The Emergence of a New Case of Pre-Nominal NPs in Greek as a Result of Anglicisation

Abstract

Nowadays the influence of English on Greek is rather strong. Influences are attested not only at the lexical level, but at the morphosyntactic level too. In this work we focus on the emergence of a new case of pre-modified NPs in Greek where the Noun is in a pre-nominal position as in English. The newly attested NPs have the form [NP _UNINFLECTED N]. The pre-modifier is itself an NP headed by an uninflected loanword of English origin, either a brand name, an abbreviation, an English noun or adjective, and the head N, a Greek element, creating hybrid structures. In this study, we examine a sample of pre-nominal NPs found in Greek through the internet, TV, everyday communication, we get quantitative results for each structure through the Greek corpora of Sketch Engine, we compare the frequency of appearance of these structures to the indigenous equivalent Greek ones, aiming to determine whether these newly attested structures fall under the category of right headed [word word] compounds, loose compounds, appositive compounds, adjective phrases, or they constitute a new case of pre-nominal hybrid NPs that calque the equivalent English structures.