Voice, Transitivity and Tense/Aspect: Directionality of Change in Indo-European (Evidence from Greek and Vedic)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the directionality of change in Voice in relation to Tense/Aspect, foremost based on evidence from Greek as well as additional evidence from Early Vedic. Starting with the hypothesis that in (standard) Proto-Indo-European a number of innovations resulted in the introduction of some elements of the Perfect-Stative inflection into the Present (cf. Kulikov & Lavidas 2013), we study the directionality of change in Voice. We show that the original relationship between Tense/ Aspect and Voice determines the directionality of change in Voice in Greek. Basing our study on the analysis of Vedic active Perfects that are intransitive and belong with middle Presents, we claim that this initial relationship between Voice and Tense/ Aspect can be reconstructed on the basis of some tendencies and changes found in several Indo-European dialects, in particular in Greek forms. We also argue that the relationship between Tense/Aspect and Voice in the diachrony of Greek depends on the new features acquired by the voice morphology as well as on the development of the categories Tense and Aspect.