On the morphosyntax of synthetic compounds with proper names: A case study on the diachrony of Greek

Abstract

This paper discusses the formation of synthetic compounds with proper names. While these are possible in English, Greek disallows such formations. However, earlier stages of the language allowed such compounds, and in the modern language formations of this type are possible as long as they contain heads that are either bound roots or root- derived nominals of Classical Greek origin. The paper builds on the following ingredients: a) proper names are phrases; b) synthetic compounding in Modern Greek involves incorporation, and thus proper names cannot incorporate; c) by contrast, English synthetic compounds involve phrasal movement, and thus proper names can appear within compounds in this language. It is shown that in earlier Greek, proper names had the same status as their English counterparts, hence the possibility of synthetic compounds with proper names. It is further argued that the formations that involve bound/archaic roots are actually cases of either root compounding or root affixation and not synthetic compounds.