Article published in:
Verb Phrase and Fluid Construction Grammar
Edited by Luc Steels and Katrien Beuls
[Constructions and Frames 9:2] 2017
► pp. 302–320

Russian verbs of motion and their aspectual partners in Fluid Construction Grammar

| AI Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
| AI Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
| Sony Computer Science Laboratories Tokyo

Russian boasts a highly complex aspectual system which can appear irregular and difficult to learn. It has recently been suggested that motion verbs, which are normally seen as exceptional in their nature, may in fact be at the core of this system, motivating aspectual behavior based on stem directionality. This suggests that analyzing motion verbs may help understand the Russian aspectual system as a whole. The present work demonstrates how Russian motion verbs and their aspectual partners can be implemented and processed successfully with Fluid Constructional Grammar. The study presents an example of language processing in both production and comprehension in operation and highlights the flexibility and power of this formalism, despite the challenges that this complex aspectual system poses.

Keywords: Russian aspect, motion verbs, Fluid Construction Grammar, computational constructional morphology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Stem directionality
    • 2.2Grammatical aspect
    • 2.3The cluster model
    • 2.4Cluster model and FCG
  • 3.Grammar design
  • 4.Operationalization in FCG
    • 4.1Semantics
    • 4.2Constructions
      • 4.2.1Non-prefixed verb forms
      • 4.2.2Prefixed verb forms
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 30 December 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.00006.beu
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