Russian reduplicative surface-syntactic relations in the perspective of general syntax (original) (raw)

Russian Constructions with Syntactic Reduplication of Colour Terms: A Corpus Study

Russian reduplicated constructions with colour terms have never previously been an object of a comprehensive corpus study. Nevertheless, they present considerable interest for a researcher because comparative ability of colour terms to be reduplicated reflects their semantic and pragmatic differences, whereas semantics and pragmatics of reduplication construction are revealed in the properties of colour terms that can fill its slots. Thus, the goal of the paper is to study semantic and pragmatic properties of Russian colour terms and Russian syntactic reduplication construction by analyzing their co-occurrence. We apply corpus methods to the data from the Russian National Corpus, RuTenTen Corpus on Sketch Engine and RuSkell corpus. We analyze absolute corpus frequencies and collocation patterns of Russian non-reduplicated colour terms, as well as their relative frequencies and collocation patterns in the construction of syntactic redupli-cation with a hyphen (belyj-belyj 'white-white, very white, spotlessly white'). Drawing on this data, we establish that absolute frequencies of non-reduplicated colour terms in Russian reflect both Anna Wierzbicka's " universals of visual semantics " , as well as certain language and culture-specific tendencies, as evidenced by the prominence of goluboj 'light blue' and ryzhij 'carroty-red' in Russian. We also argue that the Russian reduplication construction with a hyphen (belyj-belyj 'white-white) is semantically and prosodically different from the construction of repetition with a comma (belyj, belyj 'white, white'). The former has the meaning of high degree, and thus attracts only gradable colour terms, such as belyj 'white', chernyj 'black', sinij 'medium to dark blue', and other basic colour terms. There are additional factors that influence colour term reduplication. Collocation patterns suggest that colour terms that co-occur with the names of culturally and cognitively salient objects, such as denotations of human appearance (face, hands, skin, eyes, hair) or landscape features (sea, sky, fire, grass) are more likely to be reduplicated. Moreover, aesthetic or emotional evaluation of such objects ('blue-blue eyes', 'green-green grass') is also a factor that is conducive to their occurrence in the construction of reduplication. Our findings establish the importance of corpus methods in the study of colour terms and reduplication, demonstrate that the use and interpretation of lexical and syntactic items hinges both on semantic and pragmatic factors, and add to the understanding of semantics and pragmatics of Russian colour terms and reduplication construction.

Semantic properties of reduplication in English and Karakalpak

2024

Reduplication, a common phenomenon observed in many languages like English and Karakalpak, conveys various meanings such as plurality and intensity. Despite their differences, both languages exhibit similar semantic sets expressed through reduplication. This study explores the general semantics of reduplication in these languages.

The Syntax of Russian

2009

The study of Russian is of great importance to syntactic theory, due in particular to its unusual case system and its complex word order patterns. This book provides an essential guide to Russian syntax and examines the major syntactic structures of the language. It begins with an overview of verbal and nominal constituents, followed by major clause types, including null-copula and impersonal sentences, Wh-questions and their distribution, and relative and subordinate clauses. The syntax behind the rich Russian morphological case system is then described in detail, with focus on both the fairly standard instances of Nominative, Accusative and Dative case and the important language-specifi c uses of the Genitive and Instrumental cases. The book goes on to analyze the syntax of "free" word order for which Russian is famous. It will be of interest to researchers and students of syntactic theory, of Slavic linguistics, and of language typology. john frederick bailyn is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Stony Brook University. He is the author of numerous articles and edited volumes on formal Slavic linguistics, especially in the areas of case, word order, functional categories, syntactic microvariation, and binding.

The puzzle of Russian ditransitives

2020

In this paper I use the Scope Freezing Generalization (SFG), formulated on the basis<br> of Russian quantifier scope freezing data in Antonyuk (2015) to gain insights into<br> the structure of Russian ditransitives. The paper discusses the finding that Russian<br> ditransitive predicates are not a homogeneous group, but instead subdivide into<br> three distinct Groups, each with its distinct set of properties, with further syntactic evidence supporting the conclusion that these Groups have distinct underlying<br> structures. One of the main findings, suggested by the (revised) SFG and supported<br> by syntactic unaccusativity tests is that a group of Russian "direct objects" are not<br> in fact what they seem, but are instead low Oblique arguments receiving Accusative case from a silent P head.

Syntactic reduplication in Russian: A cooperative principle device in dialogues

Journal of Pragmatics, 1997

Russian language uses syntactic reduplication (repetition of a word or modified word within the same prosodic unit) widely. This study examines one particular usage: reduplication as an answer in dialogues. Traditionally, Grice's principle of cooperation has been viewed as a maxim which applies to the locutionary aspect of communication. This study takes a different view of the principle: (a) it is not a maxim, hence not a constant, but an underlying principle that encompasses a range of progressive possibilities; (b) it involves not only locutionary, but also perceptual, perlocutionary, and empathetic levels. Analysis of Russian data reveals that syntactic reduplication in responses in dialogues is a device used either to request or to promise a higher degree of cooperation.