Cover not available

In:Perspectives on Semantic Roles
Edited by Silvia Luraghi and Heiko Narrog
[Typological Studies in Language 106] 2014
► pp. 241–270

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Semantic roles and word formation

Instrument and Location in Ancient Greek

 | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
 | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
Published online: 19 August 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.106.08luj
In functional-typological approaches to syntax the identification of semantic roles and the grammatical markers associated with them has been an important goal. In this paper it is argued that a similar approach to word formation patterns is possible and some criteria for the identification of the semantic roles in the domain of derivational morphology are provided. Agent, Instrument, and Location can be considered as different semantic roles in morphology, but polysemy between two or more of them is also frequent cross-linguistically. Deverbal suffixes employed in Ancient Greek for deriving instrumental and locative nouns are surveyed as a case study. The semantic analysis of the derivative nouns shows that those suffixes are also employed for building other nouns that are semantically related, but cannot be considered Instruments and Locations proper, such as non-prototypical instruments, prizes and rewards, and others. In general, when there is no specific suffix for a semantic role but a noun expressing it needs to be coined, suffixes for neighbouring semantic roles will be employed, depending on the available metaphor or metonymy that allows for the semantic extension. The comparison of these findings to the conceptual organization of grammatical morphemes in the same language (Greek) and in other languages in general reveals that both in syntax and morphology a similar semantic organization is found. However, the number of semantic roles that can be identified in syntax is higher than the number of semantic roles reflected in word formation patterns, so that semantic maps of word formation patterns are similar in shape but more reduced. Keywords: Semantic roles; word formation patterns; nominal morphology; derivation; Instrument; Location; Agent; Ancient Greek; semantic maps
References (46)
References
Balles, Irene. 2008. Latein, Altgriechisch, Vol. 1: Nominale Wortbildung des Indogermanischen in Grundzügen, Rosemarie Lühr (ed.), Hamburg: Dr. Kovač.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie. 1996. English Word-formation, 2nd edn. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. What you can do with derivational morphology. In Morphology 2000. Selected Papers from the 9th Morphology Meeting (Vienna, 25–27 February 2000), Sabrina Bendjaballah, Wolgang U. Dressler, Oskar Pfeiffer & Maria D. Voeikova (eds.), 37–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 1986. Form and meaning in morphology: the case of Dutch agent nouns. Linguistics 24: 503–517.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. The Grammar of Words, 2nd edn. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chantraine, Pierre. 1933. La formation des noms en grec ancien. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard & Thompson, Sandra. 1985. Lexical nominalization. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. 3: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon, Timothy Shopen (ed.), 349–98. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corbin, Danielle. 1987. Morphologie dérivationnelle et structuration du lexique. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crespo, Emilio. 1997. Sintaxis de los elementos de relación en griego clásico. In Actas del IX Congreso Español de Estudios Clásicos, Vol. 2, Francisco R. Adrados & Alfonso Martínez Díez (eds), 3–42. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crespo, William. 1991. Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations. The Cognitive Organization of Information. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruse, D. Alan. 1973. Some thoughts on agentivity, Journal of Linguistics 9: 11–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cysouw, Michael. 2007. Building semantic maps: The case of person marking. In New Challenges in Typology, Bernhard Wälchli & Matti Miestamo (eds), 225–248. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Semantic maps as metrics of meaning. In Semantic Maps. Methods and Applications ( Linguistic Discovery 8.1), Michael Cysouw, Martin Haspelmath & Andrej Malchukov (eds), 70–95.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. 1968. The case for case. In Universals in Linguistic Theory, Emmon Bach & Robert T. Harms (eds), 1–88. New York NY: Holt, Rinehard, and Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
François, Alexandre. 2008. Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: intertwining polysemous networks across languages. In From Polysemy to Semantic Change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations [Studies in Language Companion Series 106], Martine Vanhove (ed.), 163–215. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geeraerts, Dirk. 1997. Diachronic Prototype Semantics. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 2001. Syntax: An Introduction, 2 Vols, 2nd edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grossmann, Maria. 1998. Formazioni dei nomi di agente, strumento e lugo in italiano. In Atti del XXI Congresso Internazionale di linguistica e Filologia, Giovanni Rufino (ed.), 383–393. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. From Space to Time: Temporal Adverbials in the World’s Languages. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. The geometry of grammatical meanings: Semantic maps and cross-linguistic comparison. In The New Psychology of Language, Michael Tomasello (ed.), 211–242. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hernández, César. 2005. Los nombres de agente en micénico: Aspectos semánticos y morfológicos. MA thesis, Universidad Complutense (Madrid).
Koch, Peter. 2001. Metonymy. Unity in diversity. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 2(2): 201–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levin, Beth & Rappaport, Malka. 1988. Non-event -er nominals: A probe into argument structure. Linguistics 26: 1067–1083. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LSJ = Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott & Henry Stuart Jones. 1940. A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luján, Eugenio R. 2010. Semantic maps and word formation: Agents, Instruments, and related semantic roles. In Semantic Maps. Methods and Applications ( Linguistic Discovery 8.1), Michael Cysouw, Martin Haspelmath & Andrej Malchukov, 162–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 1995. Protypicality and agenthood in Indo-European. In Historical Linguistics 1993. [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 124], Henning Andersen (ed.), 259–268. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. On the Meaning of Prepositions and Cases. The Expression of Semantic Roles in Ancient Greek [Studies in Language Companion Series 67]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. The container schema in Homeric Greek. In Linguagem, cultura e cognição: Estudos de Linguística Cognitiva, Augusto Soares de Silva, Amadeu Torres & Miguel Gonçalves (eds), 25–41. Braga: Almedina. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luschützky, Hans C. & Rainer, Franz. 2011. Agent noun polysemy in a cross-linguistic perspective. Language Typology and Universals 64(4): 287–338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Instrument and place nouns. A typological and diachronic perspective. Linguistics 51(6) : 1301–1359. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mel’čuk, Igor Aleksandrovič. 1997. Cours de morphologie générale (théorique et descriptive), Vol. 2 : Deuxième partie. Significations morphologiques. Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyer-lübke, Wilhelm. 1890. Italienische Grammatik. Leipig: ReislandGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mugane, John M. 1997. A Paradigmatic Grammar of Gîkûyû. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Narrog, Heiko. 2010. A diachronic dimension in maps of case functions. In Semantic Maps: Methods and Applications (=lingusitics Discovery 8.1), Michael Cysouw, Martin Haspelmath & Andrej Malchukov (eds), 233–254.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olsen, Derek & Doris L. Payne. 2009. Maa (Maasai) nominalization: animacy, agentivity and instrument. In Selected Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on African linguistics: lingusitics theory and African Language Documentation, Masangu Matondo, Eric Potsdam & Fiona Mc laughlin (eds), 151–165. Sommerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palancar, Enrique. 2002. The Origin of Agent Markers. Leipzig: Akademie Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Thornburg, Linda L. 2001. A conceptual analysis of English er nominals. In Applied Cognitive Linguistics, Vol. 2: Language Pedagogy, Martin Pütz, Susanne Niemeier & René Dirven (eds), 149–200. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Plénat, Marc. 2005. Brèves remarques sur les déverbaux en -ette. In La syntaxe au coeur de la grammaire, Recueil offert en hommage au 60ème anniversaire de Claude Muller, Henning Nølke & Frederic Lambert (eds), 245–258. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pustejovsky, James. 1995. The Generative Lexikon. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rainer, Franz. 2005. Semantic change in word formation. Linguistics 43(2): 415–441. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rappaport, Malka & Levin, Beth. 1992. -er Nominals: Implications for a theory of argument structure. In Syntax and Semantics 26: Syntax and the Lexicon, Tim Stowell & Eric Wehrli (eds), 127–153. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryder, Mary Ellen. 1991. Mixers, mufflers, and mousers: the extending of the -er suffix as a case of prototype reanalysis. In Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Lingusitics Society, February 15–18, 1991: General session and parasession on the grammar of Event Structure, Laurel A. Sutton, Christophe Johnson & Ruth Shields (eds), 299–311. Berkeley: Berkeley Lingusitic Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schlessinger, Izchak. 1989. Instruments as agents: on the nature of semantic relations. Journal of Linguistics 25: 189–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Valin Jr., Robert D. & LaPolla, Randy J. 1997. Syntax, Structure, Meaning, and Function. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Villoing, Florence & Namer, Fiammetta. 2008. Interpréter les noms déverbaux: Quelle relation avec la structure argumentale du verbe de base? Le cas des noms en -OIR du français. In Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française – CMLF’08, Jacques Durand, Bruno Habert & Bernard Laks (eds), 1551–1569. Paris: Institut de Linguistique Française. <[URL]> or <
CrossRef DOI logo with hyperlink to permanent DOI
>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wackernagel, Jacob. 1922. Vorlesungen über Syntax: mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Griechisch, Lateinisch und Deutsch. Basel: Emil Birkhäuser.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Ayora Estevan, Daniel
2023. Los alástores en la Grecia clásica: revisión y consideraciones sintáctico-semánticas. 'Ilu. Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones 28 ► pp. e81598 ff. DOI logo
Piquero, Juan
2022. Mycenaean Adjectives in ‐te‐ri‐jo: A Reappraisal*. Transactions of the Philological Society 120:1 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Rissman, Lilia, Saskia van Putten & Asifa Majid
2022. Evidence for a Shared Instrument Prototype from English, Dutch, and German. Cognitive Science 46:5 DOI logo
TOYOTA, JUNICHI
2017. <i>Perspectives on Semantic Roles</i>. ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 33:2 ► pp. 567 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue