"Beyond the pair: integrating aspect and

actionality in a model of Russian verbal derivation"

Laura A. JandaUNC-Chapel Hilljanda@unc.edu,

www.unc.edu/~lajanda

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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The Russian aspectual system:

• All verbs and all forms of all verbs are marked for either Perfective or Imperfective aspect– (Exception: a small set of biaspectual verbs lacks

overt marking, but aspect is always disambiguated in context)

– Perfective and Imperfective will be marked with superscript “p” and “i”

– For example: писатьi ‘write’, написатьp ‘write’, пописатьp ‘write for a while’, переписатьp ‘rewrite’, переписыватьi ‘rewrite’, etc.

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Problem:

• 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

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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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 St. Petersburg 2006

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Overview:

• Three metaphors govern the Russian aspectual system, based on: properties of matter, motion, granularity

• These metaphors motivate the derivation of four different types of perfective verbs

• These metaphors interact to motivate the structure of aspectual clusters of Russian verbs

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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The three metaphors

• Solid vs. Substance => Perfective vs. Imperfective

• Travel vs. Motion => Construal of Completability

• Granular vs. Fluid => Construal of Singularizability

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Travel vs. Motion

One can travel to a destination– or –

One can move without a destination

This distinction is grammaticalized in Russian motion verbs: идтиi ‘walk (somewhere)’ vs. ходитьi ‘walk (around, back and forth)’

This can be likened to the Completability of an action

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Completability:

Писатель пишетi книгу.

‘The writer is writing a book.’

Профессор работаетi в университете.

‘The professor is working at the university.’

Note that Completability is a scale involving various kinds of construal.

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Completability:

• Many verbs are Ambiguous:– Completable

• Писатель пишетi книгу ‘A writer is writing a book’

– Non-Completable• Писатель пишетi книги ‘A writer writes books’

• Some verbs are Non-Completable: стонатьi ‘moan’

– But some can be Completable if specialized• работатьi ‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’

• Few verbs are unambiguously Completable:• крепнутьi > окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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What Completability means for aspectual derivation:

• Only verbs that can be construed as Completable have Natural Perfectives– писатьi ‘write’ > написатьp ‘write’, крепнутьi ‘get stronger’ >

окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’

• Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable have Complex Act Perfectives– писатьi ‘write’> пописатьp ‘write a while’, стонатьi ‘moan’>

постонатьp ‘moan a while’, работатьi ‘work’> поработатьp ‘work a while’

• Verbs that can be Completable if specialized have Specialized Perfectives– писатьi ‘write’> переписатьp ‘rewrite’, работатьi ‘work’ >

переработатьp ‘revise’

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Granular vs. Fluid:

Substances can be: Particulate, like sand

Continuous, like water

This can be likened to Singularizability of an action

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Singularizability:

Мальчик дулi на одуванчик.

‘The boy was blowing on the dandelion.’

Мальчик дунулp на одуванчик.

‘The boy blew once on the dandelion.’

Профессор работалi в университете.

‘The professor was working at the university.’

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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What Singularizability means for aspectual derivation:

• Only verbs that can be construed as Non-Completable and have a Complex Act can also have a Single Act Perfective:

• щипатьi ‘pinch/pluck’ + пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’ > щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’

• дутьi ‘blow’ + подутьp ‘blow a while’ > дунутьp ‘blow once’

• скрипетьi ‘squeak’ + поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’ > скрипнутьp ‘squeak once’

• работатьi ‘work’ + поработатьp ‘work a while’ > *работнутьp ‘work once’ [NB: Some are formed ad-hoc]

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Summary thus far:

• Two metaphors distinguish four different types of Perfectives:– Natural Perfectives

• писатьi ‘write’ > написатьp ‘write’

– Specialized Perfectives • работатьi ‘work’ > переработатьp ‘revise’

– Complex Act Perfectives • стонатьi ‘moan’> постонатьp ‘moan a while’

– Single Act Perfectives • дутьi ‘blow’ + подутьp ‘blow a while’ > дунутьp ‘blow once’

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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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 all four types of Perfective verbs: – Natural Perfective, Specialized Perfective,

Complex Act, Single Act

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Distribution of the four types of Perfectives:

• Natural Perfective: – написатьp ‘write’, связатьp ‘tie’, о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’,

окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’

• Specialized Perfective: – переписатьp ‘rewrite’, развязатьp ‘untie’, переработатьp

‘revise’, вдутьp ‘blow in’, выщипатьp ‘pluck out’

• Complex Act: – пописатьp ‘write a while’, поработатьp ‘work a while’, подутьp

‘blow a while’, пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’, поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’

• Single Act:– дунутьp ‘blow once’, щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’, скрипнутьp

‘squeak once’

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Distribution of the four types of Perfectives:

• Natural Perfective: – написатьp ‘write’, связатьp ‘tie’, о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’,

окрепнутьp ‘get stronger’

• Specialized Perfective: – переписатьp ‘rewrite’, развязатьp ‘untie’, переработатьp

‘revise’, вдутьp ‘blow in’, выщипатьp ‘pluck out’

• Complex Act: – пописатьp ‘write a while’, поработатьp ‘work a while’, подутьp

‘blow a while’, пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’, поскрипетьp ‘squeak a while’

• Single Act:– дунутьp ‘blow once’, щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’, скрипнутьp

‘squeak once’

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Cluster components:

• Five items (Imperfective Activity + four types of Perfectives) can compose 31 different combinations, but only 12 cluster types are attested

• The three metaphors motivate an Implicational Hierarchy that constrains the structure of aspectual clusters

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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The Implicational Hierarchy:

Activityщипатьi ‘pinch/pluck’

> (Natural/Specialized Perfective) о(б)щипатьp ‘pinch/pluck’/выщипатьp ‘pluck out’

> Complex Act пощипатьp ‘pinch/pluck a while’

> Single Act щипнутьp ‘pinch/pluck once’

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Extant verb clusters

• Activity• Activity + Natural Perfective• Activity + Specialized Perfective• Activity + Natural Perfective + Specialized

PerfectiveTo any of the above one can add either:

…+ Complex Act…+ Complex Act + Single Act

Total: 12 extant cluster types

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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What the hierarchy excludes:

• 18 unattested cluster types

• 1 cluster type that is rare, but known to exist: – Natural Perfective (perfectiva tantum)

• рухнутьp ‘collapse’, уцелетьp ‘survive’• morphologically complex, probably remnants of

clusters that were historically larger

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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Distribution of extant cluster types:

• Three cluster types account for over half the verbs in the lexicon– Activity+Natural+Specialized+Complex Act

• Like писатьi ‘write’

– Activity+Natural+Specialized• Like вязатьi ‘tie’

– Activity+Specialized+Complex Act• Like работатьi ‘work’

• Five cluster types follow, each representing less than 10% of verbs

• Remaining cluster types are rare (2% or less)

Laura A. Janda St. Petersburg 2006

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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 St. Petersburg 2006

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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.

• Both linguists and pedagogs should describe aspectual relationships in terms of clusters.