Time and the event: The semantics of Russian prefixes

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on data from prefixation in Russian to argue for a basic distinction between event structure and temporal structure. I present a linguistic semantics of verb and argument structure interpretation on the one hand, and a formal semantic implementation of 'telicity' on the other, which makes sense of the generalisations apparently common to both domains. I will claim that the temporal domain embeds the event structure domain, and that the latter constrains the former. At the same time, the different formal primitives that operate at the levels proposed form the basis for a principled linguistic distinction between the two tiers of composition: the event structure level encodes subevental relations and predicational relations within those subevents; the temporal structure level introduces a t variable explicitly and relates it to the structure built up by the event level. Whether the event structure is homogenous or not will have an impact on whether the temporal variable chosen will be 'definite' or 'indefinite.' This latter claim then forms the basis for a new conception of the difference between perfective and imperfective verb forms in Russian.

Verbal particles inside and outsidevP

“…In syntactically based approaches, Germanic particles are typically analyzed as (secondary) predicate elements, originating in the predicate part of a resultative Small Clause generated below the verb (e.g., Hoekstra 1984;Hoekstra-Mulder 1990;Kayne 1985, den Dikken 1995Svenonius 1994;Ramchand-Svenonius 2002;Ramchand 2004). The Small Clause analysis offers a neat account of how a particle/lexical prefix can turn an intransitive verb into a verbal predicate that takes an internal argument (as the subject of the Small Clause), or, in the case of originally transitive verbs, it may alter the type of the internal argument that is selected.…”

“…also inseparable particles of German). This derivation is applied to Germanic particle shift constructions, as in (1) and, modulo differences, to lexical prefix incorporation in Slavic, as in (2a) (adapted from Rojina 2004), corresponding to (2b) (e.g., Svenonius 1994;HarleyNoyer 1998;Ramchand-Svenonius 2002;Ramchand 2004;Rojina 2004; cited by Svenonius 2004, 224-6). Indexed labels "FP" and "F" are meant to be neutral with respect to assumptions about the specific categories projected inside the layered verb phrase.…”

O Aspecto nas construções infinitivas e gerundivas complementos de verbos de percepção

“…Defendemos que o complemento infinitivo, por não portar marcas morfológicas aspectuais, "herda" o valor aspectual do verbo de percepção. Com base em Ramchand (2004), propomos que Asp introduz uma variável temporal à qual cabe representar os diferentes aspectos do predicado e cujo valor pode ser modificado por operadores aspectuais, como o operador progressivo, ou pelo valor aspectual da matriz.…”

Slavic aspectual prefixes and numeral classifiers: Two kinds of lexico-grammatical unitizers

“…Perfectives described above), or 2) as "superlexical" prefixes that are atelic, providing 9 quantificational or phasal boundaries for an action (Ramchand, 2004 …”