Prepositions and verbs

Biblical Greek morphology and syntax, aspect, linguistics, discourse analysis, and related topics
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mikeatnip
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Joined: May 6th, 2020, 12:07 pm

Prepositions and verbs

Post by mikeatnip »

Yesterday I read this article (https://www.academia.edu/52642782/What_ ... =thumbnail) and found it to be helpful. I have read similar ones by the Aubreys and others.
My question is whether anything is published concerning how verbs are affected when prepositions are attached? The lexicons give some general pointers in the matter, but there seems to be some inexplicable uses as well. Anyone know of a good paper or monograph concerning this? Or are the results too "hit-and-miss" to find a consistency?
Mike Atnip
May I not debate presumptuously; may I not be silent impudently. May I learn beneficial speech; may I acquire discerning silence. -Ephrem the Syrian
James Spinti
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Joined: June 1st, 2011, 6:01 pm
Location: Red Wing MN
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Re: Prepositions and verbs

Post by James Spinti »

Not directly relevant to attached prepositions, but Steve Runge and Will Ross edited a volume about Postclassical Greek prepositions that came out in 2022: Postclassical Greek Prepositions and Conceptual Metaphor: Cognitive Semantic Analysis and Biblical Interpretation (Fontes et subsidia ad Bibliam pertinentes 12)
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110777895

Not cheap at $130.99, but you can get a look at it on Google books:
https://books.google.com/books?id=H0R6E ... &q&f=false

I'm sure Mike Aubrey (two contributions) and Steve Runge can tell you a bit more if you are interested.

James
Proofreading and copyediting of ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies monographs
MAubrey
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Re: Prepositions and verbs

Post by MAubrey »

I had this tab open for a month meaning to come back to it.

Attached prepositions (preverbs) are understudied. I know that Chiara Zanchini (2019) Multiple Preverbs in Ancient Indo-European Languages: A comparative study on Vedic, Homeric Greek, Old Church Slavic, and Old Irish exists, but its not readily available, so I haven't had a chance to look at it.

When we attach a preposition to a verb, we're entering the domain of derivational morphology and meaning/usage becomes more idiosyncratic compared to general prepositions. No preposition is going to attach the same way to every verb.

It'd be a great PhD project to explore a few preverbs and tease out a semantic map of the various ways that they do influence verb lexical semantics. I'm sure there are patterns, but as I said: it's understudied.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
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