Non-finite verbal forms in ancient Indo-European languages
Project Title
Non-finite verbal forms in ancient Indo-European languages: diachronic, synchronic and cross-linguistic perspectives – PRIN 2022 Prot. 2022RSTTAZ
Project context
https://www.indefiniteprin.it/
Project Description
The primary aim of the project is to explore the morphological and syntactic properties of non-finite verbal forms in certain ancient Indo-European languages. Non-finite verbal forms, which include infinitives, participles, verbal adjectives, verbal nouns and gerunds are “mixed” categories in the sense that they display features and behaviour typical of at least two lexical classes (i.e., the verb, on the one hand, and the noun, adjective or adverb on the other). Such uncertain status not only creates instability and ambiguity in diachrony and synchrony, but also reveals an intricate interplay of morphology, syntax and semantics. The languages involved in the project are Vedic, Sanskrit and Middle Indo-Aryan varieties, Old Persian and Eastern Middle Iranian languages, Greek (from Archaic Greek to Classical and Post-Classical Greek), Hittite, Latin, Tocharian, Albanian and some North Germanic languages. Taking a comparative approach that is neither purely historical nor purely typological, but involves both perspectives, the project focuses on two specific categories that can be subsumed under the general label of non-finite verbal forms, i.e., participles and infinitives.
Principal Investigator
Paola Dardano, full professor of Historical and general linguistics, specialist in ancient Anatolian languages.
Email address for information request
Paola Dardano dardano@unistrasi.it
Financing body
MUR
Project operational period
October 2023 – October 2025
Keywords
Finiteness, Non finite verbal forms, Morphology, Syntax, Language change