The Clause Start in Ancient Greek: Focus and the Second Position

Abstract

The paper undertakes an examination of the start of the Greek clause, adopting a prosodic approach with two inter-related stages. Firstly, the functions of initial elements are analyzed in terms of their prosodic prominence, rather than of any 'pre-set' communicational role. Secondly, clitic words following the initial group are analyzed as placed, not in a single 'second position', but on either side of an intonation break, depending on their function: while pronouns are intonationally and syntactically part of the basic clause, particles emphasize the initial group. Even their connective functions are interpreted as dependent on this emphatic role.