Le préverbe vy- en russe contemporain : étude sémantique et syntaxique ; n°3 ; vol.71, pg 751-761

Revue des études slaves - Année 1999 - Volume 71 - Numéro 3 - Pages 751-761
Verbal prefix vy- in modern russian language : study of the semantic and syntactic featuresThe results of this study confirms the hypothesis based on D. Paillard's approach according to which the invariant is situated on the functional and not on the semantic level, unlike the approaches consisting in the search for the invariant on the levels of concrete meanings (particularly in the spatial meaning). Не suggests describing the verbal prefixes as 'relators' (in terms of a 'scenario'). The vy- prefix establishes a relation between X ('repéré') et Y ('repère'). In the statements containing the verbs with vy-, the prefix has the role of the predicative, as it expresses the Xvy-Y2 'evenť: X appears to be in Y2 (space or state which belongs to Y domain divided in two zones Yl and Y2, with a boundary between them). Y2's characteristics are determined in relation to Yl's characteristics: Yl and Y2 are in a binary opposition. Y2 is not only a complementary set to Yl, but it also has its own status, as the division into Yl and Y2 exists prior to the 'intervention' of the vy- prefix. The study of a large range of werbs with vy- prefix in their contexts allowed to characterize Yl and Y2 and to establish the functioning regularities of the prefix, verb stem and context for each group of verbs singled out on the basis of formal criteria derived by semantic and syntactic analysis of the verbs with vy- prefix in the main types of situations arising from the nature of Y and the boundary separating Yl and Y2. Comparison, allowing for the semantics and syntax of the direct objects and/or adverbal modifiers of verbs with vy- prefix and verbs formed from the same stems with other prefixes (s-, po-, iz-) and considered to be 'synonyms', leads to the statement that this 'synonymy' doesn't stand on the level of the prefixes, or isolated prefixal verbs, but in certain contexts on the level of the prefixal verbs.
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