Left-Headedness in Compounds of a Right-Headed Language

Angela Ralli

doi:10.18290/rh237106.10s

Published : 2023-07-24

Vol. 71 No. 6sp (2023)

Left-Headedness in Compounds of a Right-Headed Language

Angela Ralli

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3954-2160

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh237106.10s

Abstract

This article deals with left-headedness in compounding in some dialectal varieties of Greek, a language which is predominantly right-headed. On the basis of data stored in DComp, a dialectal database of the University of Patras containing 17,019 entries, I claim that left-headedness has resulted from the interplay of endogenous and exogenous factors. Given that left-headed compounds appear in the varieties which have been under a long-lasting Romance control, and since Romance languages are mainly left-headed, the exogenous contact factor is principally responsible for the presence of left-headedness, seen as a pattern-borrowing case, in the broad sense. Nevertheless, the phenomenon was not unknown in Ancient Greek compounding, although it applied to a much lesser extent than right-headedness. In line with the view that structural transfer is possible if there is some compatibility between languages in contact, I also assume that the old endogenous property of left-headedness has facilitated the transfer of left-headed formations from Romance to Greek.

Keywords:

left-headedness, compounding, linguistic contact, Modern Greek dialects, Romance

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Angela Ralli

ralli@upatras.gr
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3954-2160

Affiliation:

University of Patras, Emeritus Professor Greece

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Angela Ralli is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Patras and ordinary member of the Academia Europaea. She studied Linguistics at the University of Montreal, speaks fluently four languages (Greek, English, French, Italian) and has a research competence in Turkish, Spanish and German. Her main expertise area is theoretical morphology, particularly Greek morphology and its dialectal variation and has a special interest in language-contact issues. Angela Ralli has been an invited professor at many European and American Universities, a keynote speaker at international conferences, an invited professor at summer schools. Her books, peer-reviewed articles and chapters in collective volumes are highly praised internationally. She is a reviewer and a member of the editorial boards of international journals, and the founder and organizer of two international conferences, the Mediterranean Morphology Meeting and the International Conference of Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory.