Cappadocia: where Greek prepositions come to die

The Cappadocian variety of Ulaghátsh is unique among the Greek-speaking world in having lost the inherited preposition ‘se’. The innovation is found with both locative and allative uses and has af-ected both syntactic contexts in which ‘se’ was originally found, that is, as a simple preposition (1) and as the left-occurring member of circumpositions of the type ‘se’ + NP + spatial adverb (2). (1) a. tránse ci [to meidán] en ávʝa see.PST.3SG COMP ART.DEF.SG.ACC yard.SG.ACC COP.3 game.PL.NOM ‘he saw that in the yard is some game’ (Dawkins 1916: 348) b. ta erʝó da qardáʃa évɣan [to qonáq] ART.DEF.PL.NOM two ART.DEF.PL.NOM friend.PL.NOM ascend.PST.3PL ART.DEF.SG.ACC house.SG.ACC ‘the two friends went up to the house’ (Dawkins 1916: 354) (2) émi [ta qonáca mésa], kiríʃde [to ʝasdɯ́q píso] enter.PST.3SG ART.DEF.PL.NOM house.PL.ACC inside hide.PST.3SG. ART.DEF.SG.ACC cushion.SG.ACC behind ‘he went into the houses and hid behind the cushions’ (Dawkins 1916: 348) In this paper, we set out to provide (a) a diachronic account of the loss of ‘se’ in Asia Minor Greek, and (b) a synchronic analysis of its ramifications for the encoding of the semantic and grammatical functions it had prior to its loss. The diachronic development of ‘se’ is traced by comparing the Ulaghátsh data with those obtained from Cappadocian varieties that have neither lost it nor do they show signs of losing it and, crucially, also from varieties in which ‘se’ is in the process of being lost. The comparative analysis shows that the loss first became manifest in circumpositions in which ‘se’ was preposed to the complement to which in turn a wide range of adverbs expressing topological relations were postposed (émi sa qonáca mésa > émi ta qonáca mésa). This finding is accounted for in terms of Sinha and Kuteva’s (1995) distributed spatial semantics framework, which accepts that the elements involved in the constructions under investigation—the verb (émi), ‘se’ and the spatial adverb (mésa)—all contribute to the expression of the spatial relational meaning but with differences in weighting. Of the three, ‘eis’ made the most minimal contribution, the bulk of it being distributed over the verb and the adverb. This allowed for it to be optionally dropped from circumpositions, a stage attested in Phlo-tá Cappadocian and Silliot, and to be later completely abandoned, originally in allative and subsequently in locative contexts (earlier: évɣan so qonáq > évɣan to qonáq; later: so meidán en ávʝa > to meidán en ávʝa). The earlier loss in allative contexts is also dealt with in distributed semantics terms as verbs of motion such as έβγαν are semantically more loaded than vacuous verbs like the copula and therefore the preposition could be left out in the former context more easily than in the latter. The analysis also addresses the possibility that the loss of ‘se’ may ultimately originate in substandard forms of Medieval Greek, which according to Tachibana (1994) displayed SPATIAL ADVERB + NP constructions. Applying the semantic map model (Croft 2003, Haspelmath 2003), the synchronic analysis of the varieties that retain ‘se’ reveals that—like many other allative markers crosslinguistically—it displays a pattern of multifunctionality in expressing nine different functions (among others allative, locative, recipient, addressee, experiencer), which can be mapped against four domains, viz. the spatiotemporal, the social, the mental and the logicotextual (cf. Rice & Kabata 2007). In Ulaghátsh Cappadocian, none of these functions is overtly marked as such. In cases like (1), the intended spatial relational meaning is arrived at through the combination of the syntax and the inherent semantics of the verb and the zero-marked NP as well as from the context. In environments of the type exemplified by (2), the adverb contributes further to the correct interpretation. The analysis additionally shows that, despite the loss of ‘se’, Ulaghátsh patterns with all other Cappadocian varieties in one important aspect: Goal and Location are expressed similarly (by zero in Ulaghátsh, by ‘se’ in the other varieties) whereas Source is being kept distinct (expressed by ‘apó’ in all varieties). Goal-Location polysemy is very common across the world’s languages and, most crucially, prevails over other possible polysemies in the tripartite distinction Source—Location—Goal (Lestrade 2010, Nikitina 2009). Taking into account this empirical observation, our findings suggest that the reor-anisation of spatial systems can have a local effect—in our case the loss of a member of the prepositional paradigm—but will keep the original global picture intact, thus conforming to crosslinguistically robust tendencies.  References Croft, W. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dawkins, R. M. 1916. Modern Greek in Asia Minor: A Study of the Dialects of Sílli, Cappadocia and Phárasa with Grammar, Texts, Translations and Glossary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haspelmath, M. 2003. The geometry of grammatical meaning: semantic maps and cross-linguistic comparison. In M. Tomasello (Ed.), The New Psychology of Language, Volume 2. New York: Erlbaum, 211–243. Lestrade, S. 2010. The Space of Case. Doctoral dissertation. Radboud University Nijmegen. Nikitina, T. 2009. Subcategorization pattern and lexical meaning of motion verbs: a study of the source/goal ambiguity. Linguistics 47, 1113–1141. Rice, S. & K. Kabata. 2007. Cross-linguistic grammaticalization patterns of the allative. Linguistic Typology 11, 451–514. Sinha, C. & T. Kuteva. 1995. Distributed spatial semantics. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 18:2, 167–199. Tachibana, T. 1994. Syntactic structure of spatial expressions in the “Late Byzantine Prose Alexander Romance”. Propylaia 6, 35–51.

Evangelia.

Avec prologues, arguments et « capitula ». Evang. Matthaei (7v), Marci (38), Lucae (58), Johannis (90v) ; « Capitula Evangeliorum tam in dominicis quam in feriis totius anni legendorum » (113).

Le rapport de l'Un et de l'intellect dans la centurie de Calliste Cataphygiotes

La présente étude est une analyse et une reconstruction interprétative de la centurie de Calliste Cataphygiotès, intitulée De l'union avec Dieu et de la vie contemplative, chapitres syllogistiques et hauts. Notre approche à ce texte pluridisciplinaire est prioritairement philosophique. Dans le but de mettre en valeur l'intérêt philosophique qu'il représente, nous avons concentré notre analyse sur les problèmes liés au rapport de l'intellect avec l'Un, sur l'étude du concept de l'infini, sur son rôle dans la contemplation et sur la méthode dialectique dont Calliste Cataphygiotès s'en sert. Nous avons reconstruit la doctrine de la contemplation, implicite au texte de Calliste et nous avons tenté une reconstruction globale de la centurie qui permettra au lecteur d'apprécier les qualités spéculatives et l'esprit synthétique de ce mystique byzantin presque inconnu.

La pensée politique à l’époque de Justinien (527-565) : l’Ekthesis d’Agapète et le Dialogue de science politique

Le présent mémoire se donne pour fin d'étudier, en les replaçant au sein du contexte politique de leur époque, deux textes importants de la pensée politique de Justinien : l'Ekthesis d'Agapète le diacre, et le Dialogue de science politique. Ces deux textes représentent le point de vue de deux groupes d'acceptation de Constantinople – à savoir des groupes qui peuvent participer à l’élévation ou à la destitution d’un empereur : le clergé, et l'élite des sénateurs et des hauts-fonctionnaires. À partir de ce cadre conceptuel, il s'agira, pour ce mémoire, de définir les problématiques ayant trait à la fonction et la conception du pouvoir impérial et à la forme de l'État, telles que les présentent ces deux textes. À terme, devra émerger comme cadre interprétatif l'affrontement de deux tendances: d'une part, un hellénisme politique christianisé (associé au clergé), et, d'autre part, une romanité conjuguée à une vision néoplatonicienne du monde (associée à l'élite sénatoriale et fonctionnaire). Ces deux traditions posent des questions différentes. D'un côté, celle de l'orthodoxie de l'empereur et de la nécessité, pour ce dernier, de suivre les préceptes de l'éthique chrétienne, de se montrer digne de Dieu, dont il est le serviteur; de l'autre, celle de la sauvegarde de l'héritage romain, portant notamment sur le rôle du Sénat et l’importance de la loi, de même que le lien entre empereur et philosophe.

The opening of Plutarch's Life of Themistokles

Plutarch begins the biography by selecting incidents and an epigram that anticipate the basic themes of Themistocles' life--his greatness, sometimes ambiguous, and his benefactions to all of Greece.

Constructing Melchior Lorichs's 'Panorama of Constantinople'

In Constructing Melchior Lorichs's Panorama of Constantinople, Nigel Westbrook, Kenneth Rainsbury Dark, and Rene Van Meeuwen propose that Melchior Lorichs's 1559 Panorama of Constantinople was created by using a viewing grid. The panorama is thus a reliable graphic source for the lost or since-altered Ottoman and Byzantine buildings of the city. The panorama appears to lie outside the conventional symbolic mode of topographical depiction common for its period and constitutes a rare "scientific" record of an encounter of a perspicacious observer with a vast subject. The drawing combines elements of allegory with extensive empirical observation. Several unknown structures, shown on the drawing, have been located in relation to the present-day topography of Istanbul, as a test-case for further research.