Pluractionality and perfect in Homeric Greek

In Archaic Greek the perfect shows two different semantic values: the resultative and the intensive, which is recessive in Classical Greek. The so–called “intensive perfects” describe actions as ongoing processes and differ from the present only in the intensity with which the events are depicted. These meanings are common with noise verbs, but there is no consensus about the other forms to be included in the category, and still controversial is also the question whether the intensive is related to the other uses of the perfect, and if so how. This paper addresses these issues by making reference to the role of pluractionality. It will be argued that this broad cross–linguistic category can account for a variety of facts concerning problematic reduplicated forms. In particular, it will be shown that a number of Homeric perfects with present meaning find a unifying explanation when interpreted as encoding different kinds of event plurality. Several maps illustrating the intersections between the diachronic paths of reduplication and the diverse pluractional meanings will clarify how the incorporation of pluractional verbs contributes to shape the functions and the evolution of the Greek perfect.