Preverbal verbal linguistic units in the Buryat language

The article addresses the issue of so-called preverbs-preverbal verbal linguistic units in Mongolic languages, particularly the Buryat language. This article does not aim to provide an exhaustive description of this rather contentious field. The main goal is to examine existing perspectives on the status of these elements in Mongolic languages, particularly in Buryat, a review of which reveals a lack of consensus on the issue. Researchers' views are divided into two groups. According to the first perspective, preverbs are considered parts of a word: prefixes, prefixoids, or components of compound Buryat verbs. The second viewpoint is represented by Buryat linguists who argue that these linguistic units should be classified as independent parts of speech-adverbs or particles. The authors of this article support the view of researchers who classify this group of units as a category of words-intensifiers-whose primary function is to indicate a high degree of a feature or action. The authors also propose that the term preverb most accurately reflects the functional orientation of the analyzed elements, with their preverbal position playing an essential role. Overall, the authors believe that resolving the issue of preverbs lies not in the formal dimension but in the realm of semantics.