Publication Hub

My research lies at the intersection of Classics and Linguistics. 

My past and current research spans four research strands in the study of the Greek, Latin and Indo-European languages.

Research Strands

Linguistic typology. In particular, I have tried to show how typologically well-known morphosyntactic patterns of modality and tense & aspect are (or are not) reflected in the diachronic data of Greek and Latin. To this end, I have  investigated moods and modal verbs (e.g. 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024), insubordination (e.g. 2021, 2022, forth, subm), counterfactuality (e.g. 2022, 2022, 2023, forthc), and habituality (e.g. 2020, 2022, in prep).

Historical linguistics. I have been involved in grammaticalization research on the Greek language, its potential improvement with collocationist analyses (e.g. 2020 on using collocations to identify the grammaticalization of habitual auxiliaries), typology (e.g. 2022 on diachronic pathways into past habituality) and its intersection with related historical processes such as intersubjectification (e.g. 2022 on the intersubjectification and grammaticalization of ‘imperative’ particles, forthc.).

(Historical) pragmatics. There are many more pragmatic patterns in Ancient Greek and Latin which will be familiar to us from modern languages. Thus far, I have tried to explain the pragmatics of conditional and counterfactual reasoning patterns (e.g. 2022), the historical pragmatics of non-standard wishes in Ancient Greek (e.g. 2020; 2023), or of insubordinate patterns in Latin (e.g. 2022). At the same time, I have tried to show the utility of pragmatic methodologies such as Conversation Analysis for our understanding of ancient dialogical and non-dialogical texts (e.g. 2022, forthc).

Ancient scholarship and ancient languages. We possess many sources about ancient sources and their language from antiquity, some of which can provide useful perspectives on ancient language variation and change. To illustrate, I have recently collected the metalinguistic evaluations of morphosyntactic variation and change in Post-Classical Greek from the Atticist lexica (2022).

Publications

Edited Volumes

• In progress. K. Bentein, E. Cattafi and E. la Roi (eds.). Subordination and Insubordination in Post-Classical Greek: From Syntax to Context. De Gruyter.
• 2020 (ed.). Lingua graeca als lingua franca! De griekse taal door de eeuwen heen. Tetradio. [Lingua Graeca as Lingua Franca! The Greek language through the Centuries.Classics journal for public outreach, specifically aimed at disseminating the latest research into Antiquity to a wider public]

Papers in peer-reviewed Journals

• forthc, exp. 2024. The Life Cycles of Counterfactual Modal Verbs in Ancient Greek: Temporal Reference Shift, Language Ecology and Analogy. Classical Philology.
• forthc, exp. 2024. The Life Cycles of Counterfactual Mood in Indo-European languages: the inherited counterfactual functions of the optative and its replacements through time. Indogermanische Forschungen.
• 2023. Down the Paths to the Past Habitual: its Historical Connections with counterfactual Pasts, Future in the Pasts, Iteratives and Lexical Sources in Ancient Greek. Folia Linguistica Historica 56 (44), 87-116. Published online since 24.10.2022. PDF
• 2023. Polarity Reversal Constructions and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek: Between Implicature and Conventionalization. Journal of Historical Linguistics. Published online 30.03.2023.
• 2022. The Pragmatics of the Past: a Novel Typology of Conditionals with Past Tenses in Ancient Greek, Listy Filologicke 144 (3-4), 263-306. PDF 
• 2022. Towards a chronology of the Modal Particles: The Diachronic Spread in the Ancient Greek Mood System. Graeco-Latina Brunensia 27(2), 113-135. PDF 
• 2022. The Secondary Interjections εἶεν and εἶἑν as Fossilized Wish Optatives: a Conversation Analysis Approach. Emerita: Revista de Lingüística y Filología Clásica 90 (2), 253–280. PDF 
• 2022. The Atticist lexica as Metalinguistic Resource for Morphosyntactic change in Post-Classical Greek. Journal of Greek Linguistics 22(2),  199–231. PDF
• 2022. Interlocked Life Cycles of Counterfactual Mood Forms from Archaic to Classical Greek: Aspect, Actionality and Changing Temporal Reference. Indogermanische Forschungen 127, 235–282. PDF 
• 2022. Insubordination in Archaic and Classical Latin: Commands, Requests, Wishes and Assertives. Journal of Latin Linguistics 21 (1), 23–45. PDF
• 2022. Weaving Together the Diverse Threads of Category Change: Intersubjective Ἀμέλει ‘of course!’ and Imperative Particles in Ancient Greek. Diachronica 39 (2), 151–192. PDF
• 2021. The Insubordination of If- and That-Clauses from Archaic to Post-Classical Greek: ADiachronic Constructional Typology. Symbolae Osloenses 95, 2–64. PDF
• 2020. The Development of Εὑρίσκω ‘Find’ as Evidence towards a Diachronic Solution of the Matching-Problem in Ancient Greek Complementation. Philologia Classica 15 (2), 191–207. PDF
• 2020. A Rephilologized Diachronic Analysis of ‘Post-Classical Greek’: Pitfalls and Principles for Progress. Journal of Greek Linguistics 20 (2), 213–38. PDF
• 2020. Habitual Auxiliaries in Ancient Greek: Grammaticalization and Diachronic Collocation Shifts, Indogermanische Forschungen 125 (1), 135–64. PDF
• 2020. The Variation of Classical Greek Wishes: A Functional Discourse Grammar and Common Ground approach. Glotta 96 (1), 213–45. PDF

• 2019. Epistemic Modality, Particles and the Potential Optative in Classical Greek. Journal of Greek Linguistics 19 (1), 58–89. PDF

• 2018. with M. Kruijer. Paradigmatic Possibilities as Perspective for Absolute Constructions: Exploring Linguistic Differences between the Greek Genitive and Latin Ablative Absolute. Mnemosyne 71 (5), 799–822. PDF

Book Chapters

• subm. Habituals in Ancient Greek: Aspect, Modality and Connected Pathways. A layered approach to habitual expressions. S. Gregersen & K. Hengeveld (eds.). John Benjamins.
• subm. Correlating Morphosyntactic Stability, Change, Register and Context of Use in Post-Classical Greek: The case of Insubordinate Wishes. Subordination and Insubordination in Post-Classical Greek: From Syntax to Context. K. Bentein, E. Cattafi, E. la Roi (eds.). De Gruyter.
• subm. Rewriting the History of the Optative in the Post-Classical Greek Papyri and Literary Texts (III BCE - VI CE): Persistence, Formulae and Innovation. In K. Bentein & M. Vierros (eds.), New light from the East: Linguistic Perspectives on Non-Literary Papyri and Related Sources. Helsinki University Press.
• forthc. Contextualizing Counterfactual Patterns in Post-Classical Greek texts: Forms, Functions and Contexts. What if? Counterfactual Approaches to Imperial and Byzantine Literature. A. Quiroga (ed.). Peter Lang. 
• forthc, exp. 2024. The Intersubjectification of Vision as Interactional Thought: Vision Imperatives in Ancient Greek Diachrony. Verbs of Thought and Speech. Pragmaticalization paths across languages. A. Pardal (ed.). John Benjamins. 
  
• forthc, exp. 2024. Between Dialogic and Diachronic Syntax: the Insubordination of Directive ὅπως in Classical Greek drama. Conversation Analysis and Classics. Talk-in-Interaction in Greek and Latin Literature, R. Verano Liaño (ed.), Brill.
• forthc. exp. 2024. Aspect, Actionality and Pragmatics in the Life Cycles of Counterfactual Conditionals: The Evidence from Ancient Greek Diachrony (VIII - I BCE). Tense and Aspect in Counterfactuals. G. Sharma & M. Ippolito. De Gruyter.
• forthc. exp. 2024. Dangling between Diachrony, Register and Atticism: A Language Ecology Approach to Modal Morphosyntax in Post-Classical Greek. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Ancient Greek Linguistics. J. de la Villa, A. Striano and R. Verano Liaño (eds.). De Gruyter. 
• 2023. A Pragmatic Syntax of Counterfactual Mood Attraction and Mood (A)Symmetry from Archaic to Classical Greek. Building Modality with Syntax. Focus on Ancient Greek, C. Denizot & L. Tronci (eds.), 193–220. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
• 2018. Shifting Responsibilities. Thucydides on Losing to Brasidas. Conflicts in Antiquity: Textual and Material Perspectives, D. van Diemen, D. van Dokkum, A. van Leuken, A. Nijenhuis, and F. A. van der Sande (eds.), 41–61. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 

Encyclopedia Entries

• forthc. Insubordination. Encyclopedia of Greek Language and Linguistics. G. Giannakis, P. Filos, M. Janse, B. D. Joseph, and I. Manolessou (eds.). Brill. 
• forthc. with K. Bentein. Mood and modality in Post-Classical Greek. Encyclopedia of Greek Language and Linguistics. G. Giannakis, P. Filos, M. Janse, B.D. Joseph, and I.Manolessou (eds.), Brill.
• forthc, exp. 2024. Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek. Encyclopedia of Greek Language and Linguistics. G. Giannakis, P. Filos, M. Janse, B.D. Joseph, and I.Manolessou (eds.), Brill.
• forthc, exp. 2024. Counterfactuals in Post Classical Greek. Encyclopedia of Greek Language and Linguistics. G. Giannakis, P. Filos, M. Janse, B.D. Joseph, and I.Manolessou (eds.), Brill.
• forthc, exp. 2024. Habituals in Ancient Greek. Encyclopedia of Greek Language and Linguistics. G. Giannakis, P. Filos, M. Janse, B.D. Joseph, and I.Manolessou (eds.), Brill.

Blogs

• 2022. Writing Wishes. Back to the future with the papyri. Public outreach blogpost for ERC project Everyday Writing in Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt. 

Reviews

• 2023. Unceta Gómez and Berger 2022. Politeness in Ancient Greek and Latin. BMCR. 
• 2022. T. Givón. 2021. The Life Cycle of Adpositions. Linguistlist  
• 2020. A Rephilologized Diachronic Analysis of ‘Post-Classical Greek’: Pitfalls and Principles for Progress. Journal of Greek Linguistics 20 (2), 213–38.