Болгарський віддієслівний іменник дії на фоні інших слов’янських мов: аспектуальні властивості

Abstract

Віддієслівний іменник зі значенням дії – специфічна категорія у слов’янських мовах. У статті висвітлено загальні особливості слов’янського віддієслівного іменника зі значенням дії, співвідношення в ньому іменникових та дієслівних ознак, системні аспектуальні ознаки болгарських девербативів, а також реалізацію таких ознак у контексті.

Background. Verbal nouns expressing the meaning of action represent a special class of nouns in Slavic languages. The article contains the general characteristics of the Slavic Nomina actionis, describes the grammatical status of this hybrid word category. The publication describes word-formation features of Nomina actionis, as well as the ways in which they reflect verbal and nominal grammatical categories. Purpose. The purpose of the article is to investigate the verbal aspectual properties of Bulgarian verbal nouns at the systemic and functional levels. Methods. The authors applied general scientific methods (observation, analysis, synthesis, comparison, systematization), as well as linguistic research methods, namely, the descriptive method and the method of corpus analysis. The parallel Bulgarian-Russian corpus, as well as explanatory dictionaries of the Bulgarian language served as the sources of factual material. Results. The research presents the peculiarities shared by the verbal nouns in Slavic languages. As a result of the word-formational transition from a verb to a noun with grammatical semantics, significant metamorphoses occur: the verbal noun acquires nominative categories (gender, number, case) while abandoning some of the verb categories (inclination, tense, person, etc.). At the same time, the category of aspectuality is largely preserved, influencing the semantics and functioning of deverbatives. In the South Slavic, Western Slavic and Eastern Slavic languages the verbal noun of the action is located at different distances from the verb, and has a different grammatical status. The Eastern, Southern and Western Slavic languages, at the systemic level, demonstrate different degrees of preservation of verbal aspectuality. Actual word usage, in particular the ease of colloquial formation of nouns that are not in the dictionary, testifies to the activity of this fragment of the language system. The history of the development of this category of words in Bulgarian is nonstandard. Many verbal nouns entered East Slavic languages from Old Bulgarian. A few hundred years later the opposite process took place: the same Bulgarian model of nouns, but with a weaker verbal properties, returned to Bulgarian through loanwords. The semantic and grammatical differences between the forms of -ne and -nie have been pointed out: the ability to express procedural meanings, the ability to retain an action control and to have direct applications, etc. A parallel corpus of Bulgarian and Russian was used for a preliminary analysis of the functional features of Bulgarian deverbatives. The results proved the aspectual relevance of different noun forms. (-ne, -nie, etc.). Discussion. The verbal noun in Slavic languages is located in the ‘gray zone’ with varying distancing from the noun and the verb. The Bulgarian verb noun occupies a middle position in comparison with East Slavic and West Slavic nouns denoting action. The similar semantic constraints, as in East Slavic languages, are manifested in the derivation process: the quantitative-temporal boundaries restrict their formation. Reduction in the verb aspect in Bulgarian verbal nouns is most noticeable in the zone of the perfective aspect: to express the meaning of an accomplished action, a certain fact, or the central meanings of the perfective aspect, preference is given to verbal rather than to noun forms, wherein the perfective-type semantics is clearly marked. We consider further research into the functional aspects of Bulgarian deverbatives with the help of a wider corpus material promising. The results of the linguistic survey among native speakers of Bulgarian can also be an interesting and important source. The ratio of nominal and verbal semantics in these hybrid formations is the unique feature of the Bulgarian grammatical system in comparison with other Slavic languages.