2026/03/26 by Anna Kampanarou, Άρτεμις Αλεξιάδου · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Language Development and Disorders #Language and cultural evolution #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
paper · doi:10.16995/glossa.23696
openalex publication_date 2026/03/26 · openalex created_date 2026/03/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
This paper examines the phenomenon of the genitive alternation in Standard Modern Greek, focusing on the interaction between inflectional genitives and prepositional phrases introduced by apo (‘of, from’). While this alternation could be considered a variation in the realizational component, our findings suggest that the two constructions are not interchangeable and arise from distinct syntactic mechanisms. By analyzing this alternation in the context of possessives and derived nominals, we show that inflectional genitives exhibit a broader range of syntactic and semantic functions. In contrast, apo-PPs are more restricted, particularly in contexts where a partitive reading is also available. Additionally, the study highlights the role of paradigm gaps in shaping the distribution of genitives and prepositional phrases, showing that while such gaps encourage the use of apo-PPs, they do not drive a systematic replacement of inflectional genitives. Comparative data from Northern Greek dialects, where inflectional genitives have been entirely lost for common nouns, and evidence from the language’s diachrony further reinforce the conclusion that apo-PPs are introduced through an independent syntactic process. By distinguishing structural substitution from morphological suppletion, this study sheds new light on the evolution of morphological case systems and the development of adpositional alternatives.