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The Polysemy of an “Empty” Prefix: a Corpus-Based Cognitive Semantic Analysis of the Russian Verbal Prefix PO

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The Polysemy of an “Empty” Prefix: a Corpus-Based Cognitive Semantic Analysis of the Russian Verbal Prefix PO THE POLYSEMY OF an “empTy” prefix: A CORPUS-BASED COGNITIVE SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSIAN VERBAL PREFIX PO- Nicholas Lance LeBlanc A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures (Slavic Linguistics). Chapel Hill 2010 Approved by Laura A. Janda Lawrence Feinberg Radislav Lapushin Christopher Putney J. Michael Terry ©2010 Nicholas Lance LeBlanc ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT NICHOLAS LANCE LEBLANC: The polysemy of an “empty prefix”: A corpus-based cognitive semantic analysis of the Russian verbal prefixpo- (Under the direction of Laura Janda and Lawrence Feinberg) This dissertation proposes a structured semantic account of the polysemous Russian verbal prefix po- within the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics and using corpus linguistic methods. While scholarly consensus identifies five meanings for po- and an additional meaning in conjunction with the suffix-yva- , the relationships among these six meanings have not been fully explored. By means of a corpus-linguistic analysis I determine the semantic structure linking the various meanings of po-: I collect a randomly selected sample of po-prefixed verbs (with accompanying contexts) from the Russian National Corpus, the largest annotated Russian language corpus extant. The collected data is manually tagged for a number of collocational, syntactic, and semantic parameters to create a behavioral profile ofpo- . The behavioral profile is subjected to a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis, resulting in a dendrogram that illustrates varying degrees of connection among meanings. Meanings are grouped into clusters based on degree of similarity, and the intra- and inter-cluster differences are investigated by use of z-scores and t-values. I then apply cognitive linguistic concepts to motivate the semantic structure of po-, showing how this account both echoes and expands previous work on prefixal semantics. iii I conclude that the meanings of po- can be grouped into two clusters: Cluster one is comprised of the attenuative, delimitative, ingressive, and resultative meanings. Cluster two contains the more peripheral distributive and intermittent-attenuative meanings. The resultative meaning is prototypical and indicates that the subject has traversed the metaphoric path implied by the base verb in its entirety. The remaining meanings are metaphoric and metonymic extensions of that central meaning. This view of the semantics of po- coincides with what is known about the historical development of the prefix. The contributions of this dissertation are twofold: First, I have produced a cognitively-motivated description of the semantic structure of po- based on empirical data. Secondly, this analysis suggests that quantitative methods are useful not only in the study of lexemes and grammatical constructions, but also in prefixal semantics. In addition, I point out large groups of po-prefixed verbs largely untouched by the scholarly literature that deserve further study. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the help and support of my advisors, professors, colleagues, family, and friends, this dissertation would simply not have been possible. I am deeply indebted to the present and former faculty members of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UNC - Chapel Hill who, in one way or another, have assisted me on this journey: Lawrence Feinberg, Beth Holmgren, Laura Janda, Radislav Lapushin, Madeline Levine, Eleonora Magomedova, Christopher Putney, and Ivana Vuletic. I owe a particular thank you to Laura Janda, who from the beginning has offered me her unwavering support. I can only hope that this dissertation does justice to the time, energy, and hours of guidance she has so generously provided. My thanks also to Lawrence Feinberg for his help parsing many a novel po-prefixed verb, and to all the members of my committee for their time and insight: Lawrence Feinberg, Laura Janda, Radislav Lapushin, Christopher Putney, and Michael Terry. Furthermore, Radislav Lapushin and Eleonora Magomedova provided invaluable assistance translating difficult Russian-language data. I am grateful for the help of a number of colleagues: Dagmar Divjak provided great assistance navigating the waters of statistically-analyzable corpora. Adrian Ilie’s programming abilities were essential to the development of the software behind my data collection. Chuck Simmons helped translate my database dreams into reality, and Chris Wiesen of UNC’s Odum Institute and Chris Cabanski both kindly assisted with the v computation and interpretation of the actual statistics. John Korba aided in the remote acquisition and processing of dictionary material. Other fellow graduate students, professionals, and friends also provided indispensable help and support: Jenny and Brian Barrier, William Meyer, Kevin Reese, Evan Waldheter, and John Wrobel. My two roommates during this process deserve special mention: Maya Bringe kept me sane during the early days of the dissertation and helped me to stay the course during a period of doubts. Diane Caton likewise encouraged me to continue progressing steadily despite a number of setbacks. I owe a special thanks to my mother, Tina A. LeBlanc, who so patiently prodded me onward. And last, but far from least, I would like to thank my partner Chris Martinez for his care and devotion throughout this challenging endeavor, and for the countless hours of dissertation-related discussions he endured. He has facilitated the successful completion of this work in more ways than I can mention. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES . x LIST OF FIGURES . xi Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION . 1 2 PREFIXAL SEMANTICS: A HISTORY OF IDEAS AND APPROACHES 10 2.1 Introduction . 10 2.2 Historical approaches to prefixal semantics: Atomist & structuralist perspectives . .11 2.2.1 Atomism . 11 2.2.2 The structuralist approaches . 20 2.2.2.1 Overview of markedness . 22 2.2.2.2 Gallant (1979) . 23 2.2.2.3 Flier (1975, 1984) . 25 2.2.2.4 Van Schooneveld (1978) . 28. 2.2.2.5 Summary of the structuralist approaches . 30 2.2.3 Aktionsarten and the meanings of po- . 31 2.3 The cognitive approach . .46 2.3.1 Cognition and embodiment . .47 2.3.2 Cognition and linguistic categorization . 49 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont.) 2.3.3 Imagining meaning: radial categories, ICMs, image schemas . 53 2.3.4 Cognitive analysis of prefixal semantics . 62 2.4 Corpus linguistics: Basic concepts and assumptions . 69 2.5 Tying it all together: Cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, and why this dissertation is important . 74 3 METHODOLOGY . 78 3.1 Introduction . .78 3.2 Step 1: Collecting the random sample: Selecting a corpus, searching for and retrieving data . 80 3.3 Step 2: Analyze and annotate . 85 3.3.1 Verb types . 85 3.3.2 Organization of data: ID tags and ID tag levels . 92 3.3.3 Assignment of ID tag values . .95 3.3.4 Dataset management . 100 3.4 Step 3: Generation of co-occurrence tables . .101 3.5 Step 4: Statistical analysis . .103 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION . 106 4.1 Introduction . .106 4.2 Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis of po- . .109 4.3 Between- and within-cluster differences . .122 4.3.1 Cluster 1: [(delimitative + resultative) + ingressive] 125 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont.) 4.3.2 Cluster 2: [distributive + intermittent-attenuative] . 130 4.4 Cognitive questions: Prototypicality and category structure . 133 4.4.1 Determining the prototypical meaning . 133 4.4.2 Category structure: Image schemas + metaphoric and metonymic links . .141 5 CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH . 152 5.1 Contributions to the study of po- and prefixal semantics in Russian verbs . 152 5.2 Directions for future research . 156 5.2.1 Prefixal semantics: Further work . 156 5.2.2 Verbs of type II, III, IV, and V: Diachronic & synchronic perspectives . 157 APPENDICES . 163 Appendix 1 Meanings of po- culled from the reference works surveyed. 163 Appendix 2 List of tags used by the Russian National Corpus . 165 Appendix 3 Verbs by Type . 173 Appendix 4 Verbs in sample with glosses & frequency counts . 183 Appendix 5 ID tags and ID tag levels . .190 REFERENCES . 196 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1-1 . 78 3.2-1 . 83 3.3.1-1 . 91 3.3.1-2 . 91 3.3.2-2 . 93 3.4-1 . 102 3.4-2 . 102 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1 . 7 2.2.1-1 . 16 2.2.1-2 . 17 2.3.3-1 . 56 2.3.3-2 . 59 2.3.3-3 . 59 2.3.3-4 . 60 2.3.4-1 . 64 2.3.4-2 . 65 2.3.4-3 . 65 2.3.4-4 . 66 2.3.4-5 . ..
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