A Semantic Study Of The Russian Verb Prefixes

Verbs are extremely important in a language like Russian, and most new linguistic studies, therefore, are closely related with verbs. Meanwhile, prefixes can never be ignored for their influences on semantic meaning and grammatical category of verbs. Thus, the study of verb prefixes in Russian is rather creative and realistic. Russian verb prefixes are complicated multivocal morphemes, which are included in many semantic polymeric relations. Considering the typical semantic features of verb prefixes in Russian, we attempt to classify every type of verb prefixes according to sets of polymers formed by the prefixes with the same semantic features, and study them macroscopically.In the three parts of the dissertation, Russian verb prefixes are distinguished from the angle of semantic polymerization. The first part focuses on the features and functions of verb prefixes in Russian, and draws a contrast on the different classification of them, four confusing prefixes defined in the process. Different verb prefixes are classified in the second part according to whether they are aspectual or not, and whether multivocal or not, style, and synonymous or antonymous relations, together with the analysis of connotation in every type of verb prefixes with concrete linguistic materials. Among the twenty nine prefixed studied in this paper, twenty three have aspectual meaning, while the rest do not have. Eight prefixes are univocal, and twenty three multivocal. The prefixes likeвоз-,пре-,пред-,низ- are rhetorical. The partial meanings of some prefixes endow derivative words with a sense of style. Sixteen synonymous prefixes and ten antonymous ones are also analysized in this part. The last part deals with the semantic features of Russian verb prefixes: variability, interlacement, illegibility, and nationality. Any language is developing diachronically and embodies the change of name, number and meaning of prefixes. Since most of verb prefixes are multivocal, the same prefix may belong to different semantic fields; thus the semantic fields of the Russian verb prefixes are complicated and have the feature of interlacement. Illegibility is an objective attribute, which can be found in two aspects: the limit illgibility among different meanings of multivocal prefixes and two conflicting meanings the prefixes have. the process of different peoples...