Slavic prefixes inside and outside VP

Abstract

Most Slavic prefixes can be assigned to one of two large cate- gories, lexical and superlexical. The lexical prefixes are like Germanic particles, in having resultative meanings, often spatial, but often id- iosyncratic. The superlexical prefixes are like adverbs or auxiliary verbs, having aspectual and quantificational meanings. I present a syntactic account of the two types of prefix, arguing that the lexical ones are to be analyzed essentially like the Germanic particles, and that their VP-internal position accounts for many of their properties, while the superlexical ones originate outside VP.

Keywords

• Slavic
• syntax
• morphology
• morphosyntax
• prefixes
• imperfective