Καὶ τί ἂν εἰπεῖν τις ἔχοι; Expression(s) of Focus in questions in Demosthenes
Résumé
It is now firmly established that the word order in Ancient Greek (AG) expresses information structure (Bertrand 2010; Dik 1995; Matić 2003). Specifically, two focus positions have been identified in declarative clauses: one immediately before the verb (1), and one at the end of the clause, when the communicative context licences a narrow reading of the focus domain consisting of the verb followed by other focal elements (2).
(1)Non-ratified topics — Focus — Verb — Ratified topics — Other presupposed elements
(2)Non-ratified topics — [ Verb — Ratified topics — Focus elements ]Focus domain
However cross-linguistically, the word order in interrogative clauses is often different from the canonical declarative word order, e.g. subjects are postverbal in English. So, what about the word order in AG questions?
Since WH-words are narrow focus constituents (Lambrecht and Michaelis 1998; Rochemont 1986), they are expected to be located in one of the two focus positions: Final (in situ) or preverbal.
An exhaustive survey of the constituent questions in Demosthenes’ political speeches shows that both strategies are used (3–4):
(3)In situ:
ταῦταδ’ἐστὶτί ; (9.39)
NRTop CONJVerbWHFoc
(4)Preverbal:
ἀλλὰΘετταλίαπῶςἔχει;(9.26)
CONJNRTopWHFocVerb
Nevertheless, we claim that a different analysis of those examples is preferable.
First, there are instances where the WH-word is separated from the verb by one or more constituents. Some of them can be explained away, since they fall into a class of postpositive elements, i.e. constituents that form a unit with their prosodic host: clitics, parenthetics, vocatives, or even Ratified Topic (RTop) expressions, which have been shown to be postpositive too (Bertrand 2009) (5).
(5)ἂν δ’ ἐκεῖνα Φίλιππος λάβῃ,τίςαὐτὸνκωλύσει δεῦρο βαδίζειν;(1.25)WHFocRTopVerb
However, we also found elements between the WH-word and the verb which cannot be postpositive: non-ratified topics (6) or contrastive (potentially focal) expressions (7).
(6)ἢπότεροιτοὺς ἱππέαςπροὔδοσαν […]; (9.56)
CONJWHFocNRTopVerb
(7)ποῖ γὰρ αὐτὸςτρέψεταιμετὰ ταῦτα;(14.31)
WHFocCONJFocR?VerbAdverbial
Second, the position of clitics in many instances (about one quarter of the corpus) shows that in WH-interrogatives, the WH-word constitutes an independent prosodic domain (Goldstein 2015: 200–14) (8).
(8)(τί)φ (ἐποίησεν =ἄν)φ;(31.09)
Last, the WH-constituent is sometimes split (9):
(9)τίν'ἂνοὗτοςἀξίαν τῶν πεπραγμένωνὑπόσχοιδίκην;(54.22)
WHFocPTCTopRFocRVerbTopR
We argue that there is a dedicated slot at the beginning of the clause for WH-constituents (WHFoc), and that the WH-word rises stepwise to the left periphery: It first stops in the preverbal focus position before moving up to the WH-focus position. Instances like (9) would then be a case of stranding, with parts of the constituent being left at every step: δίκην in its original position, ἀξίαν τῶν πεπραγμένων in FocR, and τίν' in WHFoc. Accordingly, cases like (4) where the WH-word is apparently in the preverbal focus position are amenable to such an analysis, since everything that precedes the WH-word can be viewed as extraclausal (circumstancials, themes, etc.). Even in seemingly unproblematic examples, the position of clitics results from such stranding, as in (10) where εἰπεῖν is stranded in the FocR position.
(10)(καὶ=τί =ἂν )φ (εἰπεῖν=τιςἔχοι; )φ (3.29)
CONJWHFocPTCFocRPROVerb
Bertrand, Nicolas (2009), 'Les pronoms postpositifs dans l’ordre des mots en grec: Domaines syntaxiques, domaines pragmatiques', Lalies. Actes des sections de linguistique et de littérature [d’Aussois], 29, 227–252.
— (2010), L’ordre des mots chez Homère: Structure informationnelle, localisation et progression du récit, Unpublished PhD dissertation (https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01702387)
Dik, Helma J. M. (1995), Word order in ancient Greek: A pragmatic account of word order variation in Herodotus, (Amsterdam studies in classical philology; Amsterdam: J.-C. Gieben).
Goldstein, David M. (2015), Classical Greek Syntax: Wackernagel's Law in Herodotus (Brill's Studies in Indo-European Languages & Linguistics; Leiden: E. J. Brill).
Lambrecht, Knud and Michaelis, Laura A. (1998), 'Sentence accent in information questions: default and projection', Linguistics and Philosophy, 21 (5), 477–544.
Matić, Dejan (2003), 'Topic, focus, and discourse structure: Ancient Greek word order', Studies in Language, 27 (3), 573–633.
Rochemont, Michael S (1986), Focus in Generative Grammar (Studies in Generative Linguistic Analysis, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company).