Functional Category of Aspectuality in the Russian And English Languages

This article studies functional and semantic Tense/Aspect complexes in Russian and English, focusing on their similarities and differences. In Russian, Tense-Aspect meanings of the verb forms correlate with the semantic components of Aktionsart, while in English both Imperfective and Perfective aspects of the verb semantics are realized by the constituent category of Tense/Aspect. The inner asymmetry of the verb forms and meanings is acknowledged for each of the contrastive languages, especially for the two languages compared. The material of the study is retrieved from grammar books and manuals and from literary text samples, principally concerns the use of Tense/Aspect forms of the Russian verb and the forms of the English Perfect. The novelty impact of the study is determined by focusing on the irregularity of the aspectual meanings of English Perfect forms and Tense/Aspect forms of the Russian verb, whereas they are mostly due to lexical meanings of the verbs influenced by intralinguistic specificities of the semantics of lexical indicators as well as mechanisms of communication on the whole. Aspectual meanings both for the Perfective and Imperfective Aspect in languages under comparison used to make up lexical and grammatical aspectual categorical complexes. In terms of Aspect and Tense, peculiarities are found as functional and semantic ones, highly dependent on the situation and context of communication, thus involving extralinguistic factors which also concern the extralinguistic environment of Tense/Aspect verbal forms in use. The comparison of functions and the semantics of Aspect and Aktionsart in the Russian language with those of English Perfect asymmetry is proved to emerge, being caused by cross-linguistic structural and typological differences, particularly, the existence or not the similar forms, their varying semantic load, analytical or synthetic tendencies and others. The asymmetry is especially vividly seen translation and lexicographic field to compose varying kinds of bilingual dictionaries.

STUDYING VERBS OF MOVEMENT IN THE COURSE OF RUSSIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

В данной статье охарактеризованы основные аспекты изучения глаголов движения в курсе русского языка как иностранного, а также приведены дидактические материалы, которые можно использовать для освоения названной лексико-семантической группы глаголов обучающимися. Актуальность настоящего исследования обусловлена прежде всего трудностью системы русского глагола, обладающего самой богатой парадигмой. Необходимость эффективного освоения русской глагольной системы особенно возрастает при изучении русского языка как иностранного (далее - РКИ). В статье представлен структурный и семантический анализ глаголов движения, а также раскрыты их синтагматические свойства. Для облегчения знакомства с русскими глаголами движения наряду с теоретическими упражнениями в методике преподавания РКИ активно используются упражнения в игровой форме, грамматические рифмовки, имитативные задания и т. п. Они позволяют иностранным обучающимся в ненавязчивой форме закрепить изучаемую теоретическую информацию, активизируют совместную речевую деятельность обучающихся, в рамках актуального в методике преподавания РКИ функционально-коммуникативного подхода дают возможность совершенствовать полученные речевые навыки и грамматические умения. This article describes the main aspects of studying verbs of movement in the course of Russian as a Foreign Language, and also provides didactic materials that can be used for mastering the named lexical and semantic group of verbs by students. The relevance of this study is primarily due to the difficulty of the Russian verb system, which has the richest paradigm. Russian as a Foreign Language (hereinafter referred to as RFL) is especially necessary for the effective development of the Russian verb system. The article presents a structural and semantic analysis of verbs of movement, as well as their syntagmatic properties. To facilitate acquaintance with the Russian verbs of movement, along with theoretical exercises, the teaching methodology of RFL actively employs exercises in the form of a game, grammatical rhyming, imitative exercises, etc. They allow foreign students to consolidate the studied theoretical information in an unobtrusive form, activate the joint speech activity of students, within the framework of the functional and communicative approach that is relevant in the teaching methodology of RFL, they make it possible to improve the acquired speech skills and grammatical skills.

One Class of Predicates Reflecting Conceptualization of Time as a Resource

The research presented in the article was carried out within the framework of the conceptual and metaphorical theory of J. Lakoff and M. Johnson. One of the conceptual metaphors related to the conceptual metaphors of European culture is the metaphor TIME IS A LIMITED RE-SOURCE, TIME IS A VALUE. The meaning ‘to waste time’ is noted in the Russian verb to lose, French perdre, gaspiller, Spanish perder, Italian perdere, English lose, waste, misspend, squander, German verlieren, etc. Using the example of the Russian verb to lose, the classes of use of these predicates in the indicated meaning are presented in the article, as well as some features of the French and English units reflecting the specific features of the worldview of these languages are not-ed. The research is based on a large corpus of explanatory and bilingual dictionaries, data from linguistic corpuses. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that, as it has been noted by the authors of the conceptual theory of metaphor, the basic values of culture are consistent with the metaphorical structures of its basic concepts. The relevance of the study is also determined by the fact that the study of metaphorical concepts is one of the ways to reconstruct the linguistic picture of the world.

FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICITY OF THE VERBS AND VERBAL PREFIXES IN RUSSIAN: CORPUS ANALYSIS (BASED ON MATERIAL OF VERBS WITH PREFIX PRED-)

Введение. Современная корпусно-ориентированная лингвистика позволяет изучать явления языка, расширяя базу данных, на которой строятся исследования, привлекая для анализа широкие возможности текстовой и метатекстовой разметки корпусов. Цель – на основе данных Национального корпуса русского языка описать функциональное своеобразие русских глагольных префиксов (на материале глаголов с приставкой пред-), «отвечающих» за использование префиксального глагола в текстах определенной сферы функционирования и тематики. Материал и методы. Объектом данного исследования являются префикс пред- с проспективной семантикой «заранее совершить действие» и глаголы с ним, образованные по модели, привнесенной в русский язык из старославянского языка. Исходя из положения, что приставка, обладающая относительной самостоятельностью в структуре глагола по сравнению с суффиксом, способна не только модифицировать значение глагола, но и менять сферу его употребления, предлагается сравнительный анализ функционирования глагола с префиксом пред- и соответствующего ему бесприставочного глагола посредством анализа сферы функционирования и тематики текстов, в которых реализуются указанные единицы. Анализируются вхождения рассматриваемых глаголов в текстах девяти сфер функционирования (художественной, церковно-богословской, учебно-научной и т. д.) и 42 тематик (право, наука и технология, политика и общественная жизнь и т. д.). Результаты и обсуждение. Сделано предположение, что глаголы с приставкой пред- в силу ее старославянского происхождения и в современном русском языке оказываются задействованными в текстах церковно-религиозной сферы, а также в текстах тех сфер употребления, которые коррелируют с «прогнозирующей» функцией проспективных глаголов. Исходя из данного предположения рассматриваются пары единиц предсказать/сказать, предвидеть/видеть, предназначить/назначить, предшествовать/шествовать, предписать/писать; рассчитывается процент их употребления в текстах определенной сферы функционирования и тематики по отношению к количеству текстов в данной сфере и тематике; выявляются наиболее значимые для пред-единиц сферы функционирования (церковно-богословская, учебно-научная, художественная, производственно-техническая) и тематики текстов (философия, филология, астрономия, физика и т. п.), в которых зафиксированы исследуемые единицы. Заключение. Обращение к данным Национального корпуса русского языка позволило выявить изменение по сравнению с бесприставочными единицами сферы употребления глаголов с префиксом пред- (реже тематики текстов). Это позволяет утверждать, что приставка действительно способна влиять на употребление глаголов с ней. Introduction. Modern corpus-oriented linguistics allows us to study the phenomena of language, expanding the database on which research is based, attracting for analysis the wide possibilities of text and metatext markup of corpus. The aim of this work is to describe, based on the data of the Russian National Corpus, the functional peculiarity of Russian verb prefixes (based on the material of verbs with the prefix pred-), which are «responsible» for the use of the prefixal verb in texts of a certain sphere of functioning and subject matter. Material and methods. The object of this study is the prefix pred- with the prospective semantics «to do an action in advance» and verbs with it, formed according to the model introduced into the Russian language from the Old Slavic language. Based on the statement that the prefix, which has a relative independence in the structure of the verb in comparison with the suffix, is able not only to modify the meaning of the verb, but also to change the scope of its use, the article offers a comparative analysis of the functioning of the verb with the prefix pred- and the corresponding non-prepositional verb by analyzing the sphere of use and the subject of texts in which these units are realized. The article analyzes the occurrences of the verbs in the texts of 9 spheres of functioning (artistic, church-theological, educational-scientific, etc.) and 42 subjects (law, science and technology, politics and public life, etc.). Results and discussion. We suggest that verbs with the prefix pred-, due to its Old Slavic origin, are involved in the texts of the church-religious sphere in modern Russian, as well as in the texts of those spheres of use that correlate with the “predictive” function of prospective verbs. Based on this assumption, we consider pairs of units to predict/say, foresee/see, destine/assign, precede/march, prescribe/write; the percentage of their use in texts of a certain sphere of functioning and subject matter is calculated in relation to the number of texts in this sphere and subject matter; we identify the most significant areas of functioning (church-theological, educational-scientific, artistic, industrial-technical) and subjects of texts (philosophy, philology, astronomy, physics, etc.) in which the studied units are realized. Conclusion. The reference to the data of the Russian National Corpus revealed a change in the sphere of use of verbs with the prefix pred- (less often the subject of texts), which allows us to assert that the prefix is really able to influence the use of verbs with it.

Russian prefixed verbs as constructional schemas

This study tests the morphological gradience theory on Russian prefixed verbs. With the help of a specially designed experiment, in which participants were asked to evaluate the semantic transparency of a prefixed nonse verb given in minimal context, as well as to semanticise it by suggesting an existing Russian verb with the same prefix, we offer evidence that these verbs can be analysed as constructional schemas and that the degree of their morphological decomposition depends upon the different levels of activation of their sequential and lexical links. We prove that speakers of Russian are very sensitive to the etymological connection between verb prefixes and the prepositions they are related to. Thus, prefix-stem constructions with prefixes that correspond to prepositions are more likely to be morphologically decomposed, while prefix-stem constructions with prefixes that do not relate to prepositions tend to be regarded as single lexical units. Moreover, the general, highly abstract semantics of Russian prefix-stem constructions, especially of those that retain their ‘prepositional’ meaning, is undoubtedly accessible to language users, which is confirmed by the fact that the interpretability of these constructions is affected by priming.

Verbs with the Prefix za- in Russian dialects of the Amur Region

The article deals with verb derivatives with the prefix za- on the dialectal material that is poorly studied in this aspect — the Russian dialects of the Amur region. The derivational and grammatical meanings of the derived verbs with this formant are characterized in comparison with their literary counterparts. The peculiarities of semantics are revealed and a typology of dialectisms with this prefix is proposed. It is concluded that word formation in this group of dialects is a peculiar form of manifestation of specific and general Russian word-formation tendencies. The relevance and novelty of the work is due to both the general unresolved problem of describing the meanings of Russian verb prefixes, and insufficient knowledge of the specifics of verbal word formation in dialects. In addition, the study of this group of dialects in the derivational aspect is necessary for the construction of a typology of dialects of the Far East and the preparation of a monographic description of them. Turning to the study of prefix verb dialect lexicon can contribute to the introduction of new interesting facts into scientific circulation. Turning to dialects of secondary education, which are under the strongest influence of the literary language, can help to reveal the dynamics of transformations of prefixed meanings.

Interpretation of the active verbs' world: two lexicographic views (exemplified in dictionaries of the Ural semantic school)

The article overviews cognitive strategies of the reflection of the active words exemplified in Russian verbs. It is presented in two ideographic dictionaries: the big explanatory dictionary of Russian verbs and the experimental syntactic dictionary of Russian verb sentences. Regularities and features of categorization of this fragment of the world are revealed.

Categories of the name and the verb in Anfangs-Gründe der Russischen Sprache (1731)

The relevance of this study is due to the importance of Vasiliy Adodurov’s Anfangs-Gründe der Russischen Sprache as the first academic grammar of the Russian language written by a Russian scholar and published in Russia. The aim of the article is to show the innovations of Adodurov’s grammatical views and the relation of his grammar with Western European and Slavic grammatical traditions in the conceptual presentation of the name and the verb. The material of the research is the Russian grammar of Adodurov in comparison with the grammars by H.W.Ludolph, I.W.Paus, the Slavonic grammar by M. Smotritsky, the Latin grammars by I.Rhenius, E.Kopijewitz, I.Lange, “Grammatica Marchica”, and the German grammar by M. Schwanwitz. The descriptive and comparative research methods are used. A particularity of the research approach is the comparison of Anfangs-Gründe not only with the Russian, Slavonic and German grammars, but also with the Latin grammars. The results of the study show the innovations of Adodurov in the interpretation of the gender of names, voices of the Russian verb, and the forms of the future and the past tense. He simplifies the noun and verb description scheme taking into account specific features of the Russian language and methodological considerations. The article also proposes a new version of the collaboration between Adodurov and the anonymous German-speaking author of the comments in the margins of the manuscript Compendium Grammaticae Russicae, explaining Adodurov’s use of these comments in Anfangs-Gründe.