Copying compound structures: The case of Pharasiot Greek

Unlike other Modern Greek dialects in which compounds are one-word structures,
in Pharasiot Greek – an Asia Minor Greek dialect heavily influenced by Turkish
– compounds are formed by two fully inflected words, where the left-hand con-
stituent is marked with compound markers whose shape is conditioned morpholog-
ically. Based on structural similarities between compound structures in Pharasiot
Greek and in Turkish, we claim that Pharasiot Greek compounding is selectively
copied from Turkish. The compound marker role in Pharasiot Greek is assumed
by what are originally genitive suffixes by identification of the genitive with the
Turkish compound marker, which is exapted from a possessive suffix, attaching
to right-hand constituent. We correlate certain structural differences between the
two languages to the nature and the locus of the compound marker. Among these
differences is the occurrence of phrasal constituents in the non-head position in
Turkish and lack thereof in Pharasiot Greek. We show that the compound marker
in Pharasiot Greek attaches to stems. As such, no phrasal constituent can be hosted
in the position to which the compound marker attaches. In Turkish, on the other
hand, since the compound marker attaches to the head, the non-head can easily
host phrasal constituents. We test this correlation against Khalkha Mongolian, an-
other Altaic language, in which, unlike Turkish, the compound marker attaches
to the non-head. We show that similar to Pharasiot Greek, but unlike Turkish, phrasal constituents cannot be hosted in the non-head position in Khalkha, verify-
ing the correlation we proposed between the locus of the compound marker and
the availability of phrasal non-heads.