Buryat Paired Verbs with Causative Meaning: Semantic Features Reviewed

Abstract

Introduction. The article discusses the semantics of paired causative verbs in the Buryat language, which has not been the subject of a special study yet. The aim was to study the semantic features of Buryat paired causative verbs by way of identifying: 1) the types of paired causative verbs, 2) the contribution of each semantic component of a verbt of its general semantics and their correlation, and 3) paired causative verbs as a special case in expressing causative semantics. Materials and methods. The data was collected from works of fiction in the Electronic Corpus of the Buryat language; contextual and distributive analysis were used as the primary methods of research. Results. Semantic analysis of paired causative verbs, illustrative of causative relationships in the linguistic picture of the Buryat world, indicated that in pairs of non-causative + causative verb the latter is a leading component, which demonstrates the power of causative semantics; the verbs of this type most often express various emotions associated with impact and subjective assessment. The other type are represented by pairs of synonymous causative verb + causative verb that are effective in expressing the intensity of the impact; with the semes of the synonymous verbs combined, the meaning of causation in such pairs is enhanced, and their expressiveness and emotionale valuation aspects come to the fore.

Keywords

• causativity
• causative verb
• paired verbs
• buryat language
• word formation
• evaluation
• intensification