LINGUIST List 10.783

Thu May 20 1999

Books: Aspect and Voice

Editor for this issue: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar <aristarlinguistlist.org>

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LINCOM EUROPA, Interaction Between Aspect and Voice in Russian

LINCOM EUROPA, Verb Semantics, Diathesis and Aspect

Message 1: Interaction Between Aspect and Voice in Russian

Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 17:59:18 +0200
From: LINCOM EUROPA <LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de>
Subject: Interaction Between Aspect and Voice in Russian

INTERACTION BETWEEN ASPECT AND VOICE IN RUSSIAN Youri A. Poupynin, Institute of Linguistic Studies, St.Petersburg The Russian linguistics is gradually concentrated on the analysis of the Russian verb categories as a certain system. The study of the tense and the aspect in their connection already became traditional. The present work aims especially to research the Russian aspect and voice in the mutual connections. The book contains three parts. The interrelation of the aspect and the voice in the grammatical system of Russian (i.e. in the verb paradigm) is to be considered in the first part "Towards the problem of connections of grammatical categories: aspect and voice". The first part includes the following chapters: "Aspect and voice in the hierarchy of Russian verbal categories", "Symmetry and asymmetry in the paradigmatic intersection of aspect and voice", "Connections between the terminativity and the transitivity", "A field approach in the study of connections of grammatical categories". The second and the third parts are devoted to the functional-semantic interaction of the aspect and the voice. The following approach to prove the functional-semantic interaction of grammatical categories is proposed in the book: one of the two given categories has to be treated as a source of semantic backgrounds whereas the second category has to be treated as a source of the semantic functions. The fact of the interaction would be established if the semantic functions of the second category change (are restricted, specified, expanded etc.) going through a certain semantic background represented of the first category. The high syntactic significance of the voice makes it to be considered as a source of the semantic backgrounds (active and passive) and, accordingly, the aspect has to be considered as a source of the semantic functions. The second part deals with the imperfective functions on the passive and active background. Because in many Russian aspectological studies the semantic functions of the imperfective and the perfective are mainly illuminated on the material of active forms, the special attention is given to functioning of passive forms, while examples with the active forms are attracted for the contrastive analysis. The second part includes chapters devoted to specific features of the particular meanings of the imperfective aspect in the passive voice: meaning of the process, iterative meaning, qualitative meaning etc. The third part includes chapters contained the study of the specific features of the particulars meanings of the perfective aspect in the passive voice: meaning of the completed event, meaning of the "vivid exemplification", summative meaning. Restriction or expansion of different aspectual functions in passive constructions (in comparison with active constructions) are especially noted and discussed.

ISBN 3 89586 056 5. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 02. 200pp. USD 67 / DM 94 / \163 37.50.

Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX : +49 89 3148909; LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA

Message 2: Verb Semantics, Diathesis and Aspect

Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 12:00:16 +0200
From: LINCOM EUROPA <LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de>
Subject: Verb Semantics, Diathesis and Aspect

VERB SEMANTICS, DIATHESIS AND ASPECT Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova, NTNU, Trondheim

This work addresses issues of the interface between the lexical specification of verbs and the level of Morpho-syntactic structure and verbal Aspect. The main claim is that the properties of constructions are largely predictable from the semantic properties of the head verb. This claim also extends to predictions concerning the aspectual properties of constructions. The languages on which this study is based include Germanic (English, Norwegian and German) and Slavic (Bulgarian and Russian). The analysis is carried out within a framework of grammar called 'The Sign Model', currently under development. The discussion focuses on a number of aspectual processes attested cross-linguistically and the problems they pose for a unified treatment. In the course of presentation an illustration is given of the systematic interrelation between the morpho-syntactic realization of constructions and their aspectual properties. While providing a discussion of the relevant existing proposals for the treatment of Aspect (Aspectuality) in view of the syntactic properties of constructions, the work also indicates a system geared towards a unified analysis. A considerable part of the book is devoted to the implementation of the Sign Model to the analysis of passive constructions based on a notional definition of PASSIVE. A number of construction types cross-linguistically are matched against this definition, such as middles in English, impersonals in Germanic, and the Bulgarian constructions involving the reflexive clitic se. An attempt is made at defining the constraints for each of the above construction types which arise from the lexical specification of the head verbs. The book also includes a proposal concerning the aspectual properties of passives and the role palyed by passive morphology in aspect construal.

ISBN 3 89586 572 9. LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 08. Ca. 200 pp. USD 68 / DM 102 / pound sterling 38.

Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49 89 3148909; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA; LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

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