Compounding and Morphology

Looking at the distribution of XPs with different theta-roles in Greek deverbal compounds, the paper explores the role of Roots and eventive projections in argument selection and argument licensing. It proposes that Roots are responsible for argument selection whereas argument licensing takes place at the higher eventive projections.

Using evidence from morphology, this paper proposes that prepositions are merged on the spine separately from their surface complements and that they attract their surface complement instead of merging directly with it.

We explore the role of the headedness parameter in the formation of deverbal compounds e.g. truck driver. Using data from Homeric, Classical, Hellenistic and Modern Greek, we show that the internal word order in deverbal compounds is gradually changing from OV to VO from Homeric to Classical Greek following a grammatical change from OV to VOin the default word order at the phrasal level in these two periods. We take this fact to show that the internal structure of morphological formations is transparent to the syntactic mechanisms deriving word order at the phrasal level. Based on this finding, we argue against lexicalist accounts of compounding and present a purely syntactic one.