“how to account for aspectual derivation in russian” laura a. janda unc-chapel hill...

“How to account for aspectual derivation in

Russian”

Laura A. JandaUNC-Chapel [email protected],

www.unc.edu/~lajanda

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.unc.edu/~lajanda

Laura A. Janda SLS 2006 2

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


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).


The two metaphors:

• Travel vs. Motion, metaphorically interpreted as Completability vs. Non-Completability

• Granular vs. Fluid, metaphorically interpreted as Singularizable vs. Non-Singularizable


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):


Travel vs. Motion

One can travel to a destination– or –

One can move without a destination

This distinction is grammaticalized in Russian motion verbs: идтиi ‘walk (somewhere)’ vs. ходитьi ‘walk (around, back and forth)’

This can be likened to the Completability of an action


Completability:

Писатель пишетi книгу.

‘The writer is writing a book.’

Профессор работаетi в университете.

‘The professor is working at the university.’

For Non-Motion verbs, Completability is a scale involving various kinds of construal.


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’


Completability for Motion Verbs:

• Motion verbs are NEVER Ambiguous

• Non-Determined Motion verbs are Non-Completable: ходитьi ‘walk, go’

• Determined Motion verbs are Completable: идтиi > пойтиp ‘walk, go’


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’


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’, идтиi > пойтиp ‘walk, go’

• 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’, ходитьi ‘walk, go’> походитьp ‘walk, go a while’

• Verbs that can be Completable if specialized have Specialized Perfectives– писатьi ‘write’> переписатьp ‘rewrite’, работатьi ‘work’ >

переработатьp ‘revise’, идтиi ‘walk, go’> перейтиp ‘walk across’


Granularity

• A Non-determined Motion verb (ходитьi ‘walk, go’) can represent different kinds of motion:

– Fluid-like, non-directed

– Granular and repeated

сходитьp ‘make one round trip’

This can be likened to Singularizability


Singularizability:

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.’


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:

• 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]


Summary thus far:

• Two metaphors distinguish four different types of Perfectives:– Natural Perfectives

• писатьi ‘write’ > написатьp ‘write’

– Specialized Perfectives • работатьi ‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’

– Complex Act Perfectives • стонатьi ‘moan’ > постонатьp ‘moan a while’

– Single Act Perfectives • дутьi ‘blow’ > дунутьp ‘blow once’


Adding in Motion verbs:

• Two metaphors distinguish four different types of Perfectives:– Natural Perfectives

• идтиi > пойтиp ‘walk, go’

– Specialized Perfectives • идтиi ‘walk, go’> перейтиp ‘walk across’

– Complex Act Perfectives • ходитьi ‘walk, go’> походитьp ‘walk, go a while’

– Single Act Perfectives • сходитьp ‘make one round trip’


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


Distribution of the four types of Perfectives:

• Natural Perfective: – написатьp ‘write’, связатьp ‘tie’, о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’,


• Specialized Perfective: – переписатьp ‘rewrite’, развязатьp ‘untie’, переработатьp

‘revise’, вдутьp ‘blow in’, выщипатьp ‘pluck out’

• Complex Act: – пописатьp ‘write a while’, поработатьp ‘work a while’, подутьp

‘blow a while’, пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’, поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’

• Single Act:– дунутьp ‘blow once’, щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’, скрипнутьp

‘squeak once’


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


The Implicational Hierarchy:

Activityщипатьi ‘pinch/pluck’

> (Natural/Specialized Perfective) о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’/выщипатьp ‘pluck out’

> Complex Act пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’

> Single Act щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’


The Implicational Hierarchy Illustrated with a Motion verb:

Activityидтиi ‘walk, go’/ходитьi ‘walk, go’

> (Natural/Specialized Perfective) пойтиp ‘walk, go’/перейтиp ‘walk across’

> Complex Act походитьp ‘walk a while’

> Single Act сходитьp ‘make one round trip’


Extant verb clusters

• Activity• Activity + Natural Perfective• Activity + Specialized Perfective• Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized

PerfectiveTo any of the above one can add either:

…+ Complex Act…+ Complex Act + Single Act

Total: 12 extant cluster types


What the hierarchy excludes:

• 18 unattested cluster types

• 1 cluster type that is rare, but known to exist: – Natural Perfective (perfectiva tantum)

• рухнутьp ‘collapse’, уцелетьp ‘survive’• morphologically complex, probably remnants of

clusters that were historically larger


Distribution of extant cluster types:

• Three cluster types account for over half the verbs in the lexicon– Activity+Natural+Specialized+Complex Act

• Like писатьi ‘write’

– Activity+Natural+Specialized• Like вязатьi ‘tie’

– Activity+Specialized+Complex Act• Like работатьi ‘work’

• Five cluster types follow, each representing less than 10% of verbs

• Remaining cluster types are rare (2% or less)


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


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.


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.

“how to account for aspectual derivation in russian” laura a. janda unc-chapel hill...

Documents

verbs of motion slide

nonmotion verbs

russian motion verbs

specialized i

janda sls

specialized perfectives

stronger p

p walk