Inchoative verbs in the Russian language: semantics, grammaticalization, translation equivalents
In the introduction, the category of inchoativity and the means of its expression in the Russian language are considered. It is pointed that the nuclear means of expressing inchoativity are constructions with inchoative verbs. The aim of the research is to investigate the degree of grammaticalization of inchoative verbs in Russian and to analyze phasal and temporal structure of actions, depicted by English and Turkish equivalents of verbal constructions, formed by these verbs. In the main part, results from the analysis of grammaticalization of Russian inchoative verbs according to Ch. Lehmann's parameters are presented. The analysis allowed to draw two conclusions about the grammaticalization of the considered items. The first, more general, conclusion states that at present time inchoative verbs in the large are a case of the so-called partial grammaticalization: they perform auxiliary, grammatical function, but they have managed to retain some of the properties belonging to lexical items (they have an inectional paradigm, may change their position to the complement, etc.). The second conclusion is that the initial phase verbs, according to their semantic bleaching and scope, are grammaticalized to a different extent: <i>начать</i> is the most grammaticalized verb, <i>стать</i> is less grammaticalized and <i>приняться</i> is of least grammaticalization. The considered verbs are compared to their English and Turkish equivalents. It is revealed that more grammaticalized items are preferred in translations. It may be explained by the peculiarities of human thinking when a translator, while choosing an adequate means of translation, more readily appeals to more regular grammatical means. The acquired results may be applied for courses of general and comparative linguistics, theory of translation and for further elaboration of issue concerning grammaticalization and language typology.