The case for the partitive case: The contribution of ancient greek

As is well known, Indo-European languages like Vedic, Gothic and Ancient Greek allow the use of the genitive case with a partitive value. This use is traditionally explained by invoking the notion of partial affectedness of the object argument. In the present paper, a case study from Ancient Greek is analysed: accusative/genitive alternation with consumption verbs. It appears that the partitive genitive has the functional property of denoting an indefinite and non-specified quantity. I will try to show that in both Homeric and Classical Greek the accusative/partitive genitive alternation does not depend on the definite/indefinite or referential/non-referential status of the object argument, but on the more general parameter of verbal boundedness. Under the theoretical framework provided by recent typological and semantic studies, the hypothesis is investigated according to which the partitive genitive always gives rise to an unbounded reading of the verbal action, as opposed to the accusative, which can be ambiguous between a bounded and an unbounded reading.