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Introduction of the Greek Verb Clause: Syntactical Values |
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Written by Evangelia Teka, MA, MSc
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Syntactical Values
A verb is a word such as ‘drive’, ‘travel’ and ‘swim’ which says what someone or something does or what happens to them or to give information about them. In this issue, we will be looking at the ways the Greek verb clause behaves in a sentence (syntactical attitude of a verb).
Some of the most common ways you will find a Greek verb clause are the following: <!--[if !supportLists]-->1) <!--[endif]-->On its own. In other words, a sentence without a subject (‘a doer’) or an object (‘a recipient of the action that is done’). Example: Έφτασε. [Back Translation: Arrived.] <!--[if !supportLists]--> 2) <!--[endif]-->Combined with a subject (‘a doer’). Example: Ο Γιάννης έφτασε. [Back Translation: The John arrived.] <!--[if !supportLists]-->3) <!--[endif]-->Combined with a subject (‘a doer’) and an object (‘a recipient of the action that is done’).
Example: Ο Γιάννης κάλεσε την Μαρία.
[Back Translation: The John invited the Mary.] <!--[if !supportLists]-->4) <!--[endif]-->Combined with just an object (‘a recipient of the action that is done’). Example: Kάλεσε την Μαρία. [Back Translation: Invited the Mary.] <!--[if !supportLists]-->5) <!--[endif]-->Combined with a subject (‘a doer’) and two objects, a direct object (‘word or words that denote the receiver of the action of a verb, i.e. "me" in "he hit me"’) and an indirect object (‘person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb, i.e. "him" in "give him the book"’).
Example: O Γιάννης έφερε ένα δώρο [direct object] στην Μαρία.
[Back Translation: The John brought a gift to the Mary.] <!--[if !supportLists]-->6) <!--[endif]--> Combined with two objects but not any subject (‘any doer’), a direct object (‘word or words that denote the receiver of the action of a verb, i.e. "me" in "he hit me"’) and an indirect object (‘person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb, i.e. "him" in "give him the book"’).
Example: Έφερε ένα δώρο στην Μαρία.
[Back Translation: Brought a gift to the Mary.] <!--[if !supportLists]-->7) <!--[endif]-->Combined with adverbial modifiers (‘words such as "slowly", "often", "fortunately" etc. which adds information about the action, event or situation mentioned in the sentence, usually expressing "time", as in the following examples but also "place", "manner", "cause", "purpose" etc. ). 1st Example (with a subject and an adverbial modifier-time): O Γιάννης έφτασε χθες. [Back Translation: The John arrived yesterday.] 2nd Example (without a subject): Έφτασε χθες. [Back Translation: Arrived yesterday.] <!--[if !supportLists]-->8) <!--[endif]-->Preceding the verb clause, other particles (small words) that express tense (verbal time, words such as ‘will’) or negation (word that denotes ‘not doing something’, therefore a word such as "not"). 1st Example with a tense particle:
O Γιάννης θα φέρει το δώρο.
[Back Translation: The John will bring the gift.] 2nd Example with a negation particle:
O Γιάννης δεν έφερε δώρο.
[Back Translation: The John not brought gift.] <!--[if !supportLists]-->9) <!--[endif]-->Preceded by weak forms (one syllable, non-stressed forms usually combined with verbs) of object pronouns (words used to replace objects, such as "me", "him", "us","them" etc. in English).
Example: O Γιάννης μου είπε ότι έφερε το δώρο.
[Back Translation: Τhe John me told that brought the gift.] All the above are the most common syntactical structures you will find with a Greek verb clause. It is important to mention that because Greek is a highly inflected language (addition of an ending or other element to the basic form of a word to change its meaning or function), the position of the words is quite flexible. In addition, as you have probable noticed because of the inflected verbal forms, the omission of the subject (‘the doer’) is quite common in Greek since the ending of the verb expresses which person you are referring to. In the next issue, we will be making some preliminary notes on the grammatical ways that the Greek verb system behaves. What’s encouraging about the Greek language though is that you do not have to master the inflections (i.e. the endings of words) to communicate your message. This will take time and extra exposure to the Greek language. Bear in mind that you need to set realistic goals in the learning or better understanding of the Greek language. It is the same with a non-native English speaker who hasn’t mastered the usage of prepositions. That doesn’t in any case mean that the message hasn’t been communicated which is what language usage is mostly about.
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Evangelia Teka, MA, MSc |
| About the author: |
| Evangelia Teka is a freelance linguist working for major translation companies in the UK, USA, Ireland & Hong Kong. She lives in London, UK and Thessaloniki, Greece. She is a native Greek speaker with near-native English and she also speaks French. She holds an MSc in Scientific, Medical and Technical Translation with Translation Technology at Imperial College in London, an MA in ELT and Applied Linguistics from King’s College of the University of London and a BA (Hons) in English from Middlesex University. |
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