Cognate Adverbials and Case in the History of Greek

Theoretical research on cognate nouns focuses on the question whether they are arguments or adjuncts. Greek has figured prominently in the discussion: primarily cognate nouns in the accusative case have been investigated, and the existence of different subclasses has been proposed. In this paper, we discuss cognate nouns marked with dative case in Classical and Koiné (Biblical) Greek, and argue that alternation in case morphology correlates with a twofold distinction, between arguments and adjuncts on the one hand, and between different kinds of adjuncts on the other. We propose that certain dative cognates are focused adverbials.