Habitual auxiliaries in Ancient Greek

Abstract

This article discusses the grammaticalization of the habitual auxiliaries εἴωθα, φιλέω, ἐθέλω and νομίζω in Archaic and Classical Greek. I aim to (1) provide a more complete understanding of the Ancient Greek expressions of habituality; (2) distinguish clearly between habitual aspect and (possibly diachronically) related semantic categories such as iterativity and genericity; (3) demonstrate the usefulness of grammaticalization and collocation criteria to measure the relative degree of grammaticalization of the habitual auxiliaries. I argue that their degree of grammaticalization can be measured by whether they have developed past uses, undergone a diachronic collocation shift to inanimate subjects and, subsequently, stative infinitives, and whether they have acquired an anti-present implicature. Finally, I suggest that habitual ἐθέλω occurred already in Archaic Greek and was the source for the futurity use that it developed in Classical Greek.