Current research interests

Phonology and its interface with morphology

Lexical Accent Systems: I have a general interest in morphologically-oriented accentuation, which is a central topic in my dissertation and several of my publications and conference talks that preceded or followed its publication. My dissertation is a comparative study of the stress systems of Greek, Russian, and a group of Salish dialects, broadly known as lexical accent systems (LAS) because their stress is considered to be largely determined in the lexicon.  I argue that the complicated stress facts of LAS can be straightforwardly accounted for if one takes into consideration the structural position of  lexically accented morphemes in a given morphological construction. [pdf, 4,27 MB, WinRAR]  Some of the core ideas of my dissertation have been recently re-worked in the light of Goldrick’s (1998, 2000) TURBIDITY THEORY and van Oostendorp’s (2004) COLORED CONTAINMENT model [<2.12.>]

Evolution of lexical accents: In collaborative work with Baris Kabak  (University of Konstanz), we put forward a hypothesis regarding the development of lexical accents in edgemost stress systems and propose a theory for their representation. The basic claim is that lexical accents can emerge in systems with conflicting directionality. More specifically, the directionality of different levels of prominence at the word and above-word level as well as a process of morphologization work  hand-in-hand for the development of various types of lexical accents, i.e., local and non-local(=pre-/post-accenting) ones. 
      We make a number of predictions with respect to whether a system will develop lexical accents or not and what their original shape will be. Our predictions are substantiated by empirical evidence from approximately fifty edgemost stress systems. [<2.6>, Email me to send you a copy.] <Top>

Harmony: I am also  interested in contact-induced systems and, especially, in varieties of Greek that have been in long-term contact with Turkish such as Asia Minor Greek. In particular, I study systems that show a transition from fusion to agglutination because such system often reveal more transparently than others the effects of morphological change on phonology [<2.24>].  Another favorite research topic is a unique pattern of vowel harmony that some of these varieties of Greek have developed, possibly under the influence of Turkish. Greek harmony and its interaction with epenthesis is investigated in collaborative work with Marc van Oostendorp [<2.14>, pdf, 368KB; <3.11>,  pdf, 264] <Top>

Prosodic phonology:  In collaborative work with Baris Kabak (University of Konstanz), we discuss the notion of recursivity (REC) in phonology and especially, at the level of the Prosodic Word. On the basis of evidence from clitic constructions, compounding and complex predicates, we argue that REC is not an inherent property of phonology but the result of its interface with morphosyntax. In particular, it arises primarily from a requirement to mirror recursive morphosyntactic (e.g., complex predicates, adjuncts, etc.) structures. Furthermore, we show that NonRecursivity as a constraint is problematic because: (a) it goes against the fundamental premises of linguistic theory, and (b) it does not do the job that it is supposed to do since recursive structures do not emerge from violation of this constraint but rather through the interaction of different constraint sets. [Download <2.4>, paper, pdf, 325KB; <3.9>, pdf, 339KB; <3.5>, pdf, 349KB; <3.7>, handout, pdf, 339K.] I have also written the chapter on "The Phonological Word" for the Blackwell Companion to Phonology [see <2.2>]. <Top>

The phonology of past in Greek: In recent work with Vassilis Spyropoulos, we claim that, contra to traditional accounts, the antepenultimate (APU) stress pattern in past forms such as éγrafe 'she was writing' is not an exponent of the past, but the surface manifestation of a segmentally empty prefix with lexically-encoded accentual properties, e.g. o' (ŕ la van Oostendorp 2007).  We also show that this prefix, which is filed in with the default for Greek vowel e, stands in an allomorphic relation with a set of other exponents of the past (e.g. -ik).  In previous analyses of Greek verb morphology (Warburton 1970; Babiniotis 1972; Ralli 1988, etc.), the exact details of the division of labor between phonology and morphology in the realization of the PAST have not been worked out thoroughly. In this paper, however, based on the investigation of certain complexities that have been either ignored or treated in parsimony, we seek to identify the exact function of each manifestation of the past morpheme and the proper conditioning that regulates its distribution. [Download: handout, pdf, 328 KB; paper <2.7>, pdf, 234KB]

The syntax-phonology interface

Clitic-doubled objects and subjects in Greek: A focal point of my research is the flow and processing of information between the components of Grammar and, especially, the question of whether phonology reflects differences in the processing of syntactic material. In recent work with Vassilis Spyropoulos, we investigate the consequences of the Multiple Spell-Out Hypothesis (Uriagereka 1999, Chomsky 2000, et seq.) for prosodic constituency based on evidence from the phrasing of clitic-doubled DP-objects and that of subjects in Greek [see <2.5>, <2.23>]. Continuing this line of work on the syntax-phonology interface, we also propose a novel approach to the derivation of subjects in Greek, which explains their distribution as a result of the processing of the syntactic output by the Phonological Component after Spell-Out [see <2.3>, <2.5>]. <Top>

Weak object pronouns (clitics) in Greek: I have worked independently and in collaboration with V. Spyropoulos on a cross-dialectal typology of pronominal object clitics. The focus is on determining the filtering role that phonology exercises on syntax, and on constructing a theory that brings together the prosodic and syntactic aspects of second position effects exhibited by clitics in certain dialectal varieties (e.g. Cypriot, Symi Greek, etc.). A welcome result of the cross-dialectal perspective of second position phenomena is that it unveils hidden aspects of diachronic change and, more specifically, the mechanisms that are involved in the shift  from a second to a non-second position system of weak pronominals. [See <2.9>, <2.10>, <2.15>, <3.10>, pdf, 422KB.] <Top>

Language acquisition

Co-phonologies and parallel grammars in language acquisition: In collaboration with Marina Tzakosta (University of Crete) and Spyridoula Varlokosta (University of Athens), I worked on (typical and atypical) phonological acquisition, My interest is mainly on the architecture of early grammars and the formal expression of learning paths as these are revealed in the speech of young learners of Greek. [Relevant papers: <2.13>, pdf, 322KB; <2.17>, <2.21>, <2.22>] <Top>

Greek as L2: The optional use of morphology attested in second language learners has been attributed either to a representational deficit or to a ‘surface’ problem with respect to the realization of inflectional affixes. In a paper, written in collaboration with D. Papadopoulou, V. Spyropoulos, S. Varlokosta, H. Kaili and S. Prokou, we contribute to this issue by providing empirical data from the early interlanguage of Greek learners of Turkish. We conducted three experiments, a cloze task, a sentence picture matching task and on-line grammaticality judgment task, in order to investigate case morphology and its interaction with word order constraints. The findings of all three experiments point towards a variable use of case morphology, which is also observed in previous studies of L2 Turkish. Moreover, they show clearly that the learners face difficulties with non-canonical word orders as well as with the interaction of word order constraints and Case. On the other hand, the learners performed well on verbal inflections. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the developmental patterns in the early stages of L2 acquisition cannot be attributed to a global lack of functional categories but rather to more localized difficulties, which seem to be related to (a) whether the features in the L2 are grammaticalized in the first language and (b) the way these features are encoded in the morphosyntax of the first language. Moreover, we claim that processing factors and the specific properties of the morphological paradigms affect L2 development.  [See <2.1> and handout, pdf, 17.5MB]

Greek & Turkish compared

Doubling: In a recent paper with Aslı Göksel and Barış Kabak, we discuss the phenomenon of "syntactic doubling" in Greek and Turkish, a hitherto unanalysed aspect of these languages, and its implications for the interfaces. Syntactic doubling in Greek and Turkish is different from the cases observed in other languages where doubling is sensitive to syntactic nodes. We show that the conditions on the doubling of constituents for pragmatic purposes (e.g. emphasis and other hearer oriented strategies) in these two languages are modulated by the interaction of prosodic, morphological and syntactic mechanisms. We further discuss the variation between Greek and Turkish in terms of the prosodic structure of the two languages, showing that the differences lie in (i) prosodic headedness, (ii) the relative degree of free word order, and (iii) the properties of the right periphery (post-verbal/- sentential). [See <3.1>, email me to send you a copy of the paper.]

Other aspects of the phonology and morphology of the two languages are explored in the papers of prosodic phonology (see above) written in collaboration with Barış Kabak.

Greek dialects

 I have being doing research on the following dialects: Ofitika/ Ofitic Pontic (OP) is a  Greek dialect of Asia Minor (Black Sea area). After the Greek-Turkish population exchange in the late 1920s and afterward, it is spoken by refugees of the Ophis area who settled in Nea Trapezounta (Pieria, North Greece) and a few other areas such as in Paranesti Dramas and in Thessaloniki. It is still spoken in Ophis, Turkey. In  May 2003, I started, together with Dr. Vassilis Spyropoulos and Maria-Anna Tiliopoulou,  a research project for the collection and analysis of spoken data. The linguistic material was gathered during several fieldwork trips in the area and part of it has been organized into a corpus. This research was sponsored by the cultural society “Alexandros Ypsilantis” (Nea Trapezounta, Pieria). [A report on OP can be downloaded here. Handout of talk on OP, pdf, 0.98ΜB, sound files 113KB]

In 2009, my colleague Vassilis Spyropoulos and I received a fellowship from the John S. Latsis Benefit Foundation to carry out research on Ofitika Pontic. This project was completed in December 2010 and the results were presented at a special colloquium organized by the Foundation on the 8th of April 2010. Currently, we prepare the grammar of the dialect.

Download the handout, pdf, 2.14MB and information on team members, pdf, 621KB. The monograph (in Greek)can be downloaded from the Foundation's webpage.

Our research has attracted the attention of the Press (Eleftherotypia, Eukseinos Pontos). <Top>

Symi Greek (SyG) is a Dodecanese variety that belongs to the south-eastern dialectal zone. It is spoken primarily in the island of Symi. It is characterized by some "archaic" features such as the postverbal position of clitics and the pronunciation of /z/ as [dz]. In August 2002, Dr. Vassilis Spyropoulos and I started a pilot project which aimed at the collection of raw speech material from the dialect of Symi. Since then, we continue conducting research on SyG and collecting written and spoken material from the dialect. Our investigation primarily focuses on word order and second position clitics.

The first fieldwork trip to Symi was sponsored by the Second Community Support Framework and co-financed by the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund (75%) and national resources (25%).

[A report on SyG, WinRAR, 1.02 MB and the sound files can be downloaded here.] <Top>     

Rhodian Muslim Greek (RMG) is a Greek variety spoken by the Muslims of Rhodes. M. Georgalidou, H. Kaili and V. Spyropoulos conduct research on this Greek-based pidgin variety with emphasis on the structural interference from Turkish. Moreover, they explore the impact of social networks on the variation and change observed in the codes used by the community. My contribution is on the phonological aspects of RMG that show interference from Turkish. [<3.3>, paper in Greek, pdf, 304KB, handout in English, pdf, 239KB; <3.4>, pdf, 156KB]

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