From lexical to dependent

In this paper, we discuss the diachronic change in the internal structure of direct and indirect objects in Greek. We do so by comparing the properties of dative and genitive objects in Classical vs. (Standard and Northern) Modern Greek. We argue that there are two distinct modes of dative and genitive objective case assignment: they are either prepositional or dependent (structural) cases, as proposed by Baker & Vinokurova (2010), and Baker (2015). In other words, the change from Classical to Standard Modern Greek must be analyzed as a development from a grammatical system where dative and genitive were lexical/inherent cases, PPs, to a system where genitive is a DP that receives dependent case in the sense of Marantz (1991). By reviewing the diachronic paths of morphological dative, prepositions and prefixes, we propose that the morphological loss of dative from the history of Greek is only indirectly relevant to the diachrony of argumental datives, while change in the case-assigning properties of prepositions played a central role.