Russian Prefixed Verbs of Falling from the Lexical Typology Perspective

The prefixed verbs of falling with the roots -val-/ -rukh-/ -past- are examined in this paper to understand the correlation between prefixes and the typology of motion of the verbs of falling. This study is conducted using the analysis of corpora and dictionary definitions, as well as the subsequent typological data analysis. First of all, all the verbs of the sample (including literal and metaphorical meanings) were matched with their definitions. Since definitions given in the dictionaries are usually too general and do not cover more detailed meanings, there is a need of thorough corpora analysis. To make the definitions more precise and full RNC (Russian National Corpora) was used. As a result of previous research on lexical typology of falling the set of frames was developed including four types of physical falling and around 7 types of metaphorical falling. The verbs of falling from the sample were distributed among these previously developed frames. While distributing these verbs to the physical and metaphorical frames new more subtle semantic distinctions/oppositions were suggested. To understand the correlation between the semantics of prefixes and the typology of motion represented by the verbs the main semantic meanings of a prefix were studied. Also, that was important to understand which prefixes are the most frequent in which frame and how their semantic meaning correlates with a physical or metaphorical frame. Studying prefixed verbs of falling in Russian may not only describe the correlation between verbal prefixes and typologically relevant lexical oppositions in Russian but also give the understanding whether morphology can design the typology of motion itself on a larger scale. Moreover, this study can be the base for the future study of prefixed verbs of falling in other languages, primarily in Slavic ones. The research question is as follows: is there any correlation between typology of motion of the Russian verbs of falling with the roots -val-/ -rukh-/ -past- and their prefixes? As each of these verbs has a productive derivational system (around 20-40 derivatives), it might give us some idea about the correlation between a prefix and a typology of motion. Moreover, each of the derivative is polysemous, including both physical and metaphorical meanings which gives us the reason to look deeper into the semantics of the verbs and their typology and therefore to contribute to the typology of metaphors. Also, the verbs of falling should be analysed in terms of the lexical typology of motion according to Trajector, Source, Goal, spatial orientation and potential satellites. Hypothetically, prefixed derivatives should divide direct meanings into subtle lexical distinctions within the domain of physical meaning. That can give some ideas about semantic origins for typologically relevant metaphorical meanings as working with derivatives makes it easier to trace every semantic shift. This study showed that prefixes of the verbs of falling are not distributed arbitrarily among physical and metaphorical frames. Moreover, they follow certain patterns meeting frame requirements. It was also proven that metaphorical frames inherit properties of their physical counterparts which means that they should have the same prefixes. This means that verbal prefix of a verb of falling contains very valuable information about the typology of motion. Knowing the distribution of prefixes among different frames can help to identify typology of motion of any prefixed verbs for both physical and metaphorical meanings.