Weak object pronoun placement in later medieval and early modern Greek

In the language of Later Medieval and Early Modern Greek texts the position of weak object pronouns seems to vary freely between preverbal and postverbal placement. Although this phenomenon has been investigated before, this study is the first time that a detailed catalogue of the data is provided. Furthermore, the evidence is analyzed and evaluated not only according to the traditional methodology of historical linguistics but also with the use of statistical methods.; The larger database and the use of an innovative methodology cast a new light on the pattern of variation. The results of this research both challenge previous descriptions of the phenomenon and reveal information about certain types of constructions (such as the imperative and infinitival constructions) which had not been investigated in depth before. Moreover, the analysis presented here exposes the effect of certain intralinguistic as well as extralinguistic parameters on the placement of the pronouns. In particular, it is demonstrated that ov , /u/ 'not' and , a&d12;n ov , /an u/ 'if not' have opposite effects on the position of the pronoun (postverbal and preverbal placement respectively), and that 'pronoun doubling' constructions with the adjective , o&d12;l ov /olos/ 'all', favor preverbal pronouns in contrast with the general pattern for these constructions. On the other hand, it is shown that metrical requirements dictate the position of the pronoun when the verb is preceded by a subject or a temporal expression, and that the Cypriot chronicles are markedly different with respect to pronoun placement.; On the basis of this in-depth examination of the phenomenon it is shown why previous analyses which employ the mechanism of 'verb-movement' cannot capture the full range of the data. Instead it is proposed here that the variation is in fact complex because it represents a change in progress from Early Medieval to Early Modern Greek.; Finally, it is argued that the results of this study indicate that the weak object pronouns of LMG are affix-like rather than word-like in nature, and that the present analysis raises some crucial questions concerning recent proposals about 'grammaticalization', Kroch's claim that the contexts of syntactic change are abstract, and the scope of generalizations in synchronic analyses.