Taxonomy of the Modern Greek Verbs in the Present and Imperfective Past Tense

Abstract

When the Modern Greek verbal system is analysed many similarities may be seen. Despite that, the system is divided into conjugations and inflectional classes that do not cover all verbs. Given that the Modern Greek verbal inflection can be characterised as regular and symmetric from the morphological point of view, the question whether it is necessary to distinguish conjugations with non-conjugational’ inflectional classes as e.g. contracted verbs arises.
The objective is to review classifications of the conjugational systems of the Modern Greek verbs in the Indicative Mood of the Present and Imperfective Past Tenses and, in accordance to the morphological analysis of verbal forms, to propose a new one. The analysis concentrates on the morphology of verbal forms and on analogies between the second conjugation and the contracted verbs. The analysis is based on the morphological features of verbs. In other words, it concentrates on the distinction of a verbal stem or stems, personal endings and correlation between them. Such an approach enables one to observe similarities and differences among verbs, regardless of the conjugational class they represent. Consequently, it is possible to group verbs in accordance to the features of the stem and personal endings that are added, leading to a proposal of new classification of the Modern Greek verbal system.