The Semantics of Modern Greek Preposition Apo

Authors

  • Zaina Tsouhlaris

    Department of Languages and Translation, Taibah University, Madina 42353, Saudi Arabia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11152
Received: 19 July 2025 | Revised: 29 September 2025 | Accepted: 30 September 2025 | Published Online: 5 November 2025

Abstract

This research examines the quantificational distributional behavior of the Greek preposition apo " from". We aim to examine the function of apo in specific sentence constructions in which it occurs as the object, combined with a numeral and a noun in the accusative case. These structures contain a noun phrase as their subject or the quantifier followed by a noun. Our hypothesis is that apo resembles Serbian po, as it also places itself in the same structures as already described, while the subject position features the quantifier svaki (“every”). To support our hypothesis, we conduct a review of both prepositions. The analysis indicates that Greek apo conveys a broader range of meanings beyond the simple notion of distributive share described by Knezevic and Demirdache (2018) regarding Serbian po. Specifically, the former exhibits distributive qualities similar to the universal quantifier kathe(nas) (“every”) in specific syntactic constructions, as evidenced by our questionnaire results. This research proves the universality of this concept of distributivity and helps us to apprehend how it is processed mentally. It also highlights how distributive constructions are cognitively processed, reinforcing their universality across languages like Greek and Serbian, which are not closely related. We consider this work to be unique, as there has been no experimental examining the distributive properties of apo in Greek. Given the shared universal principles across languages, our findings could be extended to other natural languages that exhibit similar quantificational structures to those of the prepositions we have examined.

Keywords:

Distribution; Modern Greek; Natural Language; Preposition apo; Prepositional Quantification

References

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How to Cite

Tsouhlaris, Z. (2025). The Semantics of Modern Greek Preposition Apo. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(12), 255–272. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11152

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 12 (December 2025): In progress

Article Type

Short Communications

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Copyright © 2025 Zaina Tsouhlaris

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.