Support-Verb Constructions with Objects: Greek-Coptic Interference in the Documentary Papyri?1

Abstract

Support-verb constructions are combinations of a verb and a noun that fill the predicate slot, for example, to make a suggestion in I made the suggestion yesterday. The article examines direct-object structures with support-verb constructions in Greek documentary papyri from fourth- to mid-seventh-century Egypt. By the fourth century, Greek and Egyptian (at this stage called Coptic) had co-existed in Egypt for about a millennium and the latter was gaining ground. The article focusses on the support-verb-construction families surrounding ἐξουσίαν exousian ‘power’ and ἐγγύην egguēn ‘surety’ as well as on a selection of structures with ποιέομαι poieomai ‘to do’. The article finds that direct-object structures in the data sample have differing explanations. Direct-object patterns are a marginal pattern in classical Greek already, such that some patterns can be explained by inheritance or the extension of a pattern to new contexts. However, some writers either idiolectally or sociolectally applied object patterns more widely based on the Coptic parallel. The syntax of support-verb constructions in Greek does not run counter to the verbal syntax otherwise, which may aid the fact that they do not introduce systemic changes.