“How to account for aspectual derivation in Russian” Laura A. Janda UNC-Chapel Hill

Laura A. Janda SLS In a nutshell… Q: So, how DO we account for aspectual derivation in Russian? A: Look at the verbs of motion! –Verbs of motion are prototypical for the Russian aspectual system –Understanding of events is metaphorically motivated by verbs of motion

Laura A. Janda SLS Overview: Metaphors based on properties of motion are crucial to understanding Russian aspectual derivation. These metaphors motivate the derivation of four different types of perfective verbs. There is a single implicational hierarchy that predicts all and only the aspectual clusters that exist in Russian. –This result is based on an empirical study of a multiply stratified sample of 283 verb clusters (including over 2000 verbs).

Laura A. Janda SLS The two metaphors: Travel vs. Motion, metaphorically interpreted as Completability vs. Non- Completability Granular vs. Fluid, metaphorically interpreted as Singularizable vs. Non- Singularizable

Laura A. Janda SLS Why are motion verbs so central? A prototypical event, like ‘write a dissertation’, has a beginning, a middle (where progress is made), and an end. We understand events and timelines as travel (through time) toward a goal (destination):

Laura A. Janda SLS Travel vs. Motion One can travel to a destination –or – One can move without a destination This distinction is grammaticalized in Russian motion verbs: идти i ‘walk (somewhere)’ vs. ходить i ‘walk (around, back and forth)’ This can be likened to the Completability of an action

Laura A. Janda SLS Completability: Писатель пишет i книгу. ‘The writer is writing a book.’ Профессор работает i в университете. ‘The professor is working at the university.’ For Non-Motion verbs, Completability is a scale involving various kinds of construal.

Laura A. Janda SLS Completability: Many verbs are Ambiguous: –Completable Писатель пишет i книгу ‘A writer is writing a book’ –Non-Completable Писатель пишет i книги ‘A writer writes books’ Some verbs are Non-Completable: стонать i ‘moan’ –But some can be Completable if specialized работать i ‘work’ > переработать p ‘revise’ Few verbs are unambiguously Completable: крепнуть i > окрепнуть p ‘get stronger’

Laura A. Janda SLS Completability for Motion Verbs: Motion verbs are NEVER Ambiguous Non-Determined Motion verbs are Non-Completable: ходить i ‘walk, go’ Determined Motion verbs are Completable: идти i > пойти p ‘walk, go’

Laura A. Janda SLS What Completability means for aspectual derivation: Only verbs that can be construed as Completable have Natural Perfectives –писать i ‘write’ > написать p ‘write’, крепнуть i ‘get stronger’ > окрепнуть p ‘get stronger’ Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable have Complex Act Perfectives –писать i ‘write’> пописать p ‘write a while’, стонать i ‘moan’> постонать p ‘moan a while’, работать i ‘work’> поработать p ‘work a while’ Verbs that can be Completable if specialized have Specialized Perfectives –писать i ‘write’> переписать p ‘rewrite’, работать i ‘work’ > переработать p ‘revise’

Laura A. Janda SLS What Completability means for aspectual derivation: Only verbs that can be construed as Completable have Natural Perfectives –писать i ‘write’ > написать p ‘write’, крепнуть i ‘get stronger’ > окрепнуть p ‘get stronger’, идти i > пойти p ‘walk, go’ Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable have Complex Act Perfectives –писать i ‘write’> пописать p ‘write a while’, стонать i ‘moan’> постонать p ‘moan a while’, работать i ‘work’> поработать p ‘work a while’, ходить i ‘walk, go’> походить p ‘walk, go a while’ Verbs that can be Completable if specialized have Specialized Perfectives –писать i ‘write’> переписать p ‘rewrite’, работать i ‘work’ > переработать p ‘revise’, идти i ‘walk, go’> перейти p ‘walk across’

Laura A. Janda SLS Granularity A Non-determined Motion verb (ходить i ‘walk, go’) can represent different kinds of motion: –Fluid-like, non-directed –Granular and repeated сходить p ‘make one round trip’ This can be likened to Singularizability

Laura A. Janda SLS Singularizability: Мальчик дул i на одуванчик. ‘The boy was blowing on the dandelion.’ Мальчик дунул p на одуванчик. ‘The boy blew once on the dandelion.’ Профессор работал i в университете. ‘The professor was working at the university.’

Laura A. Janda SLS What Singularizability means for aspectual derivation: Only verbs that can be construed as Non- Completable and have a Complex Act can also have a Single Act Perfective: щипать i ‘pinch/pluck’ + пощипать p ‘pinch/pluck a while’ > щипнуть p ‘pinch/pluck once’ дуть i ‘blow’ + подуть p ‘blow a while’ > дунуть p ‘blow once’ скрипеть i ‘squeak’ + поскрипеть p ‘squeak a while’ > скрипнуть p ‘squeak once’ работать i ‘work’ + поработать p ‘work a while’ > *работнуть p ‘work once’ [NB: Some are formed ad-hoc]

Laura A. Janda SLS Summary thus far: Two metaphors distinguish four different types of Perfectives: –Natural Perfectives писать i ‘write’ > написать p ‘write’ –Specialized Perfectives работать i ‘work’ > переработать p ‘revise’ –Complex Act Perfectives стонать i ‘moan’ > постонать p ‘moan a while’ –Single Act Perfectives дуть i ‘blow’ > дунуть p ‘blow once’

Laura A. Janda SLS Adding in Motion verbs: Two metaphors distinguish four different types of Perfectives: –Natural Perfectives идти i > пойти p ‘walk, go’ –Specialized Perfectives идти i ‘walk, go’> перейти p ‘walk across’ –Complex Act Perfectives ходить i ‘walk, go’> походить p ‘walk, go a while’ –Single Act Perfectives сходить p ‘make one round trip’

Laura A. Janda SLS Definition: An aspectual cluster is a group of verbs joined via transitive relationships on the basis of aspectual derivational morphology –All verbs in a cluster are aspectually related to a single lexical item In addition to Imperfective Activity verbs, an aspectual cluster can include all four types of Perfective verbs: –Natural Perfective, Specialized Perfective, Complex Act, Single Act

Laura A. Janda SLS Distribution of the four types of Perfectives: Natural Perfective: –написать p ‘write’, связать p ‘tie’, о(б)щипать p ‘pinch/pluck’, окрепнуть p ‘get stronger’ Specialized Perfective: –переписать p ‘rewrite’, развязать p ‘untie’, переработать p ‘revise’, вдуть p ‘blow in’, выщипать p ‘pluck out’ Complex Act: –пописать p ‘write a while’, поработать p ‘work a while’, подуть p ‘blow a while’, пощипать p ‘pinch/pluck a while’, поскрипеть p ‘squeak a while’ Single Act: –дунуть p ‘blow once’, щипнуть p ‘pinch/pluck once’, скрипнуть p ‘squeak once’

Laura A. Janda SLS Distribution of the four types of Perfectives: Natural Perfective: –написать p ‘write’, связать p ‘tie’, о(б)щипать p ‘pinch/pluck’, окрепнуть p ‘get stronger’ Specialized Perfective: –переписать p ‘rewrite’, развязать p ‘untie’, переработать p ‘revise’, вдуть p ‘blow in’, выщипать p ‘pluck out’ Complex Act: –пописать p ‘write a while’, поработать p ‘work a while’, подуть p ‘blow a while’, пощипать p ‘pinch/pluck a while’, поскрипеть p ‘squeak a while’ Single Act: –дунуть p ‘blow once’, щипнуть p ‘pinch/pluck once’, скрипнуть p ‘squeak once’

Laura A. Janda SLS Cluster components: Five items (Imperfective Activity + four types of Perfectives) can compose 31 different combinations, but only 12 cluster types are attested The metaphors motivate an Implicational Hierarchy that constrains the structure of aspectual clusters

Laura A. Janda SLS The Implicational Hierarchy: Activity щипать i ‘pinch/pluck’ > (Natural/Specialized Perfective) о(б)щипать p ‘pinch/pluck’/выщипать p ‘pluck out’ > Complex Act пощипать p ‘pinch/pluck a while’ > Single Act щипнуть p ‘pinch/pluck once’

Laura A. Janda SLS The Implicational Hierarchy Illustrated with a Motion verb: Activity идти i ‘walk, go’/ходить i ‘walk, go’ > (Natural/Specialized Perfective) пойти p ‘walk, go’/перейти p ‘walk across’ > Complex Act походить p ‘walk a while’ > Single Act сходить p ‘make one round trip’

Laura A. Janda SLS Extant verb clusters Activity Activity + Natural Perfective Activity + Specialized Perfective Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized Perfective To any of the above one can add either: …+ Complex Act …+ Complex Act + Single Act Total: 12 extant cluster types

Laura A. Janda SLS What the hierarchy excludes: 18 unattested cluster types 1 cluster type that is rare, but known to exist: –Natural Perfective (perfectiva tantum) рухнуть p ‘collapse’, уцелеть p ‘survive’ morphologically complex, probably remnants of clusters that were historically larger

Laura A. Janda SLS Distribution of extant cluster types: Three cluster types account for over half the verbs in the lexicon –Activity+Natural+Specialized+Complex Act Like писать i ‘write’ –Activity+Natural+Specialized Like вязать i ‘tie’ –Activity+Specialized+Complex Act Like работать i ‘work’ Five cluster types follow, each representing less than 10% of verbs Remaining cluster types are rare (2% or less)

Laura A. Janda SLS Comparison with “pair” model: Activity + Natural Perfective type accounts for only 6.4%, and is a semantically unusual group (can be continued after result is achieved): –Иван окреп. Потом он еще больше окреп. ‘Ivan got stronger. Then he got even stronger.’ –Иван написал книгу. *Потом он еще больше написал книгу. ‘Ivan wrote a book. *Then he wrote the book even more.’ Most attested cluster structures have 3-5 components The three most common cluster structures have 3 or 4 components

Laura A. Janda SLS Conclusions: The cluster model gives a richer, more accurate account of aspectual relationships than the “pair” model. Cluster structures are highly constrained and transparently motivated. In the cluster model, the Motion verbs are prototypical, not exceptional.

Laura A. Janda SLS Relevant works (all available at “Aspectual clusters of Russian verbs”, forthcoming in Studies in Language, 68pp. “Totally normal chaos: The aspectual behavior of Russian motion verbs”, to appear in a festschrift for Michael S. Flier (Harvard Ukrainian Studies 2006), 9pp. “What makes Russian Bi-aspectual verbs Special”, to appear in: Dagmar Divjak and Agata Kochańska, eds. Slavic Contributions to Cognitive Linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics Research. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 20pp. “A Metaphor for Aspect in Slavic”, Henrik Birnbaum in Memoriam (=International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics, vol , ; released 2006), “A metaphor in search of a source domain: the categories of Slavic aspect”, Cognitive Linguistics, vol. 15, no. 4, 2004, “A user-friendly conceptualization of Aspect”, Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 2003, pp