Russian semelfactive verbs formed with the suffix -nu- are well-known in the literature (Isachenko 1960; Maslov 1948, 1965; Zaliznjak & Šmelev 2000). However, the distribution between two semelfactive suffixes -nu- and -anuis less studied. Makarova & Janda (2009, 90) suggest that “there is no clear trend concerning the frequency of -nu- vs. -anu-”, so the nature of the distribution between the two ...

Sometimes languages present speakers with choices among rival forms, such as the Russian forms ostrič’ vs. obstrič’ ‘cut hair’ and proniknuv vs. pronikši ‘having penetrated’. The choice of a given form is often influenced by various considerations involving the meaning and the environment (syntax, morphology, phonology). Understanding the behavior of rival forms is crucial to understanding the ...

In the present article we are offering a corpus-based analysis of nu-drop in Russian verbs, the process whereby certain verbs with the suffix -nu- omit this morpheme in past tense forms. We will explore phonological, morphological and syntactic/semantic factors and show that inflectional and derivational morphology are the most important for nu-drop. Our study of the inflectional and derivational ...

Nearly two thousand perfective verbs in Russian are formed via the addition of so-called “empty prefixes” (čistovidovye pristavki) to imperfective base verbs. The traditional assumption that prefixes are semantically “empty” when used to form aspectual pairs is problematic because the same prefixes are clearly “non-empty” when combined with other base verbs. Though some scholars have suspected that ...

Although it has been widely assumed in historical linguistics that semantics plays a crucial role in analogical change, it is difficult to pinpoint the contribution of the semantic factor, since meaning and form work closely together in bringing about language change. The purpose of the present article is to shed light on the issue by means of two case studies from Russian, which enable us to isolate ...