BeReEm

1
BeReEm

• Semantic value vs. grammaticalization of prefixes
  in the construal of myslec think in Polish
• by
• Iwona Kokorniak
• and Malgorzata Fabiszak

2
Overview

• Aspect in Slavic
• Grammatic(al)ization
• Prefix semantics
• Aspectual pairs
• Meaning analysis of Perfective prefixed forms of
  myslec
• Prototypical structure of prefixed forms of
  myslec
• Aspectual continuum
• Questions for further research

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Aspect in Slavic

• Comrie, B. (1976 89-90)
• Slavic prefixes were first semantically heavy,
  later developed their Aspectual function of
  Perfectivity
• po- in Russian the most neutral semantically
  (often forms strict aspectual pairs) myslec -
  pomyslec
• semantically non-empty prefixes gt development of
  aspectual pairs through suffixal derivation of
  Imperfective forms myslec gt wymyslec gt wymyslac

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The meaning of Aspect structural approaches
IMPERFECTIVE DURATION Sørensen 1949, Meillett 1924
IMPERFECTIVE PROCESS Kuhnert 1984, Cockiewicz 1992
PERFECTIVE END OR BEGINING AND END OF AN ACTION Sørensen 1949, Vondrak 1929, Gaertner 1938, Klemensiewicz 1960, Milewski 1976
PERFECTIVE EXHAUSTIVE Klemensiewicz et al 1964
IMPERFECTIVE/PERFECTIVE DURATIVEPUNCTUAL Christman 1959
PERFECTIVE COMPLETNESS OF AN ACTION De Saussure, Bondarko Bulanin 1967, Smiech 1971
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The meaning of Aspect Langacker (2001)

• Bounded events viewed externally, in their
  entirety, heterogenous (contain sub-events),
  end-point focus gt NON-PROGRESSIVE
• Unbounded events/states internal, close-up view
  on the progression of the event, limited duration
  gt PROGRESSIVE
• Lasting states infinite gt NON-PROGRESSIVE

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Aspect in Slavic A cognitive approach (Janda)

• PERFECTIVE IS A DISCRETE SOLID
• IMPERFECTIVE IS A FLUID SUBSTANCE
• Aspect operates on inherent, discourse and
  pragmatic level in Slavic gt we focus on inherent
  in this paper
• po-, pro- (prze-) are Perfective (DISCRETE SOLID)
  have perdurative and delimitative meanings, focus
  on punctuality. Janda (2004, 2006)
• The (perfective) commencement of an activity
  corresponding to a solid barrier with a substance
  on one side can alternatively be compressed into
  a single ingressive za-prefixed verb in East
  Slavic and Bulgarian. This option is less
  entrenched in Polish and Serbo-Croatian, and
  absent or marginal and at any rate non-productive
  in Czech, Slovak, and Sorbian (Dickey 2000
  222-233).

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The meaning of Aspect in Slavic (Dickey 2000)

• east-west aspect theory
• totality central semantic category of the
  western perfective (Czech, Slovak, Sorbian,
  Slovene)
• temporal definitness central semantic
  category of the eastern perfective (Russian,
  Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian)
• a temporally definite event is viewed as both
  (a) complete whole and (b) qualitatively
  different from preceding and subsequent states of
  affairs (Dickey and Hutcheson 2003 27-28).
• Transitional zone Serbo-Croatian and Polish,
  where the perfective aspect is a radial or
  polysemous category with a secondary, local
  prototype (Dickey 2000 39)
• Polish closer to the eastern group

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Grammatic(al)ization

• Grammaticalization - the attribution of a
  grammatical character to a previously autonomous
  word (Meillet 1912 131, as quoted in Hopper
  1991 17)
• The resultant forms are grammatical, i.e. part
  of grammar (Hopper 1991 34 fn. 2)
• Instances of grammatici(al)zation Categories
  which are morphologized might safely be said to
  be part of grammar
• Aspect, number, tense and case, among others,
  occur frequently across languages as affixal
  morphology
• Grammatici(al)zation is a question of degree

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Prefix semantics

• do indicates an approximation to a goal or
  result some effort reaching the goal may
  involve encountering certain difficulties along
  the way, where the trajector (TR) makes every
  effort to achieve the goal despite any obstacles
  
• na indicates an intensity of an action
  expresses a cumulative process
• ob the image schema involved here refers to a
  circular motion of TR around LM
• po forms delimitative verbs to indicate (i) a
  short duration of an action (ii) a limited
  nature of an action does not involve the
  attainment of any obvious goal (atelic)
• prze may depict a three dimensional and bounded
  LM, such as a tunnel in which the TR moves from
  one end to the other, where the TR gradually
  fills the whole volume of the landmark
  (Pasich-Piasecka 1993 19)

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Prefix semantics

• roz in its basic image schema represents the TR
  and landmark LM constituting one entity before a
  change and taking different forms afterwards.
  Thus, the comparison of the two states of the
  entity before and after the change profiles
  different senses of roz-.
• u in one of its image schemas the LM is
  construed as s a collection of entities among
  which the selected TR is located thus, the TR
  constitutes part of the LM
• wy construal of the TRs emergence from the LM,
  or its coming into existence by leaving the
  bounded region of the LM the container image
  schema evoked
• za can represent a construal of excess with
  intransitive perfective verbs, being extended
  from the sense of going beyond a boundary
• z implies following a path and then veering off
  in another direction
• (Dickey 2006, 2009, p.c. Przybylska 2001, 2006
  Piernikarski 1975 Smiech 1986 Tabakowska 2003)

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Aspectual pairs

• Within a network of verbs expressing a single
  lexical meaning, Langacker (1999 103), views
  aspectual pairhood as a categorizing relationship
  between a pair of imperfective and perfective
  verbs that has a high degree of entrenchment and
  ease of activation
• Myslec think polysemous depending on the
  context, certain construals will be sanctioned
  and in each case a different pair of verbs,
  which are mutually linked by an entrenched
  categorizing relationship, is activated

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Aspectual pairs of myslec by Cockiewicz (1992
183)

• myslec pomyslec myslec namyslec sie
• domyslic sie domyslac sie obmyslic obmyslac
  namyslic sie namyslac sie przemyslec wymyslic
  wymyslac zamyslic zamyslac zmyslic
  zmyslac rozmyslic rozmyslac

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Prefix/Aspect frequencies PWN Corpus
Prefix Imperf Perf Total
do- 542 350 892
na- 59 32 91
ob- 44 47 101
po- 0 998 998
prze- 28 225 253
roz- 180 64 244
u- 0 26 26
wy- 269 1057 1326
za- 31 185 185
z- 33 25 58

• Ja to uzupelnie

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The meaning of Perfective prefixed forms of myslec

• domyslic sie focus on the end point and result
  intensive-resultative verb (Dickey 2009)
• namyslic sie focus on cumulative nature
  process, and goal attainement
• obmyslic the mental process has a circular
  nature, which means that the object of thinking
  is considered from many different perspectives
• pomyslec beginning of an action but no end or
  result, focus on process A prefix overlaps with
  the meaning of a source verb enough to produce a
  compound verb whose meaning is identical to that
  of the impf source verb save for aspect (Dickey
  2006 12)
• przemyslec implies the in-depth nature of the
  mental activity also points at its completeness
  and duration

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The meaning of Perfective prefixed forms of
myslec ctnd.

• rozmyslic sie an observed change in the
  subjects mental state - between the normal
  process of the mental activity represented by the
  unprefixed form into the changed mental state
  represented by the prefixed one
• the reflexive pronoun emphasizes the internal
  mental change of the subject, which may also
  bring about a change in the subjects behaviour
  frequently conceived of by observers as a
  negative one (Przybylska 2001 279-280)
• umyslic cos - the mental process involves
  selection of one entity from a collection the
  subject of the process thus focuses his/her
  attention on the selected entity, with the mental
  activity not being entirely conscious and
  goal-oriented
• wymyslic refers to a mental activity as a
  result of which one or more ideas emerge from
  ones mind completeness of the process, which is
  conscious and goal-oriented punctual in nature
• zamyslic sie an absorbtive verb, as it
  construes a continuous process whose subject, by
  becoming deeply engrossed in the activity, loses
  control over it
• the mental activity occurs independently of the
  subjects will, some adverse consequences may be
  expected (Dickey p.c.)
• zmyslic - the subject involved in the mental
  activity suddenly strays from the normal train of
  thought and produces an unexpected idea (deviant
  result a false proposition)

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Prototypical structure of prefixed myslec,
Perfective
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Aspect continuum
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Aspect continuum

• Aspectual pairs with myslec
• myslecpomyslec, myslecprzemyslec,
  myslecwymyslec, myslecdomyslec sie
• Aspectual pairs with suffixal derivation
• przemyslecprzemysliwac wymyslicwymyslac
  domyslicdomyslac namyslic sienamyslac
  obmyslicobmyslac zamyslic siezamyslac sie
• Divergence of aspectual pairs (Hopper 1991)
• rozmyslic sie change mind umyslic decide
  wymyslac komus abuse zmysliczmyslac think up

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Questions for further research

• Aspect and negation (cf. Boguslawski 2003)
• Aspect and modality
• Aspect and Direct Object (Langacker 2003)
• Operationalization of Jandas (2004) metaphor

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References

• Boguslawski, Andrzej. 2003. Aspekt i negacja.
  Warszawa Instytut Lingwistyki Stosowanej UW.
• Bondarko, A. 1975. O vidach russkogo glagola.
  In Russkij jazyk za rubezom 5/6.
• Cockiewicz, Waclaw. 1992. Aspekt na tle systemu
  slowotwórczego polskiego czasownika... Kraków
  UJ.
• Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. CUP.
• Dickey, Stephen M. 2000. Parameters of Slavic
  aspect A cognitive approach. Stanford CSLI.
• Dickey, Stephen M. 2009. Subjectification and the
  East-West aspect division. (Paper presented at
  the 9th Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Conference,
  16th Oct. 2009.).
• Dickey, Stephen M. (personal communication).
  Subjectification and the Russian perfective.
• Dickey, Stephen M. and Julie Hutcheson. 2003.
  Delimitative verbs in Russian, Czech and
  Slavic, in Robert A. Maguire and Alan
  Timberlake (eds.), American contributions to the
  Thirteenth International Congress of Slavists.
  Columbus Ohio Slavica, 23-36. (http//kuscholarwo
  rks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/5473/1/Dickey20
  2620Hutcheson20Delimitatives.pdf) (date of
  access 9th Nov. 2009)

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References

• Hopper, Paul. 1991. On some principles of
  grammaticalization, in Paul Hopper and
  Elizabeth C. Traugott (eds.). Grammaticalization.
  Vols. 2. Cambridge CUP, 17-35.
• Janda, Laura. 2004. A Metaphor for Aspect in
  Slavic. Cognitive Linguistics 15/4 471-427.
• Langacker, Ronald. 1991. Foundations of cognitive
  grammar Descriptive application. Vol. 2.
  Stanford Stanford University Press.
• Langacker, Ronald. 1999. Grammar and
  conceptualization. Berlin Mouton de Gruyter.
• Przybylska, Renata. 2001. Struktura
  schematyczno-wyobrazeniowa prefiksu
  czasownikowego roz- Image-schematic structure
  of the verbal prefix roz- Polonica 21
  269-286.
• Przybylska, Renata. 2006. Schematy wyobrazeniowe
  a semantyka polskich prefiksów czasownikowych
  do-, od-, prze-, roz-, u-. Image schemata and
  semantics of Polish verb prefixes do-, od-,
  prze-, roz-, u-. Kraków Universitas.
• Radden, Günter and René Dirven. 2007. Cognitive
  English grammar. Amsterdam John Benjamins.

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• Thank you for your attention
• ?
• fagosia_at_ifa.amu.edu.pl
• kokorniak_at_ifa.amu.edu.pl