Temporal modification in Greek adverbial clauses: The role of aspect and negation Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli a, * ,1 , Despina Papadopoulou b,1 , Agapi Mylonaki a a Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece b Department of Linguistics, School of Philology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece Received 10 December 2007; received in revised form 2 October 2008; accepted 2 October 2008 Available online 23 April 2009 Abstract The aim of this paper is to provide a formal account of the differences between adverbial clauses introduced by the Greek temporal connectives kathos, eno and afu. Based on Haegeman’s (2003, this issue) criteria for distinguishing between central and peripheral clauses, we examine the ‘external’ and ‘internal’ syntax of Greek adverbials introduced by these connectives. Although Haegeman’s proposal aims to cover not only English but also cross-linguistic properties of central vs. peripheral clauses, we would like to argue that there are certain language-specific criteria, namely aspect and negation, which could be used as additional support for the structural distinction proposed and which call for some modifications of the structural differences suggested for English adverbials. The Greek connectives are shown to be aspectually dependent in the sense that they are specified for [boundedness] as part of their lexical entry. This property affects their structural position in central vs. peripheral adverbials, on one hand, and the possibilities of temporal anchoring onto the matrix clause, on the other. Finally, the language-specific criteria discussed, namely aspect and negation, are tested through an interpretation task with native speakers of Greek in order to establish the preference for the temporal over the non-temporal readings when aspect and negation are controlled for. # 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Temporal connectives; Morphological aspect; Boundedness 1. Introduction In many languages temporal connectives can have non-temporal readings in certain contexts. In Greek too, there are temporal connectives such as eno (=while), kathos (=as, as soon as) and afu (=after, since) which can have a non-temporal reading. The English examples in (1a) and (1b) illustrate the difference between the temporal and the non-temporal interpretations of while (Haegeman, 2003:329): (1) a. While his wife is in bed John works most efficiently. temporal b. While his wife is unemployed, John has a high-powered job. non-temporal www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Lingua 120 (2010) 649–672 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 2310997444; fax: +30 2310997432. E-mail addresses: imt@enl.auth.gr (I.-M. Tsimpli), depapa@lit.auth.gr (D. Papadopoulou), amylon@enl.auth.gr (A. Mylonaki). 1 The first two authors contributed equally to the paper. 0024-3841/$ – see front matter # 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2008.10.008