Comparative Syntax of the Balkan Languages (Oxford ... - Cryptm.org

214 MARIA LUIS A RIVERO3. Greek in diachronyThis section shows that if Grk is examined from a diachronic perspective, differencesfrom Blg are less striking than the examination of the two standards insection 2 might lead us to believe. Developing ideas in Rivero and Terzi (1995)and Rivero (1995), I argue that earlier stages of Grk exhibit PF requirements forboth discourse particles and clitic pronouns resembling those of Blg and V-to-Crules that escape Last Resort and, in the specific sense defined above, can becalled PF or stylistic operations. Although finite and imperative verb movementsin Grk up to the end of the medieval period seem to constitute examplesof such rules, here I concentrate on the rule raising imperatives, which survivesin the later stages of all variants with different properties, and mention finiteverb movement, which is lost in the standard variety, only in passing.The evolution of Grk verb movement is interesting because it shows the effectof the Last Resort Principle on historical change. In my view, standard Grkcame to lose the stylistic rule of finite verb movement and reinterpreted theformer stylistic imperative verb movement as a core operation that now obeysLast Resort. I examine data not only from standard MGrk but also fromCappadocian and Cypriot Greek to reach the conclusion that this change mayoccur even when the PF requirements that formerly triggered the stylistic rulesare still present. The changes that led to the situation in standard MGrk are notlanguage specific, as Spanish in its Castilian variety has undergone a parallelevolution (Rivero 1995). They constitute examples of how a once peripheralrule comes to acquire core properties, in view of Last Resort as a principle ofUniversal Grammar regulating both the core and the periphery. Economy principlesdefine a core grammar that under the logic of markedness can be violated butonly at a cost. The Grk rule raising imperatives up to the Renaissance disobeysLast Resort in the same sense as its Blg counterpart discussed in section 1. Inlater periods of Grk and in some nonstandard varieties, however, this rule is reinterpretedas a process that falls under Last Resort or acquires core properties. Therule affecting finite verbs, by contrast, either disappears (standard MGrk) orretains some stylistic characteristics (Cappadocian or Cypriot Grk).Imperative verb movement is documented in all periods and dialects of Grkbut with different properties. In Ancient (AGrk), New Testament (NTGrk), andMedieval Greek (MedGrk), imperative raising does not check a formal feature butsatisfies a PF interface requirement of a functional category with a phonologicalmatrix such as a discourse particle or a clitic pronoun. By contrast, we saw thatin standard MGrk, and we shall see here that in some present varieties,imperative verb movement checks a formal V feature located on the verb and thecomplementizer. We shall see that the PF requirements of the functional categoriesthat triggered imperative raising in earlier periods such as the cliticpronouns are preserved in some varieties but the nature of imperative raising hasnevertheless changed in them. I argue that such a change shows that the LastResort Principle regulates Move and may guide diachronic evolution. As aresult, PF interface requirements may remain constant but under appropiate conditionsthe raising that once satisfied them is nevertheless reinterpreted as a