Russian prefixed verbs as constructional schemas

Linguistics, 1998

We argue that a large class of Russian prefixed verbs has essentially the same semantic structure as resultative constructions in English of the type paint the door green. We analyze both phenomena as instances of lexical subordination: although it is syntactically a secondary predicator, green expresses the primary ("core") semantic predication, while paint is a secondary subordinated semantic predicate. The expression therefore means 'cause to become green by painting. In the Russian vyteret' stol 'wipe down the table' (literally Out-wipe table'), the prefix vy-is semantically primary and the verb stem is subordinated. By virtue of this shared semantic structure, Russian prefixation can only access internal arguments (objects, or subjects of unaccusatives) and Russian prefixed verbs may support "fake" or unselected object constructions, akin to English resultatives such as drink the pub dry or sing oneself hoarse. From pisat' 'write' we have ispisat' rucku Out-write pen, 'to run out of ink (of a pen) 1 , in which the direct object 'pen is not selected by pisat' 'write'. Since these unselected objects are arguments of the prefixed verb complex, we conclude (with Goldberg 1995, against Levin and Rappaport Hovav 1995) that unselected objects in English resultatives are also arguments (of the construction). We extend our analysis to the steal/rob alternation and offering an explanation of why in some languages, verbs of manner of motion (e.g. run,) behave like unergative verbs while the same verbs with directional complementsjadjuncts (e.g. run into the room) behave like unaccusative verbs. We discuss the repercussions for the interpretation of notions such as " complex predicate" and "construction."

The Slavic and East European Journal, 1981

2012

The dissertation contains data and statistical analysis forthcoming in: Sokolova S. V., O. Lyashevskaya, and L. Janda forthcoming. The Locative Alternation and the Russian ‘empty’ prefixes: A case study of the verb gruzit’ ‘load’. Frequency effects in cognitive linguistics 2: what statistical effects can(not) explain. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Trends in Linguistics Series. The article should appear in 2012.

2005

2021

This book addresses the complexity of Russian verbal prefixation system that has been extensively studied but yet not explained. Traditionally, different meanings have been investigated and listed in the dictionaries and grammars and more recently linguists attempted to unify various prefix usages under more general descriptions. The existent semantic approaches, however, do not aim to use semantic representations in order to account for the problems of prefix stacking and aspect determination. This task has been so far undertaken by syntactic approaches to prefixation, that divide verbal prefixes in classes and limit complex verb formation by restricting structural positions available for the members of each class. I show that these approaches have two major drawbacks: the implicit prediction of the non-existence of complex biaspectual verbs and the absence of uniformly accepted formal criteria for the underlying prefix classification. In this book the reader can find an implementa...

2021

This book addresses the complexity of Russian verbal prefixation system that has been extensively studied but yet not explained. Traditionally, different meanings have been investigated and listed in the dictionaries and grammars and more recently linguists attempted to unify various prefix usages under more general descriptions. The existent semantic approaches, however, do not aim to use semantic representations in order to account for the problems of prefix stacking and aspect determination. This task has been so far undertaken by syntactic approaches to prefixation, that divide verbal prefixes in classes and limit complex verb formation by restricting structural positions available for the members of each class. I show that these approaches have two major drawbacks: the implicit prediction of the non-existence of complex biaspectual verbs and the absence of uniformly accepted formal criteria for the underlying prefix classification. In this book the reader can find an implementa...

Russian Language Journal , 1987

Diego Ardoino and Adriano Cerri (eds). Intersezioni baltistiche. Studi e saggi. (Baltica Pisana Series). , 2021

2015

Frequency is known to play a crucial role in lexical access. The notions primarily discussed in the literature are form frequency, (whole) word frequency and morpheme frequency, e.g. root frequency. In numerous studies (Alegre & Gordon, 1999; Baayen & al. 2007, a.m.o.), these characteristics were manipulated to find out whether various word forms are decomposed during lexical access or are stored and can be accessed as a whole. Similar issues arise when we turn from inflection to derivation, at least with semantically transparent derivates (Niswander-Klement & Pollatsek, 2006; Taft 2004, a.m.o.).

Scando-Slavica, 2012

Nearly two thousand perfective verbs in Russian are formed via the addition of so-called "empty prefixes" (čistovidovye pristavki) to imperfective base verbs. The traditional assumption that prefixes are semantically "empty" when used to form aspectual pairs is problematic because the same prefixes are clearly "nonempty" when combined with other base verbs. Though some scholars have suspected that the prefixes are not empty but instead have meanings that overlap with the meanings of the base verbs, proof of this hypothesis has eluded researchers. With the advent of corpora and electronic resources it is possible to explore this question on the basis of large quantities of data. This article presents a new methodology, called "Radial category profiling", in which the semantic network of a prefix is established on the basis of its "non-empty" uses and then compared, node by node, with the semantic network of base verbs that use the same prefix as an "empty" perfectivizing morpheme. This methodology facilitates a comprehensive analysis of ten prefixes, comparing their meanings in "nonempty" and "empty" uses and showing precisely how in the latter case overlap produces the illusion of emptiness. We are able to fully specify the semantic network of each prefix, and discover that for some prefixes there is overlap througout the network, while for others overlap is restricted to a contiguous subsection of the network. We investigate the dynamic interactions among prefixes, and identify what meanings are incompatible with the "purely aspectual" function of the so-called "empty" prefixes.