</SECTION<SECTION<LINK "the-r18">"the-r14">"the-r5">"the-r21"> "rev" "rrt"> TITLE "Book Reviews"> <@TARGET<TARGET "the" "rev" DOCINFO DOCINFO AUTHOR """Dimitra Theophanopoulou-Kontou" TITLE "Book"Review Reviews" of “Greek: A comprehensive grammar of the modern language” by Holton, D., Mackridge, P. & Philippaki-Warburton, I." SUBJECT "JGL, Volume 1" KEYWORDS "" SIZE HEIGHT "220" WIDTH "150" VOFFSET "4"> Book Reviews Review of Holton, D., Mackridge, P. & Philippaki-Warburton, I. 1997 (Greek translation 1999) Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language. Reviewed by Dimitra Theophanopoulou-Kontou (University of Athens) The grammar of Greek by Holton, Mackridge and Philippaki-Warburton is one of a number of grammars1 concerning the Greek language to appear in the past several decades. The aim of this grammar, as the authors state, is the explanato- ry and descriptive analysis of present-day Greek, which will help its users in oral and written communication. This raises two questions: (a) does the grammar succeed in its aims and (b) how does it differ from other grammars of Greek. In relation to the above questions one could ask, as well, whether the authors are qualified to achieve these aims. As far as the first question is concerned we can point to the previous reviews by both Greeks and non-Greeks which appeared after the publication of the Greek edition, where this book is described as a systematic and thoroughly synchronic description which makes a substantive contribution to the study of the structure of Greek on all levels of analysis (King 1998; Charalampakis 1999 and Moschonas 1999). The second question cannot be answered directly right at the outset; it will be addressed throughout the review. As far as the qualifica- tions of the authors is concerned, the answer is very obvious. The authors are all accomplished scholars whose scientific contribution to the Greek language and to Greek literature is well known in Greece as also internationally. David Holton is a well-known Hellenist whose research output on and teaching of Greek show his deep knowledge of Greek in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions. Peter Mackridge is also well known for his contribution to Greek literature and for his research and teaching of Modern Greek. He is especially well known in Greece for his book The Modern Greek Language (1985) translat- ed into Greek and published by Patakis (1999). This book has been used extensively as a textbook by both Greeks and non-Greeks. Finally, Irene Philippaki-Warburton is known world-wide and is held in high respect for her scientific work both in the field of theoretical linguistics and in the analysis and Journal of Greek Linguistics 1: (2000), 263–295. issn 1566–5844 © 2000 John Benjamins Publishing Company Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 10:47:57PM via free access <LINK "the-r28">"the-r7"> 264 Book Reviews description of the Greek language. She was one of the pioneers of the syn- chronic and diachronic analysis of Greek on different levels of description, mainly within the transformational paradigm. Her contribution to the identifi- cation and the analysis of specific syntactic Greek phenomena is significant as is her ability to challenge the theory through the descriptive demands of Greek. The cooperation of these three scholars who combine different orientations and personalities results in a grammar which is scientifically valid and objective and shows no fanaticism in the treatment of controversial issues. It also avoids, as far as possible, the one-sidedness which often derives from a sterile attachment to theoretical and/or ideological principles. The Grammar is a long work (aprox. 500 pages) which, in addition to the prefaces, consists of three large sections corresponding to the three levels of description: The phonological, including the writing system (Part A), the morphological (Part B), and the syntactic (Part C). There are also three indexes and a glossary of grammatical terms. Part A contains two subsections: The phonological system and the writing system. The first section presents the phonemes and allophones, the consonant clusters and their distribution in word initial, medial and final position, the alternations between the initial clusters of cases like φθηνς – φτηνς/fθinos – ftinos ‘cheap’, χθες – χτες/xθes – xtes ‘yesterday’, σχηµος – σκηµος/asximos – askimos ‘ugly’, πεσθηκε – πεστηκε/pisθike – pistike ‘was persuaded’, as well as the suprasegmental features of length and stress. These phenomena are examined in a systematic and scientific way. Special attention is given to morphophonology and to the phonological phenomena which affect the position of stress. Finally, the patterns of intonation are examined in a separate subsection in a detailed and well argued way. The section on phonology follows the principles of structural and generative phonological theory, in its more classical version, as applied also by Setatos (1974) in his very interesting monograph on MG phonology. As is expected in a grammar book it is not possible to present and discuss alternative analyses of specific phenomena such as the different interpretations of the voiced stops [b, d, g] or to raise issues concerning the analyses of the syllable, stress and rhythm in the theoretical framework of a non-linear, autosegmental theory (for these see Malikouti- Drachman 1997; Malikouti-Drachman & Drachman 1989, 1990). Within the framework adopted for the grammar under review the following issues are of special significance: (a) The treatment of vowel deletion on the basis of the sonority hierarchy a>o>u>e>i asexemplified by cases like µου αρσει > µ’αρσει/mu aresi > maresi ‘I like’, τα επα > τ ’πα/ta ipa > tapa ‘I said Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 10:47:57PM via free access <LINK "the-r16">"the-r4">"the-r15">"the-r33"> Book Reviews 265 them’, ξαναδωσα > ξαν δωσα/ksanaeδosa > ksanaδosa ‘I gave again’. This analysis, which is not found in grammar textbooks, offers a new way of teaching vowel deletion as a unitary phenomenon, which traditionally has been present- ed as three different phenomena i.e. αφαρεση ‘aphaeresis’, κθλιψη ‘elision’ or συναρεση ‘synaeresis’ without any scientific justification (b) The establishment of the rules of accentuation and their consequences for the phonological processes. The second section of Part A concerns the writing system, i.e. the alphabet, the diacritics (the rules of the monotonic system, as well as the more traditional system of diacritics) and punctuation. This section, missing to some extent from other contemporary grammars of Greek, constitutes a clear and systematic approach to the topic and a very helpful guideline for both native speakers and those learning Greek as a foreign language. Part B consists of an exemplary presentation of MG morphology. The main characteristics of this section are: (a) The systematic classification of the parts of speech and their further subdivisions (b) The completeness of the data, as far as possible (c) The very useful tables of inflectional paradigms after each analysis. As is natural, the two main axes of this Part are the noun and the verb, which have been the object of research from a number of theoretical points of view, structural and generative, as well as from the perspective of language acquisition. First, the issue of the criteria for the classification of nouns has been considered by a number of Greek grammarians (Kourmoulis 1964–5; Babiniotis & Kontos 1967; Klairis & Babiniotis 1996–9; Tsopanakis 1994) without reaching a general consensus. Holton et al., following Triantafyllides (1941), classify the nouns according to gender (masculines, feminines, nouns of common gender, neuters) and declension. The position of stress is used as an additional criterion for the subclassification of nouns while the presence of the definite article is considered an essential marker for the declensional paradigm. On the issue of the classification of nouns, I would like to mention another classification prevailing among Greek grammars: the one based upon the number of mor- phologically different cases. According to this view, expressed first by Kour- moulis (1964–5) and applied by Babiniotis & Kontos (1967), nouns are arranged into δπτωτα/δiptota, ‘with two morphologically different cases’ (masculines, feminines and neuters, both parisyllabic and imparisyllabic) and τρπτωτα/triptota, ‘with three morphologically different cases’ (masculines and feminines in -oς/-os). This criterion, also used in Klairis & Babiniotis (1996–9), has been shown to be more effective than the one based on gender. In my opinion the question remains open. It is also worth mentioning here that the Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 10:47:57PM via free access <LINK "the-r30">"the-r27">"the-r17">"the-r36">"the-r6">"the-r29">"the-r24">"the-r15"> 266 Book Reviews ending -ες/-es in the plural of the 2nd declension feminine nouns (e.g. µθοδες/ meθoδes ‘methods’), which is undoubtedly of very restricted use (p.59), has began to appear with increased frequency encouraged by adjectives (βρειες/ vories ‘north’, κατατακτριες/katataktiries ‘entrance exams’). A similar tenden- cy is also observed in the language of children at various stages of acquisition (Theophanopoulou-Kontou 1973). In relation to some forms which are characterized as ‘learned’, i.e. learned in origin and also found in “formal discourse of an official designation”, one could have mentioned examples such as Υπουργεο Αµ νης/ipurjio aminis ‘Ministry of Defence’, Συµβο λιο Επικρατεας/simvulio epikratias ‘Council of State’, αναλογο ν ποσν/analoγun poson ‘respective amount’,etc., because these forms are acceptable only in such fossilized contexts at least for the majority of speakers. The verb system of MG (derivation and morphological analysis) has been the object of extensive research from a variety of theoretical perspectives (Seiler 1952; Koutsoudas 1962; Warburton 1970; Daltas 1979; Stephany 1985; Ralli 1988; Klairis & Babiniotis 1996–9). It is also examined within many grammars. This reflects the significance of this category but also its complexity. The morphological analysis of the verb contains a complete presentation of the verb forms in all systems of declension and conjugation with completely clear subdivisions.