5. The “Russian” attitude to time (original) (raw)
Related papers
The conceptualization of events and their relationship to time in Russian
2002
I will suggest that two disparate phenomena that are both very characteristic of Russian (and of most Slavic languages) are actually conceptually related to each other and derive their semantic motivation from the same source. As far as I know, no one has ever suggested a conceptual link between these two phenomena before. The two phenomena are the aspectual system and the marking of points in time (hours of the day and days of the week) when something occurs with the accusative case (v pjatnicu 'on Friday', v sem' časov 'at seven o'clock'). I will suggest that both of these phenomena are motivated by the way in which Russians (and most Slavs) conceive of time. I will attempt to demonstrate that these two phenomena may be symptomatic of an overall view of time that is particularly Slavic.
Time in Language and Philosophy: temporal сonceptualisations in Ukrainian
Online Proceedings of UK-CLA Meetings, 2017
In this study, offering an investigation into the notion of time in Ukrainian language and philosophy, I depart from Vyvyan Evans' approach (Evans 2005) which recognizes a complex structure of time, and employ his Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models theory (LCCM) to tackle the structure of time as denoted by two Ukrainian lexical items: Ukr. час and Ukr. верем'я. An important deviation from Evans' methodology is the diachronic dimension the LCCM is applied in, which is introduced by the concept of the inner form of the word. Defined as its closest etymological meaning, the inner form of the word implies that, in a form-meaning pairing, the form used to express the meaning is motivated rather than arbitrary. With regard to their inner forms, both Ukr. час and Ukr. верем'я exhibit interlingual diachronic polysemy that can be structured as a radial category, and interpreted as an array of lexical concepts integrated into a specific cognitive model for time. It turns out that the proposed analysis of Ukrainian temporal terms uncovers two different cognitive models relating to such opposing cultural visions of time as the linear and cyclic conceptions.
2021
Although at first the language and culture seem to be two independent phenomena, they are the elements that help us to understand the language of the people, which is blended in a certain cultural understanding by completing one another. While teaching the languages of people, which have been shaped on the basis of a certain worldview, the educators may come across some difficulties. Although it is not always possible to understand every phenomenon in a language, bringing a cultural perspective can help to understand not only that language, but also those, who speak it. In teaching Russian as foreign language there is an unusual usage of some language units for the Turkish language speakers. In the expressions, used In this work, it is studied and tried to identify the possible reasons for the expression of the next contrast to the Turkish language, in which the time is conveyed more concisely. The study aims to reveal, how the human-modeled perception of time is reflected in the language under the influence of culture. For this purpose, it is discussed how cyclical and linear models, which are traditional models of time, and the myths of the ancient Slavic people regarding 24-hour day could be reflected in the Russian worldview while expressing time.
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.
Time reference in Russian causative constructions
Time reference in Russian causative constructions, 2012
In this paper I will consider the causative constructions in Rus- sian. Russian has the means to express the causative eaning, though these means are lexical, and not grammatical (see Shibatani (1976), especially Comrie (1976), Shibatani & Pardeshi(2002), Shibatani & Pardeshi (2002) on grammatical means of expressing the causative meaning). For instance, there are numerous lexical causative zastavit’ 'make, force', pozvolit' 'let, allow' razrešit’ 'let, allow' and so on. In what follows, I examine the use of tense and aspect in constructions with the verbs zastavit’ / zastavljat’ ‘make’ and pozvolit’ / pozvoljat’ ‘let, allow’ (see Boguslavskaya (2005) where these and some other units are analyzed from the lexical semantic point of view). I also include the verb delat’ / sdelat ‘make’ in my analysis, though, as I will explain, this verb has special syntactic and semantic characteristics. I show that the tense interpretation and time reference in the causative constructions under analysis have some peculiar properties which draw them together with grammatically-marked causatives in some other languages.
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.
The article is devoted to the otion of an implied temporal meaning, which are pragmatically realized in the Russian language. Russian future perfect and English Future Perfect have aspectual meaning of entirety. That is why these tenses imply a pragmatic interest in the after-action or the potential referential meaning of Tunc precedence. Russian Future Imperfect and English Future Continuous have aspectual meaning of the processiveness, which determines interest to previous situation and pragmatically implied meaning Tunc sequence. However, in the English language due to pragmatic factors of language means economy this sense is not expressed. Future Indefinite does not differentiate these meanings and does not imply any pragmatic meanings.
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.
Reverse temporal interpretations in Slavic: towards an analysis
Broccias, Cristiano, Annalisa Baicchi & Sara Dickinson (eds.). Dalla forma alla società: studi linguistici e culturali. Genova: Genova University Press, 2024
The temporal/aspectual systems of most Slavic languages have the peculiar feature of allowing, for restricted sets of verbs and in contextually salient environments, a 'reverse' temporal interpretation, i.e. a past-inflected verb (nota bene: in matrix clauses, not in subordinate ones because of a Sequenceof-Tense rule) can be interpreted as having future reference, and vice-versa. Typical examples of future-oriented readings of past tense forms include Russian expressions like poexali (lit. '[we] went/left' but interpreted as 'let's go' or 'we are going') and the so-called 'future aorist' in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian and in Macedonian. Conversely, in Russian and Polish-and arguably also in other Slavic languages-a future-marked form (the perfective present) can get a past reading when the setting is clearly situated before the speech time. Although the conditions that are required to allow such 'reverse' interpretations of Tense are different across the Slavic languages and are generally far from clear, the trigger for the reversal unquestionably lies in pragmatics and in the discourse environment. On these bases this paper will offer a very preliminary analysis of tense morphology in Slavic and it will be argued that, in neo-Reichenbachian terms, it only partially contributes to the relation between the E(vent) time and the R(eference) time, whereas the relation between R and the S(peech) time is essentially introduced in morphosyntax as a free variable that gets bound later, in dependance to discourse and pragmatics.