'Missed tense' (praesens pro futuro) in Russian matrix clauses: semantic and formal motivation (original) (raw)
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Tense-Logic and the Semantics of the Russian Aspects
Theoretical Linguistics, 1974
We consider the applicability of J. A. W.Kamp's system for S(ince) and U(ntil) in the formalization of the supposed deep-structure of Russian sentences in which the aspects occur. We will see that, assuming certain expressions for the representation of the perfective and the imperfective, the consequences that are generally felt to be implied by these aspects in spoken Russian, can be inferred, assuming the axioms for linear and dense time. The semantical relations between the imperfective and the perfective aspect become more clear.
Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies: Proceedings of the International Conference “Dialogue 2020”, 2020
The paper adresses parallels between tense, aspect and modality marking in Russian embedded clauses. It is widely known that tense forms of embedded verbs can be interpreted relatively or absolutely, and in some cases, the relative and absolute use seem to be in free variation. It turns out that the interpretation of modality and aspect can be described along the same lines and classified into the relative and absolute uses. For instance, subjunctive mood—one of the main instruments of irreality marking—can be interpreted as less real than the main event (relative interpretation) or less real than the moment of speech (and to the same degree as the main event; absolute interpretation). Similarly, aspect forms, depending on their interpretation, can describe the structure of the situation compared to the speech act or to the main event. I show that the parallelism between the three categories is not full: for instance, relative modality is mainly observed in triclausal constructions. Modality interpretation is sensitive to the opposition of clausal adjuncts vs. relative clauses. For the aspect interpretation, the contrast between finite forms and infinitive is relevant: infinitive allows for relative use of perfective aspect use much easier than finite forms. Finally, interpretations of the three categories are related to each other. For example, in complement clauses, the relative interpretation is perfectly acceptable for all the three categories.
'Tensed' and 'non-Tensed' Predicatives in Russian
In the article, I focus on tense marking in Russian constructions with predicatives (predicative adjectives / adverbials), such as "xolodno" '(it is) cold' and "ploxo" '(it is) bad'. Statistical data from the Russian National Corpus show that the frequency of past tense forms (e.g., combinations with the form bylo) is much greater for some predicatives than for others. This difference results both from semantic and formal factors. On the one hand, some predicatives denote evaluation (e.g. ploxo 'bad'). Evaluation can be applied to events that have finished or have never been realized. What is relevant is that the evaluation is made at the moment of speech, and this is why the present tense (= the zero copula verb) is used. On the other hand, it is important that the present tense is unmarked with predicatives, while with verbs, it is marked with special verbal affixes. The unmarked present tense form of a predicative can get the temporal meaning from the embedded verb. Interestingly, this phenomenon is in a sense opposite to the well-known phenomenon of relative tense marking. While the latter presupposes that the tense assignment in the embedded event is anchored to the tense meaning of the main event, the tense value of the construction with evaluation predica-tives is assigned by 'agreement' with the embedded verb.
Chapter 10 The markedness of coincidence in Russian
2019
This paper presents a novel analysis of the Russian Infl domain. Specifically, it is argued in this paper that in Russian, the past tense, as opposed to the non-past, is the default, unmarked tense. Consequently, non-past in Russian is marked by the specification of a privative feature on T0, which associates the event/state expressed by vP to some anchoring time. This analysis stems from observations of how subjunctive matrix and complement clauses are interpreted. The analysis captures how, unlike other languages with the subjunctive mood, Russian allows main independent clauses to appear in the subjunctive. It additionally furthers work on features and properties of the Infl domain, showing how languages use different features, from what appears to be a limited set, to express time and realis contrasts.
The markedness of coincidence in Russian
Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2016, 2018
This paper presents a novel analysis of the Russian Infl domain. Specifically, it is argued in this paper that in Russian, the past tense, as opposed to the non-past, is the default, unmarked tense. Consequently, non-past in Russian is marked by the specification of a privative feature on T 0 , which associates the event/state expressed by vP to some anchoring time. This analysis stems from observations of how subjunctive matrix and complement clauses are interpreted. The analysis captures how, unlike other languages with the subjunctive mood, Russian allows main independent clauses to appear in the subjunctive. It additionally furthers work on features and properties of the Infl domain, showing how languages use different features, from what appears to be a limited set, to express time and realis contrasts.
Apart from elementary predications that can be classified clearly as Activities or Accomplishments, Russian has elementary predications that are hybrid in their actionality and can be classified as Activities as well as Accomplishments. With regard to the category of aspect in Russian, these hybrid predications are characterized by the fact that they can be coded perfective not only by a paired perfective verb but also by a so-called delimitative procedural verb. In the first part of this paper I examine the conditions under which elementary predications can be interpreted as hybrid. In the second part, I show that elementary predications that are not hybrid in their actionality can be reclassified in their actionality by temporal distributivity and in that case are also characterized as hybrid. The third part deals with predications with an inner argument modified by quantifying determiners and measure expressions. I show that these predications likewise allow a reclassification by temporal distributivity. However, this is only the case if the extent of the entities involved in the situation is determined in advance.
Russian causal clauses and the formal typology of clause combining
Coordination and Subordination in Lisbon
In this talk, I analyze three conjunctions forming causal clauses in Russian: potomu čto, tak kak and poskol’ku ‘because’. Superficially, all of them encode the same causal relation, but there are subtle differences in how they are used. To explain these differences I propose analyzing the semantics of cause in terms of Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT) (Asher & Lascarides 2003), which augments DRT by introducing rhetorical relations. In SDRT such relations connect not only sequences of independent clauses, but also coordinate clauses (Txurruka 2003), which alows treating the feature «assertive predicate vs. rhetorical relation» as describing the oppositon betwen subordination and coordination, respectively (Belyaev 2014). In other words, in semantic terms coordinating conjunctions link speech acts while subordinating conjunctions link facts, events or propositons.
The paper explores the mapping between the syntax and semantics of copular sentences in Russian in comparison to English. It argues for a single underlying semantics of the copula in predica tional, equative and specificational sentences in both languages. The paper derives the invariant semantics for the three types of copular sentence and explores how this invariant semantics is mapped to the syntactic structure in the two languages. Predicational sentences are assumed to be the basic type of copular sentence. The difference in interpretation between predicational, equative and specificational copular sentences is explained with the help of the ident type-shift, which enters the semantic composition of equative and specificational sentences at different places.