MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF PREFIXED VERBS SEMANTICS (EXAMPLIFIED BY YIDDISH VERBS)

Abstract

The paper shows the possibility of a multilevel analysis of verb semantics examplified by Yiddish prefixed verbs studied in a three-level correlation being a complex structure of horizontally and/or hierarchically bound elements. The situation at the objective denotative level correlates with the lexical semantic level of the verb determining symmetrical, (including isomorphic symmetrical), or asymmetrical concepts of the situation. The prefixed verb expresses more information than its lexical meaning includes, and it becomes apparent in the situateme at the cognitive semantic level determined by the verb; the situateme consists of some microsituations of different ranks: kernel, peripheral, and marginal. The microsituations are hierarchical; only the lexicalized kernel microsituation correlates with the verb meaning directly, the peripheral and marginal microsituations supplement the situateme showing the polysituativity of the prefixed verb semantics through the non-additivity of meanings of the generating stem and prefix and through the semantically, syntactically or presuppositionally bound elements.

Keywords

• semantics
• polysituativity
• prefixed verb
• yiddish
• situation
• concept of situation
• situateme