CC BY
28
Verbal predicates with space semantics in the descriptive text
Section 3. Philology
Varfolomeeva Yulia Nikolaevna, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "East-Siberian State University of Technology and Management", Senior Lector of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations
E-mail: [email protected]
Verbal predicates with space semantics in the descriptive text
This work was supported by the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (Project"Modeling of the text: lexical structure of a descriptive text" No. 15-04-00305).
Abstract: The main idea of the article is to analyze semantic types of verb predicates in the texts of “description”. General meaning connected all verb predicates of descriptive texts is the meaning of existence that can variously be specified by meaning of a way of existence. The work accentuates 11 groups of non-actional verbal predicates diversely representing spatial relationships in the description. In addition to non-actional there are also considered actional predicates performing characterizing function in a descriptive text.
Keywords: text of “description”, verbal predicate, lexical-semantic group, structural-semantic model, space semantics.
A descriptive text represented as “a model of monologic message in terms of a listing of simultaneous or permanent features of an object in the broadest sense, and having for this reason some meaningful structure” [3, 94] defines the peculiarities of functioning of verbal predicates. Structural-semantic description of the model reproduces the objects that fill the space described, and the parameters of their spatial location. The basis of this model is the actantial kernel (for example, stands in the room, located at the table, occupies the bench, the bed, etc.) [5, 10]. This logical-semantic component is a “variable” value that exists on the basis of “a constant”, expressing the predicate with the value of being [5, 10].
Invariant meaning of predicates of descriptive texts is represented by the meaning of existence, which is able to be updated through the values of the mode of existence. According to N. D. Arutyunova, E. N. Shiryaev, verbs, transmitting pure beingness, are to be, to exist, to occur, to stand [1, 56].
This paper presents a semantic classification of verbal predicates, which takes into account first and foremost the universal opposition of actional and non-actional predicates.
Verbal predicates in the descriptive text may have different values. So the predicate “to lay” may indicate occupancy or direction in space: the ice lays (located) on the
surface (the predicate of accommodation in the space), the road lays (has a direction to) to the north (the direction of the predicate in the space). Thus, depending on lexical-semantic variant im plemented in the context the same verb can belong to different lexical-semantic groups (LSGs). It should be noted that division into LSGs is rather arbitrary, carried out on the basis of empirical observations of more than 1,000 verbal predicates selected from 620 descriptive texts of scientific and artistic styles.
The analyzed material has shown that the individual lexical meanings of verbal predicates expressing spatial parameters compose 11 major lexical-semantic groups.
1. The first group includes the predicates with the meaning of location in the space: things are placed into the wardrobe, the village is in the valley, etc.
2. The following LSG consists of predicates with localizing meaning: the chair stands against the wall, the carpet lies on the floor etc.
3. The description contains functioning predicates with semantic components of a form of a subject: the
birch trunk goes round, the forests are slouched, etc.
4. The description has a propensity for peculiar predicates delineating the boundaries of space: Fields embound, divide the village etc.
5. In the descriptive text forms with the semantics of the coverage of the subject (in the broad sense) from
71
Section 3. Philology
different sides, one dive to another, are productive: the stems cover the trunk, they are studded with flowers etc.
6. When building a descriptive text the units are used, which indicate the spatial relationship of objects, the orientation of the object relative to the other: buildings side with the village, nest at the village etc.
7. The seventh group includes predicates with the meaning of filling the space: the bedroom is filled with furniture, the room is occupied by various things, etc.
8. The next group consists of the predicates that characterize the flat surface of the object: the walls are covered with inscriptions, the floor is covered with dust, etc.
9. The descriptive text may contain verbal predicates, indicating the direction in space: the road lies to the north, goes down to the valley, etc.
10. Predicates describing the position of objects in space are productive: the lake spreads for hundreds of meters, stalks are towering, etc.
11. The most voluminous group consists ofpredicates of outstanding in the space based on the light/colour characteristics: snow glistens, the flowers white etc. [1].
Different groups of predicates are presented in a literary text:
A ridge of bald peaks chiselled by winds moved far away in the steppe; at their foot freely, without any order stood short, black with age, with dilapidated roofs houses of the ulus, behind them, huge, compared to houses, buildings shone on the hill with their windows (I. Kalashnikov. The impatience).
Based on the analysis of descriptive texts (more than 400), selected from the works of fiction, there was made a study of frequency of use of verbal predicates of the LSGs discussed earlier.
Having taken all of the predicate verb usage with seme way of being in the space used in 400 descriptive texts as 100 % (more than 750 predicates) one can determine as a percentage the productivity of the listed LSG verbal predicates in the construction of descriptive texts. The most commonly used are verb predicates with the meaning of outstanding in the space based on the light/colour characteristics (11th LSG). Words of this group make up 26.4 % of the total composition of verbal predicates with spatial seme; verbal predicates with the meaning of position in space — 14 % (LSG); localizing meaning — 9.2 % (2nd LSG); with the value of allocation — 8.8 % (first LSG); verbal vocabulary, describing the flat surface of the object, — 7.5 % (8th LSG); predicates with semantic component of a form — 7.3 % (3rd LSG); with the meaning of the direction — 6.9 % (9th LSG); predicates delineating the boundaries of space — 5.3 % (4th LSG); the semantics
of coverage of the subject (in the broad sense) from different sides, one dives to another — 5 % (5th LSG); predicates indicating the spatial relationship of objects, orientation of one object relative to another — 4.9 % (second LSG); meaning of filling the space — 4.8 % (7th LSG).
It is important to note that for the artistic description the choice of various ways of representing reality depends on the intent of the author. This is also true for the choice of touch sensations at the depiction of artistic images. Study of functioning of verbal predicates, quantitative analysis of the use of the identified groups of semantic predicates is important to study the writer’s individual style, it helps to reveal certain preferences in the author’s depiction of touch sensations.
In the scientific description selected LSGs of verbal predicates function, but with some peculiarities. The empirical base of the study is composed of descriptive texts (more than 210) from various scientific fields: astronomy, history, archaeology, art history, entomology, zoology, heraldry, chemistry, geology, geography, cosmodynamics, art. The following are LSGs and their composition.
1. Predicates with a meaning of location in the space: the eyes are placed, are located, are located on the head; the ice lies on the surface; the terrace lies in the area etc.
2. Group of verbal predicates with semantic components of a subject form is filled with predicates consisting of a construction (Zolotov, 1982, 158) verb and the name: form a hump (are humping), form a row, rays, crown, the bars, etc.; have a circular shape (round); It looks like a semicircle, etc. In the artistic description this group includes expressive and/or occasional units, such as to round, to stoop, to ridge, go shaggy, to become like a hillside etc. In the texts of scientific style no similar units were found. In the scientific style functioning of predicates of this group having a neutral stylistic colouring (to ring) in parallel with compound predicates (to form a ring), of a bookish nature is possible.
3. Verbal predicates of characteristics of boundaries of the space: the zone is divided into subzones; the river limits, divides; Milky Way encircles the sky; forehead is delimited from clypeus, etc.
4. Predicates with semantics of coverage of a subject (in the broad sense): the grid is inserted, welded into a bowl; half of the Earth is shrouded in clouds etc.
5. Predicates indicating the spatial relationship of objects, the orientation of one object relative to another: the skull articulates with the vertebra; the line connects the star clusters; the head is fused to the segment of the breast, etc.
72
Verbal predicates with space semantics in the descriptive text
6. Predicates with the meaning of filling up the space: The zone occupies the area; craters are loaded, filled with earth, etc.
7. Predicates characterizing the flat surface of an object: the surface isforested, swamped; fish is covered with scales; terrace is covered with sand layer etc.
8. Verbal predicates indicating the direction in space: the channels lead to chambers, the line goes off to the right, etc.
9. Predicates of position of objects in space, which can have:
• horizontal projection: banks are scattered over the surface; the constellation spreads, sprawls etc.;
• vertical projection: the mountains tower, rise, etc.;
• horizontal or vertical position of the object, which is specified by the context: a chain stretches to a few centimetres left/is pulled up etc.
10. Predicates with the meaning of outstanding in the space based on the light/colour characteristics: constellations are visible, distinguishable; the flow is coloured etc.
To this group we include predicates associated with the meaning of incomplete accessibility of something for visual perception: to escape, to appear, to shine etc. For example, the stars are hidden by veil of clouds, the outlines show through, shine through etc.
The predicates of this LSG in scientific style are often presented by analytical units: to have a specific colour, emit radiance etc.
Predicates of localizing meaning to stand, to lie down etc. (The table stands in the room, the carpet lies on the floor) are not productive in the descriptive texts of scientific style, since they express the properties of objects that appear at the moment, while for the scientific speech the generalization is attributable.
A scientific text represents different groups of predicates:
From the rear tentorial pits two powerful horizontal beams extend, which are directed to the midline of the head and go forward a little, and they are merged together there. On the front of the head in the epistomal seam there are similar frontal tentorial pits. They are somewhat weaker than the rear; from them frontal hands of the tentorium go obliquely backward, which, when merging their ends with each other and with the rear ends of the arms, form a distinctive cross horizontally obstructing the lower part of the head capsule (B. N. Shvanvich. The course of general entomology).
Having taken all of the predicate verb usage with seme way of being in the space as 100 % (more
than 300 predicates) was determined as a percentage the frequency of these LSGs of verbal predicates in the construction of scientific descriptive texts. The most commonly used verb predicates with a meaning of allocation — 28.3 % (first LSG) and verbal predicates with the value of the position in space — 14.5 % (10th LSG). Predicates delineating the boundaries of space (4th LSG), make up 10.9 % of word usage of the total composition of verbal predicates with spatial seme; verb predicates indicate the spatial relationship of objects, the orientation of one object relative to another, — 10.5 % (6th LSG); characterizing the flat surface ofthe object — 8.7 % (8th LSG); outstanding in the space based on the light/colour characteristics (11th LSG) — 7.6 %; with the meaning of direction — 6.9 % (9th LSG); with semantics of filling the space — 6.5 % (7th LSG); predicates with semantic component of form (analytical method of expression) make 5.1 % (3rd LSG); group of predicates with the semantics of coverage of the subject from different angles, one dives into another — 1 % (5th LSG); no predicates with localizing meaning (2nd LSG) in the texts of the scientific description were found.
Verbal predicates with actional meaning used to build the descriptive texts are also able to characterize the space, as “characterization of the location can be attributed to the action that is done by the subject being in a certain place: He reads in his room’’ [4, 19-20]. This is true for different groups of actional predicates that can express specific physical, speech or intersubjective action, a motion.
The researchers noted that, if the subject makes a motion, without going beyond a certain space, he occupies same place with reference to his localization, and this process should be considered as the location: A man walks through the garden [4, 8]. Such limits of the observed space are verbalized in the descriptive text, so actional predicates are perceived in characterizing function: the meaning of state is imposed on the meaning of action: the acting or moving object appears as a kind of a point characterizing the material nature of the described area. The movement somewhat shuts itself up in the described area and is perceived as a state, because an action, advance of the object, its tending to the final destination is not important for descriptive text.
Using actional predicates in a characterizing function is contained in artistic and scientific description:
(Having entered the room, I hid in a crowd of men and began making my observations). Grushnitski stood beside the princess and was saying something with a great spunk;
73
Section 3. Philology
She listened absently, looked around having attached the fan to her lips (Lermontov. A hero of Our Time).
In this diagram protostars are located to the right from the main sequence, as their temperature is still lower than that of the finished star of such a mass and the corresponding
luminance. The star moves horizontally to the left according to the chart S-С (B. A. Vorontsov-Velyaminov. Astronomy).
Thus, verbal predicates of non-actional and actional semantics, functioning in the descriptive text are able to characterize the space diversely.
References:
1. Nechaeva O.A. Functional-semantic types of speech (description, narration, reasoning): diss. of Doctor of Philological Sciences. - Moscow, 1975. - 394 p.
2. Khamaganova V.M. Typology and alignment of actantial kernel of a descriptive text (as exemplified by interi-ordescription, and landscape-description)//Siberian Journal of Philology. - Novosibirsk: Publishing House of the Novosibirsk State University, 2006. - № 3. - Р. 87-94.
3. Khamaganova V M. Structural and semantic properties of stating texts: the extension and intension of their seman-tics//Research on semantics. Interuniversity scientific collection. Edition 25. - Ufa: PPC BSU, 2013. - P. 305-311.
4. Russian Semantic Dictionary. Explanatory Dictionary, systematized on classes ofwords and meanings.V.1/ RAS. Inst. of Rus. Language; Edited by N. Yu. Shvedova. - M.: Azbukovnik, 1998. - XXV c. - 800 p.
Ibrayeva Damira Asanbekovna, Research associate of Institute of language and literatures named after Ch. Aitmatov, National academy of science of Kyrgyz Republic,
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan E-mail: [email protected]
Ellipsis phenomenon statistics
Abstract: The problems in linguistics, namely an ellipsis role in the sentence are considered in this article. The ellipsis phenomenon in linguistics is a self-sufficient predicational unity which, despite structural incompleteness and external difference, possesses semantic completeness, language full value and is actively used in the speech.
Keywords: an ellipsis, structural norm, structural specifics, construction with construction, communicative, syntactic norm, the syntactic theory, the language ellipsis, the semantic ellipsis, the grammatical ellipsis.
Ибраева Дамира Асанбековна, научный сотрудник Института языка и литературы им. Ч. Айтматова НАН КР, Бишкек, Кыргызстан E-mail: [email protected]
Статистика явления эллипсиса
Аннотация: В этой статье рассматриваются проблемы в языкознании, а именно роль эллипсиса в предложении. Явление эллипсиса в языкознании — это самодостаточное сказуемостное единство, которое, несмотря на структурную неполноту и внешнее отличие, обладает семантической полнотой, языковой полноценностью и активно используется в речи.
Ключевые слова: эллипсис, структурная норма, структурная специфика, конструкция с конструкциями, коммуникативность, синтаксическая норма, синтаксическая теория, языковой эллипсис, смысловой эллипсис, грамматический эллипсис.
В языкознании в решении проблемы неполного проса синтаксической теории. Несмотря на то, что предложения велика роль эллипсиса. Объяснение неполному предложению посвящена многочислен-
этой категории состоит в решении основного во- ная научная литература, в настоящее время все еще
74
