Verbal Prefixes Research Articles

Italian speakers learn lexical stress of German morphologically complex words

Italian speakers tend to stress the second component of German morphologically complex words such as compounds and prefix verbs even if the first component is lexically stressed. To improve their prosodic phrasing an automatic pronunciation teaching method was developed based on auditory feedback of prosodically corrected utterances in the learners’ own voices. Basically, the method copies contours of F0, local speech rate, and intensity from reference utterances of a German native speaker to the learners’ speech signals. It also adds emphasis to the stress position in order to help the learners better recognise the correct pronunciation and identify their errors. A perception test with German native speakers revealed that manipulated utterances significantly better reflect lexical stress than the corresponding original utterances. Thus, two groups of Italian learners of German were provided with different feedback during a training session, one group with manipulated utterances in their individual voices and the other with correctly pronounced original utterances in the teacher’s voice. Afterwards, both groups produced the same sentences again and German native speakers judged the resulting utterances. Resynthesised stimuli, especially with emphasised stress, were found to be a more effective feedback than natural stimuli to learn the correct stress position. Since resynthesis was obtained without previous segmentation of the learners’ speech signals, this technology could be effectively included in Computer Assisted Language Learning software.

Affixes, Austronesian and iconicity in Malay

Explanations are offered for the puzzling differences between the forms and meanings of the Malay affixes and those of the broader Austronesian affixal system from which they derive. Oral-gesture iconicity is involved in the encoding of meanings that have both language-internal and social significance. The various verbal prefixes can be analysed both historically and iconically as different combinations of (1) a labial series (m , b , p ) indicating ‘source orientation’ with (2) r ‘iterative’ and (3) ( )N ‘process marker’. The full range of forms becomes apparent only if a sufficiently wide range of Malay and Malayic speech-varieties, both ancient and modern, are brought to bear on the discussion. The different meanings and functions associated with the various prefixes are motivated by the different semantic concerns engendered by the social and cultural circumstances peculiar to each of the speech-varieties.

Getting out: A preliminary analysis of <i>вы-</i> and <i>из-</i>

This article explores the Russian aspectual prefixes вы- and из- from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. It is shown that the two prefixes have very similar meanings that occupy overlapping parts of the same category network. The meanings attested in natural and specialized perfectives occur in the same network, but natural perfectives occupy a subset of the nodes of the specialized perfectives. It is argued that a network approach to linguistic categories facilitates a precise analysis of the semantics of Russian verbal prefixes.

Northern Sotho grammatical descriptions: the design of a tokeniser for the verbal segment

Since Northern Sotho uses the disjunctive method of writing, it creates difficulties for the morphological analyser to correctly analyse Northern Sotho verbs. In order to overcome this obstacle a tokeniser, which could isolate verbs from raw texts, needs to be created. The verbal element a ka be a se a re šadišetša 'he had not left us' consists, for example, of eight separately written parts which would be difficult to extract from a running text. The tokeniser will prevent over-analysis and unnecessary morphological ambiguity. A morpheme such as se that is not first tokenised could be ambiguously analysed as a subject concord, an object concord, a demonstrative pronoun, a negative marker or an auxiliary verb stem. With tokenisation, this ambiguity is removed as the position of the morpheme in the token allows for more accurate analysis of the morpheme. This article focuses on the description of the verbal segment in current Northern Sotho grammars. The different types of verbal elements are investigated as well as all the verbal prefixes which may form part of the verbal segment. Terminological issues surrounding so-called 'deficient verbs' are addressed and a framework for the design of a tokeniser which provides for all the verbal prefixes is proposed.

Halkomelem Denominal Verb Constructions

Halkomelem has four denominal verb prefixes: c‐ ‘have, get, make, do’, ɬ- ‘ingest, partake’, txw- ‘buy’, λ- ‘go to’. These prefixes attach to nominal bases to form intransitive verbs. The noun to which the prefix attaches is usually unspecified, generic, or nonindividuated and can be doubled with a freestanding nominal of more specific meaning. Syntactically, this nominal is an oblique object, parallel to patients of antipassive or applicative constructions. Denominal verb constructions are widely used, especially for denoting possession. As in the case of denominal verbs in other languages, they can be formed quite freely, as long as the situation allows for an interpretation. A brief look at the comparative Salish evidence suggests that denominal verb morphology originated as lexical verbs that were then subsequently reduced to bound forms.

Tempo e aspetto nei preteriti dello Skazanie o Drakule voevode

The purpose of the present contribution is to analyse the use of the past tenses of the indicative mood in the Old Russian Skazanie o Drakule voevode (end of XV century). The subject of my analysis is the relationship between the categories of aspect and tense in the aorist, imperfect and perfect tenses found in the text. The aorist forms concern mostly prefixed verbs without imperfective thematic suffix. The imperfect forms concern mainly verbs whose theme is ‘primary’, unprefixed, ‘bi-aspectual’, or prefixed suffixed verbs. Finally the perfect forms present more ‘tense-aspect’ meanings, depending on whether the copula is expressed or omitted, on whether the verbal theme is prefixed or unprefixed. Besides, a particular aspectual value, obscefakticeskoe ‘generic-factual’, of certain perfect forms can be noticed: the forms of the unprefixed verbs (with or without copula) either of the imperfective or of the ‘bi-aspectual’ kind, and the forms of the perfective prefixed verbs (without copula), which in the text have an ‘aoristic’ value. In this particular aspectual value of the perfect we can see the premises of its evolution towards the modern form of the past tense in the context of the binary opposition PF:IPF.

Why <i>по</i>слушать, but <i>у</i>слышать?

This article provides a preliminary analysis of aspectual prefixation of Russian perception verbs. It is argued that the choice of prefix is not arbitrary, but depends on the meaning of the verb stem.

L’alternanza argomentale locativa in ceco: un approccio costruzionista

This paper deals with the relationship between verbs and their arguments, investigating the so called locative alternation in Czech in the light of the the Construction Grammar Approach. On this basis the two alterning constructions, i.e. the causative movement construction and the resultative one, are seen to be linked by a metaphorical relation, the resultative construction being a metaphorical extension of the causative movement one. On the basis of their lexical meaning, the author defines four classes of verbs, which allow the locative alternation in Czech. A particular attention is devoted to the role of verbal prefixes in allowing or disallowing the verbs to appear in both constructions, which form the locative alternation: while prefix na- is claimed to allow the verbs to appear in both constructions, the causative movement construction and the resultative one, the prefix po- is claimed to allow the verbs to appear just in the resultative construction.

Unifying Prepositions and Prefixes in Russian: Conceptual structure versus syntax

This paper is an attempt to unify the polysemous verbal prefixes and prepositions in Russian. At first glance, the variety of possible denotations of a given prefix might appear a chaotic set of idiomatic meanings, e.g., the prefix <em>za-</em> may refer to beginning of an action, movement to a position behind an object, a brief deviation from a path, completion of an action, while the corresponding preposition <em>za</em> can mean ‘behind,’ ‘after,’ ‘for,’ ‘in’ (like in ‘in an hour’), ‘at’ (like in ‘at the table’). I will propose a unified analysis, where the differences in meaning are claimed to arise from different syntactic positions, while the lexical entry of a prefix remains the same. The main focus is on the verbs of motion due to the consistent duality displayed by the prefix meanings when added to directional and non-directional motion verbs. It will turn out that many prefixes appear to modify path when added onto a directional motion verb and to refer to movement in time with non-directional motion verbs. This semantic distinction corresponds to distinct sets of syntactic properties, specific for each set of prefixes. These two classes of prefixes correspond to the lexical versus superlexical distinction. However, a tripartite division will emerge in each set, corresponding to source, path, and goal of motion (FROM, VIA and TO) for lexical prefixes and to initiation, process and result for superlexical prefixes. This leads to the suggestion that the syntactic representation of a VP contains at least six distinct nodes for the Russian verbal prefixes, each characterized by predictable semantic and syntactic properties. The same prefix with a consistent meaning, shared with the corresponding preposition, will receive part of its denotation from the syntactic head it attaches to, thus allowing the polysemy to arise from position, rather than from arbitrary homophony. Thus, conceptual structure will be unified with syntax.

Goals and sources are aspectually equal: Evidence from Czech and Russian prefixes

With respect to their semantic and syntactic behaviour, Slavic verbal prefixes fall into at least two groups. Internal prefixes are locative Ps that constitute a result state subevent, and events described by internally prefixed verbs are telic. External prefixes, on the other hand, are generated outside the VP and function as adverbial modifiers (Czech) or perfectivity markers (Russian). An apparent counter-example to this distinction comes from Czech, which shows an asymmetry between source and goal prefixes: only the former but not the latter are compatible with measure phrases. On grounds of such examples, Filip (2003) argues that only goal prefixes derive telic predicates, whereas source prefixes form atelic predicates. However, both prefixes display internal diagnostics and VPs containing either behave like telic predicates with respect to telicity tests. I propose an alternative account for the asymmetry, claiming that it results from different monotonicity properties of the particular result states. With source Ps the result state is topologically open and thus compatible with further modification by measure phrases, whereas a result state with a closed topology (with goal Ps) is not.

The emergence of verb-particle constructions in Italian: locative and actional meanings

The paper deals with verb-particle constructions in Italian, i.e. complex predicates formed by a verbal base and a modifying post-verbal particle. In recent years a lot of interest has been devoted to these constructions in the Germanic languages, and investigation has been focusing mostly on their structure. Recently, some studies have shown that similar constructions also exist in the Italian language. Our contribution adopts a constructionist approach and aims at improving our knowledge of the properties of verb-particle constructions in Italian with particular reference to semantics and Aktionsart. The paper shows that Italian post-verbal particles contribute to the Aktionsart of verb-particle constructions. Even though Italian does not present a coherent system of actional particles, there are nonetheless some traces of regularity. One case in point is the emergence of a specific verbparticle construction with via ’away’ that developed an actional function. The paper also discusses the diachronic and synchronic relationship between verbal prefixes and post-verbal particles, trying to determine whether these two strategies cooperate or compete in the expression of locative and aspectual meanings.

Laz positional verbs: semantics and use with inanimate Figures

In this article, we discuss the meaning and use of positional verbs in the South-Caucasian language Laz. Positional verbs are defined as those verbs which — in combination with one of several locational verbal prefixes (preverbs) — may appear in the basic construction that functions as an answer to a “where” question, the so-called basic locative construction (BLC). Within this class of verbs, we pay particular attention to those positionals which are used regularly in our data to describe the configuration of inanimate movable objects. Laz is shown to be a multiverb language, i.e., a language that uses a comparatively large set of verbs in the BLC. The fourteen verbs in question are PRV- dgun ‘stand’, PRV- ren ‘stand’, PRV- zun ‘lie’, PRV- xen ‘sit, stay’, PRV- bɣun ‘be located as mass’, PRV- mpiy ‘be spread’, PRV- sun ‘be smeared’, PRV- tun ‘cover’, PRV- bun ‘hang’, PRV- nʒoy ‘stick, be stuck’, PRV- n un ‘be dipped’, PRV- abun ‘stick to, be sticky’, PRV- orun ‘be bound’, PRV- gzun ‘burn’. The semantics and the use of these verbs are described in some detail including nontypical configurations, which trigger variation among speakers due to alternative categorizations and prototype effects.

On the role of verbal particles in the progressive in Hungarian

In this paper I discuss Hungarian progressive as it is expressed in focus-free sentences whose VP possibly contains a particle (verbal prefix). I define three simple distributional tests on the basis of which logical correspondences between certain types of expressions are established. These correspondences are then used to refute the hypothesis that the progressive in Hungarian is a stativizer. Finally, I take a broader look at the possibility of predicting the existence of the progressive reading in the case of particle plus verb complexes..

The Role of Animacy in Teiwa and Abui (Papuan)

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Old Irish and Slavic Prefixed Verbs and the Function of Prefixes

The long chain of verbal prefixes which is common in the Old Irish glosses is a phenomenon which has parallels in Slavic. The normal order of Old Irish prefixes is known. Violations of that order can be observed. The prefixes are homonymous with prepositions and thus have a local meaning. The exact function of the prefixes in the chain is, however, not always obvious. Some prefixes are telic and have a weakened local meaning. The reason for the order in which the prefixes occur has not been well explained. It is often difficult to determine where a certain prefix was placed when it was added to a preexisting shorter group of prefixes. Ro, con and ad can be infixed (in some cases prefixed) to indicate that an act or a state is seen as completed (perfective or perfect) or where ro and con indicate possibility or ability. The question can arise whether a certain prefix is of local or ‘aspectual’ nature. Doubling of prefixes occurs as in comtherchomracc ‘assembly’. In do·é-com-nacht ‘has bestowed’ ‘perfectivizing’ con- has been infixed into a pre-existing do·ind-naig. In·r-úa-lad ‘I have entered’ shows a similar process but with the ‘perfectivizing’ ro- in a different position. -r-ind·úa-lad (Ml 93cl4) ‘thou hast entered’ shows that this is not the only possible order. Multiple prefixes in Slavic were recently discussed by Filip (2003) who drew attention to the problematic nature of the function of prefixes as grammatical (inflexional) markers of perfective aspect. She also discussed their behaviour as directional prefixes. Most of her examples are from Czech and contain two (or three) prefixes. We shall draw attention to the prefixed verbs of Bulgarian which has longer chains of prefixes. It will therefore be interesting to compare Bulgarian with Old Irish. Many questions concerning these chains are similar to those that arise in the analysis of the OI chains of prefixes both in regard to function and position in the chain. The different position of 'aspectual' prefixes in Slavic and Irish should be observed. In this paper I shall mainly treat the functional properties of the prefixes. Bulgarian pridobivam is not too difficult to analyze. Izpoprebivam is more complicated as it shows actional iz- and the likewise actional po- in the initial position which is natural for such prefixes in Slavic languages. Izponaprikàzvam shows four prefixes though the very common combined prefix izpo- has been analyzed as being one entity. Nevertheless, po- seems to have kept its distributive meaning. Doubling of prefixes is found in Bulgarian. Filip (2003) considers the prefixes to be derivational morphemes, but does not see them as formal markers of perfectivity. The action of a prefixed verb may be quantized, telic or bounded. Böttger (2004) discusses grammatical and lexical derivation, grammaticalization and the Russian prefixes po-, zu- and ot- in a diachronical perspective. We shall discuss these theories and their applicability to OI and Bulgarian. The “directional and measurement usages” of Slavic and Irish prefixes will finally be compared with the functions of the Hittite enclitic directional particles.

Alliteration and Sound Change in Early English (review)

Reviewed by: Alliteration and sound change in early English by Donka Minkova Geoffrey Russom Alliteration and sound change in early English. By Donka Minkova. (Cambridge studies in linguistics 101.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. xix, 400. ISBN 0521573173. $90 (Hb). This remarkable book is a history of English syllabic onsets with special reference to the poetic treatment of onsets known as alliteration. The book makes diligent use of recent philology and goes beyond it to find new tests for important claims about syllable structure. [End Page 745] Minkova begins with a summary of requirements for alliterating syllables (Chs. 1, 2, and 3). In Old English poetry, these must always be stressed. Matching of the first consonant in the onset is often present and often suffices. There are two interesting wrinkles, however: (i) any stressed syllable spelled with an initial vowel alliterates with any other such syllable, and (ii) in the clusters sp-, st-, and sk-, both consonants must match. Chs. 4 and 5 provide full discussion of these wrinkles and their linguistic implications. In Middle English poetry, syllables spelled with initial vowels are less frequently employed for alliteration (166). Although sp-, st-, and sk-still show a strong tendency to alliterate as clusters, we find a significant number of alliterations that match only the initial s- (239). At the same time, the frequency of bisegmental matching is enhanced in a variety of other clusters, most commonly in those with initial s-, but to a significant extent also in clusters like br- and gr- (306). The highly favored yet less strict cluster alliteration of sp-, st-, and sk- seems to have been reanalyzed as a violable preference for cluster alliteration generally. A particularly interesting tendency is ‘splitting’, whereby the second consonant of an onset cluster in one alliterating syllable appears in the coda of its alliterating partner (300). In Ch. 6, M uses several kinds of evidence to argue that such discontinuous matching of cluster elements was more highly valued than ‘skipping’, in which the second element is simply not matched (301). The sort of juncture displacement found in expressions like the ton and the tother (< that one and that other) plays a significant role during the later period. In the Middle English poems, we encounter a kind of ‘elision alliteration’ (167–69), whereby that on, for example, alliterates on the word-final [t] that moves at phrase level from the coda of that to the onset of on. In Old English poems, by contrast (145–50), the meter shows scrupulous respect for morphological word boundaries, which provide barriers not only to alliteration of underlying coda consonants but also to resolution, whereby a short stressed syllable and a following unstressed syllable become equivalent to one long stressed syllable (157). In Old English, verbal prefixes are unstressed, hence ineligible for alliteration, because they lie outside the phonological word that contains the major-category verbal root (179). In the Middle English poems, alliteration on these prefixes has become a significant option (57). It seems reasonable to conclude with M that the prefix and the verbal root were incorporated into the same prosodic word during the later period (180). On this hypothesis, variant pronunciations with stressed prefixes would be likely to arise, providing a phonetic basis for the change in alliterative practice. M’s most valuable contributions to our understanding of syllable structure are situated in the later period. In Ch. 6, she provides many kinds of evidence for the claim that a pair of Middle English consonants with a high frequency of cluster alliteration—what she calls a ‘cohesive’ pair—is unlikely to be split by metathesis, whereas less cohesive pairs with a lower frequency of cluster alliteration are more likely to undergo this type of historical change. Cohesive pairs are also less likely to be produced by syncopation of an intervening vowel. In Ch. 7, M provides a similar variety of evidence for the claim that noncohesive pairs are more likely to be simplified into monosegmentals. Gradations that emerge from M’s survey tell against the hypothesis that clusters are cohesive because they violate the principle of sonority sequencing (Vennemann 1988, Lutz 1991). M argues instead for a concept of cohesion...

Глагольные отделяемые наречия-приставки в славянском, германском и финно-угорском как объект контактной грамматики

The object of the study of contact grammar is those changes of linguistic elements that are influenced by the contact language. The clear example which belongs to the field of the Slavic-German-Hungarian contact grammar is the separable, adverbial by origin, prefixes of verbs. In some Slavic languages and dialects, this unusual phenomenon appeared during the lasting contacts with German. As seems, in Hungarian the development of the same phenomenon was also caused by German, and in turn it influenced neighboring Slavic dialects. In the present article, the author have studied the separable verbal prefixes of the Gradišcan dialect of Croatian, have indicated their German and Hungarian equivalents and have compiled the list of the verbs with the prefixes of this sort. The analysis resulted in the conclusion that the given adverbs not only specify the meaning of the verbs but also dominate in the coining of new words and affect syntax. The research into this most interesting problem, initiated by the prominent Hungarian scholar Laszlo Hadrovics on the basis of South Slavic material, requires the more detailed examination of the Slavic linguistic area and its history.

Particles and Prefixes in English and Serbian

The paper attempts to, by means of contrastive analysis, prove that particles belonging to phrasal verbs in English are in their linguistic essence equivalent to Serbian perfective verbal prefixes. This hypothesis has been backed up by a brief study based on 40 translation equivalents, which has shown that phrasal verb particles in English and perfective prefixes in Serbian are both markers of telic aktionsart on the lexical level of the verb. Also, the particles and the prefixes alike affect the ‘aspectual use’ of verbs in their respective languages: while the particles in English do not block their use with the progressive, the prefixes in Serbian block their use with imperfective aspect. Both semantically and grammatically, the appropriate solution for translating the English progressive of phrasal verbs into Serbian is modal aorist of Serbian perfective verbs. On the lexical and grammatical level alike, Serbian and English seem to have a convergent relationship, hence there exists a contrast between Serbian and English, the analyzed language elements are also similar with respect to distribution and equivalent with respect to meaning.

What is so difficult about telicity marking in L2 Russian?

Two major mechanisms of encoding telicity across languages are either marking the object as exhaustively countable or measurable, or utilizing a specific prefix on the verbal form. English predominantly uses the first mechanism, while Russian mostly utilizes the second. The learning task of an English speaker acquiring Russian, then, is two-fold: to learn each individual verb with its subset of perfective prefixes, and to acquire knowledge of the fact that most prefixed verbs denote telic events. Sixty-six English-speaking learners of Russian as well as 45 controls took an on-line test of semantic interpretation. Results indicate that some low intermediate learners, and the majority of high intermediate and advanced learners are highly accurate in interpreting Russian telicity marking. It is argued that the difficulty in acquiring Russian aspect lies in learning the lexical items signaling telicity, but crucially NOT in learning the grammatical mechanism for telicity marking.

Superlexical versus lexical prefixes

This paper is intended to justify the classification of all the Rus- sian prefixes into lexical and superlexical. It gives semantic and syntactic criteria for distinguishing between the two groups, includ- ing: the idiosyncratic or spatial lexical meaning versus operator-like function; the (in)ability to measure over objects and events; the (in)ability to stack; the (in)ability of a host verb to form secondary imperfective; attaching to (a)telic stems; the (in)ability to change the argument structure of a host verb. Applying these criteria results in finer gradation within the group of superlexical prefixes. It is ac- counted for by their different syntactic positions with respect to vP. At the end of the paper I speculate about the effect this architecture can have on the prefixation of unaccusative and unergative verbs.