The verbal prefix u- in Croatian and Bulgarian
This study compares the semantic networks of the verbal prefix
u- in two South Slavic languages, Bulgarian (blg.) and
Croatian (cro.), in a cognitive linguistics framework using two
databases of prefixed verbs drawn from dictionaries and corpora. We point to
similarities and overlapping categories in the semantic networks of
u- in blg. and cro., as well as to
differences. When accounting for the differences, we consider prefixes
semantically similar to u- (within one language and in both
languages) that combine with the same base verbs forming either prefixed
near-synonyms (e.g., blg. uvehna, zavehna, izvehna
‘wither, fade’; cro. umastiti, omastiti, zamastiti
‘grease, stain’) or prefixed verbs that are only seemingly near-synonyms (e.g.,
blg. ukaža ‘indicate, show’, okaža
se ‘turn out’; cro. ocrniti ‘denigrate,
slander’, ucrniti (se) ‘color black, wear
black’). We examine how the meaning networks of individual semantically related
prefixes (e.g., u- and za-,
iz-) overlap within one language and across the two
languages, as well as how different construals of the same event affect the
prefix choice.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1The prefix u- in Slavic
- 1.2
U- verbs and aspect
- 1.3Data
- 2.The semantic network of Bulgarian and Croatian u- verbs
- 2.1
into schema
- 2.1.1
move/put into
- 2.1.2
move/put into a metaphorical container
- 2.1.3
cover/wrap
- 2.1.4
gain/save
- 2.1.5
target/direct
- 2.1.6
adjust
- 2.1.7
Perceive
- 2.2
Away schema
- 2.2.1
Move away
- 2.2.2
Metaphorical move away – reduce/disappear/lessen
- 2.2.3
Move downwards
- 2.2.4
Overdo / move away from a norm
- 2.2.5
Catch
- 2.3Abstract meanings linked to both into and away
- 2.3.1
Affect
- 2.3.2
Change of physical/emotional state
- 3.Discussion
- 4.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References (47)
References
Andrejčin, L. 1944. Osnovna bӑlgarska gramatika. Sofia: Hemus.
Belaj, B. 2008. Jezik, prostor i konceptualizacija: Shematična značenja hrvatskih glagolskih prefiksa. Osijek: Filozofski fakultet.
Brala-Vukanović, M. 2011. Where is ‘o’: Croatian Prepositions as Vectors. In Space and Time in Language, M. Brdar, M. Omazić, V. Pavičić Takač, T. Gradeček-Erdeljić and G. Buljan (eds), 91–112. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Derksen, R. 2008. Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon. Leiden: Brill.
Dickey, S. 1999. Expressing Ingressivity in Slavic: The Contextually-Conditioned Imperfective Past vs. the Phase Verb stat’ and Procedural za
-. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 7(1): 11–44.
Dickey, S. 2001. Distributive Verbs in Serbian and Croatian. In Of All the Slavs My Favorites: In Honor of Howard I. Aronson, V. A. Friedman and D. L. Dyer (eds.), 103–115. Bloomington: Slavica.
Dickey, S. 2005.
S-/Z- and the Grammaticalization of Aspect in Slavic. Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 51: 3–55. Available at [URL] [last accessed 9 April 2016]
Dickey, S. 2011. The Varying Role of PO- in the Grammaticalization of Slavic Aspectual Systems: Sequences of Events, Delimitatives, and German Language Contact. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 19(2): 175–230.
Dickey, S. 2012. Orphan Prefixes and the Grammaticalization of Aspect in South Slavic. Jezikoslovlje 13(1): 71–105.
Hampe, B. 2002. Superlative Verbs. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
Isačenko, A. V. 1960. Grammatičeskij stroj russkogo jazyka v sopostavlenii s slovackim. Morfologija. Part II. Vol. 21. Bratislava: Izdatel’stvo Slovackoj Akademii Nauk.
Ivanova, K. 1966. Desemantizacija na glagolnite predstavki v sӑvremennija bӑlgarski knižoven ezik. Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Janda, L. A. 1986. A Semantic Analysis of the Russian Verbal Prefixes za-, pere-, do-, and ot. Munich: Otto Sagner.
Janda, L. A. and Nesset, T. 2010. Taking apart Russian raz
-. Slavic and East European Journal 54(3): 476–501.
Janda, L. A. et al. 2013. Why Russian Aspectual Prefixes Aren’t Empty. Prefixes as Verb Classifiers. Bloomington, IN: Slavica.
Klenin, E. 1983. Verbs of Motion Prefixed in u- in Old and Modern Russian. In From Los Angeles to Kiev. Papers on the Occasion of the Ninth International Congress of Slavists, V. Markov and D. S. Worth (eds.), 155–168. Columbus, OH: Slavica.
Kostov, N. 1939. Bӑlgarska gramatika. Sofia.
Mitkovska, L. and Bužarovska, E. 2012. The Preposition and Prefix nad in South Slavic Languages with Emphasis on Macedonian. Jezikoslovlje 13(1): 107–150.
Naughton, J. D. 2005. Czech: An Essential Grammar. New York: Routledge.
Nedelcheva, S. 2008. Kognitivna semantična vrӑzka meždu anglijskite frazovi glagoli s OUT i bӑlgarskite glagoli s predstavka IZ
-. Ljuboslovie 91: 176–188.
Nedelcheva, S. 2010. On the Semantics of the Preposition ZA and the Prefix ZA- in Bulgarian. In Text Processing and Cognitive Technologies N19, Proceedings of the XIIth International Conference Cognitive Modeling in Linguistics, Dubrovnik, Croatia, V. Solovyev and V. Polyakov (eds), 144–148. Kazan: Kazan State University.
Nesset, T. 2010. Is the Choice of Prefix Arbitrary? Aspectual Prefixation and Russian Verbs of Perception. Slavic and East European Journal 54(4): 666–689.
Pashov, P. 1966. Bӑlgarskijat glagol. Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo.
Przybylska, R. 2006. Schematy wyobrażeniowe a semantyka polskich prefiksów czasownikowych do-, od-, prze-, roz-, u-. Kraków: Universitas.
Šarić, L. 2014. Prostor u jeziku i metafora. Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk.
Šarić, L. and Tchizmarova, I. 2013. Space and Metaphor in Verbs Prefixed with od-/ot- ‘from’ in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Bulgarian. Oslo Studies in Language 5(1): 7–33.
Šarić, L. and Nedelcheva, S. 2015. The Verbal Prefix o(b)- in Croatian and Bulgarian: The Semantic Network and Challenges of a Corpus-Based Study. Suvremena lingvistika 401: 149–179.
Schooneveld, C. H. van. 1958. The So-Called ‘préverbes vides’ and Neutralization. Dutch Contributions to the Fourth International Congress of Slavists. Moscow, September 1958. La Haye. 159–161.
Słoński, S. 1937. Funkcje prefiksów werbalnych w języku starosłowiańskim (starobułgarskim). Warszawa: Nakładem Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego.
Sussex, R. and Cubberley, P. 2006. The Slavic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Townsend, C. E. 1978. A Semantic Profile of the Russian Preverb u
-. Folia Slavica 2(1–3): 329–339.
Townsend, C. E. 1997. Semantics of the Preverb u- in Czech and Russian: Negative and Positive Modality. Die Welt der Slaven 421: 328–346.
Twardzisz, P. 1994. The Semantics of the Polish Verbal Prefix ob(e)-. A Prototype Approach. In Focus on Language: Papers from the 2nd Conference of the Polish Association for the Study of English, Kazimiez ’93, E. Gussmann and H. Kardela (eds.), 217–232. Lublin: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Press.
Vey, M. 1952. Les préverbes ‘vides’ en tchéque moderne. Revue des études slaves 291: 82–107.
Corpora
[Last accessed 9 April 2016]
Bulgarian National Corpus. Available at: [URL]
Croatian Web Corpus. Available at [URL]
Hrvatska jezična riznica (Croatian Language Repository). Available at: [URL]
CNC = Hrvatski nacionalni korpus(Croatian National Corpus). Available at: [URL]
Dictionaries
Anić, V. 1998. Rječnik hrvatskoga jezika. Zagreb: Novi Liber.
Bujas, Ž. 2001. Veliki hrvatsko-engleski rječnik. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus.
Bulgarian Dictionary(Rečnik na bӑlgarskija ezik). Available at: [URL] [last accessed 9 April 2016]
Eurodict – free online dictionary. Available at: [URL]
HJP = Hrvatski jezični portal(Croatian Language Portal). Available at: [URL] [last accessed 9 April 2016]
Skok, P. 1973. Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika. Zagreb: JAZU.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Dickey, Stephen M.
2024.
Russian aspect from a cognitive linguistic perspective.
Russian Linguistics 48:1
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.