Subjectification and the East-West Aspect Division

1. 9th Annual Conference of the Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Association Prague, Czech Republic 16 October, 2009 Subjectification and the East-West Aspect Division Stephen M. Dickey University of Kansas smd@ku.edu

2. Langacker’s (1999) Version of Subjectification:Attenuation of the Degree of Conceptual Content of the Assymetric Relation Initial Configuration Attenuation Subjectification overall scope overall scope overall scope immediate scope immediate scope immediate scope tr tr tr lm lm lm T T T C C C

3. Attenuation of the Degree of Conceptual Content of the Assymetric Relation: Animated View overall scope immediate scope tr lm T C

4. Attenuation of the Perfective Effecting Relationship OR DR lm 2 tr lm 1 T C

5. The Temporal Definiteness of theEastern Perfective A X B time situation expressed by pf verb

6. Types of East Slavic Procedural Verbs That Evidence Attenuation of the Effecting Relationship Delimitatives in po- Po- delimitatives profile some oblique result of an action (as opposed its direct result; cf. Dickey [2006]). (1) Я с годик порисовал и бросил… Четыре года не рисую уже… (OR = dissatisfaction with the drawings) (2) Пописал и решил вот впечатления в этот дневник позаисывать. (OR = satisfaction with the writing) Po- has been much more productive as a delimitative prefix in the eastern languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and Macedonian) and Polish than in the western languages (Czech, Slovak, Slovene and Sorbian) and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (cf. Dickey and Hutcheson [2003]). Moreover, po-delimitatives appear to be slightly less productive in Bulgarian and Polish than in East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian). Thus, the epicenter of delimitative po- appears to be East Slavic.

7. B. Intensive-Resultatives 1. Absorptive verbs Descendants of Old (Common Slavic) Mental Absorptives Rus задуматься Pol zamyślić się, Cz zamyslet seBlg замисля се BCS zamisliti se Rus заглядеться Pol zapatrzyć się Cz zadívat se Blg загледам се BCS zagledati se Cf. also Rus зачитатьсяPol zaczytać się Cz začíst se Blg зачета се BCSzačitati se Russian Absorptives Lacking in West and South Slavic Rus забегатьсяPol — Cz — Blg — BCS — Rus записаться Pol — Cz — Blg — BCS — Rus зарисоваться Pol —Cz — Blg — BCS — Rus заслушаться Pol (zasłuchać się)Cz (zaposlouchat se) Blg — BCS — Rus затанцеваться Pol zatańczyć się? Cz — Blg — BCS — Rus зафилосовствоваться Pol — Cz — Blg — BCS — Rus заходиться Pol — Cz — Blg — BCS —

8. 2. Ironic-Resultative Verbs Verbs in до- … -ся express the continuation of the activity “to the point of an undesired and previously unforeseen result”, e.g.: докупаться (до воспаления легких) ‘swim to the point of (pneumonia)’, доработаться (до нервного слома)‘work to the point of ‘a nervousbreakdown’ (Zaliznjak and Šmelev [2000: 117]) Russian ironic-resultatives have no equivalents in West and South Slavic, apart from a few loans into Polish. (Cf. Rutkowska [1978, 1981) for Polish and Anan'eva [1998: 292] on their lack of productivity both in Polish and Czech, and Ivanova [1974] for Bulgarian). 3. Resultative-Qualificational Verbs Verbs in из(о)- … -сяexpress the habitual performance of a negative activity to the point where it becomes a habit of the subject, e.g.: izolgat'sja ‘lie to the point of becoming an incorrigible liar’: izvorovat'sja ‘steal to the point of becoming an incorrigible thief’ Russian resultative-qualificational verbs have no equivalents in West and South Slavic. (Cf. Isačenko [1960: 250] on their absence in Slovak, and Rutkowska (1981) on their absence in Polish, and Ivanova [1974] for Bulgarian.)

9. 4. Other Intensive-Resultative Verbs a. Intensive-resultatives in про- …-ся, which profile the ruin of the subject, the loss of his/her money and property as a result of the activity of the source verb, e.g.: профершпилиться ‘ruin oneself losing at cards or spending money’ простроиться ‘squander all one’s money building a house’. Intensive-resultatives in про-…-ся have no equivalents in West and South Slavic. 4. Other Intensive-Resultative Verbs (cont.) b. Intensive-resultatives in о-/об(о)- … -ся, which profile the performance of an action erroneously or unsuccessfully’, e.g.: оступиться‘misstep’, ослышаться‘mishear’ Intensive-resultatives in о-/об(о)-…-ся have no equivalents in West and South Slavic. All of the intensive-resultatives listed in the Appendix profile oblique results, and the intensive-resultatives listed above all specifically profile results that involve a significant loss of subject control.

10. Waves of Increasingly Subjective Slavic Prefixation 16th Cent. 17th Cent. 18th Cent. 19th Cent.

11. Conclusions 1 1. East Slavic po- delimitatives and intensive-resultative verbs profile the attainment of oblique, and not direct results. This represents an attenuation of the perfective effecting relation inasmuch as the prototypical perfective verb profiles the attainment of the direct result typically produced by an agent that engages in the process expressed by a given verb stem. 2. Numerous kinds of East Slavic intensive-resultative verbs (most important among them the highly productive ironic-resultatives in до- … -ся) profile an oblique result that arises independently of or contrary to the interests of the agent, and thus evidence a clear loss of subject control in the conceptualized situation. 3. Thus, East Slavic po- delimitatives and intensive-resultative verbs indicate that the effecting relation expressed by East Slavic perfective verbs has undergone subjectification: the objective component of the effecting relation has been attenuated, leaving the relation between a synoptically construed situation and its ensuing result to be subjectively construed to a considerable extent. (The subjective construal, however, was present in the initial configuration, which accounts for the intuition that aspectual choice in telic predicates is fairly “subjective”).

12. Conclusions 2 4. Inasmuch as po- delimitatives are only productive in East Slavic, Bulgarian and Polish, we are justified in concluding that the perfective aspect in these languages has undergone a greater degree of subjectification than has the perfective aspect in non-Lekhitic West Slavic and western South Slavic. 5. The development of productive delimitative po- (17th cent.) was the watershed event that attenuated the objective component of the East Slavic perfective effecting relation and made the subsequent appearance of intensive-resultative verbs possible. 6. Given the almost total lack of intensive-resultative verbs outside of East Slavic, we are justified in concluding that the perfective in East Slavic has undergone a greater degree of subjectification than the perfective in West and South Slavic. 7. The relatively recent advent of productive po- (17th cent.) and late appearance of intensive-resultative verbs (18th and especially 19th cent.) suggest that innovations in East Slavic prefixation reveal the process of subjectification much as much as fossils in sedimentary strata tell the story of evolution.

13. Conclusions 3 8. Perhaps most importantly: To my knowledge, no existing analysis of aspectual prefixation has treated intensive-resultative verbs as anything other than random phenomena. A subjectification analysis of East Slavic intensive-resultative verbs allows us to make sense of the semantic nature of these verbs as well as their late appearance.