Basic valency orientation in Homeric Greek

Abstract

Abstract In a number of recent works, verbs and expressions encoding causative alternations have been regarded as a possible test for measuring the basic valency orientation of a language. This paper focuses on the basic orientation of valency in Homeric Greek. The test applied for determining this parameter is that proposed by Nichols et al. (2004, Transitivizing and detransitivizing languages. Linguistic Typology 8(2). 149–211), focusing on 18 causative alternations. The investigation carried out in this paper shows that Homeric Greek belongs to the detransitivizing type, showing an active-middle alternation as the preferred pattern for expressing causative alternations. This study aims to enrich the typological literature on this topic and positions itself among other studies of valency orientation in ancient Indo-European languages, such as Old Hittite, Old Indo-Aryan, Proto-Germanic, and Proto-Slavic, which show transitivizing strategies along with voice alternation patterns.