TYPOLOGY OF PREVERBS AND

TRANSITIVITY IN DIACHRONY:
EVIDENCE FROM GREEK AND BEYOND

Nikolaos Lavidas & Leonid Kulikov

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Ghent University
1. Introduction
• The function of preverbs in many Indo-European
languages is commonly identified as transitivization
of intransitive verbs, as is the case of the Modern
German applicative preverb be-

2
1. Introduction (ctd.)
• Evidence from Greek and Sanskrit contra taking prefixed
verbs of this type as true transitives.

• Our hypothesis is that the characteristics and direction of

development of the Greek and Sanskrit preverbs
demonstrate 2 types of preverbs (Di Sciullo 1997, 2005; Di
Sciullo & Slabakova 2005), whereas only one of the two
types is indirectly related to transitivity: increase in
transitivity is an epiphenomenon. 3
2. Two types of preverbs and argument
structure
• Hypothesis
on diachronic and crosslinguistic characteristics:

Not all preverbs affect in the same way argument NPs (Di Sciullo &
Klipple 1994; Di Sciullo 1997, 2005 – Babko-Malaya 1999: “lexical” vs
“superlexical” prefixes).

• preverbs should not be considered an homogeneous group.

4
2. Two types of preverbs and argument
structure (ctd.)
• An external/internal division of preverbs was first proposed for French.

• Di Sciullo (1997, 2005):

• Internal prefixes change, for instance, an activity into an achievement, that is,
they can change the internal aspectual structure of the event expressed by a
verb:
• for instance, the French prefix a-: e.g., apporter ‘to carry’ < a+porter ‘to bring’.

• On the contrary, external prefixes do not affect the internal aspectual

structure:
• for instance, the French prefix re-: e.g., retrouver ‘to find again < re+trouver ‘to
find’).
5
2. Two types of preverbs and argument
structure (ctd.)
• Internal prefixes signal telicity, the endpoint of an event;
vs.
• External prefixes: adverbial manner modification.

Di Sciullo & Slabakova (2005):

• (i) internal preverbs follow external ones.
In contrast to external preverbs,
• (ii) internal preverbs can affect the argument structure,
• (iii) internal preverbs signal telicity and alter the verbal aspectual class,
• (iv) internal preverbs can impose a specific reading on a direct object,
• (v) internal preverbs cannot co-occur or be iterated. Internal preverbs can
have an effect on the argument structure and the Aktionsart. 6
2. Two types of preverbs and argument
structure (ctd.)
• External preverbs cannot add an idiosyncratic meaning or affect the
argument structure. Their contribution to the semantics is compositional.

• Gehrke (2008):
internal preverbs can also add a lexical or idiosyncratic meaning: they specify
the culmination (upper bound of a BECOME event), form a complex predicate
with the verb, and derive an achievement or accomplishment.

• External preverbs cannot add an idiosyncratic meaning or affect the

argument structure; they offer a compositional semantic contribution.
7
3. Vedic Sanskrit preverbs and transitivity
Passivization criterion:

• The -yá-presents are increasingly productive in all periods of Old

Indo-Aryan.

• The -yá-presents can only be derived from transitive verbs. This

means that accusatives that can be promoted to the subject position
of -yá-passive constructions are true direct objects. Other types of
accusatives, such as content accusatives or accusatives of time,
cannot be promoted to subjects of -yá-passives.
8
3. Vedic Sanskrit preverbs and transitivity
(ctd.)
• Kulikov (2012)
• only few intransitives of Vedic can form -yá-passives when
compounded with a preverb.
• This type of -yá-passives with prefixed intransitives is not attested in
the RV, there is only one example in Atharvaveda, and they are rare
in middle and late Vedic.

• In this respect, Vedic differs from other ancient Indo-European

languages: In Latin, for instance, according to Lehmann (1983),
intransitives with preverbs become transitives that can form
passives (Ex. 1). 9
 3. Vedic Sanskrit preverbs and transitivity
vs Latin
(1) cum ne-que praetores diebus aliquot ad-iri possent
when not-and praetor:NOM.PL day:ABL.PL several to-go:INF.PASS can:IMPF.SUBJ.3.PL
‘and when the praetors could not be approached for several days…’ (Cicero, Letters to and
from Quintus 1,2,15)

10
4. The development of the Greek preverbs
• Hypothesis on IE preverbs: preverbs were independent adpositions or
adverbials originally (in Proto-Indo-European), which coalesced with
verbs and formed compound verbs in many ancient Indo-European
languages, including Greek.

• Proto-Greek inherited several adverbial-like particles from PIE.

• Ancient Greek has the following preverbs: amphi ‘on both sides’, ana ‘up’,
anti ‘against’, apo ‘from, off’, dia ‘through’, e(i)s ‘(in)to’, ek ‘out of’, en(i) ‘in’,
epi ‘upon’, kata ‘down’, meta ‘among’, para ‘by the side’, peri ‘round’, pro
‘before’, pros/poti ‘to, towards’, sun ‘with’, huper ‘over’, hupo ‘under’ (Haug
2013a).
• These particles express direction, location, origin, path (Chantraine 1942). 11
4. The development of the Greek preverbs
(ctd.)
• In Homeric Greek, these adverbials still remain independent in a
significant degree (Ex. 2a-b).

• However, Greek adverbials became increasingly attached to the verbs

and changed into preverbs and prepositions, already in Homer.

• In Greek, we can observe evidence for

• 1st phase of development: independent adverbials → preverbs /
prepositions

12
4. The development of the Greek preverbs
(ctd.)
(2) a. ho g’ hōs eipòn kat’ àr’ hézeto
he PRT thus speak:PART.AOR down then sit:IMPF.MID.3SG
‘Thus he (Achilles) spoke and then sat down.’ (Hom. Il. 1.68)

b. àn dè subṓtēs histato daitreûsōn

up PTC swineherd:NOM stand:IMPF.MID.3SG carve:PART.FUT
‘And the swineherd stood up in order to carve (the meat).’ (Hom. Od.
14.432-433)
(Haug 2013b)

13
4. The development of the Greek preverbs
(ctd.)
• In Classical Attic Greek, preverbs are very productive as bound
morphemes.

• The reanalysis of a prefixed verb as a single word resulted in change

of positions for the preverb and the augment (see 3 and Table 1).

(3) Preverb – Augment – Root

→

14
4. The development of the Greek preverbs
(ctd.)

Table 1. Reanalysis of the preverb and the augment (Dosuna 1997)

15
4.1 Historical data and language change:
The overall picture in Early Greek and the
case of the diachrony of sun-peri-
• Change can result in bleached or opaque meanings of the preverbs:
e.g., an-aireō ‘answer’, ap-ollumi ‘perish (away)’.

17
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri-
• Koine Greek presents many examples of the “new”
reinforcing or opaque / idiosyncratic prefixes:

• The process of reinforcing verbs with preverbs, which then

lose additional meanings, is a well-attested process of
reanalysis of the unit preverb-verbal root.

18
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• For instance, the verb eks-apo-stéllō is formed by adding ek-
(eks- before a vowel) to an already prefixed verb. The second
preverb does not add anything (zero preverb – Gehrke 2008)
to the meaning (‘send out, send away’);

• ek- and apo- are synonymous here, and the new form, which
is frequent from the 3rd century BC but less so than apo-
stéllō, “has the same readings as Classical Greek apostéllō or
even stéllō, and is clearly just a more vigorous form of the
older word” (Lee 1983: 93). 19
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• Another interesting case is the use of a simple verb repeated
shortly after the corresponding prefixed verb. The meaning of
the two verbs in Ex. (4) is similar; the repetition does not
require the prefixed form.

(4) …autòn ou parélabon. hósoi dè élabon autón…

ACC.3SG NEG accepted:3PL those:NOM.PL PRT accepted:3PL ACC.3SG
‘[His own people] did not accept him, but as many as did accept him…’
(N.T., John 1.11-12) (Mckay 1994: 14)
20
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• We have collected all prefixed verbs from Homer (Odyssey
and Iliad) – Herodotus – New Testament.

• In (5), we present the results that concern double (and

triple) preverbs.

21
(5)
a. Homer

10 double preverbs [types-lemmas] [2 triple preverbs [types-lemmas]]

516 single preverbs [types-lemmas]
/ 526 single or double preverbs [types-lemmas]

1.90% (10/ 526) double preverbs in comparison to all examples (types) of

prefixed verbs available in this text.

Homer attests less examples of double preverbs (compared to the other

examined texts), probably because non-compositional meanings of both the
first and the second preverb are not productive in Homeric Greek. 22
b. Herodotus

120 double preverbs [types-lemmas] [2 triple preverbs [types-

lemmas]]
1,481 single preverbs [types-lemmas]

/1,601 single or double preverbs [types-lemmas]

7.50% (120 / 1,601) double preverbs in comparison to all examples (types) of
prefixed verbs available in this text.

23
c. New Testament

41 double preverbs [types-lemmas]

788 single preverbs [types-lemmas]

/ 829 single or double preverbs [types-lemmas]

4.95% (41/ 829) double preverbs in comparison to all examples (types) of
prefixed verbs available in this text.

24
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• Aims and Focus of the present paper: the historical dimension of the puzzle,
investigating the causes and direction of change in preverbation in Greek:
→how this change is (not) related to transitivity.

• (6) presents the contrast between the so-called “compositional” and the
“idiomatic” meaning of sum-peri-phéromai in Classical Greek (on References:

• The “compositional” meaning is lost after the Hellenistic Koine Greek

period.
25
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• (6) a. Classical Greek
i. sum-peri-phéromai
together-round-carry:PASS.PRS.1SG
‘I am carried round together’

ii. sum-peri-phéromai
together-round-carry:PASS.PRS.1SG
‘I accommodate or adapt oneself to circumstances’
Cf. Modern Greek: simperiferome ‘I behave’

b.Koine Greek
phéromai
behave:MP.PRS.1SG
‘I behave’ (AD 2nd cent.)
26
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• More prefixed verbs with sum-peri- in the New Testament (Koine Greek)
than in Herodotus (Classical Greek) (12 in the New Testament vs 5 verbs
in Herodotus).

• This tendency can be linked to the process of loss of the concrete

meaning of preverbs during the Koine Greek period and emergence of
more abstract/ aspectual meanings as well as extended roots or
complex preverbs.
27
 4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• See the list of prefixed verbs with sumperi- in the Koine Greek New Testament in (7) [meanings
based on LSJ].

(7)
a. sum-peri-érkhomai ‘I go round together’
b. sum-peri-théō ‘I revolve with, run about with’
c. sum-peri-títhēmi ‘I put round together, take part in getting honor for another’
d. sum-peri-pléō ‘I sail about with’
e. sum-peri-lambánō [as in Classical Greek]
f. sum-peri-poiéō ‘I help in procuring’
g. sum-peri-patéō ‘I walk round or about with’
h. sum-peri-poléō ‘I go round together with’
i. sum-peri-nostéō ‘I go round together with, follow along with’
j. sum-peri-ágō ‘I carry about along with or together’. Mediopassive (sum-peri-ágomai): ‘I am so
carried, I go round with or together’
k. sum-peri-stéllō ‘I help in cloaking’ (derived from peristéllō ‘I dress, clothe, wrap up’) 28
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• Classical Greek simple preverb sun-
[ Examples in (8) ]
A contrast between a verb with transparent meaning (sun-érkhomai)
and a verb that can have an opaque reading as well (sun-gráphō).

• The historical tendency observed in the data of both verbs

mentioned in (8) is to acquire or to retain an opaque/ idiosyncratic
reading: to become internal preverb (which also means that it can
have an effect on telicity and, indirectly, on argument structure).
29
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
(8)
a.sunérkhomai ‘I assemble, meet; I meet in battle; I am united or
banded together; I am joined in one; I concur, happen together’.

b. sungráphō ‘I write or note down; I describe; I compose a writing or a

work in writing [Mediopassive transitive (sungráphomai + NP-Acc): ‘I
draw up a contract or bond’]; ‘I draw up a form of motion to be
submitted to vote’; ‘I paint; I paint together; I draw up specifications; I
enroll’.
30
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• Moreover, verbs with a compositional reading (sin-taksidevo) – with
external preverb – can emerge in later stages, showing that the
addition of a preverb is also possible in later stages and that the
transparent / compositional reading can be attested in an early period/
before any semantic change (see sintaxidevo ‘I use the same vehicle or
move together with sb. else’).

31
4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek and the case of the
diachrony of sun-peri- (ctd.)
• Another tendency

• Medieval and Modern Greek present many examples of fusion of preverbs

and roots.

• The main tendency is a reanalysis of preverbs and verbal roots that

results in conflation of the components into a single element = a new root.

• Cf. “incorporation” (Dosuna 1997) or loss of the meaning of the preverb

(see 9).
32
 4.1 Historical data and language change: The
overall picture in Early Greek (ctd.)
(9) The development of kata-baino (Dosuna 1997)

33
5. Conclusions
• Greek and Sanskrit: prefixed verbs are NOT true transitives.

Hypothesis of the paper:

• Characteristics and direction of development of the Greek and
Sanskrit preverbs demonstrate 2 types of preverbs (internal vs
external preverbs; Di Sciullo 1997, 2005; Di Sciullo & Slabakova
2005), whereas only 1 of the 2 types (internal preverbs) is indirectly
related to transitivity and increase in transitivity is an
epiphenomenon.

34
5. Conclusions (ctd.)
• Homeric Greek preverbs retain a concrete directional or local
function – similarly to Vedic Sanskrit.

• preverbs developed new meanings in the diachrony of Greek – in

many cases unpredictable meanings, demonstrating a reanalysis
into internal preverbs.

35
5. Conclusions (ctd.)

• Increased transitivity of preverbs in Homer related to their

shift from local/ directional to markers of perfective aspect and telic
actionality in Ancient Greek.

• The direction of change can be evidenced through the behavior

of multiple preverbs in Homeric Greek as well as the development of
preverbs in Greek, in general.
• Koine Greek includes many examples of the new idiosyncratic preverbs.
For instance, the verb eks-apo-stéllō is formed by adding ek- to an already
prefixed verb and adds nothing to the meaning.
36
5. Conclusions (ctd.)
• vs Voice Suffixes:
On the contrary, the middle voice morphology – that covers many
functions and are not specialized markers of intransitivity in Ancient
Greek and Vedic Sanskrit – became specialized intransitivity markers
(for instance, with the mediopassive/ non-active forms in Greek) in
later periods. See Kulikov & Lavidas (2013).

37
5. Conclusions (ctd.)
• This change is (not) related to transitivity ➔

➔ Data reveal a contrast between the so-called “compositional” and the

“idiomatic” meaning of sum-peri-phéromai in Classical Greek and the loss of
the “compositional” meaning after the Hellenistic Koine Greek period.

• The observed historical tendency for all cases of preverbation is to

acquire or to retain only an opaque/ idiosyncratic reading, that is, to
become internal preverbs, which also leads to an effect on telicity and,
indirectly, on argument structure.
38
5. Conclusions (ctd.)
• Another direction of change, again related to the types of preverbs
and only indirectly to transitivity, concerns the fusion of two preverbs
(in the case of double preverbation) or of a preverb and a root
(Medieval and Modern Greek).

39
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