Frequency as a descriptive instrument for the functional-grammatical field of the preposition

About the author:

Ekaterina N. Vinogradova, Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Associate professor, Department of the Russian Language for Foreign Students of the Humanities Faculties, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; ekaterinavin@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7020-9289, https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/AAU-3995-2021, http://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=56450369300

Abstract:

In this article, the authors perform inventory, ranging, and forecasting of complex prepositional units including the Russian preposition na (on). On the first stage, a catalog of prepositional units of the model was revealed based on specialized manuscripts. Then, the frequency of every cataloged unit was ranked according to the Russian National Corpus. The hypothesis was that the more frequent prepositions are closer to the nucleus of the prepositional field, and they are more “grammaticalized” than the less frequent ones. Following the hypothesis, on the second stage, the frequent collocations of the model na (on) + Noun were analyzed, potential prepositional units were selected and verified using the corpora data, then, they were ranged by frequency decrease. The frequency detection method can be regarded as an effective instrument for description of functional-grammatical field of preposition. Using the one-model-prepositional units, the connection between the construction frequency and its proximity to the nucleus of the prepositional field is shown.

References:

Bogdanov, S. I., & Ryzhova, Yu. V. (1997). Russian Auxiliary Words. Synoptic Tables. Izdatelstvo Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. [In Russian]

Burtseva, V. V. (2010). A Dictionary of Russian Adverbs and Auxiliary Words. Drofa. [In Russian]

Vinogradova, E. N. (2017). Prepositions in modern Russian: Lexicography and grammatical description. Topics in the Study of Language, (5), 56–74. [In Russian]

Vinogradova, E. N. (2023). Grammaticalization, lexicalization, and pragmaticalization: Russian constructions with the preposition PO. Topics in the Study of Language, (1), 54–87. [In Russian]

Vinogradova, E. N., & Klobukova, L. P. (2022). The grammar of Russian preposition: Theoretical aspects. Russian Language Studies, (20), 84–100. [In Russian]

Vsevolodova, M. V., Kukushkina, O. V., & Polikarpov, A. A. (2013). Russian Prepositions and Preposition-Like Units. Materials for a Functional-Grammatic Description of Real Usage: Introduction to Objective Grammar and Lexicography of Russian Prepositional Units. Book 1. URSS. [In Russian]

Vsevolodova, M. V., Vinogradova, E. N., & Chaplygina, T. E. (2018). Russian Prepositions and Preposition-Like Units. Materials for a Functional-Grammatic Description of Real Usage: A Catalogue of Russian Prepositional Units. Book 2. A–B (objective grammar). URSS. [In Russian]

Efremova, T. F. (2001). A Defining Dictionary of Russian Auxiliary Parts of Speech. Russkii yazyk. [In Russian]

Lepnev, M. G. (2009). A Dictionary of Non-Derivative Prepositions in the Modern Russian Language. Gumanitarnaya akademiya. [In Russian]

Lepnev, M. G. (2010). Russian Derivative Prepositions. Dictionary Materials. Efimenko D. L. [In Russian]

Morkovkin, V. V. (Ed.) (1997). A Dictionary of Russian Structural Words. Lazur. [In Russian]

RNC. (n.d.). Collocations in the function of prepositions. Russian National Corpus. http://ruscorpora.ru/new/obgrams-PR.html [In Russian]

Popova, Z. D. (2014). Prepositional Case Forms and Phrases with Derivative Prepositions in Russian Utterances (syntactic relations and functions). Izdatelstvo Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. [In Russian]

Solonitskiy, А. V. (2003). Problems of Semantics of Russian Non-Derivative Prepositions. Izdatelstvo Dalnevostochnogo universiteta. [In Russian]

Cherkasova, Е. Т. (1967). Transformation of Autonomous Words to Prepositions. Nauka. [In Russian]

Shvedova, N. Yu. (Ed.). (1980). Russian Grammar: in 2 vols. Nauka. [In Russian]

Shiganova, G. A. (2003). Russian Relative Collocations. Izdatelstvo Chelyabinskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogocheskogo universiteta. [In Russian]

Brinton, L., & Traugott, E. (2005). Lexicalization and Language Change. Cambridge University Press.

Hopper, P., & Traugott, E. (2003). Grammaticalization (2^nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Traugott, E. (2003). Constructions in grammaticalization. In B. D. Joseph, R. D. Janda (Eds.), The Handbook of Historical Linguistics (pp. 624–647). Blackwell.