Aspects of morphological and stylistic variation of the verb in Erotokritos

Sammanfattning: The aim of the present study is to examine the polytypia (morphological variation) and semantic differentiations of the verb in Vitsentzos Kornaros' Erotokritos, to understand how these shape poetic style. We examine the stems and the endings in the imperfective active forms. Moreover, we investigate the augmented forms because at an early stage we found that Kornaros employs a degree of poetic licence in the use of the augment in the past-tense forms, where we have an interchange between an e- and an i- augment. Kornaros also uses non-augmented forms. Some word forms take a specific position in the line according to the number of syllables and stress, and our aim is to discover how commonly this occurs. The formulaic character of the language is also closely linked to the position of words in the line, and we investigate the different kinds of formula or repetitions - because all repetitions are not formulae - to find out how widespread is the use of this device. Finally, we investigate the positioning in the line of synonymous verb forms. In Erotokritos there exists the tendency to use two or more synonymous verbs in the same line or in the same context, a stylistic feature typical of the oral tradition. Our conclusions supported the view that Kornaros is very attentive to the interplay of metre and style, employing different word forms, including both dialectal and non-dialectal verbs, partly for metrical and partly for euphonic reasons, while actively exploiting their polytypia to create or rework formulaic expressions, in his striving to create a rich and varied language.