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"Constraints on the formal structure of Russian verb clusters"

"Constraints on the formal structure of Russian verb clusters". Laura A. Janda UNC-Chapel Hill janda@unc.edu , www.unc.edu/~lajanda. Model of aspectual “pairs” has a long tradition: Vinogradov 1938, Šaxmatov 1941, Bondarko 1983, Čertkova 1996, Zaliznjak & Šmelev 2000, Timberlake 2004.

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"Constraints on the formal structure of Russian verb clusters"

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  1. "Constraints on the formal structure of Russian verb clusters" Laura A. Janda UNC-Chapel Hill janda@unc.edu, www.unc.edu/~lajanda

  2. Model of aspectual “pairs” has a long tradition: Vinogradov 1938, Šaxmatov 1941, Bondarko 1983, Čertkova 1996, Zaliznjak & Šmelev 2000, Timberlake 2004 Suspicions that aspectual relationships involve more complex clusters have arisen: Isačenko 1960, Bertinetto & Delfitto 2000, Tatevosov 2002, Janda forthcoming Problem: Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  3. Solution: • There is a single implicational hierarchy that predicts all and only the aspectual clusters that exist in Russian. • This result is based on a empirical study of a multiply stratified sample of 283 verb clusters (including over 2000 verbs). Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  4. Definition: • An aspectual cluster is a group of verbs joined via transitive relationships on the basis of aspectual derivational morphology • All verbs in a cluster are aspectually related to a single lexical item • In addition to Imperfective Activity verbs, an aspectual cluster can include up to four types of Perfective verbs: • Natural Perfective, Specialized Perfective, Complex Act, Single Act Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  5. The four types of Perfectives: • Natural Perfective: • написать ‘write’, связать ‘tie’, о(б)щипать ‘pinch/pluck’, окрепнуть ‘get stronger’ • Specialized Perfective: • переписать ‘rewrite’, развязать ‘untie’, оплакать ‘mourn’, вдуть ‘blow in’, выщипать ‘pluck out’ • Complex Act: • пописать ‘write (a while)’, поплакать ‘cry (a while)’, подуть ‘blow (a while)’, пощипать ‘pinch/pluck (a while)’, поскрипеть ‘squeak (a while)’ • Single Act: • дунуть ‘blow (once)’, щипнуть ‘pinch/pluck (once)’, скрипнуть ‘squeak (once)’ Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  6. The four types of Perfectives: • Natural Perfective: • написать ‘write’, связать ‘tie’, о(б)щипать ‘pinch/pluck’, окрепнуть ‘get stronger’ • Specialized Perfective: • переписать ‘rewrite’, развязать ‘untie’, оплакать ‘mourn’, вдуть ‘blow in’, выщипать ‘pluck out’ • Complex Act: • пописать ‘write (a while)’, поплакать ‘cry (a while)’, подуть ‘blow (a while)’, пощипать ‘pinch/pluck (a while)’, поскрипеть ‘squeak (a while)’ • Single Act: • дунуть ‘blow (once)’, щипнуть ‘pinch/pluck (once)’, скрипнуть ‘squeak (once)’ Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  7. Cluster components: • There are five aspectually distinct types of verbs expressing: • Activity, Natural Perfective, Specialized Perfective, Complex Act, Single Act • Five items can compose 31 different combinations. • The Implicational Hierarchy constrains the structure of aspectual clusters Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  8. The Implicational Hierarchy: Activity щипать ‘pinch/pluck’ > (Natural/Specialized Perfective) о(б)щипать ‘pinch/pluck’/выщипать ‘pluck out’ > Complex Act пощипать ‘pinch/pluck (a while)’ > Single Act щипнуть ‘pinch/pluck (once)’ Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  9. Extant verb clusters • Activity • Activity + Natural Perfective • Activity + Specialized Perfective • Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized Perfective To any of the above one can add either: …+ Complex Act …+ Complex Act + Single Act Total: 12 extant cluster types Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  10. What the hierarchy excludes: • 18 unattested cluster types • 1 cluster type that is rare, but known to exist: • Natural Perfective (perfectiva tantum) • more rare than Imperfective isolates • morphologically complex, probably remnants of clusters that were historically larger Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  11. Distribution of extant cluster types: • Three cluster types account for over half the verbs in the lexicon • Five cluster types follow, each representing less than 10% of verbs • Five cluster types are rare (2% or less) Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  12. Comparison with “pair” model: • Activity + Natural Perfective type accounts for only 6.4%, and is a semantically unusual group (can be continued after result is achieved): • Иван окреп. Потом он еще больше окреп. ‘Ivan got stronger. Then he got even stronger.’ • Иван написал книгу. *Потом он еще больше написал книгу. ‘Ivan wrote a book. *Then he wrote the book even more.’ • Most attested cluster structures have 3-5 components • The three most common cluster structures have 3 or 4 components Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  13. Completable vs. Non-Completable: Аспирант пишет диссертацию. ‘The grad student is writing a dissertation.’ vs. Профессор работает в университете. ‘The professor works at the university.’ Singularizable vs. Non-Singularizable: (щипать >) щипнуть ‘pinch/pluck (once)’, (скрипеть >) скрипнуть ‘squeak (once)’ vs. (писать >) * ‘?’, работать >) * ‘?’ Concepts that motivate cluster structure: Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  14. Completable: • Many verbs are Ambiguous: • Completable • Писатель пишет книгу ‘A writer is writing a book’ • Non-Completable • Писатель пишет книги ‘A writer writes books’ • Some verbs are Non-Completable: стонать ‘moan’ • But some can be Completable if specialized • плакать ‘cry’ > оплакать ‘mourn’ • A few verbs are Completable: крепнуть ‘get stronger’ Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  15. What Completable vs. Non-Completable means for clusters: • Only verbs that can be interpreted as Completable have Natural Perfectives • писать > написать, крепнуть > окрепнуть • Only verbs that can be interpreted as Non-Completable have Complex Acts • писать > пописать, стонать > постонать, плакать > поплакать • Verbs that can be Completable if specialized have Specialized Perfectives • писать > переписать, плакать > оплакать Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  16. Singularizable • Only verbs that can be interpreted as Non-Completable and have a Complex Act can also be Singularizable. • A subset of verbs with a Complex Act also have Single Act Perfectives: • щипать ‘pinch/pluck’ + пощипать ‘pinch/pluck (a while)’ > щипнуть ‘pinch/pluck (once)’ • дуть ‘blow’ + подуть ‘blow (a while)’ > дунуть ‘blow (once)’ • скрипеть ‘squeak’ + поскрипеть ‘squeak (a while)’ > скрипнуть ‘squeak (once)’ • писать ‘write’ + пописать ‘write (a while)’ > *писнуть ‘write (once)’ • плакать ‘cry’+ поплакать ‘cry (a while)’> *плакнуть ‘cry (once)’ [NB: Some are formed ad-hoc] Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  17. Inventory of Extant Cluster Types: • Cluster types will be listed in order of descending frequency • For examples of some of the verbs in each cluster, follow your handout • [NB: Not all verbs in a cluster are listed – only a representative sample is given to show the cluster type] Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  18. Three Dominant Cluster Types: • Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized Perfective + Complex Act: писать ‘write’ • Ambiguous (both Completable and Non-Completable) • Non-Singularizable • Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized Perfective: вязать ‘tie’ • Completable • Non-Singularizable • Activity + Specialized Perfective + Complex Act: плакать ‘cry’ • Non-Completable, but Completable if done in a special way • Non-Singularizable Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  19. Less Common Cluster Types: • Activity + Complex Act: стонать ‘moan’ • Non-Completable • Non-Singularizable • Activity + Specialized Perfective + Complex Act + Single Act: дуть ‘blow’ • Non-Completable, but Completable if done in a special way • Singularizable • Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized Perfective + Complex Act + Single Act: щипать ‘pinch/pluck’ • Ambiguous (both Completable and Non-Completable) • Singularizable Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  20. Less Common Cluster Types (cont’d): • Activity + Natural Perfective: крепнуть ‘get stronger’ • Completable • Non-Singularizable • Activity + Complex Act + Single Act: скрипеть ‘squeak’ • Non-Completable • Singularizable Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  21. Rare Cluster Types: • Activity: предвидеть ‘foresee’ • [NB: No Perfectives are formed!] • Activity + Specialized Perfective: крепить ‘strengthen’ • Non-Completable, but Completable if done in a special way [NB – No Complex Act!] • Non-Singularizable • Activity + Natural Perfective + Complex Act: пользоваться ‘use’ • Ambiguous (both Completable and Non-Completable) [NB – No Specialized Perfective!] • Non-Singularizable Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  22. Extremely Rare Cluster Types: • Activity + Natural Perfective + Complex Act + Single Act: ошибаться ‘make a mistake’ • Ambiguous (both Completable and Non-Completable) [NB – No Specialized Perfective!] • Singularizable • Natural Perfective: уцелеть ‘survive’ • [NB: Defective structure, no Activity verb to serve as source for other Perfectives!] Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

  23. Conclusions: • The cluster model gives a richer, more accurate account of aspectual relationships than the “pair” model. • Cluster structures are highly constrained and transparently motivated. • Motion verbs are entirely regular, consisting of complementary subclusters with Completable (Determined) and Non-Completable (Non-Determined) properties. • Both linguists and pedagogs should describe aspectual relationships in terms of clusters. Laura A. Janda AATSEEL 2005

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