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“How to account for aspectual derivation in Russian” Laura A. Janda UNC-Chapel Hill janda@unc.edujanda@unc.edu, www.unc.edu/~lajanda www.unc.edu/~lajanda
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20062 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20063 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).
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20064 The two metaphors: Travel vs. Motion, metaphorically interpreted as Completability vs. Non- Completability Granular vs. Fluid, metaphorically interpreted as Singularizable vs. Non- Singularizable
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20065 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):
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20066 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20067 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.
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20068 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 20069 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200610 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200611 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200612 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200613 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.’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200614 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]
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200615 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200616 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200617 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200618 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200619 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200620 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200621 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200622 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’
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200623 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200624 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200625 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)
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200626 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
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200627 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.
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Laura A. Janda SLS 200628 Relevant works (all available at www.unc.edu/~lajanda): “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. 44- 45, 2002-03; released 2006), 249-60. “A metaphor in search of a source domain: the categories of Slavic aspect”, Cognitive Linguistics, vol. 15, no. 4, 2004, 471-527. “A user-friendly conceptualization of Aspect”, Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 2003, pp. 251-281.
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