Papers by Stephen M. Dickey
Zeitschrift Fur Slavische Philologie, 2016
Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici, 2017
This paper investigates the role that prefixes played in the development of the Slavic aspect cat... more This paper investigates the role that prefixes played in the development of the Slavic aspect category utilizing concepts from dynamic systems theory. It is argued that the bleaching of the prefix u- was crucial in the development of the perfectivizing function of Common Slavic prefixes, and that the semantic concept of change of state functioned as an attractor in the development of the network of prefixes and the aspect category as a whole.
Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 2011
Мова: кодифікація, компетенція, комунікація, 2020
This article investigates whether Czech jít, Slovene iti, and BCMS (Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-... more This article investigates whether Czech jít, Slovene iti, and BCMS (Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian-red.) ići are biaspectual, as has sometimes been claimed based on the past-tense usage of these verbs in narrative sequences. This article argues that determinate go-verbs in Czech, Slovene, and BCMS are imperfective, employing a cognitive linguistic approach and referring to facts and data that have not previously been discussed and/or not been considered together.
ENG: It is argued that the phonetic coalescence of *sъ- and *jьz into a single prefix resulted in... more ENG: It is argued that the phonetic coalescence of *sъ- and *jьz into a single prefix resulted in the (partial) grammaticalization of innovative s-/z- as the primary préverbe vide of the aspectual systems in a group of western languages (Czech, Slovak, Sorbian, Slovene). The other Slavic languages either did not grammaticalize a single prefix (Croatian/Serbian) or have grammaticalized po- as their sole or primary préverbe vide (Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Belarusian); one Slavic language has near equal productivity of s-/z- and po- (Polish). SLV: Avtor zagovarja stališče, da je v zahodnih skupini slovanskih jezikov (češčina, slovaščina, lužiščina, slovenščina) sovpad odrazov *sъ- in *jьz- v eno predpono povzročil (delno) gramatikalizacijo nastale predpone s-/z- kot osnovni préverbe vide v sistemu glagolskega vida. V drugih slovanskih jezikih do te gramatikalizacije ni prišlo (hrvaščina, srbščina) ali pa je bila predpona po- gramatikalizirana kot edini préverbe vide (r...
Studies in Language Companion Series, 2010
This paper attempts to reinterpret the class of Common Slavic indeterminate verbs of motion, e.g.... more This paper attempts to reinterpret the class of Common Slavic indeterminate verbs of motion, e.g., xoditi ‘walk’, nositi ‘carry’, as manner-of-motion verbs. I examine the attestations of indeterminate verbs of motion in contexts of determinate motion taken primarily from Old Church Slavic and Old Russian texts to form the basis for this reinterpretation. Following a discussion of the “manner-of-motion verb hypothesis”, I argue that the development of Common Slavic manner-of-motion verbs into the functionally peculiar class of indeterminate verbs of motion in North Slavic arose as a result of the effects of prefixation in the nascent Slavic aspectual system. Finally, a hypothesis of the development of the Slavic correlation determinate/indeterminate in verbs of motion is offered.
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Cognitive Linguistics Research, 2007
This paper applies principles of prototype semantics to explain the development of the Russian pr... more This paper applies principles of prototype semantics to explain the development of the Russian prefix po-from a primarily resultative prefix to a delimitative prefix, which occurred from the eleventh to the nineteenth century. It is argued that this development reflects a shift in its semantic prototype from PATH/SURFACE-CONTACT to INGRESSIVE-PARTIAL TRAJEC-TORY. Old Russian had a small class of po-delimitatives that could express the relatively short duration of a situation (RELATIVE DELIMITATION) or its duration for an entire specified interval (ABSOLUTE DURATION); only RELA-TIVE DELIMITATION survives in modern Russian. Spatial po-with determinate motion verbs underwent a similar development: Old Russian poiti 'go' could express either some initial portion of a motion event (INGRESSIVE-PARTIAL TRAJECTORY) or the complete motion event (FULL TRAJECTORY); only INGRESSIVE-PARTIAL TRAJECTORY survives in modern Russian. It is argued that the parallel semantic developments of these two senses of po-are no coincidence, and that the development of modern Russian delimitatives followed the development of po-as a perfectivizing prefix for determinate motion verbs. The similarity of the new meaning of determinate-motion po-, INGRESSIVE-PARTIAL TRAJECTORY, to the delimitative meaning of RELATIVE DELIMITATION was a semantic point of contact that produced a new atelic cluster of meanings in the network of old resultative po-. Atelic INGRESSIVE-PARTIAL TRAJECTORY became its prototype and formed the semantic basis of the new po-delimitatives. The salience of po-in poiti and other determinate motion verbs facilitated the semantic productivity of INGRESSIVE-PARTIAL TRAJECTORY and thus the rise of delimitative verbs in modern Russian.
Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 2014
Russian Linguistics, Sep 11, 2009
Хохотнул, схитрил: отношение между однократными глаголами, образованными при помощи формантов -ну... more Хохотнул, схитрил: отношение между однократными глаголами, образованными при помощи формантов -ну-и св русском языке Abstract We know relatively little about the relationship between verbs with the suffix -nu-, such as крикнуть 'shout once', and verbs with the prefix s-, such as сглупить 'do something stupid' and сходить 'walk someplace and back once'. In her Cluster Model of Russian aspect, Janda (2007) claims that there is a single group of such Perfectives, namely the Single Act Perfectives. In order to evaluate this claim, we have gathered a database that includes both types of Single Act Perfectives and undertaken a statistical analysis. On the basis of this analysis we show that the distribution of the -nu-and smorphemes is very much dependent on the morphological class of the verb. In addition we have traced the historical development of the meaning of semelfactivity for the prefix sand our study shows that this development comports well with the development of actional meanings for prefixes in Russian in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This article presents new data concerning semelfactive Perfectives in Russian, along with an analysis of this data. The article raises questions about the historical development of aspect in Russian and about allomorphy in general.
Russian Linguistics, Apr 29, 2009
Abstract. This article compares aspectual usage in contexts of negation in Russian and Czech narr... more Abstract. This article compares aspectual usage in contexts of negation in Russian and Czech narratives. It examines the four possible aspectual correspondences: Russian imperfective : Czech imperfective (common), Russian perfective : Czech perfective (common), Russian imperfective :
This article discusses different modes of expressing ingressivity in the Slavic languages-the gra... more This article discusses different modes of expressing ingressivity in the Slavic languages-the grammatical expression of ingressivity (by means of imperfective verb forms) and its lexical expression (by means of the use of stat' as an ingressive phase verb or perfective procedural verbs prefixed with za-
Though the role of affixation in the establishment of verbal aspect as a grammatical category in ... more Though the role of affixation in the establishment of verbal aspect as a grammatical category in Russian (and mutatis mutandis the other Slavic languages) hardly resembles the cases of grammaticalization analyzed by Bybee, Perkins and Pagliuca (1994)or any other ...
Jezikoslovlje
Orphan prefixes and the grammaticalization of aspect in South Slavic This paper establishes the t... more Orphan prefixes and the grammaticalization of aspect in South Slavic This paper establishes the term ORPHAN PREFIX for a Slavic prefix that no longer shares a dominant spatial meaning with its cognate preposition. Most Slavic pre-fixes do share such a dominant spatial meaning with their cognate prepositions, cf., e.g., the Russian prefix v-and preposition v, both meaning 'into.' Orphan pre-fixes appear to be an important component of many Slavic aspectual systems. However, in most Slavic languages there is at most one prefix that has lost the semantic connection to its cognate preposition and come to function primarily as a grammatical marker of perfectivity. Only three Slavic prefixes are in fact to be considered orphan prefixes, and each only in some Slavic languages. A first case is Bulgarian iz-'out,' as its cognate preposition iz is no longer used in the spatial meaning 'out of.' The most extreme case is Bulgarian po-, which no longer shares the spatial ...
This talk addresses the use of imperfective of verbs of communication (VoC) in narratives. Though... more This talk addresses the use of imperfective of verbs of communication (VoC) in narratives. Though much of what is said here applies to verbs of communication in general (говорить/сказать, спрашивать/спросить, etc.), this talk focuses on отвечать/ответить, which has been assumed by some to have been biaspectual in much of the 19th century (cf. Folejewski 1953, Egeberg 1979), based on widespread examples such as the following: — Помню, — поспешно отвечал князь Андрей, — я говорил, что падшую женщину надо простить, но я не говорил, что я могу простить. It is argued that there was a system of aspectual usage for such verbs of communication in 19th-century Russian fiction. The perfective was triggered by three contextual elements: (1) narrative sequencing; (2) the location of the predicate at end of an exchange between interlocutors; (3) authoritative perlocutionary force.
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Papers by Stephen M. Dickey