Κάτα καρδίας「心に対して」 : ある前置詞句の定型表現化 <論文>

This paper is concerned with the petrification (i.e. frozen idiom) of a prepositional phrase, κάτα καρδίας "against heart", which is illustrated in the Byzantine vernacular texts of the 12th - 15th centuries.
　　
In the first part, the analysis is performed on the syntactic structure of such phrases as μέσα / έσω κάτα καρδίας. It is clarified that they consist of the petrified prepositional phrase κάτα καρδίας and the adverbs μέσα / έσω and that they cannot be regarded as typical examples of complex prepositions. As proof of this, four observations are offered :
　　
(1) the frequency of the examples of κάτα which co-occurs with adverbs is extremely low
　　
(2) the syntactic structure of κάτα καρδίας is hardly expanded by means of modifiers or articles
　　
(3) the semantic field of κάτα καρδίας is limited to "striking / hitting / shooting"
　　
(4) καρδίας is usually governed by the other prepositions such as εις
　　
The second part concentrates on the diachronic process of the petrification of κάτα καρδίας. It first appears in the second century A.D. Two diachronic factors should be noted as triggers of its formation, i.e. (1) that κάτα + genitive gradually acquired the meaning "against" and (2) that its semantic field came to be limited to "striking / hitting / shooting". These tendencies can be observed as early as the Hellenistic period and was strengthened during the medieval periods. Therefore, in the late Byzantine period κάτα καρδίας had reached the last stage of its petrification so that it could not be incorporated into the productive pattern of the complex prepositions.
　　
Some further notes are added concerning the fate of κάτα καρδίας in the later periods . Modern Greek uses an adverb κάτακαρδία which has replaced κάτα καρδίας. Although this word is not illustrated in the late Byzantine vernacular texts, its presence in Da Somevera' s Tesoro (1719) suggests that it had been accepted into the vernacular Greek vocabulary at the beginning of the 18th century.