Semantics, Syntax, and Phonological Organization in Greek: Aspects of the Theory of Metrical Bridges

P oERHAPS the most challenging and most debated problems in the study of Greek meter are those posed by the bridges. Bridges are locations and environments in the line at which word boundary is excluded or restricted. Not all types of word boundary are equally constrained at bridges: while boundaries between lexical words such as nouns, adjectives, and verbs are rare and often textually suspect, there is ample evidence for boundaries associated with short nonlexical forms, such as articles, conjunctions, negatives, modals, interrogatives, and pronouns, as well as prepositions, numerals, and certain adverbs (the term "appositive" is widely used to refer to these forms), for example, rfg#ovtukop&'g (Eur. Supp. 732), Kai#68vo-lvXl (IT 694), p thus, in his recent handbook, D. Korzeniewski writes: ". . . wiegt der Verstoss nicht schwer."'' Other metrists distinguish appositive boundary from full word boundary by classifying the former with the nonviolations: "the 'bridge' is not violated [by an appositive boundary]," writes P. Maas.' This latter (binary) classification implies that, so far as the bridge is concerned, the meter is indifferent to the distinction between appositive boundary and no boundary. These two approaches seem to be quite incompatible and mutually contradictory. On the basis of a detailed and systematic analysis of largely neglected gradients of diachronic and stylistic variability, we shall propose a new theory of the bridge designed to resolve the apparent contradiction within the framework of a more comprehensive understanding both of the phonological processing of syntactic structures in the Greek language and of the issues raised by the bridge in the metatheory of Greek meter.