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LIVE. A VALENCY ANALYSIS. The verb live has two meanings:. He lives (in) London. They lived happily ever after. The same is true of Russian zhit’ :. On zhivet (v) Moskve. Nam zhilos’ xorosho. ’He lives in Moscow.’ / We had a good life.’. …whereas in German we have two different verbs:.
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LIVE A VALENCY ANALYSIS
The verb live has two meanings: He lives (in) London. They lived happily ever after.
The same is true of Russian zhit’: On zhivet (v) Moskve. Nam zhilos’ xorosho. ’He lives in Moscow.’ / We had a good life.’
…whereas in German we have two different verbs: Er wohnt (in) Berlin Er lebt (ein) schönes (Leben).
In Swedish, too, there are two verbs: Han bor (i) Stockholm. Han lever (i) högönsklig välmåga. (The analysis of högönsklig could be elaborated further.)
Now let us look into word formation. The derivative life and its equivalents are one-place predicates. life in London ett liv (i) rikedom
In Russian there are two derived nouns, one for each meaning. However, the two-place predicate is formed not from zhit’ directly, but from prozhivat’. zhizn’ v Moskve prozhivanie (v) Moskve
Actant derivatives are absent in English. In other languages they are mostly formed from the two-place predicate. One exception are words like Lebemann, viveur: <Lebe>mann <viv>eur
In these examples leben/vivre has, of course, a restricted meaning. We could add an extra predicate («high») to represent this. «hoch» <Lebe>mann «haut» <viv>eur
In Swedish there are non-actant derivatives from the one-place predicate leva: leverne and levnad. <lev>erne which means: way (of) life Leverne can also mean simply ’life’.
Levnad: <lev>nad «under (loppet av)» which means: <life>time «during» Cf. also: levnadslopp, Lebenslauf.
As to the two-place predicate, derivatives occupying the first valency position are quite common. husets <bebo>ere <stads><bo>r
In German different words are used for inhabitants of houses and towns. die Ein<wohn>er der Stadt die <Haus><bewohn>er
The same is true of Russian: <zhi>teli Moskvy <zhil’>cy doma
The second actant (the place) is expressed by derivatives in several languages: <Wohn>ung <zhil>ishche <bo>stad, <bo>ning, <bo>
The last Swedish noun, bo, is formed by zero suffixation and has a restriction («animals») on the first valency position of the corresponding verb. «djur» <bo>
Only seldom such derivatives can be used to form syntagms. invånarna (i) <bo>staden
When other words than derivatives are used, it is necessary to insert an implicit predicate. the inhabitants «live» (of) the house invånarna «bo» (i) lägenheten
The implicit verb «live» is extracted from the meaning of either or both of the explicit actants. More examples: «live» flat «live» <bee>hive
In the last example bee- can be removed without changing the meaning. This means that bee is moved to an implicit node. Cf.: «live» <bee>hive «live» hive «bee»
The word house is rather weakly connected with «live» and therefore sometimes need specification. (<bo>nings)hus (<bo>stads)hus zhiloj dom
In living room the verb live has a modified meaning. It can no longer be regarded as a two-place predicate. living «in» room
A common type of first-actant derivatives are formed from the name of the place (mostly proper names). the <London>ers «live» die <Berlin>er «wohnen» <göteborg>are «bo» <moskv>ichi «zhit’»
Kennedy said: ”Ich bin ein Berliner.” Maybe he should have said: Ich (bin <Berlin>er). «wohnen» But ”Ich wohne in Berlin” wouldn’t have the same effect, would it?
Much more seldom common names are used as bases for such derivatives. <kvartir>anty «zhit’» <gorozh>ane «zhit’» ’inhabitants of the flat’ / ’inhabitants of the city’
Certain suffixes can evoke other implicit predicates than «live». Cf.: <lund>ensare «studera» «i» <lunda><bo>