Tra analisi morfologica e teoria linguistica : i nomi radicali nella lingua omerica

This article deals with root nouns in the homeric language, mainly from a morphological standpoint. The author points out the relevance that the category ‘root nouns’ has in the field of Indo-European linguistics and analyzes the main features of this group of nouns in the homeric poems. He states that root nouns are not a homogeneous class in the homeric language, though they are to be regarded as such in Indo-European. The particular role that root nouns play in the understanding of the concept of ‘indo-european root’ is then inquired; finally the attention is focused on the function of ablaut in these nouns, and the author deals with the hypothesis that ablaut in root nouns can serve as a mark of Aktionsart.