Left-Headedness in Compounds of a Right-Headed Language
Left-Headedness in Compounds of a Right-Headed Language

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with left-headedness in compounding in some dialectal varieties of Greek, a language which is predominantly right-headed. On the basis of data stored in DComp, a dialectal database of the University of Patras containing 17,019 entries, I claim that left-headedness has resulted from the interplay of endogenous and exogenous factors. Given that left-headed compounds appear in the varieties which have been under a long-lasting Romance control, and since Romance languages are mainly left-headed, the exogenous contact factor is principally responsible for the presence of left-headedness, seen as a pattern-borrowing case, in the broad sense. Nevertheless, the phenomenon was not unknown in Ancient Greek compounding, although it applied to a much lesser extent than right-headedness. In line with the view that structural transfer is possible if there is some compatibility between languages in contact, I also assume that the old endogenous property of left-headedness has facilitated the transfer of left-headed formations from Romance to Greek.

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