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“ Semantic Motivations for Aspectual Clusters of Russian verbs”

This study examines the meaning of Russian verbs and how it influences their aspectual behavior. It explores the four types of Perfectives and the metaphors that motivate their selection. The study also discusses the structure of aspectual clusters and the underlying lexical motivations.

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“ Semantic Motivations for Aspectual Clusters of Russian verbs”

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  1. “Semantic Motivations for Aspectual Clusters of Russian verbs” Laura A. Janda University of Tromsø laura.janda@hum.uit.no hum.uit.no/lajanda

  2. Main Ideas • Meaning of verb motivates aspectual behavior • Conceptualization of different types of events and relationship to time • Components of verb meaning correlate with selection of Perfectives Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  3. Theoretical Framework • Cluster model, four types of Perfectives • Metaphors motivate Perfectives • Cluster structure: 0-4 types of Perfectives • Cluster structure largely predictable from the meanings of verbs • Motion verbs are prototypical Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  4. Overview What is the structure of the aspect system? • Cluster model • Types of Perfectives • Implicational hierarchy • Metaphorical motivation of Perfectives • Travel vs. motion and Completability • Granular vs. fluid and Singularizability • Conclusions Why does it have this structure? Lexical meaning motivates aspectual behavior Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  5. Part 1 What is the structure of the aspect system?

  6. Model of aspectual “pairs” has a long tradition: Vinogradov 1938, Šaxmatov 1941, Bondarko 1983, Čertkova 1996, Zaliznjak & Šmelev 2000, Timberlake 2004 Suspicions that aspectual relationships involve more complex clusters have arisen: Isačenko 1960, Bertinetto & Delfitto 2000, Tatevosov 2002, Janda forthcoming Problem: Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  7. What is an aspectual cluster? • 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 four types of Perfective verbs: • Natural Perfective, Specialized Perfective, Complex Act, Single Act Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  8. Four types of Perfectives: • Natural Perfective: • написатьp ‘write’, связатьp ‘tie’, о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’, окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’ • Specialized Perfective: • переписатьp ‘rewrite’, развязатьp ‘untie’, переработатьp‘revise’, вдутьp ‘blow in’, выщипатьp ‘pluck out’ • Complex Act Perfective: • пописатьp ‘write a while’, поработатьp ‘work a while’, подутьp ‘blow a while’, пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’, поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’ • Single Act Perfective: • дунутьp ‘blow once’, щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’, скрипнутьp ‘squeak once’ Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  9. Cluster components: • Five items (Imperfective Activity + four types of Perfectives) can compose 31 different combinations, but only 12 cluster types are attested • The three metaphors motivate an Implicational Hierarchy that constrains the structure of aspectual clusters Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  10. The Implicational Hierarchy: • There is a single Implicational Hierarchy that predicts all and only the aspectual clusters that exist in Russian. • This result is based on empirical study of two multiply stratified samples of over 350 verb clusters (several thousand verbs). Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  11. The Implicational Hierarchy: Activity щипатьi ‘pinch/pluck’ > (Natural/Specialized Perfective) о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’/выщипатьp ‘pluck out’ > Complex Act Perfective пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’ > Single Act Perfective щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’ Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  12. Cluster Structures • Activity • Activity + Natural Perfective • Activity + Specialized Perfective • Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized Perfective To any of the above one can add either: …+ Complex Act Perfective …+ Complex Act Perfective + Single Act Perfective Total: 12 extant cluster types Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  13. Part 2 Why does the aspect system have this structure?

  14. Metaphors and types of perfectives: • Three metaphors govern the Russian aspectual system • These metaphors motivate the derivation of four different types of Perfective verbs Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  15. The three metaphors • Solid vs. Substance => Perfective vs. Imperfective • Travel vs. Motion => Construal of Completability • Granular vs. Fluid => Construal of Singularizability Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  16. Travel vs. Motion One can travel to a destination • or – One can move without a destination This distinction is grammaticalized in Russianmotion verbs: идтиi ‘walk (somewhere)’vs. ходитьi ‘walk (around, back and forth)’ This can be likened to the Completability of an action Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  17. Писатель пишетi книгу. ‘The writer is writing a book.’ Профессор работаетi в университете. ‘The professor is working at the university.’ Completability: Note that Completability is a scale involving various kinds of construal. Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  18. Completability: • Many verbs are Ambiguous: • Completable • Писатель пишетi книгу ‘A writer is writing a book’ • Non-Completable • Писатель пишетi книги ‘A writer writes books’ • Some verbs are Non-Completable: стонатьi ‘moan’ • But some can be Completable if specialized • работатьi ‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’ • Few verbs are unambiguously Completable: • крепнутьi > окрепнутьp‘get stronger’ Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  19. What Completability means for aspectual derivation: • Only verbs that can be construed as Completable have Natural Perfectives • писатьi‘write’ > написатьp ‘write’,крепнутьi‘get stronger’ > окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’ • Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable have Complex Act Perfectives • писатьi‘write’> пописатьp ‘write a while’, стонатьi‘moan’> постонатьp ‘moan a while’, работатьi‘work’> поработатьp ‘work a while’ • Verbs that can be Completable if specialized have Specialized Perfectives • писатьi‘write’> переписатьp ‘rewrite’, работатьi‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’ Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  20. Granular vs. Fluid: Substances can be: Particulate, like sand Continuous, like water This can be likened to Singularizability of an action Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  21. Мальчик дулi на одуванчик. ‘The boy was blowing on the dandelion.’ Мальчик дунулp на одуванчик. ‘The boy blew once on the dandelion.’ Профессор работалi в университете. ‘The professor was working at the university.’ Singularizability: Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  22. What Singularizability means for aspectual derivation: • Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable and have a Complex Act Perfective can also have a Single Act Perfective: • щипатьi ‘pinch/pluck’ + пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’ > щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’ • дутьi ‘blow’ + подутьp ‘blow a while’ > дунутьp ‘blow once’ • скрипетьi ‘squeak’ + поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’ > скрипнутьp ‘squeak once’ • работатьi‘work’ + поработатьp ‘work a while’ > *работнутьp‘work once’ [NB: Some are formed ad-hoc] Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  23. Singularizability and motion verbs: • The Non-Completable motion verbs can also be construed as Singularizable • ходитьi‘walk’ can refer to multiple round-trips, in which case there is a Single Act Perfectiveсходитьp‘make a single round trip’ Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  24. Conclusions: • The cluster model is more accurate than the “pair” model • Cluster structures are highly constrained and transparently motivated by meanings of verbs: • Verbs with Completable construals form Natural Perfectives • Verbs with Non-Completable construals form Complex Act Perfectives • Verbs with Granular construals form Single Act Perfectives • Motion verbs play a prototypical role in the system Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  25. Bibliography Avilova, N. S. 1968. Dvuvidovye glagoly s zaimstvovannoi osnovoi v russkom literaturnom jazyke novogo vremeni, Voprosy iazykoznaniia: 66–78. Bertinetto, Pier Marco, and Denis Delfitto. 2000. Aspect vs. Actionality: Why They Should Be Kept Apart, Tense and Aspect in the Languages of Europe, ed. Östen Dahl, 189–225, Berlin. Bondarko, Aleksandr V. 1983. Principy funkcional’noi grammatiki i voprosy aspektologii. Leningrad. Chertkova, Marina Iu. 1996. Grammaticheskaia kategoriia vida v sovremennom russkom iazyke. Moscow. Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and Aspect Systems. Oxford. Galton, Herbert. 1976. The Main Functions of the Slavic Verbal Aspect. Skopje. Gladney, Frank Y. 1982. Biaspectual Verbs and the Syntax of Aspect in Russian, Slavic and East European Journal 26: 202–215. Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. From Space to Time: Temporal Adverbials in the World’s Languages. Munich. Isachenko, A. V. 1960. Grammaticheskii stroi russkogo iazyka v sopostavlenii s slovatskim – Chast’ vtoraia: morfologiia. Bratislava. Janda, Laura A. 1995. Unpacking Markedness, Linguistics in the Redwoods: The Expansion of a New Paradigm in Linguistics, ed. Eugene Casad, 207–233. Berlin. —. 2000a. Cognitive Linguistics, http://www.indiana.edu/~slavconf/SLING2K. —. 2000b. ACognitive Model of the Russian Accusative Case, Trudy mezhdunarodnoi konferencii Kognitivnoe modelirovanie 4, ed. R. K. Potapova, V. D. Solov’ev and V. N. Poliakov, 20–43.Moscow. —. 2002a. Sémantika pádů v češtině, Setkání s češtinou, ed. Alena Krausová, Markéta Slezáková, and Zdeňka Svobodová, 29–35. Prague. —. 2002b. The Case for Competing Conceptual Systems, Cognitive Linguistics Today. Studies in Language 6, ed. Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Kamila Turewicz, 355–374. Frankfurt. —. 2002c. Concepts of Case and Time in Slavic, Glossos 3 http://www.seelrc.org/glossos/. Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  26. Bibliography —. 2002d. Cognitive Hot Spots in the Russian Case System, Peircean Semiotics: The State of the Art. The Peirce Seminar Papers 5, ed. Michael Shapiro, 165-188. New York. —. 2002e. The Conceptualization of Events and Their Relationship to Time in Russian, Glossos 2 http://www.seelrc.org/glossos/. —. 2002f. Cases in Collision, Cases in Collusion: The Semantic Space of Case in Czech and Russian, Where One’s Tongue Rules Well: A Festschrift for Charles E. Townsend, ed. Laura A. Janda, Steven Franks, and Ronald Feldstein, 43–61. Columbus, Ohio. —. 2003. A User-friendly Conceptualization of Aspect, Slavic and East European Journal 47: 251–281. —. 2004a. Border Zones in the Russian Case System, Sokrovennye smysly, ed. Iu. D. Apresian, 378–398. Moscow. —. 2004b. A Metaphor in Search of a Source Domain: The Categories of Slavic Aspect, Cognitive Linguistics 15: 471–527. —. 2006. A Metaphor for Aspect in Slavic, Henrik Birnbaum in Memoriam. International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics 44–45: 249–60. —. Forthcoming a. Aspectual Clusters of Russian Verbs, Studies in Language. —. Forthcoming b. Totally Normal Chaos: The Aspectual Behavior of Russian Motion Verbs, Harvard Ukrainian Studies. —. Forthcoming c. What Makes Russian Bi-aspectual Verbs Special, Slavic Contributions to Cognitive Linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics Research, ed. Dagmar Divjak and Agata Kochanska. Berlin/New York. Janda, Laura A., and Steven J. Clancy. 2002. The Case Book for Russian. Bloomington, IN. —. 2006. The Case Book for Czech. Bloomington, IN. Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

  27. Bibliography Janda, Laura A., and John Korba. In print. Beyond the Pair: Aspectual Derivation for Learners of Russian. Jászay, Lázl. 1999. Vidovye korreliaty pri dvuvidovykh glagolakh, Studia Russica 17: 169–177. Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live by. Chicago. —. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York. Muchnik, I. P. 1966. Razvitie sistemy dvuvidovyx glagolov v sovremennom russkom jazyke, Voprosy iazykoznaniia: 61–75. Smith, Carlota S. 1991. The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht. Shakhmatov, A. A. 1941. Sintaksis russkogo jayzka. Leningrad. Tatevosov, Sergej. 2002. The Parameter of Actionality, Linguistic Typology 6: 317–401. Timberlake, Alan. 2004. A Reference Grammar of Russian. Cambridge. Vendler, Zeno. 1957. Verbs and times, The Philosophical Review 66: 143–160. Vinogradov, V. V. 1938. Sovremennyi russkii iazyk. Grammaticheskoe uchenie o slove. Moscow. Wheeler, Marcus. 1972/1992. The Oxford Russian-English Dictionary, 2nd edition. Oxford. Zalizniak, Anna A. and Aleksei D. Shmelev. 2000. Vvedenie v russkuiu aspektologiiu. Moscow. Laura A. Janda Ohrid 2008

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