About the Laboratory
The GlossaContact Laboratory specializes in the study of language contact phenomena through the lens of translations, with particular emphasis on ancient and medieval written language contact. Based at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the laboratory investigates how languages influence each other through translation practices, biblical and literary retranslations, and written language borrowing across historical periods.
Our research examines contact-induced change in historical texts, including the Greek Septuagint, medieval translations, and Renaissance retranslations, analyzing how translation acts as a vehicle for syntactic and lexical borrowing. We employ corpus-based methods to trace the development of contact phenomena in written registers and distinguish translation effects from natural language change.
Laboratory Information
Founded: April 2024
Official Documentation: ΦΕΚ (Government Gazette) founding document
Laboratory Name Change: Updated with new ΦΕΚ for regulatory compliance
Location: Room 929, 9th floor
Department: English Language and Literature
School: Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Laboratory Objectives
Research & Analysis: Support experimental research investigating cross-linguistic and cross-cultural identities in discourse during translation and interpretation, relating to social reality and how changes affect translation outcomes.
Educational Support: Serve as a hub for practical research and training for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in technological applications of translation and interpretation.
Vulnerable Groups Support: Support educational work related to vulnerable social groups where translation and interpretation are essential survival prerequisites.
Professional Development: Develop training and educational activities (seminars, conferences, lectures) supporting the operation of Graduate Programs and undergraduate programs.
Community Engagement: Connect the University with Greek society through high-level scientific training for educators and specialists seeking development in cross-cultural understanding.
Professional Collaboration: Develop cooperation with associations and organizations to promote translation and interpretation issues.
Quality Assurance Policies
The laboratory operates under strict quality assurance policies ensuring research excellence, ethical standards, and compliance with university regulations. Our commitment to quality encompasses research methodology, data integrity, collaborative partnerships, and educational outcomes.
Core Research Mission
The laboratory addresses fundamental questions about written language contact and its role in language evolution. We investigate how translation practices create contact situations that differ from spoken language contact, examining the specific mechanisms through which written borrowing occurs and the constraints that govern structural transfer in literary and religious texts.
Our work focuses on developing methodologies for identifying and analyzing contact effects in historical corpora, with emphasis on separating genuine contact-induced change from translation interference, analyzing retranslation patterns across centuries, and understanding how influential texts shape recipient language syntax through sustained contact.
Research Focus Areas
Contact through Biblical Translation
Investigation of language contact effects in the Greek Septuagint and biblical retranslations. Analysis of Hebrew-Greek syntactic interference, argument structure borrowing, and the evolution of translation norms across successive retranslations from antiquity through medieval periods.
Medieval Translation Contact
Study of contact phenomena in medieval literary and religious translations. Examination of Latin-Greek, Arabic-Greek, and other medieval translation traditions, focusing on how translation practice created sustained contact situations and enabled structural borrowing.
Written Language Borrowing
Analysis of syntactic and lexical borrowing specifically in written registers. Investigation of how written contact differs from spoken contact in terms of borrowing constraints, the role of literacy and prestige in enabling structural transfer, and the persistence of written borrowings across generations.
Diachronic Retranslation Studies
Comparative analysis of successive retranslations of the same source texts across centuries. Study of how retranslation norms evolve, the accumulation of contact effects through multiple translation cycles, and the role of influential earlier translations in shaping later versions.
Corpus-based Contact Analysis
Development of computational methods for detecting and quantifying contact phenomena in historical treebanks. Application of statistical techniques to distinguish translation interference from contact-induced change and identify genuine structural borrowings in translated texts.
Syntactic Transfer Mechanisms
Theoretical investigation of how syntactic structures transfer between languages in written contact situations. Analysis of constraints on borrowability in written versus spoken contact, the role of argument structure in enabling transfer, and grammaticalization through contact in literary texts.
Current Research Projects
A Corpus-based Valency Lexicon for a Contrastive and Diachronic Study of Ancient & Medieval Languages
Major research project developing comprehensive valency lexicons for historical language analysis. This project creates annotated corpora and computational tools for systematic comparison of syntactic patterns across ancient and medieval language varieties.
Written Language Contact Corpus
Development of annotated corpora of biblical and medieval translations for systematic analysis of contact effects. This project extends the PROIEL treebank with post-classical and medieval Greek texts, creating resources for diachronic contact linguistics research. The corpus includes successive retranslations enabling comparison of contact phenomena across translation traditions.
Septuagint Contact Phenomena
Comprehensive study of Hebrew-Greek contact effects in the Septuagint, analyzing argument structure patterns, word order interference, and the development of syntactic constructions under contact influence. The project examines how biblical translation created a sustained contact situation that influenced later Greek syntax.
Renaissance Retranslation Patterns
Analysis of Early Modern English and Greek retranslations, investigating how Renaissance translation practices differed from medieval approaches and examining the accumulation of contact effects through successive translation cycles. Focus on Tyndale's New Testament and contemporary Greek biblical translations.
Contrastive Written Contact
Cross-linguistic comparison of written contact phenomena in multiple language pairs, examining whether contact effects in translation show universal patterns or language-specific constraints. Integration with the CVL-CDSAML valency lexicon enables systematic contrastive analysis.
Research Team
Professor Nikolaos Lavidas
Laboratory Director
Department of English Language and Literature
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Co-Editor-in-Chief, GLOSSA Contact (with Ioanna Sitaridou & Igor Yanovich)
Dr. Vassileios Symeonidis
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Dr. Theodoros Michalareas
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Sofia Chionidi
PhD Candidate
Anastasia Tsiropina
PhD Candidate
Eleni Plakoutsi
PhD Candidate
Evangelos Argyropoulos
Research Assistant
International Collaborators
Professor Dag Haug
University of Oslo
PROIEL Project Director
Professor Leonid Kulikov
Ghent University
Indo-European Historical Linguistics
News and Events
Latest News
Stay updated with our latest research developments, publications, and laboratory activities.
Upcoming Events
Information about conferences, workshops, seminars, and collaborative research meetings.
Collaborations
Partnerships with Greek and international institutions, research centers, and academic networks.
Key Publications
Lavidas, N. (2021). The Diachrony of Written Language Contact: A Contrastive Approach. Brill's Studies in Historical Linguistics. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Monograph examining contact-induced change in written registers, focusing on biblical and literary translations from antiquity through the Renaissance.
Gamagari, T. & Lavidas, N. (2022). How does language change (not) affect translations? A corpus-based study on lexical transfer in translations of Renaissance English and Greek. In N. Lavidas & K. Nikiforidou (eds), Language Change: Theory and Methodologies in the 21st Century. Brill's Studies in Historical Linguistics. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Lavidas, N. (2019). Word order and closest-conjunct agreement in the Greek Septuagint: On the position of a biblical translation in the diachrony of a syntactic correlation. Questions and Answers in Linguistics 5(2): 37-90.
Lavidas, N. (2017). Cognate noun constructions in Early Modern English: The case of Tyndale's New Testament. In H. Cuyckens et al. (eds.), Explorations in English Historical Syntax, 51-76. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Lavidas, N. (2014). The Greek Septuagint and language change at the syntax-semantics interface: From null to 'pleonastic' object pronouns. In C. Gianollo, A. Jäger & D. Penka (eds.), Language Change at the Syntax-Semantics Interface, 153-182. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
Lavidas, N. (2012). Null vs. cognate objects and language contact: Evidence from Hellenistic Greek. Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 48(4): 547-569.
GLOSSA Contact
GLOSSA Contact is an international peer-reviewed open-access journal dedicated to research on language contact phenomena. The journal publishes high-quality research articles on structural borrowing, contact-induced change, multilingualism, written language contact, translation studies, and areal linguistics.
Co-Editors-in-Chief:
Nikolaos Lavidas • Ioanna Sitaridou • Igor Yanovich
University of Athens • University of Cambridge • University of Tübingen
The journal welcomes submissions employing diverse methodological approaches, from traditional comparative-historical methods to contemporary corpus-based and computational techniques. Special interest in research on contact through translation and written language borrowing.
Journal Information:
ISSN: 2653-9519
Publisher: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Access: Open Access
Website: glossacontact.org
Contact Information
Laboratory Director
Professor Nikolaos Lavidas
Email: nlavidas@enl.uoa.gr
Location
Room: 929, 9th floor
Department: English Language and Literature
School: Philosophy
Institution: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Campus: Zografou, 157 84 Athens, Greece
Affiliated Network: AthDGC Research Network
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