto studiosi che operano con differenti metodi e orizzonti di indagine. In questo lavoro, l’occasione di incontro tra il macrocosmo del tipologo e il microcosmo del linguista storico riguarda le funzioni della reduplicazione e l’espressione della plurazionalità, qui considerate nella prospettiva monoglottica del greco antico. Nello specifico, la ricerca affronta la vexata quaestio della semantica dei presenti a raddoppiamento, di cui si analizzeranno gli impieghi nella lingua omerica. L’obiettivo principale è proporre una chiave di lettura unitaria delle formazioni di tipo ‘intensivo’, collegando quelle integrate nei sistema del presente con quelle tradizionalmente incluse nel perfetto. Nelle conclusioni si mostrerà come, se da un lato la tipologia può fornire l’apparato concettuale utile a chiarire questioni irrisolte della linguistica storica, dall’altro lo studio diacronico di materiali coerenti e omogenei può far luce sull’articolazione interna delle categorie interlinguistiche, fornendo indizi utili per affinare e ripensare i loro contenuti e la loro evoluzione.

By using the system of Ancient Greek verb endings as a case study, this paper deals with the cross-linguistically recurrent appearance of inflectional paradigms that, though generally characterized by cumulative exponence, contain segmentable “semi-separate” endings in correspondence with low-frequency cells. Such an exponence system has information-theoretic properties which may be relevant from the point of view of morphological theory. In particular, both the phenomena of semi-separate exponence and the instances of syncretism that conform to the Brøndalian Principle of Compensation may be viewed as different manifestations of a same cross-linguistic tendency not to let a paradigm’s exponent set be too distant from the situation of equiprobability.

This work deals with the verbal system of Ancient Greek, focusing on the multifunctional suffix -th-, and in particular on the hypothesis that a connection between the present forms in -tho and the passive aorist in -the- exists. The exposition will proceed as follows: after discussing the distribution of the suffix -the- in Homeric language, and its role within pairs of apparently synonymous verbs, the idea that these couples manifest the causative/inchoative opposition will be proposed and commented toghether with a detailed analysis of the contexts in which the different verb forms occur. Subsequently some previous typological studies on causative/inchoative alternations will be illustrated, and a semantic map for the grammatical meanings and functions of the inchoative will be shown to apply also to Homeric data. On the basis of these preliminary conclusions, the relationship between the presents in -tho and the middle voice will be analysed. Eventually the development and the functions of the aorist in -the-, and the principal factors which motivate its contrast with the other middle aorist forms will be discussed.

This study falls within a research project that investigates some evolutionary paths in the morphosyntax of the Indo-European languages in the perspective of continuity and discontinuity. This work deals with the verbal system of Ancient Greek, focusing on the multifunctional suffix -θ-, and in particular on the hypothesis that a connection between the present forms in The present study falls within a research project that investigates some evolutionary paths in the morphosyntax of the Indo-European languages in the perspective of continuity and discontinuity. This work deals with the verbal system of Ancient Greek, focusing on the multifunctional suffix -θ-, and in particular on the hypothesis that a connection between the present forms in -θω and the passive aorist in -θη- exists. The exposition will proceed as follows: after discussing the distribution of the suffix -θ- in Homeric language, and its role within pairs of apparently synonymous verbs, the idea that these couples manifest the causative/inchoative opposition will be proposed and commented toghether with a detailed analysis of the contexts in which the different verb forms occur. Subsequently some previous typological studies on causative/inchoative alternations will be illustrated, and a semantic map for the grammatical meanings and functions of the inchoative will be shown to apply also to Homeric data. On the basis of these preliminary conclusions, the relationship between the presents in -θω and the middle voice will be analysed. Eventually, the development and the functions of the aorist in -θη-, and the principal factors which motivate its contrast with the other middle aorist forms will be discussed.