Les composés nominaux à premier membre ἐν dans les Argonautiques : entre tradition et innovation

Abstract

Nominal compounds with first member ἐν appear in Ancient greek since Homeric language (as it is not easy to outline their presence in Mycenean greek, because of the syllabic writing). These compounds are homogeneous from the morphological point of view and heterogeneous from the semantic-syntactic point of view, since the similarity of the forms responds to a multiplicity of compositional categories. From a lexical point of view, the group of ἐν first member compounds is formed by poetic terms and scientific-technic terms. We also find words in common use, but they are not the majority. In Apollonius Rhodius, we find about twenty ἐν° first member compounds; two-thirds of them are poetic terms, that we also find in archaic poetry and in particular in Homer, while the others belong to medical and scientific-naturalistic vocabularies. Within this framework, I will focus on the usage of Homeric words, as differences in usage, where they exist, are linked to evolutions and general changes within the internal syntax of different composition classes with first member ἐν. As regards technic-scientific terms, they belong to all compositional categories: this appears very interesting with respect to their little number. In fact, in other texts only some of the compositional categories result productive.

Keywords

• nominal composition
• prepositional first member compounds
• morphology
• word formation
• prepositions
• Apollonius Rhodius