Stability and Complexity: Russian Suffix Shift over Time

Nesset, Tore; Kuznetsova, Julia

doi:10.1080/00806765.2011.631784

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…At the same time, there are some language--internal factors that inhibit suffix shift. As pointed out by Nesset and Kuznetsova (2011, see also Nesset 2008b, 2010a, 2010b there are lexical differences; suffix shift is not attested for all verbs with the /a/ suffix, and different verbs show different proportions of the /a/ and /aj/ suffixes. Furthermore, factors such as the root--final consonant and morphophonological alternations in the root affect the likelihood for suffix shift to take place.…”

Section: Case Study 1: Suffix Shift In Russian Verbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1980: 649, Comrie et al 1996, Kiebzak--Mandera et al 1997, Graudina et al 2001, Gagarina 2003, Gor & Chernigovskaya 2004, 2005, Gor 2007, Nesset 2008b, Svistunova 2008, Nesset 2010a, 2010b, Tkachenko & Chernigovskaya 2010 and references therein), it was only with the advent of large electronic corpora that large--scale studies of the diachronic development became possible. In a recent study based on 66,507 examples excerpted from the Russian National Corpus (www.ruscorpora.ru), Nesset & Kuznetsova (2011) demonstrate that suffix shift is indeed an ongoing process in Contemporary Standard Russian. As shown in Table 2, the proportion of innovative forms with /aj/ has increased from 18% in the beginning of the 19th century to 24% in the period after year 2000.…”

Section: Case Study 1: Suffix Shift In Russian Verbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint

Makarova

Nesset²

2014

JHL

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Although it has been widely assumed in historical linguistics that semantics plays a crucial role in analogical change, it is difficult to pinpoint the contribution of the semantic factor, since meaning and form work closely together in bringing about language change. The purpose of the present article is to shed light on the issue by means of two case studies from Russian, which enable us to isolate the role of semantics. The hypothesis we test is that analogical change is restricted to semantically homogeneous domains. We call this the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint. Two phenomena from Russian conjugation are explored: suffix shift and NU-drop. Although they seem parallel, analogical change occurs in the former, but not in the latter. It is argued that this is because the verbs involved in suffix shift constitute a semantically homogeneous domain, within which analogical change can take place. By contrast, NU-verbs are semantically diverse, and these semantic differences create boundaries which block analogical change. The findings have implications both for Russian and general linguistics. While suffix shift and NU-drop are well-known phenomena in Russian conjugation, they have not been juxtaposed and compared before. Our comparison provides new insights about the differences and similarities of the two phenomena. From the perspective of historical linguistics, the present article contributes to the theory of analogy, insofar as we provide empirical evidence for the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint, which places restrictions on semantic domains where analogical change can take place.

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Section: Case Study 1: Suffix Shift In Russian Verbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Study 1: Suffix Shift In Russian Verbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint

Makarova

Nesset²

2014

JHL

Self Cite

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“…Nikiporec--Takigava (2006) and explained in Romanenko and Geršenzon (2006). Kuznetsova (2011), Janda and Lyashevskaya (2011), Dobrovol'skij and Pëppel (2012 and a number of articles in Mustajoki et al (2008) and Plungjan et al (2009). 9 It was extended to 173 million words in August 2012; cf.…”

Section: Integrummentioning

confidence: 99%

A corpus-based study of English loanwords on ‑ing in Russian (2000-2011)

Vardøy

Post

2013

Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies

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Until recently, large corpora of Russian had been lacking. This changed with the development of the Russian National Corpus (RNC) and the appearance of Integrum, a large commercial database that has shown to be a valuable tool for linguistic studies.We have used both corpora to study the actual use of recent loanwords in Russian that have their origin in English -ing forms, such as rejting (rating) and kasting (casting). The RNC was used to compile a list of -ing words and their frequency. Integrum provided the data for a qualitative analysis of the semantics and possible developments between 2000 and 2011 of five -ing words. We also tried to use the corpora to study the changes in popularity of -ing words over time, which was possible to some extent. This corpus--based study of -ing words illustrates both possibilities and limitations of the two largest corpora for Russian, RNC and Integrum.

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Language Change and Cognitive Linguistics

Nesset

2022

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The purpose of this Cambridge Element is to bring together three subfields of the language sciences: cognitive, historical (diachronic), and Russian linguistics. Although diachrony has inspired a number of important works in recent years, historical linguistics is still underrepresented in cognitive linguistics, and the most influential publications mainly concern the history of English. This is an unfortunate bias, especially since its lack of morphological complexity makes English a typologically unusual language. In this Cambridge Element, the author demonstrates that Russian has a lot to offer the historically oriented cognitive linguist, given its well-documented history and complex phonology and morpho-syntax. Through seven case studies the author illustrates the relevance of four basic tenets of Cognitive Grammar: the cognitive, semiotic, network, and usage-based commitments.

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Stability and Complexity: Russian Suffix Shift over Time

Cited by 3 publications

References 5 publications

Testing the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint

Testing the Semantic Homogeneity Constraint

A corpus-based study of English loanwords on ‑ing in Russian (2000-2011)

Language Change and Cognitive Linguistics

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