Greek Word Order

The order of words in a Greek sentence is much freer and less predictable than in most European languages. The author explains and illustrates the principles which govern word order in Greek. He finds three: the tendency of certain words to take a constant position; certain types of logical relation between the sentence and its context; and the tendency to adhere to familiar patterns. His three main chapters discuss word order dictated by lexical or semantic, by syntactical, and by logical determinants

Sir Kenneth Dover is Professor Emeritus of Greek in the University of St. Andrews and former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.