Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Conference September 27-29, 2012, Zagreb, Croatia
A lexical-constructional treatment of the Russian locative alternation1
Károly Bibok
Dept. of Slavic Philology, University of Szeged, kbibok@lit.u-szeged.hu
1. Introduction 1.1.Background
lexical-constructional treatment of syntactic alternations
lexical and constructional approaches rivaling with each other (Arad 2006)
lexical meanings are underspecified, encyclopedically rich and pragmatically flexible enough to motivate two or more constructionally emerging meanings
lexical-constructional analyses are extended to lexical pragmatics
1.2. Aims
Hungarian manner-of-motion, sound emission and spatial position verbs (Bibok 2010)
S. Iwata’s (2005) work on English locative alternation Russian verbs of locative alternation verbs
special features both in connection with lexical and constructional meanings
2. Russian locative alternation
2.1. Alternating and non-alternating verbs (A) Russian verbs without prefixes
(1) а. Ivan mažet maslo na xleb.
Ivan spreads butter.ACC onto bread.ACC
‘Ivan is buttering bread.’
b. Ivan mažet xleb maslom.
Ivan spreads bread.ACC butter.INSTR
‘Ivan is buttering bread.’ (Pshehotskaya 2007)
(2) а. Ivan gruzil seno na telegu.
Ivan loaded.IMPF hay.ACC onto wagon.ACC
’Ivan was loading hay into the wagon.’
b. Ivan gruzil telegu senom.
Ivan loaded.IMPF wagon.ACC hay.INSTR
‘Ivan was loading the wagon with hay.’ (Pshehotskaya 2007)
1 The research reported on here was supported by the European Union and co-funded by the European Social Fund (project title: “Broadening the knowledge base and supporting the long term professional sustainability of the Research University Centre of Excellence at the University of Szeged by ensuring the rising generation of excellent scientists”, project number: TÁMOP-4.2.2/B-10/1-2010-0012) as well as by the Research Group for Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Debrecen.
2
(3) а. Ja gruzil seno na gruzovik.
I loaded.IMPF hay.ACC onto truck.ACC
’I loaded hay on a/the truck.’
b. Ja gruzil gruzoviki senom.
I loaded.IMPF trucks.ACC hay.INSTR
‘I loaded trucks with hay.’ (Partee 2005)
(4) а. gruzit’ les na baržu load timber.ACC onto barge.ACC
‘load timber onto the barge’
b. gruzit’ baržu lesom
load barge.ACC timber.INSTR
‘load the barge with timber’ (Sokolova 2009)
(5) а. bryzgat’ vodu na cvety
splash water.ACC onto flowers.ACC
‘splash water onto the flowers’
b. bryzgat’ cvety vodoj
splash flowers.ACC water.INSTR
‘splash the flowers with water’ (Apresjan 2009: 130)
(B) verb stems in group (A) + prefixes
(6) а. namazyvat’ maslo na xleb
NA-spread butter.ACC onto bread.ACC
‘butter bread’
b. namazyvat’ xleb maslom NA-spread bread.ACC butter.INSTR
‘butter bread’ (Apresjan 2009: 130)
(7) а. nagružat’ meški na telegu
NA-load.IMPF sacks.ACC onto wagon.ACC
‘load sacks into the wagon’
b. nagružat’ telegu meškami NA-load.IMPF wagon.ACC sacks.INSTR
‘load the wagon with sacks’ (Apresjan 2009: 130)
(8) а. Ja zagruzil seno na gruzovik.
I ZA-load.PERF hay.ACC onto truck.ACC
‘I loaded the hay on a/the truck.
b. Ja zagruzil gruzovik senom.
I ZA-load.PERF truck.ACC hay.INSTR
‘I loaded the truck wit hay.’ (Partee 2005)
3
(C) other verb stems with prefixes
(9) а. zasypat’ pšenicu v jasli
ZA-pour (granular material) wheat.ACC into manger.ACC
‘pour wheat into the manger’
b. zasypat’ jasli pšenicej
ZA-pour (granular material) manger. ACC wheat.INSTR
‘fill the manger with wheat’ (Apresjan 2009: 130)
(10) a. zalivat’ gorjučee v bak
ZA-pour.IMPF (liquid) fuel.ACC into tank.ACC
‘pour fuel into the tank’
b. zalivat’ bak gorjučim
ZA-pour.IMPF (liquid) tank. ACC fuel.INSTR
‘fill the tank with fuel’ (Apresjan 2009: 130)
(11) a. zalit’ benzin v bak
ZA-pour.PERF (liquid) gas.ACC into tank.ACC
‘pour gas into the tank’
b. zalit’ bak benzinom
ZA-pour.PERF (liquid) tank.ACC gas.INSTR
‘fill the tank with gas’ (Padučeva 2004: 64)
(D) non-alternating verbs without prefixes
(12) а. Vanja sypal saxar v banku.
Vanja poured (granular material) sugar.ACC into jar.ACC
‘Vanja poured/was pouring sugar into the jar.’
b. *Vanja sypal banku saxarom.
Vanja poured (granular material) jar.ACC sugar.INSTR (Dudčuk and Pšexotskaja 2005)
(13) а. Ivan lil toplivo v bak.
Ivan poured (liquid) fuel.ACC into tank.ACC
‘Ivan poured/was pouring fuel into the tank.’
b. *Ivan lil bak toplivom.
Ivan poured (liquid) tank.ACC fuel.INSTR
(Pshehotskaya 2007)
(14) а. *venčat’ koronu na golovu monarxa wreathe crown.ACC on head.ACC monarch.GEN b. venčat’ golovu monarxa koronoj
wreathe head.ACC monarch.GEN crown.INSTR
‘crown the monarch’ (Padučeva and Rozina 1993: 11)
4
(E) non-alternating verbs with prefixes
(15) а. namotat’ bint na ruku
NA-wind bandage.ACC onto hand.ACC
‘wind the bandage around one’s hand’ (Apresjan 1995: 280) b. *namotat’ ruku bintom
NA-wind hand.ACC bandage.INSTR
(16) а. *zamotat’ bint na ruku
ZA-wrap bandage.ACC onto hand.ACC b. zamotat’ ruku bintom
ZA-wrap hand.ACC bandage.INSTR
‘wrap one’s hand with a bandage’ (Apresjan 1995: 280)
(17) а. *zagromozdit’ knižnye škafy v komnatu ZA-overload book cases.ACC into room.ACC b. zagromozdit’ komnatu knižnymi škafami
ZA-overload room.ACC book cases.INSTR
‘overload the room with bookcases’
(Padučeva and Rozina 1993: 11)
(18) а. *Ivan zabryzgal krasku na pol.
Ivan ZA-splashed paint.ACC onto floor.ACC b. Ivan zabryzgal pol kraskoj.
Ivan ZA-splashed floor.ACC paint.INSTR
‘Ivan splashed the floor with paint.’ (Pshehotskaya 2007)
2.2. A hypothesis to explain alternation and non-alternation 1) Which verbs allow the locative alternation, and which do not?
2) Which verbs not allowing both syntactic patterns cannot have the instrumental variant and which verbs cannot occur with locative pattern?
1) a simple enumeration of meanings (or occurrences)
2) relating a verb meaning to another with the help of a lexical rule 3) possibility for verbs to fuse with two constructions
word meaning representations are more detailed, encyclopedically and pragmatically richer and underspecified in some respects
for alternating verbs:
(19) ‘х causes y to move onto a surface z / into a container z, and х causes a surface z to be covered / a container z to be filled (in) partially or totally with у’
5
for non-alternating verbs with a locative variant:
(20) ‘х causes y to move onto a surface z / into a container z’;
for non-alternating verbs with an instrumental variant:
(21) х causes a surface z to be covered / a container z to be filled (in) partially or totally with у’.
2.3. Further issues of alternating and non-alternating verbs
a holistic interpretation (cf. Apresjan 2009: 130–131; Padučeva and Rozina 1993)
zalit’ bak benzinom ‘fill the tank with gas’ in (11b) but verbs prefixed with po- and ob- (Padučeva 2004: 65)
(22) а. posypat’ soli na xvost
PO-strew salt.GEN.PART onto remains.ACC
‘strew salt onto the remains’
b. posypal xvost sol’ju PO-strew remains.ACC salt.INSTR
‘strew the remains with salt’
(23) а. povjazal platok na šeju
PO-tied kerchief.ACC on neck.ACC
‘tied the kerchief around one’s neck’
b. povjazal šeju platkom
PO-tied neck.ACC kerchief.INSTR
‘covered one’s neck with a kerchief’
(24) а. obmotal šarf vokrug šei
OB-wind scarf:ACC around neck.GEN
‘wind a scarf around one’s neck’
b. obmotal šeju šarfom OB-wind neck.ACC scarf.INSTR
‘wrap one’s neck with a scarf’
syntactic alternation in a wider sense
(25) а. namotat’ bint na ruku
NA-wind bandage.ACC onto hand.ACC
‘wind the bandage around one’s hand’
b. zamotat’ ruku bintom
ZA-wrap hand.ACC bandage.INSTR
‘wrap one’s hand with a bandage’
6
3. Conclusions
– more predictive power
– what motivates alternating syntactic structures
– distinguishing the verbs that alternate from those non-alternating – lexical-constructional treatment of various syntactic alternations – lexical-pragmatic approach to the utterance meaning construction
References
Apresjan, Ju.D. 1995, Izbrannye trudy, t. 1: Leksičeskaja semantika. Sinonimičeskie sredstva jazyka. Moscow: Jazyki russkoj kul’tury – Vostočnaja literatura, 2nd ed., revised and supplemented.
Apresjan, Ju.D., 2009, Issledovanija po semantike i leksikografii, t. 1: Paradigmatika.
Moscow: Jazyki russkoj kul’tury.
Arad, M. 2006, The spray-load alternation. In: The Blackwell companion to syntax, vol. IV, Eds. M. Everaert and H. van Riemsdijk, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 466–478.
Bibok, K. 2010, From syntactic alternations to lexical pragmatics. In: The role of data at the semantics–pragmatics interface (Mouton Series in Pragmatics 10.), Eds. E. Németh T.
and K. Bibok, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 261–304.
Dudčuk, F. and Je. Pšehotskaja 2005, Lokativnaja al’ternacijai vvedenie argumentov.
http://dudchuk.narod.ru/Piter 2005_hout.pdf.
Goldberg, A. 1995, Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure.
Chicago: University Press of Chicago.
Iwata, S. 2005, Locative alternation and two levels of meaning. Cognitive Linguistics, 16, pp.
355–407.
Jaszczolt, K.M. forthcoming, Semantics and pragmatics: The boundary issue. In: Semantics:
An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning, Eds. K. von Heusinger, P.
Portner and C. Maienborn, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Levin, B. and M. Rappaport Hovav 2005, Argument Realization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Padučeva, Je.V. 2004, Dinamičeskie modeli v semantike leksiki. Moscow: Jazyki russkoj kul’tury.
Padučeva, Je.V. and R.I. Rozina 1993, Semantič eskij klass glagolov polnogo oxvata:
Tolkovanie i leksiko-sintaksičeskie svojstva. Voprosy jazykoznanija № 6, с. 5–16.
Partee, B.H. 2005, Formal semantics, lecture 10: The semantics of diathesis alternations.
http://people.umass.edu/partee/RGGU_2005/RGGU05Lec10.pdf.
Pinker, S. 1989, Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure.
Cambridge: MIT Press.
Pshehotskaya, E. 2007, Locative alternation and verbal prefix in Russian. http://www.uni- leipzig.de/~jungslav/fdsl/fdsl7/abstracts/Pshehotskaya_FA.pdf.
Sokolova, S. 2009, K voprosu o vzaimodejstvii vidovyx pristavok s glagol’nymi konstrukcijami: Konstrukcionnyj analiz glagola gruzit’. http://iling.spb.ru/nord/
materia/rusconstr2009/sokolova.pdf.
