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Papers by Annamaria Bartolotta

This paper is a comparative study based on the linguistic evidence in Vedic Sanskrit and Homeric ... more This paper is a comparative study based on the linguistic evidence in Vedic Sanskrit and Homeric Greek, aimed at reconstructing the space-time cognitive models used in the Proto-Indo-European language in a diachronic perspective. While it has been widely recognized that ancient Indo-European languages construed earlier (and past) events as in front of later ones, as predicted in the Time-Reference-Point mapping, it is less clear how in the same languages the passage took place from this 'archaic' Time-RP model or non-deictic sequence, in which future events are behind or follow the past ones in a temporal sequence, to the more recent 'post-archaic' Ego-RP model that is found only from the classical period onwards, in which the future is located in front and the past in back of a deictic observer. Data from the Rigveda and the Homeric poems show that an Ego-RP mapping with an ego-perspective frame of reference (FoR) could not have existed yet at an early Indo-European stage. In particular, spatial terms of FRONT and BEHIND turn out to be used with reference not only to temporal events, but also to east and west respectively, thus presupposing the existence of an absolute field-based FoR which the temporal sequence is metaphorically related to. Specifically, SEQUENCE IS RELATIVE POSITION ON A PATH appears to be motivated by what has been called DAY ORIENTATION frame, in which the different positions of the sun during the day motivate the mapping of FRONT onto 'earlier' and BEHIND onto 'later', without involving ego's 'now'. These findings suggest that early Indo-European still had not made use of spatio-temporal deixis based on the tense-related ego-perspective FoR found in modern languages.

This volume is devoted to the study of ancient Indo-European languages from the perspective of mo... more This volume is devoted to the study of ancient Indo-European
languages from the perspective of modern linguistics, within diverse
theoretical or analytical frameworks, and aims to deepen our
understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the language
system, thanks to both the exploitation of texts and advances in
linguistic methodology.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the space-time mapping of the future in Homeric Greek. It... more The aim of this paper is to investigate the space-time mapping of the future in Homeric Greek. It is widely accepted that the spatial adverbs πρόσσω ‘in front’ and ὀπίσσω ‘behind’ in the Homeric poems are used to portray temporal events located in a sequence of aligned entities that follow one after the other on the same path (Dunkel, 1983, p. 66). In such a temporal sequence, or Time-RP model, those adverbs are associated respectively to past and future events in a bipartite spatial representation of time, without involving a deictic ego-experiencer. After analyzing data from the Homeric poems in a cognitive linguistic perspective, it is found that some temporal uses of the preposition πρό
‘in front’ also refer to a space-time mapping in which the observer appears to be in-tandem aligned with temporal entities that are still related to each other in a deictically neutral field-based frame of reference (Moore, 2011). More in detail, in the classic passage of Iliad 1, 70, the prophet Calchas imposes his vantage point to the sequence of occurring events which he is aligned with, mapping the future events (τὰ τ’ἐσσόμενα) as being located in front (πρό) of the present (τὰ τ’ἐόντα). In this peculiar Time-rp construal, which is also attested in non-Indo-European languages, the future is the farther event that is statically seen in front of the present, thus contrasting to the more common Time-RP construal in which a later event is said to be after another event. Furthermore, Homeric Greek πρό ‘in front’ is related to a representation of the future that is common not only to ancient Indo-European languages, like Old Avestan, but also to non-Indo-European languages, in which the future is conceptualized as made of a hendiadyc structure, consisting of both distant future and imminent future events.

This study is part of a broader research project on temporal and spatial deixis in the Proto-Indo... more This study is part of a broader research project on temporal and spatial
deixis in the Proto-Indo-European language. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to investigate the basic motion verbs go and come in Vedic. The deictic component of PATH has often been considered as inherent to the lexical semantics of these verbs cross-linguistically. However, I will show that Vedic i “go”, gā “go; come; step” and gam “go; come” express a deictically-neutral meaning of ‘moving along a path’, which is not characterized with regard to both MANNER and PATH. Data suggest that these verbs can take on a deictic interpretation by cooccurring
with specific particles, adverbs, demonstratives, and personal pronouns.
Syntactic and discourse analysis of the Rigveda shows that motion verbs occurring in the same syntactic context are selected depending on their inherent lexical aspect (Aktionsart). Telic verbs gā and gam turn out to be intrinsically compatible with the entailment of arrival of the FIGURE to the GROUND, whereas the atelic verb i is used when the prominent information is PATH rather than GOAL of movement.

The telic-atelic distinction plays a crucial role in the aspectual classification of verbs, which... more The telic-atelic distinction plays a crucial role in the aspectual classification of verbs, which are defined respectively as accomplishment and achievement on the one hand, and states and activities on the other, based on the well-known fourway Vendlerian classification. Despite the relevance of such a distinction in the
aspect literature, scholars do not share an unambiguous definition of telicity, mostly because different theoretical perspectives have given rise to each single definition. The aim of this paper is to trace back to the Aristotelian distinction between kinesis and enérgeia, which is traditionally considered as the starting point of the telic-atelic dichotomy. A closer scrutiny of Aristotelian texts will show an unexpected correspondence between kinesis/enérgeia and telic/atelic in linguistic theory. It will be argued how this contradiction originates from a different interpretation of Aristoteles’ term télos in the metalanguage of linguistics.

The paper is organized as follows: after an introduction of the issue we will examine, in the fir... more The paper is organized as follows: after an introduction of the issue we will examine, in the first section we shall discuss the theory of the antisymmetry of syntax as specifically concerns relative clauses, evidencing also problems linked to the application of this theory
to the syntax of relative clauses in Latin and in other Indo-European languages; the second section will present our first attempt at some analysis of the left periphery of the Proto-Indo-European sentence; in the third section we shall discuss the categorial status of the relative pronoun in Latin and we shall produce a model of the left periphery of the Latin subordinate clause, supplying examples taken from literary and epigraphic texts; in the fourth section we shall tentatively extend the analysis of the left periphery of the Latin sentence to the diachronic change that produced the structure of the left periphery in the Romance languages, attempting also to explain the local variations they manifest.

In recent aspectual classifications telicity is described as a compositional syntactic property, ... more In recent aspectual classifications telicity is described as a compositional syntactic property, and verbs are analyzed as complex structures made up of completely neutral roots. However, semantic changes due to both derivational processes and different syntactic
contexts could have obscured the relationship between root lexical aspect and verb morphological paradigms. The purpose of this paper is to show that telicity can be considered as an inherent lexical property: the co-occurrence in a sentence with arguments, adverbials or specific pragmatic contexts which can (de)telicize the event described by a verb has consequences at syntactic level, whereas the prototypical aspect
of the root is preserved at morphological, i.e. inflectional level. After comparing Vedic Sanskrit and Homeric Greek verbs derived from roots belonging to the Proto-Indo-European basic lexicon, I will argue how it is possible to determine inherent telicity according to the distribution of inflected forms within earlier paradigms in a diachronic perspective.

Östen Dahl p. 23 17. A typology of inflectional …, Jan 1, 2009

... focusing on the role of “bridging contexts” in a case study, namely the hendiadic Homeric Gre... more ... focusing on the role of “bridging contexts” in a case study, namely the hendiadic Homeric Greek expression βῆ ... the [+telic] perfective past tense of the [–telic] verb εἴμι “I go”, which lacks an aorist stem in its paradigm. ... An International Handbook on Inflection and Word Formation. ...

Proceedings of the fourteenth annual UCLA Indo- …, Jan 1, 2003

The role of Universal Grammar in the reconstruction …, Jan 1, 2005

... 281 argue against Marantz's proposal that features such as accusative do not bel... more ... 281 argue against Marantz's proposal that features such as accusative do not belong to the computational system, which sees only the formal feature [+ Case], so that spelling out this case feature as accusative is just a matter of PF (Alexiadou and Anagnostopoulou 2001: 211). ...

Journal of Linguistics, Jan 1, 2009

Abstract This paper examines early inflectional morphology related to the tense-aspect system of ... more Abstract This paper examines early inflectional morphology related to the tense-aspect system of Proto-Indo-European. It will be argued that historical linguistics can shed light on the long-standing debate over the emergence of tense-aspect morphology in language ...

Books by Annamaria Bartolotta

Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting on Greek Linguistics

This paper is a comparative study based on the linguistic evidence in Vedic Sanskrit and Homeric ... more This paper is a comparative study based on the linguistic evidence in Vedic Sanskrit and Homeric Greek, aimed at reconstructing the space-time cognitive models used in the Proto-Indo-European language in a diachronic perspective. While it has been widely recognized that ancient Indo-European languages construed earlier (and past) events as in front of later ones, as predicted in the Time-Reference-Point mapping, it is less clear how in the same languages the passage took place from this 'archaic' Time-RP model or non-deictic sequence, in which future events are behind or follow the past ones in a temporal sequence, to the more recent 'post-archaic' Ego-RP model that is found only from the classical period onwards, in which the future is located in front and the past in back of a deictic observer. Data from the Rigveda and the Homeric poems show that an Ego-RP mapping with an ego-perspective frame of reference (FoR) could not have existed yet at an early Indo-European stage. In particular, spatial terms of FRONT and BEHIND turn out to be used with reference not only to temporal events, but also to east and west respectively, thus presupposing the existence of an absolute field-based FoR which the temporal sequence is metaphorically related to. Specifically, SEQUENCE IS RELATIVE POSITION ON A PATH appears to be motivated by what has been called DAY ORIENTATION frame, in which the different positions of the sun during the day motivate the mapping of FRONT onto 'earlier' and BEHIND onto 'later', without involving ego's 'now'. These findings suggest that early Indo-European still had not made use of spatio-temporal deixis based on the tense-related ego-perspective FoR found in modern languages.

This volume is devoted to the study of ancient Indo-European languages from the perspective of mo... more This volume is devoted to the study of ancient Indo-European
languages from the perspective of modern linguistics, within diverse
theoretical or analytical frameworks, and aims to deepen our
understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the language
system, thanks to both the exploitation of texts and advances in
linguistic methodology.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the space-time mapping of the future in Homeric Greek. It... more The aim of this paper is to investigate the space-time mapping of the future in Homeric Greek. It is widely accepted that the spatial adverbs πρόσσω ‘in front’ and ὀπίσσω ‘behind’ in the Homeric poems are used to portray temporal events located in a sequence of aligned entities that follow one after the other on the same path (Dunkel, 1983, p. 66). In such a temporal sequence, or Time-RP model, those adverbs are associated respectively to past and future events in a bipartite spatial representation of time, without involving a deictic ego-experiencer. After analyzing data from the Homeric poems in a cognitive linguistic perspective, it is found that some temporal uses of the preposition πρό
‘in front’ also refer to a space-time mapping in which the observer appears to be in-tandem aligned with temporal entities that are still related to each other in a deictically neutral field-based frame of reference (Moore, 2011). More in detail, in the classic passage of Iliad 1, 70, the prophet Calchas imposes his vantage point to the sequence of occurring events which he is aligned with, mapping the future events (τὰ τ’ἐσσόμενα) as being located in front (πρό) of the present (τὰ τ’ἐόντα). In this peculiar Time-rp construal, which is also attested in non-Indo-European languages, the future is the farther event that is statically seen in front of the present, thus contrasting to the more common Time-RP construal in which a later event is said to be after another event. Furthermore, Homeric Greek πρό ‘in front’ is related to a representation of the future that is common not only to ancient Indo-European languages, like Old Avestan, but also to non-Indo-European languages, in which the future is conceptualized as made of a hendiadyc structure, consisting of both distant future and imminent future events.

This study is part of a broader research project on temporal and spatial deixis in the Proto-Indo... more This study is part of a broader research project on temporal and spatial
deixis in the Proto-Indo-European language. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to investigate the basic motion verbs go and come in Vedic. The deictic component of PATH has often been considered as inherent to the lexical semantics of these verbs cross-linguistically. However, I will show that Vedic i “go”, gā “go; come; step” and gam “go; come” express a deictically-neutral meaning of ‘moving along a path’, which is not characterized with regard to both MANNER and PATH. Data suggest that these verbs can take on a deictic interpretation by cooccurring
with specific particles, adverbs, demonstratives, and personal pronouns.
Syntactic and discourse analysis of the Rigveda shows that motion verbs occurring in the same syntactic context are selected depending on their inherent lexical aspect (Aktionsart). Telic verbs gā and gam turn out to be intrinsically compatible with the entailment of arrival of the FIGURE to the GROUND, whereas the atelic verb i is used when the prominent information is PATH rather than GOAL of movement.

The telic-atelic distinction plays a crucial role in the aspectual classification of verbs, which... more The telic-atelic distinction plays a crucial role in the aspectual classification of verbs, which are defined respectively as accomplishment and achievement on the one hand, and states and activities on the other, based on the well-known fourway Vendlerian classification. Despite the relevance of such a distinction in the
aspect literature, scholars do not share an unambiguous definition of telicity, mostly because different theoretical perspectives have given rise to each single definition. The aim of this paper is to trace back to the Aristotelian distinction between kinesis and enérgeia, which is traditionally considered as the starting point of the telic-atelic dichotomy. A closer scrutiny of Aristotelian texts will show an unexpected correspondence between kinesis/enérgeia and telic/atelic in linguistic theory. It will be argued how this contradiction originates from a different interpretation of Aristoteles’ term télos in the metalanguage of linguistics.

The paper is organized as follows: after an introduction of the issue we will examine, in the fir... more The paper is organized as follows: after an introduction of the issue we will examine, in the first section we shall discuss the theory of the antisymmetry of syntax as specifically concerns relative clauses, evidencing also problems linked to the application of this theory
to the syntax of relative clauses in Latin and in other Indo-European languages; the second section will present our first attempt at some analysis of the left periphery of the Proto-Indo-European sentence; in the third section we shall discuss the categorial status of the relative pronoun in Latin and we shall produce a model of the left periphery of the Latin subordinate clause, supplying examples taken from literary and epigraphic texts; in the fourth section we shall tentatively extend the analysis of the left periphery of the Latin sentence to the diachronic change that produced the structure of the left periphery in the Romance languages, attempting also to explain the local variations they manifest.

In recent aspectual classifications telicity is described as a compositional syntactic property, ... more In recent aspectual classifications telicity is described as a compositional syntactic property, and verbs are analyzed as complex structures made up of completely neutral roots. However, semantic changes due to both derivational processes and different syntactic
contexts could have obscured the relationship between root lexical aspect and verb morphological paradigms. The purpose of this paper is to show that telicity can be considered as an inherent lexical property: the co-occurrence in a sentence with arguments, adverbials or specific pragmatic contexts which can (de)telicize the event described by a verb has consequences at syntactic level, whereas the prototypical aspect
of the root is preserved at morphological, i.e. inflectional level. After comparing Vedic Sanskrit and Homeric Greek verbs derived from roots belonging to the Proto-Indo-European basic lexicon, I will argue how it is possible to determine inherent telicity according to the distribution of inflected forms within earlier paradigms in a diachronic perspective.

Östen Dahl p. 23 17. A typology of inflectional …, Jan 1, 2009

... focusing on the role of “bridging contexts” in a case study, namely the hendiadic Homeric Gre... more ... focusing on the role of “bridging contexts” in a case study, namely the hendiadic Homeric Greek expression βῆ ... the [+telic] perfective past tense of the [–telic] verb εἴμι “I go”, which lacks an aorist stem in its paradigm. ... An International Handbook on Inflection and Word Formation. ...

Proceedings of the fourteenth annual UCLA Indo- …, Jan 1, 2003

The role of Universal Grammar in the reconstruction …, Jan 1, 2005

... 281 argue against Marantz's proposal that features such as accusative do not bel... more ... 281 argue against Marantz's proposal that features such as accusative do not belong to the computational system, which sees only the formal feature [+ Case], so that spelling out this case feature as accusative is just a matter of PF (Alexiadou and Anagnostopoulou 2001: 211). ...

Journal of Linguistics, Jan 1, 2009

Abstract This paper examines early inflectional morphology related to the tense-aspect system of ... more Abstract This paper examines early inflectional morphology related to the tense-aspect system of Proto-Indo-European. It will be argued that historical linguistics can shed light on the long-standing debate over the emergence of tense-aspect morphology in language ...

Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting on Greek Linguistics