Greek grammar & linguistics glossary

A

(a)telic (of verbs)

A feature of a predicate that refers to whether an eventuality has a natural endpoint, e.g. ran in Olivia ran for three minutes is atelic, and ran the race in Olivia ran the race in three minutes is telic.

Accent0

A marking that shows the stressed syllable(s) of a word, i.e. the syllable in the word that is pronounced at a higher pitch and is normally longer.

Accomplishmentaktionsart value

A durative telic, dynamic event, e.g. played the chess game of his life in Isaac played the chess match of his life.

Accusativeacc

Abbreviated “acc” (Cases).

Accusative case1.3.3.3

Generally marks the direct object of a sentence, which is normally the one affected by the action of the verb (e.g. Ἡ ἀδελφὴ τύπτει τὸν ἄνθρωπον ‘The sister is hitting the human’).

Achievement (of verbs)

A type of predicate that has the features [+telic] and [-durative], i.e. a predicate that refers to an eventuality with a natural endpoint but no duration. The predicate reached the summit in Ruth reached the summit is an achievement.

Achievements9.4.3.2

Verbal descriptions that describe events with an endpoint but without any duration, e.g. leave, arrive, take, etc.

Activeact

Abbreviated “act” (Voice).

Activityaktionsart value

A durative atelic, dynamic event, e.g. played chess in Isaac played chess for hours.

Acute accent0

An accent written pointing up and to the right, e.g. ά.

Additive focus

A focus interpretation that presupposes that the assertion is true of more than the focused element, e.g. SYLVIA also ran the marathon presupposes that others ran the marathon besides Sylvia.

Additive use3.3.4.2

The addition of a participant to the clause, often contrary to expectation. In English, also and even are used with this meaning. In Greek, this meaning can be conveyed by καί.

Adjectival participle18.2.3.3

A participle that is used like an adjective to describe an entity that is involved in the eventuality.

Adjectiveadj

Abbreviated “adj” (Grammatical categories).

Adjectivizer

An affix that creates an adjective from a root or stem, e.g. - able in workable or -τος in ἀγαπητός (both of which create an adjective from a verb).

Adjunct12.3.3.2

Part of the sentence that is not required by the verb. Adjuncts often refer to temporal phrases, locations, and means.

Adverbadv

Abbreviated “adv” (Grammatical categories).

Affix

Any morpheme that combines with a word/stem that cannot stand on its own, e.g. - s in books.

Agent

A thematic role that refers to a participant that is intentionally and actively engaging in the eventuality, e.g. Selah in Selah bonked Laura refers to someone intentionally and actively engaged in the event of bonking.

Agreement4.2.4.2

When two words match in a certain grammatical feature. The subject and verb in οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ἐσθίουσιν ‘the brothers are eating’ exhibit number agreement because both the subject οἱ ἀδελφοί and the verb ἐσθίουσιν are plural in number.

Agreement morphology

Morphology that agrees with other grammatical morphemes, e.g. -εις in λύσεις agrees with the subject σύ in person and number.

Aktionsart (of verbs)

The temporal structure of the eventuality referred to by a verb and its arguments, e.g. Olivia ran for three minutes has the atelic predicate ran.

Allophone

A possible realization of a phoneme, e.g. both [k^h] and [k] are allophones of /k/ in English.

Anaphor33.4.3.2

A syntactic element that refers back to a noun or pronoun used earlier in the sentence.

Anarthrous (“bare singular”)5.2.3

A noun that has no article. It may be equivalent to an English noun with the definite article (the), the indefinite article (a), or a bare singular (home).

Animacy2.2.2

A category of meaning in nouns that refers to whether the referent of the noun can move on its own or not.

Animate2.2.2

An object that has animacy (see above). These are often people or animals, e.g. ἀδελφή ‘sister,’ or πετεινόν ‘bird.’

Antecedent33.4.3.2

The noun or pronoun referred back to by an anaphor.

Antepenultima syllable2.3.3

The third to last syllable in a word, e.g. ἄν θρωπος.

Aorist11.1.3

There are two different types of Aorist verbs: thematic where the stem changes (e.g. λαμβάν-ω in present → ἔ-λαβ-ον in Aorist) and sigmatic where σ is added (e.g. νεύ-ω in present → ἔ-νευ-σα in Aorist). Aorist verbs are past tense and have perfective aspect (see perfective aspect below and Aspect-Semantics C).

Apodosis32.4.3

The ‘then-statement’ of a conditional construction, which is the event that is contingent on another circumstance occurring, e.g. the second clause in, “If I die, you will be sad.” It is also sometimes called the ‘consequent’.

Argument1.3.2

A word or words needed to complete the thought of another word, e.g. τύπτει ‘hit’ requires someone to be hitting and someone or something to be being hit, so it requires two arguments: Ἡ ἀδελφὴ τύπτει τὸν ἄνθρωπον.

Argument realizations3.2.2

The morphological or syntactic patterns of the arguments that the verb allows for, e.g. ἀκούω allows for an argument in either accusative or genitive case.

Argument structure

How the necessary elements of the verb (i.e. its arguments) are syntactically structured, e.g. The pot broke (unaccusative) vs. The engine coughed (unergative) differ in how their single arguments are structured.

Articular5.2.3

A word that has the definite article in Greek.

Aspect5.1.3.2

How the eventuality is described as protracted in time. Aspect is fundamentally a relationship between the reference time (RT) and the time of the eventuality (ET).

Assertion

Information in a sentence that is put forward by the speaker to be added to the CG by the hearer, e.g. in My triceratops will stab your T-rex to death, the assertion is that the speaker’s triceratops will kill the addressees T-rex.

Athematic verbs9.4.3

Verbs without a theme vowel placed before the person and number ending (e.g. δίδω-μι).

Attendant circumstance participle27.1.3.2

A participle that takes some of its semantic features from other verbs in the context and usually describes an eventuality that precedes the eventuality described in the main clause.

Attributive adjective17.3.3.2

An adjective that modifies a noun and presupposes that the description is true, e.g. God’s holy name.

Augment11.1.3.1

The initial ε- of the Aorist and other forms that marks the verb as past tense.

Automatization

In learning, automatization is the process whereby a skill is acquired to the point where it does not take up any significant amount of working memory capacity.

B

Basic word order1.3.3.2

The order of the words in a sentence without a special meaning or form (see Syntax A).

Beneficiary11.3.3.2

A grammatical function marked with the dative case. A beneficiary is not a direct participant in the event referred to by the verb, but it is someone who benefits from the event or state in some way, e.g. Matthias bought a game for Judah.

Broad focus question

A question like What happened? where no one constituent in the sentence is being questioned and no participant in the event is known. The answer to a broad focus question is typically given in the language’s basic word order (as long as no other element is affecting the order).

C

Categorizer

A derivational morpheme that creates a new word with a particular lexical category, i.e. a verb, noun, or adjective (see also verbalizer, nominalizer, and adjectivizer).

Causal clause12.2.3.2

A clause that introduces the cause of an event described in another clause.

Causer

A thematic role that refers to an argument that causes the eventuality to take place but does not actively and consciously engage in the eventuality (i.e. a causer is not an agent), e.g. the river in The river ate away the rock is a causer.

Circumflex accent2.1.3

A long accent found only on the penultima or ultima, e.g. δ οῦ λος.

Cleft sentence46.4.3

A sentence which does not have a normal subject and predicate, but has only one syntactic constituent. Cleft sentences assert the existence of whatever that constituent refers to.

Closed scale42.1.3.2

A scale that has a natural minimum or maximum value, or both.

Closed scale (adjective)

A scale that has a natural minimum or maximum value, e.g. the range from 1 to 5 represents a closed scale. Adjectives like full are closed scales in that there is a maximum amount of fullness, e.g. Sarah is completely full.

Coercion51.3.3.2

A process whereby the syntactic requirements of one element changes the meaning of another element, e.g. Jesus loved his disciples by dying for them where the state love is coerced into an event.

Cohortative29.3.4.2

When a subject expresses a desire to do something and invites someone else to do it with them.

Comment

New information in the sentence (sometimes also called “focus”).

Common Ground (CG)

“A body of information that is presumed to be shared by the parties to a discourse” (Stalnaker 2014:2).

Comparison set32.2.3.2

The set of individuals an open scale adjective is compared to, e.g. the adjective ‘abundant’ in ‘an abundant reward’ is only ‘abundant’ relative to whatever kinds of rewards are being compared to one another.

Compensatory lengthening

The lengthening of a vowel sound when another sound drops, e.g. μένω + ε- + -σα = ἔμεινα.

Complement clause12.2.3.2

A clause that is required by the verb and is introduced by a complementizer like ὅτι or that, e.g. ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει ὅτι ἦλθεν ἡ ἀδελφὴ αὐτοῦ ‘Jesus says that his sister came ’.

Complementizer28.1.4.2

A class of conjunctions that introduce a complement clause often occurring with verbs that introduce content of some kind, e.g. Laura knew that Isaac was coming.

Complexive31.2.3.2

Reference to the end of a state (a use of the Aorist).

Compositionality

A fundamental semantic principle that states that the meaning of a complex expression is equivalent to the meaning of its individual components and how they combine.

Compound adjective29.2.3.1

An adjective made up of two morphemes.

Compounding

A morphological process whereby two independent words combine to form a single new word, e.g. blackboard or ὀλιγόπιστος ‘one of little faithfulness.’

Conative22.2.3.2

Refers to the attempt to perform an action rather than the action itself.

Conditional statement32.4.3

Hypothetical statements giving the conditions under which something is true (usually, but not always, introduced with conditional words, e.g. ἐάν ‘if’).

Conditional word32.4.3

Words that introduce conditional statements, e.g. εἰ and ἐάν.

Conjunction3.3.4

A morpheme that specifies some connection between two other words.

Content14.2.3.2

Anything that can be included within quote marks, such as statements, questions, or exclamatives.

Contrastive focus

A focus interpretation whereby the focused element is contrasted with a specific negated element, often, but not always, in the x … but not y construction, e.g. I desire MERCY, not sacrifice .

Coordinating conjunction13.4.3

A conjunction that introduces an independent clause or connects two like parts of speech.

Copula5.4.4.2

A verb that connects the subject and the predicate (e.g. Τὸ ὅπλον ἐστὶν ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ ‘The tool is in the shadow’).

Core dative11.3.3.2

A dative that introduces an individual that participates in the event or state named by the verb. It is core because the dative is an argument of the verb itself.

Coronis24.4.3

A smooth breathing mark in the middle of a word signalling that two words have contracted.

Counterfactual conditional34.4.3.1

A conditional construction in which the protasis is assumed to be false.

Crasis24.4.3

When a vowel that ends a word contracts with a vowel that begins the following word.

Culminating interpretation9.4.3.2

An interpretation where the endpoint of the event has been reached.

D

Dativedat

Abbreviated “dat” (Cases).

Dative alternation3.1.4.2

An alternation wherein a noun in dative case or a prepositional phrase can be used to refer to someone with the same semantic role in the sentence (normally as recipient), e.g. John is bringing Mica fruit (dative case) is equivalent to John is bringing fruit to Mica (prepositional phrase).

Dative case3.1.3

A grammatical case that introduces a noun into the clause, most often a recipient or someone affected by the event.

Declension6.4.3

Also called a “noun class” in linguistics, declensions/noun classes are morphological patterns that distinguish between groups of nouns which are sometimes, but not always, distinguishable based on semantic features, such as the gender of the referent. Greek has three declensions which represent different case endings on the nouns.

Decoding

Producing the sounds of a language based on its graphical representation.

Definite article1.2.4.3

A morpheme that marks the referent of a noun as unique in the discourse.

Demonstrative pronoun13.3.3

A pronoun that is used to point to something in the world or discourse, usually divided into near things (e.g. this) and far things (e.g. that).

Dental20.1.3.1

A sound produced with your tongue near your teeth, like δ, θ, and τ.

Deontic26.1.3.2

Refers to someone’s obligations.

Deponent verbs8.2.3

Verbs that have a middle or passive form, but no corresponding act form (e.g. ἔρχομαι = med-psv form; ἔρχω does not exist).

Derivational morphemes

A morpheme that changes the meaning or lexical category of another word, e.g. ἑτοιμασία ‘preparation’ has the derivational morpheme -ια which turns the verb ἑτοιμάζω into the noun ἑτοιμασία.

Derived nominalization

A noun made from another lexical category, such as an adjective or verb, e.g. examination is a noun derived from the verb examine, and innocence is a noun derived from the adjective innocent.

Descriptive predicate5.4.4.3

A predicate that describes a property of the subject, e.g. You are blessed where blessed is a property that the addressee has.

Determiner

A functional morpheme that normally combines with nouns that signals which referent the speaker is referring to, e.g. the word the in You should scold the kid who ate the last slice of cake.

Deverbal noun

A noun derived from a verb, e.g. examination is composed of the verb examine and the suffix -ation.

Diphthongs

A string of two vowels that form one complex sound. The Greek diphthongs are: αι, αυ, ει, ευ, ηυ, οι, ου, υι, ωυ.

Direct object1.3.3.3

Normally the thing affected by the action of the verb marked with accusative case (e.g. Ἡ ἀδελφὴ τύπτει τὸν ἄνθρωπον).

Distributive quantifier43.4.3.1

Marks that each entity referred to participates in the relevant event.

Ditransitive (of verbs)

A verb that takes two direct objects. There are normally semantic restrictions on the kinds of roles the arguments can play in the eventuality, e.g. Esther sent Hannah a ball vs. * Esther sent New York a ball.

Domain (of quantifier)

The set of individuals that a quantifier may be referring to, e.g. in All disciples cast out demons, the domain is the set of relevant disciples.

Double accusative20.1.3.2

When a verb selects for two arguments in accusative case.

Durative (of verbs)

A feature of a predicate that refers to whether an eventuality is protracted over time or not, e.g. Maverick knows French and Maverick is playing basketball are both [+durative].

Dynamic

An eventuality that involves change. All non-stative eventualities are dynamic.

E

‘E’ class vowels5.1.3.1

Vowel sounds that make a sound close to ‘e’ in English, such as ε, ι, or η.

E(ventuality)-readingof deverbal noun

A reading of a deverbal noun whereby the eventuality referred to by the underlying verb is referred to, e.g. Lydia’s examination of the patient took a long time.

Elision4.4.3

A phonological process whereby the final vowel of a word is dropped and is pronounced with the following word, e.g. δι’ αὐτοῦ.

Ellipsis/elliptical43.3.3.1

Where one part of the sentence is deleted phonologically (we don’t actually hear it being said), but it is still understood semantically.

Enclitic2.2.3

A separate word that functions phonologically like it is connected to the end of the previous word. An enclitic will often lose its accent, e.g. τύπτει με.

Epistolary aorist24.2.3.2

Refers to an event that is future in relation to the time a letter is written, but past in relation to the time that letter is read.

Event1.4.4

Something that happens in the world. While Obed fell is an event (since falling is something that can be said to happen), Obed loves pizza is a state (since loving is not something that can be said to happen).

Eventuality5.1.3.2

A term used in linguistics to refer to both events and states. The term “situation” is also sometimes used in an identical way.

Eventuality Time (ET)5.1.3.2

Also called the Time of Situation, this is the time when the eventuality takes place in the real world. If Joseph traveled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem from 3 to 5, the ET is from 3–5.

Evidential reason clause24.4.4.2

Gives the reason we know something to be true.

Exclamative45.4.3.1

Content which in Greek uses the form of a question, but indicates that something holds to a surprising degree, like the English sentence “What an awesome job you did!”

Exclusive focus

A focus interpretation that indicates that the assertion is true of only the focused element, e.g. Only SYLVIA ran the marathon means that Sylvia ran the marathon and no one else.

Existential perfect20.2.3.2

A reading of the perfect where an eventuality existed at some point prior to the time being talked about. It occurs with verbs that have no semantically necessary result.

Existential quantifier

A quantifier that applies to at least one individual in the domain, e.g. in Some disciple casts out demons, some applies the description of casting out demons to one of the relevant disciples.

Experiencer33.2.3.2

A semantic role of an argument that refers to someone who experiences something. When the experiencer is the subject, the voice of the verb is often medio-passive.

External argument

An argument that is normally actively engaged in the eventuality described by the verb; it is syntactically outside of (i.e. external to) the verb phrase.

F

Familiar topic

A topic that is “given or accessible from the discourse” (Kirk 2012:114).

Focus

The focused constituent is indicated as part of the assertion in contrast to other elements that are not part of the assertion, e.g. SYLVIA ran the marathon asserts that Sylvia ran the marathon in contrast to others who did not.

Focus-sensitive particle

A particle that has a focus meaning, e.g. also, even, and only.

Frame-setting construction48.1.3

A linguistic construction that indicates that the speaker’s claim should be restricted to a certain domain, e.g. In terms of her relationships , Abigail is a healthy individual.

Fricative19.1.3

A sound that can be continually produced where the airflow is restricted but is not completely stopped, e.g. ‘th’ from θ.

Functional morphology

Morphology that contributes meaningful grammatical information, especially logical meanings, e.g. -σ- in λύσεις contributes the future tense meaning, a temporal relationship.

Futurate40.1.3.2

A use of the Luo to refer to future events that are expected to occur.

Future tense10.2.3.2

When the time referred to occurs after the moment of speaking.

G

Generic aorist21.1.3.2

Refers to timeless truths (e.g. the sun rises) which have a natural endpoint.

Generic sentence42.2.3.2

Expresses a regular pattern of eventualities, e.g. ‘foxes have holes.’

Genitivegen

Abbreviated “gen” (Cases).

Genitive absolute19.2.3.2

A subordinate participial clause in genitive case that describes an eventuality performed by a different subject from the main clause. It is related to the main clause in an underspecified way.

Genitive case3.2.3.2

A grammatical case that relates two words, especially two nouns.

Givenness

A feature of a linguistic item whereby its denotation is “present in the immediate CG content” (Krifka 2007:37). Givenness is a scalar notion with definite articles being less given than pronouns but more given than the indefinite article.

Grammatical case1.1.4

A marking on a noun to show the grammatical function (e.g. subject, direct object, indirect object) of the noun within a clause. There are four primary cases in Koine Greek: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative.

Grammatical gender1.1.4

A marking on a noun that indicates the noun belongs to a certain class, e.g. masculine, feminine, and neuter.

Grammatical morphology

Morphemes that contribute grammatical or logical information to words, e.g. tense and aspect markers, person markers, number markers, etc.

Grammatical number1.4.4

A marking that determines how many objects in the world are being referred to.

Grapheme

A written symbol that stands for a meaning-sound pair.

Grave accent0

An accent pointing down and to the right that marks the stressed syllable of a word and occurs at the end of a word before another stressed word (e.g. Ἀδελφὴ κράζει).

H

Habitual6.3.3.2

Events that happen regularly. The event happens multiple times, and it can safely be predicted to happen again because it is a characteristic of an individual, e.g. Philip eats vegetables refers to a habit that Philip has.

Historical present10.4.3.2

A use of the present where the time being referred to overlaps with a past time rather than the speaker’s real present time.

I

Identifying predicate5.4.4.3

A predicate that identifies the subject as another individual, e.g. Emmett is the boy (that ate the last cookie). The predicate the boy identifies the subject as the same individual as the predicate.

Idiom6.2.2

A combination of words in which the meaning of the whole cannot be straightforwardly derived from a combination of the phrase’s parts, e.g. Break a leg, Benaiah, is not a command to break a femur but to try hard and have good luck.

Imperativeimpv22.1.3

A verbal form prototypically used to give commands. In Greek, imperatives are marked for voice and aspect but not tense.

Imperfect15.1.3

A verb form with imperfective aspect like the Present/Luo, but past tense. Its most basic function is to describe events in the past that have not yet come to an end, e.g. Josiah was sleeping.

Imperfective aspect (preliminary definition)5.1.3.2

When the time of the eventuality (ET) extends beyond the time referred to by the speaker (RT), so that only part of the eventuality is referred to. In Joseph was traveling from Bethlehem to Jerusalem at 4:20, only part of Joseph’s traveling to Jerusalem is referred to by the speaker, since Joseph’s actual trip lasted from 3–5, but the speaker is only referring to part of that whole event, namely the part taking place at 4:20.

Inanimate2.2.2

An object that cannot move on its own. Some grammars distinguish between inanimate and animate objects in various ways.

Inchoative14.1.3.2

The beginning of a state, e.g. Ezra became cold.

Indeclinable noun3.2.2

A noun that does not change form when the case or number changes, e.g. ὁ Ἰσραήλ = τὸν Ἰσραήλ.

Indefinite article5.2.3

An article that typically does not refer to a specific individual. English’s indefinite article is a, but Greek does not have one. The Greek bare singular may sometimes, but need not, be equivalent to the English indefinite article.

Indefinite pronoun21.2.4

A pronoun that refers to an entity unfamiliar to the hearer.

Independent clause12.2.3.1

A clause that can stand on its own, e.g. Hannah is the mother of Samuel.

Indicativeind16.2.3

The default verbal mood that says nothing about the “reality status” of the eventuality described by the verb.

Individual-Level Predicate (ILP)15.2.3.2; fn. 40

A predicate that refers to a permanent property of an individual. The predicate in Josiah is a male is an ILP.

Infinitiveinf16.2.3

A verbal mood that marks an eventuality as hypothetical or unreal in some way.

Inflectional morphology10.1.3

Morphology that marks grammatical information like case, gender, number, aspect, tense, etc. (e.g. the stem ανθρωπ becomes ἄνθρωπος with the addition of inflectional morphology).

Information structure (IS)

A topic within linguistics that concerns how information packaging in a sentence, particularly with reference to its syntax, affects the sentence’s interpretation.

Ingressive21.3.3.2

Refers to the beginning of an event, as opposed to the inchoative which refers to the beginning of a state (see 14.1.3.2).

Instrument3.1.4.2

A grammatical function marked with the dative case. An instrument is used with certain verbs that refer to actions that can be performed with something. This thing is often wielded, either physically or metaphorically, by the subject, e.g. She wiped off his feet with her hair.

Intensifier29.1.3.1

Conveys the idea that a particular person participates in the eventuality and not someone else.

Interjectionintj8.4.2

A word that stands outside the clause, often to express a non-truth-conditional meaning, e.g. Look, Luke is going through a hard time right now.

Internal argument

An argument that is normally affected by the eventuality described by the verb; it is syntactically inside of (i.e. internal to) the verb phrase.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

An alphabet used in linguistics that allows linguists to distinguish all speech sounds in any human language. Phonetic transcriptions are written in brackets, e.g. [b], and phonemic transcriptions are written between slashes, e.g. /b/.

Intersective29.2.3.2

An interpretation of an adjective that references the quality of a person rather than the quality of a person’s action(s) (e.g. Jesus is the good shepherd = Jesus is both good and a shepherd).

Intersective reading (of adjectives)

An interpretation of an adjective that references the quality of a person rather than the quality of a person’s action(s), e.g. Rachel is a beautiful girl has an intersective reading of beautiful, since Rachel is both beautiful and a girl.

Iota subscript3.1.3

An ι written below the vowels ω, η, or α that was originally pronounced similar to a short ι.

Iterative43.2.3.2

Refers to multiple events, but which are not characteristics of an individual or group of individuals, e.g. ‘Peter knocks at the door’ refers to him knocking multiple times.

K

Kind-entity distinction (in nouns)

Reference to either a class of individuals (kind) or a specific individual (entity), e.g. Emmett fears turtles (kind) vs. Emmett fears a turtle (entity).

L

(Linguistic) feature

Linguistic features are normally written in small caps in brackets and refer to a component of a linguistic item. A classic noun feature is the [+count] feature, referring to whether a noun can be counted or not, e.g. Simeon owns forty houses (house is [+count]) vs. * Simeon owns forty muds (mud is [-count]).

Labial36.3.3

A sound produced with your lips, like π, β, and φ.

Lexeme

A stem with a particular lexical meaning, e.g. ἑτοιμασία ‘preparation’ has a stem with the same meaning regardless of the case ending.

Lexical morphology

Morphemes that form lexemes, especially roots and categorizers.

Lexical semantics

The study of the meaning of words in the lexical categories – nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Lifetime effect15.2.3.2

An inference that the person being described in the sentence is dead. This inference is often triggered by ILPs in past tense descriptions, e.g. John was a prophet.

Logical future27.3.3.2

Refers to an event that would happen if the hypothetical circumstances under discussion were true.

M

Manner of articulation

The way in which the mouth is used to produce a sound, e.g. a stop completely stops the airflow before releasing it.

Mass-count distinction (in nouns)

Refers to the grammatical distinction within nouns whereby the noun can either be counted [+count] or not [-count]. Non-countable nouns are normally considered [+mass].

Medio-passivemed-psv

Abbreviated “med-psv” (Voice).

Middlemid

Abbreviated “mid” (Voice).

Modality28.1.3

The realm of meaning that deals with eventualities that are unreal in some way.

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit in language, e.g. cats is composed of two morphemes, since both cat and - s contribute to the meaning of the whole word cats.

Morpho-phonology

The interface between morphology and phonology, often relevant when morphemes combine, e.g. κράζω + σ = κράξω.

Morphology

The study of morphemes, meaningful units in language.

Movable ν4.1.3

A ν that may optionally appear as the final letter of certain words, e.g. κράζουσι(ν). The general rule is: if a word has a movable ν and the next word begins with a vowel, the ν will appear e.g. κράζουσι τῇ ἀδελφῇ vs. κράζουσι ν ἀδελφῇ.

N

2nd person1.4.4

A marker on pronouns or verb forms that refers to the addressee(s) (e.g. you, you all, etc.).

Negative Concord Item (NCI)45.3.3.1

A negative element within a sentence that is not cancelled out when combined with another negative element, but agrees with it and forms a single negative statement, e.g. “I do not judge no one” in negative concord would mean “I judge no one”.

Nominal18.2.3.2

A word that functions like a noun in the sentence.

Nominal participle18.2.3.3

A participle that is used like a noun. It normally refers to the entity who is involved in the eventuality.

Nominalizer

An affix that creates a noun from a root or stem, e.g. - tion in revelation or -ις in ἀποκάλυψις (both of which create a noun from a verb).

Nominativenom

Abbreviated “nom” (Cases).

Nominative case1.1.4

Generally marks the subject of a sentence (e.g. Ἡ ἀδελφὴ τύπτει τὸν ἄνθρωπον ‘The sister is hitting the human’).

Non-core dative11.3.3.2

A dative that introduces an individual that does not participate in the event or state named by the verb but is affected by the event in some way. It is non-core because the dative is not an argument of the verb.

Nonrestrictive relative clause25.3.3.2

Supplies further information about a noun whose reference is determined by other means.

Nounn1.1.4

Semantically, nouns are normally a person, place, thing, or idea. Syntactically, it is a word that can serve as the argument of a verb and can take the definite article.

O

‘O’ class vowels4.2.4.1

Vowel sounds that make a sound close to o in English, such as ω or ο.

Objective genitive40.2.3.2

A genitive that introduces the object of an underlying verb, e.g. The doctor’s examination of the patient lasted 3 hours where the genitive of the patient corresponds to the object of the underlying verb examine (found in the deverbal nominalization examination).

Open scale (adjective)

A scale that does not have a natural minimum or maximum value, e.g. any number above 1 is an open scale. Adjectives like tall are open scales in that there is no maximum height of something.

Optativeopt

Abbreviated “opt” (Mood).

P

Participleptcp18.2.3

Words formed from verbal stems with case, number, and gender endings. Participles may function as nouns, verbs, or adjectives. They have aspect but not tense.

Particlepart

Abbreviated “part” (Grammatical categories).

Particle (or phrasal) verb

A verb that is created by attaching a particle or preposition to the verb, usually creating a new meaning. Greek attaches prepositions as a prefix, e.g. ἀποκρίνομαι, while English requires the preposition after the verb, e.g. break down.

Partitive construction43.4.3.1

A construction with the genitive where the genitive names the group which the entity referred to by the previous noun or pronoun is a part of.

Passivepsv

Abbreviated “psv” (Voice).

Penultima syllable2.3.3

The second to last syllable in a word, e.g. ἄν θρω πος.

Perfect19.1.4

An aspect that indicates that the eventuality time precedes the reference time. It is the meaning encoded by the have + - en form in English.

Perfective aspect11.1.3

A semantic value of a verb that specifies a certain relationship between the RT and the ET (i.e. is an aspect). In perfective aspect, the ET is included in the RT, so the time span of the entire event is in view rather than just part of the event. In English, this can be seen in sentences like Tim built the house, which means that Tim finished building the house, that is, the end of the situation is included in the time that is being discussed (see Semantics C for further discussion).

Performative26.2.3.2

An event that is accomplished by the speaker through uttering it, e.g. I hereby pronounce you husband and wife. In English, the verb form is present tense, but the Aorist indicative is possible for Greek.

Periphrastic participle30.2.3.2

A combination of a copula-like verb with a Luo or Leluka participle where the main verb provides the tense of the action and the participle provides the aspect.

Person1.4.4

Indicates the identity of the subject, whether it is the speaker (1st person), addressee (2nd person), or someone else (3rd person).

Perspectival dative46.1.3.2

Introduces someone who believes the statement to be true.

Phone

A distinct sound in language, e.g. [k^h] and [k] are distinct sounds.

Phoneme

A meaningfully distinct sound in a particular language, e.g. [k^h] and [t^h] are distinct sounds that, when substituted, form different words ([k^h æp] ‘cap’ vs. [t^h æp] ‘tap’).

Phonetics

The study of the physical characteristics of sounds.

Phonology

The study of how sounds interact with one another in a language’s sound system.

Place of articulation

The location in the mouth or throat where a particular sound is made, e.g. bilabial is a sound produced with the lips.

Pluperfect (Elelukein)44.4.3

A verb form with the same aspectual readings as Perfect/Leluka, but the Reference Time (RT) is in the past rather than the present.

Plural4.1.4

The plural is a marking on a noun or pronoun that indicates the number of entities the noun or pronoun refers to. In Greek, it is also marked on adjectives and verbs to agree with the noun.

Polysemous

A lexeme with two distinct interpretations, only one of which is normally intended by the speaker, e.g. examination

Possession7.2.3.2

A common function of the genitive where one person owns or is physically connected to something.

Post-positive14.4.3.1

A class of conjunctions that cannot occur at the beginning of the clause they introduce. The most common in NT Greek are δέ, οὖν, and γάρ.

Pragmatics

The study of how utterances are used to create meaning in particular contexts.

Pre-stage38.1.3.2

A use of the present to refer to an eventuality that the subject has already decided to perform, but is not yet in the process of literally performing.

Predicate5.4.4.2

The part of a sentence that describes the action or state of the subject (e.g. Ὁ ἄνθρωπός ἐστι γεωργός or Ἡ ἀδελφὴ τύπτει τὸν ἀδελφόν).

Predicate negation8.4.4.2

The predicate is not true of the subject.

Predicative adjective17.3.3.2

An adjective in predicate position that asserts that the description is true, e.g. God’s name is holy.

Prefix

An affix that attaches to the beginning of a word, e.g. ε- in ἔλυσα.

Preposition2.4.3

A word that relates whatever comes after it (usually a noun) to something else in the clause, e.g. The boy in the room.

Present progressive1.4.4.2

A verbal form used to describe events that are in progress when the sentence is being uttered (equivalent to the be + - ing form in English, e.g. Sandy is eating).

Present tense1.4.4

(preliminary definition) Reference to an event that occurs at the time of speaking.

Presuppositionpreliminary definition; see Syntax C

Something the speaker does not assert to be true but assumes the truth of, e.g. ὁ υἱὸς μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ‘the son remains forever’ presupposes the existence of the son.

Proclitic1.2.3

A word without its own accent that is pronounced with the following word.

Prohibitive29.4.3.1

A negative statement that prohibits an action.

Proper-common noun distinction

Refers to whether a noun may refer to an individual or not on its own, e.g. Hosannah touched Hope (where the noun/name Hope is [+proper]) vs. Hosannah touched dog (where the noun dog is [+common]).

Property

A thematic role that refers to a concept that is predicated of an individual, e.g. faithfulness in Abraham’s faithfulness was exemplary.

Protasis32.4.3

The ‘if-statement’ of a conditional construction, which is the circumstance that would cause another event to take place, e.g. the first clause in, “If I die, you will be sad.” It is also sometimes called the ‘antecedent’.

Psych-verbs

A class of verbs in which a psychological state is being described, e.g. fear. Psych-verbs often exhibit unique syntactic characteristics.

Q

Quality

A thematic role that refers to a concept, e.g. faithfulness in Faithfulness is an essential aspect of the Christian life.

Quantifier18.4.3

A grammatical category that specifies the quantity of the noun it modifies (see Semantics B).

Question wordqst

Abbreviated “qst” (Grammatical categories).

R

3rd person1.4.4

A marker on pronouns or verb forms that refers to someone or thing other than the speaker or addressee (e.g. he, she, they etc.).

R(eferential)-readingof deverbal noun

A reading of a deverbal noun whereby an entity is referred to that is related in some way to the underlying eventuality, e.g. Lydia’s examination was on the table.

Recessive accenting3.3.3

When the accent goes as far back as possible in the word (though without violating general constraints on where the accent can go). In Greek, verbs have recessive accenting.

Reference Time (RT)5.1.3.2

Also called the Topic Time, this is the time span being talked about, or referred to, by the speaker. In Joseph was traveling from Bethlehem to Jerusalem at 4:20, the time being referred to is 4:20. The progressive form was traveling is used here to indicate that Joseph was in the midst of traveling at that time (see “imperfective aspect”).

Reflexive23.1.3.2

The one performing the action of the verb performs that action on him/herself.

Relative clause19.4.3

Subordinate clauses that modify a noun, such as The man who listened to the teacher .

Relative pronoun19.4.3

A pronoun that introduces a relative clause.

Restrictive relative clause25.3.3.2

Supplies information to distinguish who or what is being referred to from other possible referents.

Result perfect19.1.4.2

Refers to a state caused by a prior event.

Root13.1.3

The part of a word that carries the primary lexical meaning of the word. Roots do not inherently belong to a grammatical category, but their meaning sometimes restricts the category of the word that can be formed.

Rough breathing mark1.2.3

A breathing mark historically pronounced with an ‘h’ sound preceding the vowel and pointing towards the word (e.g. ἵππος ‘horse’).

S

1st person1.4.4

A marker on pronouns or verb forms that refers to the speaker and anyone else the speaker may choose to include with him or her (e.g. I, me, we, us etc.).

Scalar focus

A focus interpretation that presupposes that the focused element is an extreme option among alternatives, e.g. Even SYLVIA ran the marathon presupposes that Sylvia would be an unlikely option to run the marathon.

Semantic patient (of objects)

A thematic role that refers to an argument that changes state on account of the event e.g. the plate in Adriana cracked the plate. The term theme often includes patient as a subset.

Semantics

The study of meaning in language, especially meaning components that affect truth-conditions.

Semelfactive43.2.3.2

A special class of events that have no duration or natural endpoint.

Shifting topic

“A newly introduced, newly changed or newly returned topic” (Kirk 2012:113).

Sibilant8.3.3

A fricative (i.e. partial obstruction of airflow in the mouth) that is characterized by a louder ‘hissing’ noise. The English sounds s, sh, z, and the final sound in beige are all sibilants.

Sigmatic Aorist13.1.4

An Aorist form that has a σ (sigma) instead of theme vowels (compare thematic Aorist in chapter 11).

Simple present (English)1.4.4.2

The simple present is found in present sentences that aren’t progressive (e.g. Susan loves grapes). It is used to describe present habits or states.

Singular1.4.4

A marking of grammatical number that indicates only one entity is being referred to.

Smooth breathing mark0

A breathing mark that is not pronounced and points away from the word (e.g. ἐσθίει).

Speech-act causation24.4.4.2

The use of a conjunction which indicates causation to give the reason why something is being said.

Stage-Level Predicate (SLP)15.2.3.2; fn. 40

A predicate that refers to a temporary property/stage of an individual. The predicate in Josiah is hungry is an SLP.

State1.4.4

A situation that holds in the world. While Obed loves pizza is a state (since loving is not something that can be said to happen), Obed fell is an event (since falling is something that can be said to happen).

Stative perfect23.2.3.2

A Leluka verb referring to a present state that does not include a prior causative event.

Stativity (of verbs)

A feature of a predicate that refers to whether an eventuality involves change or not. Stative verbs do not involve change and normally do not combine with the progressive, e.g. Maverick knows French vs. * Maverick is knowing French.

Stem10.1.3

The part of the word without any inflectional morphology (i.e. morphology that marks grammatical information like case, gender, number, aspect, tense, etc.) (e.g. ανθρωπ is the stem of ἄνθρωπος).

Stop19.1.3

A sound where the airflow completely stops when making it, so it cannot be continually produced, e.g. ‘t’ from τ.

Subjective genitive40.2.3.2

A genitive that introduces the subject of an underlying verb, e.g. The doctor’s examination of the patient lasted 3 hours where the genitive – ‘s attached to doctor corresponds to the subject of the underlying verb examine (found in the deverbal nominalization examination).

Subjunctivesub28.1.4

A verbal mood often found in subordinate clauses that marks an eventuality as unreal in some way.

Subordinate clause12.2.3.1

A clause that cannot stand on its own, e.g. Because Hannah is the mother of Samuel.

Subordinating conjunction13.4.3

A conjunction that introduces a subordinate clause, such as ὅτι ‘because/that’.

Subsective29.2.3.2

An interpretation of an adjective that references the quality of a person’s action(s) rather than the quality of a person (e.g. Jesus is the good shepherd = Jesus is good at shepherding).

Subsective reading (of adjectives)

An interpretation of an adjective that references the quality of a person’s action(s) rather than the quality of a person, e.g. Rachel is a beautiful dancer has a subsective reading of beautiful, since Rachel may dance beautifully without being a beautiful girl (it also has the intersective reading).

Suffix

An affix that attaches to the end of a word, e.g. -σα in ἔλυσα.

Syllable2.1.3

A unit of speech sound that consists of one or more vowel or vowel-like sounds, e.g. δοῦ and λος.

Syntax

The study of how morphemes are ordered in a language.

T

T(emporal) A(nchor)

The time point or interval to which the reference time (RT) is anchored. This is ordinarily, but not always, equivalent to the time of utterance.

Tense1.4.4

(preliminary definition) Refers to the relationship between the time of speaking and the time of the event.

Thematic aorist11.1.3.1

An Aorist form that has theme vowels (see also theme vowels in chapter 7). Thematic Aorists also have a different stem from the present form, e.g. ἐσθίω vs. ἔφαγον.

Thematic role

The role an argument plays in an eventuality, e.g. agent, causer, patient, theme, etc.

Thematic verbs9.4.3

Verbs with a ‘theme’ vowel before the ending that agrees in person and number with the subject (e.g. τύπτ-ομεν). See also theme vowel.

Theme

A thematic role that refers to a participant that is acted upon in the eventuality, e.g. Laura in Selah bonked Laura refers to someone affected by the event of bonking.

Theme vowel7.1.4.1

The vowels ε or ο that are associated with a particular person and number in certain verbs. The vowel ε goes with 2s, 3s, 2p, and ο goes with 1s, 1p, and 3p.

Topic

“The topic constituent identifies the entity or set of entities under which the information expressed in the comment constituent should be stored in the CG content” (Krifka 2007:41).

Truth-conditions

The conditions under which a statement is true or not.

U

Ultima syllable2.3.3

The final syllable in a word, e.g. ἄνθρω πος.

Unaccusativefinal definition

An intransitive verb whose only argument is an internal argument.

Unaccusative (of verbs)preliminary definition; see Syntax B

A type of intransitive verb whereby the only argument of the verb is something that undergoes a change, e.g. The pot broke (see also unergative).

Unergativefinal definition

An intransitive verb whose only argument is an external argument.

Unergative (of verbs)preliminary definition; see Syntax B

A type of intransitive verb whereby the only argument of the verb is something that performs the eventuality, e.g. The engine coughed (see also unaccusative).

Universal perfect38.2.3.2

An interpretation of the perfect in which a past state continues to hold in the present.

Universal quantifier

A quantifier that applies to all individuals in the domain, e.g. in All disciples cast out demons, all applies the description of casting out demons to all the relevant disciples.

Utterance Time (UT)5.1.3.2

Also called the Speech Time or Time of Utterance, this is the time when the sentence is spoken.

V

Velar36.3.3

A sound produced at the back of the throat, like κ, γ, and χ.

Verbv1.4.4

A word that refers to an event or state that occurs at a certain time indicated by the tense.

Verbal construction37.3.3.1

Two verbs that describe a single eventuality where each verb contributes different information about that eventuality.

Verbal mood16.2.3

A morphological marking on a verb that signals whether the event is real or not.

Verbal nominative participle20.3.3.2

A subordinate clause similar to the genitive absolute, but that describes an event performed by the same subject as the main clause.

Verbal participle18.2.3.3

A participle used like a verb to refer to the eventuality itself.

Verbalizer

An affix that creates a verb from a root or stem, e.g. - ify in justify or -ο in δικαιόω (both of which create a verb from an adjective).

Vocativevoc

Abbreviated “voc” (Cases).

Vocative case12.4.4.2

A case used to address the hearer, often used to draw attention to what is being said or to describe the addressee.

W

WH-words11.4.3

The words who and what are the primary WH-words used to question an argument in a sentence. In Greek, WH-words are formed by combining τίν with the 3rd declension endings, and they normally come in the word-initial position of a sentence (e.g. Τίνα τύπτεις;).

ReferenceAbbreviations