Theu+gen construction in Modern Standard Russian

Abstract

In Modern Standard Russian (MSR), the prefix/preposition pair u-/u is peculiar with respect to other similar pairs, due to the meaning mismatch between the two. While the prefix u- has an ablative meaning, as shown when it is prefixed to motion verbs, the prepositional phrase u+gen occurs in locative constructions, and other related constructions, such as predicative possession that is expressed via the cross-linguistically common Locative Schema. Etymological considerations show that the meaning preserved by the prefix is older. The only type of occurrence which, according to the literature, preserves the ablative meaning for the u+gen construction is found with verbs of requesting, removing, and buying. Notably, however, in other Slavic languages putative ablative contexts are limited to verbs of requesting. Data from MSR, Old Church Slavic, Polish and Czech lead to the conclusion that the extension of the u+gen construction to verbs of removing in MSR is based on its use for the encoding of predicative possession. Extension to verbs of buying is better explained through the locative meaning of the construction. As a result of different developments, the u+gen construction has become part of the argument structure of a group of verbs including verbs of asking and requesting, verbs of removing, and verbs of buying, which are characterized by the common feature of taking human non-recipient third arguments. We argue that the different usages of the u+gen construction in MSR constitute an instance of constructionalization based on the merger of originally different constructions. We further argue that accounting for this development in constructional terms offers better insights in the relation among the various different usages of u+gen than simply focusing on the meaning of the preposition and its polysemy pattern.

The Development of the Russian u + GEN in the Ablative and Locative Directions

“…I suggested that such persistence of the u + GEN became possible because of language contact: the bilingual North Finnic speakers preferred the patterns common to both languages, and the entrenhment of u + GEN occurred due to frequent use. According to Luraghi and colleagues (Luraghi et al 2020), only verbs of asking/requesting had possibly adopted the Slavic ablative use of u + GEN, while verbs of buying assumed this model due to extention of the locativeexperiencer semantic domain and, later presumably followed verbs of removing by extension of the possessor-experiencer domain. Nevertheless, the analysis of the corpus data convincingly shows that the preference for u + GEN with verbs of depriving was always more or less stable.…”

“…Deep semantic-and-syntactic research has distinguished the three main syntactic-semantic types of u + GEN construction, predicative possession, external possessor and non-recipient third-argument of verbs of asking/requesting, buying and removing. In my analysis, I will concentrate especially on the latter type trying to check the results of the research by Luraghi et al (2020) about the different time of development of the arguments of these three verb groups. I will also explore the contact perspective in detail.…”

“…I procede as follows: first (Sections 1.1 and 1.2), I overview the typologies of predicative possession and after that (Section 1.3) I account for u + GEN in Old Chuch Slavonic and describe the model of the development of u + GEN with different meanings developed by Luraghi, Naccarato and Pinelli (2020). In Section 1.4 I enlighten external possessor in Slavic languages and in Section 1.5 account for the language contact research of the u + GEN predicative possession.…”

What's in a Russian Aspectual Prefix? A Cognitive Linguistics Approach to Prefix Meanings

“…disappears, and therefore sentences where the trajector moves towards an observer appear unlikely for u-. This is implied by the traditional label "ablative" that is sometimes used about u-(see Luraghi, Naccarato and Pinelli 2020), and the Russian label proč' 'away' (Zaliznjak 2001). I suggest that an adequate description of the prefixes vy-and u-must accommodate the difference that the former is compatible with both an internal and an external perspective, while the latter requires an internal perspective.…”

Syntagmatic Dimension Of The Russian Verb In The Context Of Teaching

“…The idea to center teaching Russian around its verbs is not new; however, our review of research papers, textbooks, and study aids shows there is so far no uniform concept of how to teach the Russian verb. Linguists' publications only cover some small groups of verbs (Ikramovna et al, 2020;Luraghi, 2020;Ovsjannikova, 2020). The popularity of Russian as a foreign language (Dengub et al, 2020;Markina, 2019) gives rise to numerous methodologies to be analyzed.…”