FUNCTIONAL POTENTIAL OF VERBAL-NOMINAL CONSTRUCTIONS WITH LOCATIVE TYPE OF DETERMINATION

Abstract

Introduction. In contemporary linguistics, the problem of the multi-level structure of the sentence as the most important communicative unit is acquiring exceptional relevance. Numerous recent linguistic studies are aimed at a systematic, multi-vector characterisation of the formal-syntactic, semanticsyntactic, and communicative-pragmatic dimensions of the sentence in their organic unity. The functional potential of sentences with various types of semantic determination, as projected onto the grammatical matrix in general and onto specifically actualised contexts in particular, requires careful examination. The present study is devoted to the analysis of sentences with a right-hand modifier in the form of a locative zone (Adv loc), with its inherent breadth of formal-grammatical organisation, semantic structure, and communicative-pragmatic specification.
Purpose. The aim of the article is to comprehensively analyse, within the framework of the theoretical-pragmatic paradigm of the multi-level organisation of the sentence, the formal-syntactic, semantic-syntactic, and communicative-pragmatic universalism of specific representatives (submodels) of the structural model Sub + Praed + Adv loc, to trace their functional potential on the basis of quantitative calculations grounded in a continuous sampling (800,000 occurrences; 4,094 units recorded).
Methods. In the course of the research, linguistic methods appropriate to the interpretive mechanism of the problem under analysis were applied, namely: the descriptive method, the method of quantitative calculation, contextual-interpretive analysis, and componential analysis.
Results. The study focuses on a systematic formal-grammatical, semantic-syntactic, and communicative-pragmatic analysis of verbal-nominal constructions with spatial meaning, revealing their universalism at the levels of semantics, structure, and functional potential. According to the type of fillers occupying the right-hand position, the principal structural submodels of the structural model Sub + Praed + Adv (Nx) loc are identified: 1) Sub + Praed + Adv (Nx) loc and 2) Sub + Praed + Adv (Prep + Nx) loc, with subsequent delineation of their specific representatives – 1) Sub + Praed + Adv (Ninst) loc and 2) Sub + Praed + Adv (Prep + Ngen) loc, Sub + Praed + Adv (Prep + Ndat) loc, Sub + Praed + Adv (Prep + Nacc) loc, Sub + Praed + Adv (Prep + Ninst) loc, Sub + Praed + Adv (Prep + Nloс) loc – which undergo internal submodel differentiation [cf.: Sub + Praed + Adv (Prep + Nloс) → Sub + Praed + Adv (В/У + Nloс) loc, Sub + Praed + Adv (НА + Nloс) loc, Sub + Praed + Adv (ПО + Nloс) loc, Sub + Praed + Adv (ПРИ + Nloс) loс]. It is demonstrated that the expression of one or another variety of locative semantics may be carried both by verb-predicates – whose typical identifiers are the semes ‘statics’, ‘place of action’, ‘movement’ (‘directed movement’, ‘non-directed movement’), ‘concrete physical action’ (‘action of a dynamic character’, ‘action of a non-dynamic character’), ‘perception’ – and by right-hand modifiers, specifically prepositions (including derived ones) and case forms of semantically polyfunctional nouns. It is established that the identified criteria for determining locative semantics typically operate not in isolation but in unity, relevantly complementing one another and forming invariant meanings of different hierarchical levels – ‘place of action’, ‘direction of movement: source or goal’, ‘path of movement’ – as well as differentiated meanings: ‘action takes place within the bounds of a locative reference point’, ‘direction of movement into / towards the locative reference point’, ‘path of movement along the surface of a locative reference point that constitutes a space’, and others.
Originality. On the basis of quantitative calculations – the validity of which is ensured by a continuous sampling of 4,094 units drawn from multi-genre texts totalling 800,000 occurrences – the functional potential of specific meaning segments of the invariant content plane ‘locativity’ has been established: ‘direction of movement: source or goal’, ‘path of movement’, and ‘place of action’, at the level of the structural submodels identified above and their specific representatives. The typology of explicators of static (139 structural models), directive (69 structural models), and transitive (24 structural models) meaning – totalling 232 structural submodels – as well as, in part, directive-static and transitive-static meaning, has been characterised in detail within the paradigm of semantic and quantitative approaches.

Conclusions. Within the syntactic system of the Ukrainian language, verbal-nominal constructions with spatial meaning constitute a productive type, the complex actualiser of which is the structural model Sub + Praed + Adv loс. Its specific realisers – structural submodels of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd levels – are ranked according to various criteria: 1) the formal-grammatical structure of the right-hand modifier (nominal word form, prepositional-case form); 2) the meaning structure in the form of a chain hyperonymichyponymic determination; and 3) functional potential. The latter criterion is connected with the first two and determines, on the basis of the obtained statistical data, the active or inert degree of demand for specific representatives of a given hierarchical structural submodel.