The origins of the Greek Genitive Absolute: Nominal, participial or both

In this article I discuss the possible origins of the Greek Genitive Absolute. I first describe the phenomenon and discuss its relationship with the concept of converbs. Then, I assess previous explanations, taking into account also the Absolute Constructions in other old Indo-European languages. My argument is that the genitive absolute originated as an adverbial complement in the genitive or as a genitive complement of a verb and was eventually reinterpreted as an absolute construction. I then check if these complements in origin comprised a noun and a conjunct participle or only a participle. In my opinion both constructions existed, and both contributed to the creation of the genitive absolute. In order to prove this explanation and to show that such a language-internal evolution is not so farfetched, I discuss a parallel evolution in Post-Classical Latin, namely the rise of the Nominative Absolute, which probably started as an anakolouthon and evolved into a separate absolute construction.