러시아어 중간문의 의미와 범위에 관한 연구 : 조력적 중간문을 중심으로

Abstract

Middle voice is a construction that is difficult to define from the viewpoint of the voice as a dual system with passive and active constructions. Middle constructions are classified into several detailed semantic types. Among them, facilitative middles are the subject of this study. Facilitative middles in Russian mainly present the degree to which the object of the underlying transitive verb (promoted to the position of syntactic subject) is likely to be put into action. Therefore, the facilitative middles consist of a subject (the object of the underlying transitive verb), a present tense form of a reflexive verb derived from an imperfective transitive verb, and generic agent that is not explicitly expressed. In addition, many middle constructions combine with adverbial phrases of manner that indicate how an action is carried out.BR This study examines the semantic and structural properties of facilitative middles in Russian, focusing on subject, verb, agent, and adverbial phrases, and analyzes the attributes of Russian facilitative middles through comparison with related constructions. The findings and conclusions are as follows.BR First, the typical attributive meaning of facilitative middles is derived from the specific tense aspect form of the verb, namely the present imperfective verb form. Thus, when the verb tense is changed to the past, the possibility and potential of the action is weakened and when the aspect of the verb is changed to the perfective, the genericity and conventionality of the action disappear, consequently shifting to the interpretation of anticausative constructions.BR Second, while generic agents cannot be specified and are only implied, non-generic agents can be specified through the “у” prepositional phrase. However, in this case, the cause of and responsibility for the action performed can be ascribed to the agent expressed through the prepositional phrase, not the subject; hence, the sentence obtains an interpretation similar to the passive.BR Third, facilitative middles have modal meanings of potential and possibility in the sense that the object is likely to be subjected to an action. In particular, facilitative middles combine with various adverbial phrases with manner meanings.BR Finally, there are the similar constructions that promote arguments other than the object of the underlying transitive verb as the subject. These are instrument-subject constructions and antipassive. These constructions are formed from a much narrower range of verbs than middle constructions. Therefore, the Russian middles are closely related to the passive, anticausative, antipassive, instrument-subject constructions and generalized personal constructions in accordance with the tense aspect form of verb, the genericity of the agent and the semantic role of the subject, among others.