Verbs denoting action results elimination: semantic and syntactic aspects (as exemplified by verbs razbintovat’, razvernut’, razvyuchit’, razgruzit’)

The paper discusses semantic and syntactic features of four Russian verbs denoting liquidation of external physical condition - the verbs razbintovat’ (‘take off a bandage’), razvernut’ (‘unwrap’), razvyuchit’ (‘unburden’), razgruzit’ (‘unload’). These verbs belong to the rather large class of verbs denoting liquidation of the result of an action. The aim of the paper is to find out whether the verbs under consideration are the prototypical members of the class. The author analyses both the semantics of these verbs as presented in the academic Dictionary of the Russian Language, using Russian National Corpus as a source of contexts, and their semantic features, describing a set of valency slots of each verb and the ways these slots can be filled. In order to catch the specific features of the verbs the author compares them with their antonyms denoting achievement of the result of an action. The study showed that having similar semantics the verbs razbintovat’ , razvernut’ , razvyuchit’ , razgruzit’ denote situations in which a person makes certain manipulations with one object in order to eliminate its contact with another object. Three of the above-mentioned verbs also have the same syntactic properties. Razbintovat’ , razvernut’ , razgruzit’ have three semantic valencies, which can be expressed syntactically. These verbs have two diathesis: one of them expresses subject and the first object, the second one - subject and the other object. As opposed to them the verb razvyuchit’ has only one diathesis and one of its valencies is inexpressible. Nevertheless, the verbs razbintovat’ , razvernut’ , razvyuchit’ , razgruzit’ are the prototypical members of the class of verbs, which denote liquidation of the result of an action.