Two origins of the prefix iz- and how they affect the vy- vs. iz- correlation in Modern Russian

Abstract

This article reports on a synchronic study of 989 Modern Russian verbs formed with the prefixes vy- and iz-, including standard lexemes, obsolete verbs, and newly-formed coinages culled from the Russian National Corpus. I argue that the hypothesis about the two historical origins of the prefix iz- may explain the ambivalent behavior of this prefix in Modern Russian, which shows both semantic overlap and semantic contrast with the prefix vy-. I revisit the most detailed semantic account of the two prefixes and provide additional support in terms of type and token frequencies of the analyzed verbs. I further propose that vy- and iz- encode different spatial image schemas and thus explain why the prefix iz- is compatible with verbs of multidirectional motion, whereas vy- preferably attaches to verbs of unidirectional motion; why the verbs prefixed with iz- often carry a more evocative flavor and refer to more intensive activities than those described by parallel verbs with vy-; why iz- encodes multiplication of an action named by the base and why this is not common for vy-; and finally how it is possible for iz- to have both bookish and colloquial uses, being very obsolete and highly productive in different submeanings.