Argument-focus and predicate-focus structure in Ancient Greek

In this article, Ancient Greek is shown to allow two word orders, Focus-Verb and Verb-Focus, independently of whether the verb is in focus or in the presupposition. Relying on the behavior of postpositives and Lambrecht’s Principle of Accent Projection, I argue that such word orders are integrated into prosodic constituents where the main sentence accent falls to either the left (Focus-Verb) or the right (Verb-Focus) of the verb. Such an alternation is suggested to be due to a binary iconic contrast whereby the more prominent the focus is, the earlier it is placed.