A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 267 Andreja Žele Inštitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations Prispevek odpira vprašanje določanja neke vrste pomensko-izraznih primitivov v slovenščini – jezikovnih enot, s katerimi lahko pomensko in izrazno (tj. slovarsko) razlagamo vse oz. večino besedja v določenem jeziku. Obravnava s pomensko-izraznimi primitivi povezuje seme kot po- mensko primitivne oz. nedeljive enote in se pri tem omejuje na možnost izrazitve oz. slovarske verbalizacije valenčnih semov z valenčnimi primitivi. The paper addresses the issue of how to identify certain kinds of semantic-expressional primitives in Slovene. These are units of language with which we can explain semantically and expressionally all or most of the vocabulary of the language. The discussion deals with semantemes as semantic primitives or irreducible units and in so doing is restricted to the possibility of expressing or provid- ing a dictionary realisation of valency semantemes using valency primitives. The purpose of this paper is thus to present above all those verbs that, as the most basic semantic-expressional units, in particular for dictionary explanations, can be called valency primitives. When putting together a valency dictionary of verbs and in particu- lar when selecting semantic base verbs for a dictionary account of the valency of verb entries, the selection of appropriate base valency verbs or valency verbal primitives is of crucial importance. As valency is an inherent property of verbs, the term valency primitive applies above all to verbs, and to those verbs in particular that, as semantically and derivationally based valency verbs, are used in dictionary explanations. Here, these verbs are used to de- scribe the valency of the verbs discussed – entries that are mainly the domain of valency dictionaries. Valency (verbal) primitives can thus be included among what Wierzbicka (1972) refers to as language primitives: specifically, within the sub-group for which valency is additionally taken into account and which is limited to verbs. This paper presents valency primitives as the smallest semantic-expressional units, in particular for dictionary explanations. It is first necessary to distinguish between se- mantemes as irreducible units of lexical meaning which have no realisations of their own and primitives (or in this paper valency primitives) as the semantic-expressional units whose core content or meanings and semantic components can be realised.2 Va-  In such cases the label ‘primitive’ seems justified as it combines the notions of ‘primary’,‘basic’ or ‘elementary’, and ‘simple’. 2 The semantic properties or components or the semantemes of a specific meaning or sememe can be named and categorised in a number of ways (Apresjan 1995: 8–9). Thus Tolstoj (Nekotorye problemy sravnitel’noj slavjanskoj semasiologii, Slavjanskoe jazykoznanie, 1968) divides them Slovenski jezik – Slovene Lingui tic Studies 6 (2007): 267–285 268 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) lency semantemes, as both categorical semantemes and integral/universal compo- nents of lexical meaning, can be realised through particular valency primitives func- tioning as semantic-syntactic equivalents – usually verbs as the characteristic or basic semantic representatives of a specific valency group. With regard to valency, and taking into account the semantic-expressional relation between valency semanteme and valency primitive, I have adapted Kačala’s (1982: 5–6) three complementary types of semanteme: 1) categorical semantemes are valency verbal semantemes re- alised by appropriate basic verbs such as bivati (‘to be/live/exist/dwell’), čutiti (‘to feel’); govoriti/reči (‘to speak/say’), misliti (‘to think’), gledati (‘to watch’), hoteti (‘to want’), želeti (‘to wish’); delovati (‘to act’), deti (‘to put’), vzeti (‘to take’), igrati (se) (‘to play’); spreminjati (se) (‘to change’); iti (‘to go’), hoditi (‘to walk’)); 2) subcategorical semantemes as actant semantemes or possible actant roles – including with regard to (in)definiteness, causality, and passive or active voice – realised or implied in verbs such as Dežuje (‘It rains’), Sije (‘It shines’), Češe (se) (‘S/he combs (herself)’), Pluži ceste (‘S/he ploughs the roads’), Stric čevljari (‘Uncle cobbles’), On rad jadra (‘He likes to sail’), and lexically realised as valent complements in Dež gre/pada (‘The rain is falling’), Sonce sije (‘The sun is shining’), Češe (si) lase (‘S/he combs (his/her) hair’), Odstranjuje sneg s cest s plugom / Čisti ceste s plugom (‘S/he is removing the snow from the roads with a plough’), or modifying complements in /Sončno/ je (‘It is /sunny/’), Stric dela /kot čevljar/ (‘Uncle works /as a cobbler’), On rad pluje /z jadri/ (‘He likes to go in a boat /with sails/’)), while the figurative use usually provides for so-called 3) individual semantemes, such as Cvetje dežuje (‘It is raining flowers’), Oči sijejo (‘The eyes shine’), Njegovo vedenje je sončno (‘His behaviour is sunny’), Natakar je jadral med mizami (‘The waiter sailed among the tables’) / Oblak je jadral po nebu (‘The cloud sailed across the sky’) and so on. In general, it can be assumed there is a systemic tendency in a language to ex- press even the smallest basic semantic unit – even categorical and non-categorical semantemes or semantic components – and that these can, at least in some cases, be expressed by semantic-expressional primitives. into a) supportive semantemes (specific and unmarked) and b) accompanying semantemes (ab- stract and marked); Gak (Semantičeskaja struktura slova kak komponent semantičeskoj struk- tury vyskazyvanija, Semantičeskaja struktura slova, 1971) distinguishes between a) source se- mantemes or “archisemantemes” and b) supplementary or “differential semantemes”; Helbig and Schenkel (1969) claim that for meaning or sememes both categorical or sub-categorical semantemes are important; Filipec and Čermák (1985) refer to semantically decisive semante- mes as generic and specific or differential semantemes; Heller and Macris (Parametric linguis- tics, 1967) set up a dictionary hierarchy of semantic components or “parameters” with a) main components and b) dependent components. In Slovene, semantemes or semantic components were first dealt with by Toporišič (1966) in a structural-semantic analysis of the word dekle. The most recent definition appears in Vidovič Muha’s (2000: 52) in Slovensko leksikalno po- menoslovje, where it is defined as the smallest indivisible semantic unit of lexical (dictionary) meaning, linked only to content and thus has no realisation. A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 269 1 Semantic-expressional primitives First, a brief presentation is required of the established definition of language primi- tives. Primitives as expressions of core or elementary concepts common to (almost) all natural languages form a natural mini-language that serves above all to explain more complex concepts – i.e. language primitives that are not semantically explain- able in terms of simpler or more primitive meanings and which can be used to explain the other words of a language form a universal metalanguage. In one of its phases this metalanguage of descriptions of meanings is also a “language of thought” or “lingua mentalis” or a “semantic system” (Wierzbicka 1972: 25). A semantic metalanguage must be a natural language for the description of lexical and grammatical meanings. Due to their semantic elementariness and clarity, in Anglo-Saxon scholarship they are referred to as “primitive terms”. Primitives are most suited to the expression of el- ementary concepts that because of their self-evident universality are represented in all or most languages.3 A more important factor than the semantic clarity (or simplicity) of the primitive is its use as an explanatory word in relation to other (usually more se- mantically complex) specialised words: primitives are or are made up of core seman- tic elements which are also the basis for most words explained. The other property of primitives is the ease with which they should be translatable into other languages, or among languages. Even a certain degree of semantic dependence or overlapping between primitives cannot be excluded, for example vedeti (‘to know’), hoteti (‘to want’), čutiti (‘to feel’), although it should be emphasised, from the semantic-expres- sional point of view, that there can be no synonymy or homonymy (see, for example, Apresjan 2000: 217). It is important to note that there are no absolute primitives and no single correct selection of primitives (Wierzbicka 1996a: 11). Metaphorically, primitives are a kind of “semantic molecule” (Wierzbicka 1996a: 87), and we can also talk about “seman- tic features” (Apresjan 2000: 26) or properties that realise semantic content, even though it is not always possible to realise or express a semantic primitive. In Slovene, they have been presented by Toporišič (NSS 356) as “semantic primary elements/fea- tures”. Their properties and semantic components, as well as the relations between them have been discussed more recently by Vidovič (2000: 21, 125, 127, 145, 148), Novak (2004: 39, 44, 48, 97) and Snoj (2004: 77). The total number of primitives cannot be greater than the actual number of cat- egories – they must all be directed towards simplification/generalisation or explana- tion of meaning. (Meaning can also be dealt with in terms of the totality of unstable semantic components.) Nor can the number of primitives be fixed, as in a living language it changes and grows – over recent decades, through careful selection and evaluation, the list of primitives has been extended by “new primitives” (Wierzbicka 1996a: 73–74) of the type nekaj/malo/približno (‘some/little/approximately’), več/ 3 Over the decades, linguists have identified primitives through attempts and mistakes in comparative studies of specific meanings in different cultures to arrive at a few dozen concepts and a consequent number of lexical generalisations in the languages concerned. The criteria for a universal semantic primitive are a) the role that a particular meaning has in defining other meanings and b) the number of languages in which the concept is lexicalised (Wierzbicka 1996b: 332). 270 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) bolj (‘more/less’), videti (‘to see’), slišati (‘to hear’), gibati se (‘to move’), tam/tja/ tukaj (‘there (position) / there (direction) / here’), zavedati se (‘to be aware’), daleč (‘far’), blizu/skoraj (‘near/almost’), stran/smer (‘away/direction’), znotraj (‘inside’), dolgo časa / kratek čas (‘a long time / a short time’), sedaj/tedaj/torej (‘now/then/ therefore’), če (‘if’), bi (‘would’), mogoče/nemara (‘perhaps/maybe’), beseda/izraz (‘word/expression’) and so on. This possible change in the range of primitives is illustrated by the label “old” and “new” (Wierzbicka 1996a: 35, 73). The accepted universal (old) semantic primitives are divided into substantive or nominal: jaz (‘I’), ti (‘you’), nekdo (‘somebody’), nekaj (‘something’), to/ta (‘this’), ljudje (‘people’), človek (‘man’), svet (‘world’); determinative/quantitative or adjectival complements: ta (‘this’), isti (‘same’), drugi (‘other’), en/eden (‘one’), dva (‘two’), dober (‘good’), slab (‘bad’), velik (‘big’), majhen (‘small’), mnogo/polno (‘much’), mnogi/številni (‘many’), malo/veliko (‘little/lots’), ves/vsi (‘all’); verbs: misliti (‘to think’), govoriti/ reči (‘to speak/say’), videti (‘to saw’), slišati (‘to hear’), vedeti (‘to know’), znati (‘to be able to’), predstavljati si (‘to imagine’), gibati (‘to move’), obstajati (‘to exist’), stati (‘to stand’), sedeti (‘to sit’), ležati (‘to lie’), hoditi (‘to walk’), teči (‘to run’), skakati (‘to jump’), postajati (‘to be in the process of becoming something’), čutiti (‘to feel’), hoteti (‘to want’), želeti (‘to wish’), morati (‘must/have to’), ne hoteti / ne marati (‘not to want / not to like’), začeti (‘to begin’), končati (‘to finish’); de- lati (‘to work’), dogajati se/zgoditi se (‘to be happening / to happen’), trajati (‘to last’); adverbs, prepositions: kdaj (‘when’), kje (‘where’), prej/potem/po (‘before/af- terwards/after’), pred/pod/nad (‘in front of / beneath / above’); particles and conjunc- tions, which at the sentence level can be labelled as a kind of metapredicate: ne (‘not’ negation), zato/ker (‘therefore/because’), če (‘if’), ali (‘or’), in (‘and’), ves/vsa/vse (‘all’) or as intensifiers, such as zelo (‘very’), prav (‘downright’), zares (‘really’), več (‘more’), bolj (‘more’), lahko (‘easily’) treba (‘must’); taxonomy/partonymy or type/diversity is also taken into account, e.g. del (‘a part (of something’)), as well as similarity/prototype, e.g. podoben/kot (‘similar/as’), tak kot (‘such as’), kakor (‘like’), enak (‘same’) and so on. (The verb postajati (‘to be in the process of becom- ing something’) is a primitive only in its imperfective meaning because postati (‘to become’) is already a complex concept semantically or grammatically derived from the imperfective verb (Wierzbicka 1972: 17).) Conceptual primitives – there are four kinds of modal meanings, e.g. hoteti (‘to want’), biti dobro/slabo (‘to be good/bad’), biti potrebno/nujno (‘to be necessary’), morati/moči (‘must/can’) etc. – are compo- nents whose meaning can be expressed only in “canonical combinations” (Wierzbicka 1996a: 19, 21). These combinations may confirm the thesis that universal semantic primitives are based on the pre-linguistic child’s explanation of meaning or naive picture of the world – the “prelinguistic readiness for meaning” expressed by jaz (‘I’), ti (‘you’), kje (‘where’), hoteti (‘want to’), misliti (‘to think’), znati (‘to be able to’) etc. (Wierzbicka 1996a: 21–22). They also indicate the possibility of pre-linguistic sentence patterns, such as (Jaz) hočem delati nekaj (‘I want to do something’), (Jaz) znam to (‘I can (am able to) do it’), Kje si ti (‘Where are you’), (Jaz) se ne morem premikati (‘I can not move’) – and the forming of “canonical sentences” (Wierzbicka 1996a: 21, 30) such as (Ti) si naredil nekaj slabega (‘You did something wrong’), (Jaz) vem, kdaj se je zgodilo (‘I know when it happened’), (Jaz) hočem videti to (‘I A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 271 want to see it’), Ti ljudje niso rekli nič o tem (‘These people have said nothing about that’), Če (vi) želite delati to, želim (jaz) delati isto (‘If you want to do that, I want to do the same’), Ta oseba se ne more premikati/gibati (‘This person cannot move’). Semantic primitives tend towards inclusion among “logical words”, but these are not all elementary (Wierzbicka 1972: 201). Thanks to their straightforward con- ceptual or semantic comprehensibility it is possible to confuse primitive terms with the clear and simple perception of a phenomenon, such as colour. But colours are not primitives, as can be demonstrated by trying to explain the concept of colour to a blind person with primitives such as vrsta/del (nečesa) (‘a kind/part (of some- thing)’); we can, however, speculate about universal primitives linked to sight, hear- ing and the senses of taste and smell, and particularly, of course, of the possibilities of lexicalising these universal concepts in all languages (Wierzbicka 1972: 20). All the specific components of any language that leans towards interlinguistic understand- ability must be translatable into the language of semantic primitives. An important part of the universal meaning or elementary components is represented, according to Apresjan, Žolkovski and Mel’čuk, by “lexical functions”, which point to a measure of syntactic-semantic universal possibilities, so that, for example, zelo (‘very’) and popolnoma (‘absolutely’) cannot always be syntactically realised – for instance, in word combinations such as zelo gluh (‘very deaf’), zelo nem (‘very mute’), zelo belo (‘very white’), zelo črno (‘very black’), zelo modro (‘very blue’), popolnoma tanek (‘absolutely thin’), popolnoma sladek (‘absolutely sweet’), popolnoma debel (‘abso- lutely fat’), etc. (Wierzbicka 1972: 88). 1.1 Primitives as potential valency primitives From what has been said so far, we can identify a universally restricted mass of valent semantemes whose dictionary explanations can be verbalised as valency primitives: delati/delovati/spreminjati (‘to work/act/change), delati se / postajati (‘to be in the making / to be in the process of becoming someting’), bivati/(so)obstajati/pripadati (‘be/live/exist/dwell/(co)exist/belong to’), imeti/čutiti/predstavljati si (‘to have/feel/ imagine’), pojavljati se / (z)goditi se (‘to appear/happen’), misliti/govoriti/vedeti (‘to think/speak/know’), premikati/gibati (se) (‘to move’), hoteti/moči (‘to want/can’). Apresjan (2000: 21) also highlights the verb povzročati (‘to cause’) as a frequent semantic-explanatory unit. In relation to the possibility of forming a semantic ex- planation for more complex verbs using verbal primitives as semantic-expressional valency primitives, Apresjan (1995: 121–123) puts forward three possibilities for the semantic-syntactic relation between the semantically complex verb (P1) and its two explanatory verbs (P2 and P3). In the first, verb P3 completes one of the valen- cies of P2, e.g. sporočati (‘to communicate’) matches up with the ditransitive verbs povzročiti (‘to cause’) and znati/vedeti (‘to know (how to)’), so that it includes the first valence povzročiti and both valences znati/vedeti. In the second, the valency of verb P3 is completed by P2, e.g. the verb peljati (‘to drive’) is linked by valency to the three verbs premeščati se (‘to change place’), nahajati se (‘to be situated’), na- menjati/usmerjati se (‘to intend/direct’), so that the verbs premeščati se and nahajati se form the essence of the verb povzročati and with usmerjati se also aim/purpose; 272 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) premeščati se is trivalent, while nahajati se and usmerjati se are bivalent; subject va- lency is common to all the verbs mentioned, the second valency of the verb usmerjati se overlaps with the whole valency of the verb premeščati se, so that in the final phase the verb peljati se is quadrivalent – who, where from, where to, by what (the last of these overlaps with the second valency of the verb nahajati se). In the third, verb P3 is linked with verb P2 only in terms of certain similar semantic-syntactic relations, without being able to co-form any mutual valency – for example, pisati (‘to write’) with the meaning ‘report in written form’ should not be or is normally not dealt with as hexavalent as in kdo pisati prijatelju pismo z gotskimi črkami na dragi papir z gos- jim peresom (‘someone to write a friend a letter in Gothic letters on expensive paper with a goose quill’), if we start from the trivalent sporočati (‘to communicate’; who, to whom, what) and quadrivalent meaning of the verb pisati (who, what, on what, what with); on the other hand, pisati can be dealt with in the same trivalent way as sporočati. The potential valency possibilities of verbs are semantically realised by valency (categorical) semantemes which, as integral semantemes, predict possible semantic relations and can in principle be expressed with valency primitives; these actant semantemes, as sub-categorical or differential semantemes, are nothing other than implied or non-expressed universal actant roles. This is indirectly confirmed by Sgall (1986: 112–113). Daneš (1987: 237) presents what are still basic verbs with dif- ferentaiting features, e.g. delati (‘to work’) ‘purpose, use, normal activity’, ustvarjati (‘to create’) ‘resultative’, povzročati, vršiti (‘to cause’) ‘expression of activity’, voditi (‘to run’), počenjati (‘to do’) ‘implement’, učinkovati/vplivati (‘to affect’) ‘resultative moment’. 2 Verb meaning and valency As was noted earlier, in this kind of discussion, concerned primarily with dictionary explanations, it is necessary to distinguish between semantemes, as irreducible units of lexical meaning which have no realisations of their own or are in principle not realisable, and primitives (valency primitives in this article), which are basic seman- tic-expressional units whose core content or meanings and semantic components can be realised. Semantemes are thus dealt with in a narrow sense as irreducible lexical components or units of sememes (universal/absolute or categorical semantemes, also known as classemes, mark categorical semantic components or properties such as gender, the sub-genders alive and human, countability, aspect, intention), as well as in a broader sense – as relevant semantic (generic/classifying and differentiating) meaningful properties that hierarchically determine the meaning/sememe or its inclu- sion within a specific lexeme. To Apresjan (1967: 9–10), semantemes are semantic multipliers that in different combinations offer the widest possible valency possibili- ties. Valency semantemes are realised or explained in the dictionary with hypernyms that express the prevailing verbal directionality or transitivity of the hyponymys dealt with: for example dati means ‘bring it about that somebody has something’, while vzeti means ‘bring it about that I have something’ etc. These hypernyms are a kind of valency primitive. The semantic-componential hierarchy among primitive, basic and specialised verbs is presented through ‘classifying semantic features’ (CSF) and A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 273 ‘differentiating semantic featuress’ (DSF)4. In describing the meaning of particular types of verbs, emphasis is placed in particular on those relevant semantic meaningful properties or semantic components that influence their valency. The valency semantic components or semantemes can be expressed with the most informative basic or core lexemes that form the core level of meaning of specific lexemes (Vidovič Muha 2000: 50–62). 2.1 Verbal or primitive hyperlexemes5 – biti (‘to be’), imeti (‘to have’), delati (‘to work’) as semantically irreducible components/semantemes are at the same time va- lency primitives, but they are semantically and thus in terms of valency too general- ised to be typical examples of valency primitives. Verbal hyperlexemes or primitive verbs represent above all the core verbal meaning or the three core lexemes with the classifying semantic features for all verbs (tj. biti = classifying semantic primary features for ‘state’, imeti = classifying semantic primary features for non-formational 4 The terms ‘classifying’ and ‘differentiating features’ are taken from Vidovič Muha (1986; 1988: 26). The hierarchy of semantic components within a lexeme determine the role of the classifying semantic features (CSF) in defining the meaning of the lexeme from the point of view of its positioning within what is, in principle, a directly higher conceptual and thus also (possibly) semantic field, while the role of differentiating semantic features (DSF) is the dictionary determination of the meaning of lexemes that belong in the conceptual field of the same CSF (Vidovič Muha 2000: 87–88). 5 The criteria for a true verbal primitive (Vp) are: a) Because of their widest possible semantic value (with the widest possible semantic-syntactic transitive possibilities) they can only be described in terms of specific syntactic meanings in specific sentences. At the same time, specific semantic sentential contexts decide on the (in)complete syntactic use of a verbal primitive, e.g. Takrat/Tam ni mož (‘Then/There he is no man’): Takrat/Tam ni moža (‘There is no man there/then’); To je dom : To je doma (‘This is a home : This is at home’). Thus in the case of primitives we distinguish between a predicate clause (> when Vp has incomple- te meaning), e.g. On je birokrat (‘He is a bureaucrat’) and a nominal clause (>when Vp has complete meaning), npr. On je z birokrati / pri birokratih (‘He is with the bureaucrats’), and an adverbial complement (> when Vp has complete meaning), e.g. On je v birokraciji (‘He is in bureaucracy). Due to their broad syntactic-semantic use, verbal primitives, more often than other verbs, are linked to verbal nouns. b) Because of the possibility of complete or incomplete syntactic use, primitives are the most precise indicators of the semantic and structural-syntactic role of prepositional morphemes. Thus within a single verbal meaning it is possible to have: i) incomplete syntactic meaning + a lexicalised prepositional morpheme or, ii) complete syntactic meaning + a linked (non-)lexicalised or an affixable prepositional morpheme. Its semantic (in)completeness thus allows for the maximum number of possible prepositional morphemes, so that syntactic semantic conditions are fulfilled to the greatest possible extent. c) Because of their generalised meaning they can also be realised morphemically through word-formation – they are simulated as affixes or affixal morphemes in the formation of verbal derivatives, compounds from prepositional combinations and verbal compunds. d) True verbal primitives (delati (‘to work’) /for action/, imeti (‘to have’), biti (‘to be’) /for state/) do not have aspectual pairs, but rather the phasal sub-groups (encoding phase is time adverbial /SSB: 22/) narediti (‘to make’), dobiti/dobivati (‘to get / to be getting’), postati/postajati (‘to become / to be in the process of becoming something’), which transformed do not always enter fully into a complete aspectual pair; action and state are combined in dati/dajati (‘to give / to be giving’) (< make/do in order to be/have). Imeti (‘to have’) and dati (‘to give’) in colloquial language can replace modal verbs, for example To ima (‘must’) narediti (‘S/he must do that’), To mu ne dá ‘may not’ narediti (‘This does not allow him to do it’). 274 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) processes, delati = classifying semantic primary features for formational processes/ events).6 With regard to dobiti – imeti (‘to get – to have’) the consequent state imeti reveals the primary meaning of ‘retain’, and is linked semantically and derivationally with ‘take’,7 while dobiti (from do and biti) can be explained from a semantic-devel- opmental perspective as ‘achieve/attain (something)’.8 2.1.1 Basic verbs as typical valency primitives Even though a primary verb or verbal primitive has the widest semantic field (plac- ing it in the highest conceptual class) and the most general meaning, so that it is not necessary to select actants with regard to their semantic properties, a basic verb still has a very wide semantic field and thus quite a number of meanings (including and combining with the meanings of primitive verbs).9 But a basic verb, in spite of its semantic breadth, is already determined in terms of type of meaning and is there- fore a more typical valency primitive than a primary verb or verbal primitive. These supporting basic verbs that typify verbal valent semantic groups are bivati (‘to be/ live/exist/dwell’), čutiti (‘to feel’); govoriti/reči (‘to speak/say’), misliti (‘to think’), gledati (‘to watch’), hoteti (‘to want’), želeti (‘to wish’); delovati (‘to act’), deti (‘to put’), vzeti (‘to take’), igrati (se) (‘to play’); spreminjati (se) (‘to change’); iti (‘to go’), hoditi (‘to walk’). With notable predominant dictionary classifying semantic features (CSF) or with predominant basic/elementary meaning they are already suf- ficiently marked with regard to type or are sufficiently generic that they can represent the basic divisional measure for basic verbal semantic groups representing ‘being’, ‘understanding’, ‘speech’, ‘thought’, ‘change’, ‘dealing with’, ‘motion’.10 Because of their semantic generality basic and elementary verbs are at the same time hypernyms or classifying semantic features of the specialised verbs. 6 Primitives as word-forming and dictionary classifying semantic components, because of their broad semantic value and generalising meaning, occupy the top of the pyramid of verb semantics (Vidovič Muha 1988: 27). 7 This is indirectly confirmed by Čermák (1974: 298), who includes vzeti (‘to take’) among the most frequently used semantically incomplete verbs. 8 Čermák (1974: 298) also includes doseči (‘to attain’) among the most frequently used semantically incomplete verbs. 9 The expression basic is taken from Žic Fuchs (1991: 113), who uses it in the expression basic lexeme, which is taken from western scholarship, e.g. Grimes, Systematic Analysis of Meaning (Notes on Linguistics No. 13, 1980, 22). 10 Such a semantic division of verbs is indirecly confirmed by Wierzbicka (1972). In discussing the basic semantic fields she cites semantically fundamental verbs of: a) SPACE, different verbs of motion, b) TIME, verbs of beginning, ending and duration, c) SPEECH, the verbs govoriti (‘to speak’), reči (‘to say), d) FEELING, the verbs čutiti (‘to feel’), hoteti (‘to want’), želeti (‘to wish’), e) THOUGHT, in particular the verbs misliti (‘to think’), meniti (‘to mean’), predstavljati si (‘to imagine’), and under f) MODALITY, she discusses identity, nega- tion and verbs of the type morati (‘must/have to’).  For example Daneš (1987: 71–79) within single sentence statements distinguishes be- tween a) simple/elementary predicates (predikáty jednoduché/elementární), which cannot be replaced by semantically equivalent predicates (these could be basic and elementary verbs), and b) higher level predicates (predikáty vyššího stupne), which are a combination of elemen- tary predicates (these could be specialised verbs). A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 275 Synchronously non-compound specialised verbs are characterised by a greatly restricted semantic field with few meanings that can be presented as dictionary clas- sifying and differentiating semantic features. These verbs are semantically specific to and semantically-syntactically limited to certain actants with precisely defined prop- erties. Such specialised verbs are, for example bíti bíjem = ‘strongly (DSF) hit (CSF)’ something, gnati = ‘bring about (CSF) motion’ (DSF)’ (of someone/something), pokusiti = ‘feel (CSF) with the tongue (DSF)’ (something), svetovati = ‘express/give (CSF) an opinion (DSF)’ (about something) etc. The transitive possibilities of stiska- ti are expressed by the meanings ‘hold (CSF) firmly (DSF)’ (someone/something) Stiska vrat/za roke, ‘hold (CSF) to oneself (DSF)’ (someone/something) Stiskala je otroka k sebi, ‘place (CSF) (someone/something) in a restricted position (DSF) by holding (DSF)’ Stiskal je parketne ploščice, Stiskala je otroka k sebi, ‘press (CSF) (something) from something (DSF)’ Stiskal je olje iz semen, ‘give (CSF) (something) a specific form (DSF)’ Stiskal je seno v bale etc.12 Nominally and adjectivally derived compound verbs (krtačiti (‘to brush’), beliti (‘to whiten’), and the verbs derived from these as second-level compounds (izkrtačiti (‘to brush out’), prebeliti (‘to whiten again / to whitewash’), and verbal compounds with specialised verbs in their core syntactic base (iztisniti (‘to press out’), presoditi (‘to make a judgement’)) form a group of higher specialised verbs. Examples of typi- cal nominally-derived compound verbs with a restricted valency field (with the actant in the base) are krampati (‘to use a pick’), plužiti (‘to plough’), bobnati (‘to drum’); načelovati (‘to head’), fantovati (‘to go out with the boys’), sestankovati (‘to hold a meeting’), taboriti (‘to camp’). Specific basic and elementary verbs (govoriti (‘to speak’), iti (‘to go’), spremeniti (‘to change’), gledati (‘to watch’), vzeti (‘to take’), igrati (‘to play’)), due to their generically semantic definition, are dictionary clas- sifying semantic features (CSF), whereas primitives (biti (‘to be’), imeti (‘to have’), delati (‘to work’)), due to their broad meaning or lack of semantic specificity and ir- reducibility, can only be used as word-formation classifying semantic features (CSF): govoriti (dictionary CSF) vi / delati (word-forming CSF) vi > vikati, iti (dictionary CSF) like a stork / delati (word-forming CSF) like a stork > štorkljati, spremeniti (dictionary CSF) into capital / delati/dati (word-forming CSF) capital > kapitalizirati, gledati (dictionary CSF) / delati (word-forming CSF) glare > srepeti, vzeti (dictionary CSF) loot / narediti (word-forming CSF) loot > zapleniti, igrati (dictionary CSF) the zither / delati (word-forming CSF) a zither > citrati. 2.2 Compound verbs and the valency role of prefixes – affixed valent semantemes Compound verbs with the same prefix show the influence of the core meaning of pre- fixes – ‘phasality (initiality/momentariness/finality)’, ‘result (one-off/repeated)’ and 12 The semantic content of a lexeme, for example stiskati, (‘to press’) with regard to its possible syntactic role is equated by Kačala (1982: 6), following Pauliny (1943), with verbal orientation A (agent of the action) – active – O (object of the action) as categorical semantic features, and the action itself (Act) as a subcategorical semantic feature, while the individual dictionary classifying semantic features are in this case držati (‘to hold’) and spravljati (‘to give a form’). 276 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) ‘property/degree (level/quantity)’.13 Both verbal aspect and the generic nature of the verbal action are embraced by prefixes.14 2.3 The semantic hierarchy valency network The overlapping valency of primary, basic and specialised verbs of the type premikati se (‘to move’) – iti (‘to go’) – stopati (‘to stride’) – korakati (‘to march’), delati (‘to work’) – udarjati/tolči (‘to hit’) – sekati (‘to hack’) – cepiti (‘to split’) etc. forms the transitivity of the semantic group of verbs. The central zone of the whole valency network, which is at the same represents a ‘map’ of the semantic groups of verbs, is formed by the basic verbs. Within the semantic hierarchy valency network, basic verbs are represented as approximate realisations of valency semantemes or as va- lency primitives.15 Basic verb forming processes are the basic semantic classifying measure for semantic groups of verbs a) dealing with/creating (delovati (‘to act’), narediti/delati (‘to do’; here and in any subsequent examples where verbs appear in pairs, the first form of the verb is perfective, the second imperfective), izdelati/izdelovati (‘to make’), izpeljati (‘to carry out’), izpolniti/izpolnjevati (‘to fulfil’), izvesti/izvajati (‘to execute’), izvršiti/izvrševati/vršiti (‘to perform’), kazati/pokazati (‘to show’), napraviti/naprav- ljati (‘to do/make’), obravnati/obravnavati (‘to deal with’), omogočiti/omogočati (‘to enable’), opraviti/opravljati (‘to accomplish’), početi/počenjati (‘to do’), povzročiti/ povzročati (‘to cause’), predstaviti/predstavljati (‘to present’), pretvoriti/pretvarjati (se) (‘to transform (oneself)’), preživeti/preživljati (se) (‘to make a living / support’), pridobiti/pridobivati (‘to obtain’), prikazati (‘to show’), pripraviti/pripravljati (se) (‘to prepare’), prizadevati si (‘to strive’), rabiti (‘to need), ravnati (‘to take action’), razviti/razvijati (‘to develop’), spremeniti/spreminjati (‘to change’), storiti (‘to do’), 13 The influence of the derivation of words on their valency is discussed by Vidovič Muha in the paper ‘Compound verbs – their syntactic base and valency properties (1993). Comparing compound verbs with their syntactic base verbs and with appropriate non-compound verbs, e.g. izpisati : pisati iz : pisati (‘to write out : to write from : to write’) and taking into account the whole of the SSKJ, she decides that prefixes transform (at least) one syntactically-based verbal relationship, narrowing the valency field of the compound verb (an exception are compound verbs with only a phasal prefix). In the relationship between compound and non-compound verbs the changes are primarily within the framework of subject-object valency, e.g. izbuljiti oči : buljiti (‘to bulge the eyes out : to stare’) ipd. 14 Merše (1995) deals with the generic varieties of verbal action as semantic categories that encompass only part of the verbal vocabulary, while verbal aspect is a grammatical catego- ry obligatory for all verbs. Moreover, by identifying the aspectual and non-aspectual character of paired prefixed verbs that generically determine verbal actions it is possible to establish a link between the core of the verbal category of aspect and its margins. 15 Hereafter the following are used to signify actant roles: A = agent V = vršilec, C = causer Pv = povzročitelj, I = initiator Pb = pobudnik, B = bearer N = nosilec; Aff = affected Pr = priza- deto, Rel = relation Ra = razmerje, Con = content Vs = vsebina, Occ = occurrence Po = pojav, Ca = cause Vz = vzrok, G = Goal C = cilj, S = starting point/source Iz = izhodišče/izvor, IL = initial location IT = initial time IM/IČ = izhodiščno mesto/izhodiščni čas, TL = target location TT = target time CM/CČ = ciljno mesto/ciljni čas, L = location T = time M/Č = mesto/čas, Loc/ Temp, Prs/e/l = process/start/end/limitation Poz/k/o = potek/začetek/konec/omejitev, M = mood N = način, Instr = instrument T = tool S/O = sredstvo/orodje, Rec = recipient Pre = prejemnik, R = result R = rezultat. A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 277 tvoriti (‘to form’), učinkovati (‘to affect’), ukrepati (‘to take measures’), ukvarjati (‘to deal with’), uporabiti/uporabljati (‘to use’), urediti/urejati (‘to arrange), ustvariti/ust- varjati (si) (‘to create (for oneself)’), uveljaviti/uveljavljati (‘to assert’), uvesti/uvajati (‘to introduce’), vplivati (‘to influence’): xPv/Pb/V (y, z, w)); dati/dajati (‘to give’), deti (‘to put’), položiti/polagati (‘to lay’), postaviti/postavljati (‘to place’), seči/segati (‘to reach’), usmeriti/usmerjati (‘to direct’): xPv/V (yIM/CM); lotiti se/lotevati se (‘to commence’), nadaljevati (‘to continue’), preprečiti/preprečevati (‘to prevent’): xPv/Pb/VFz/k (y, z, w); b) speech/understanding/thought (čutiti (‘to feel’), dojeti/ dojemati (‘to comprehend’), določiti/določati (‘to define’), izraziti/izražati (‘to ex- press’), obvladati/obvladovati (‘to control’), označiti/označevati (‘to mark’), ugoto- viti/ugotavljati (‘to ascertain’), upoštevati (‘to take into account’), zaznati/zaznavati (‘to perceive’): xPv/V/N ((xR/My) + (xR/M’y) + (xSy/z/w))); c) motion (premikati se (‘to move’), iti (‘to go’), priti (‘to come’), hoditi (‘to walk’), peljati se (‘to take a ride’): xPv/V (xM/IM/CMy/z)); and d) change/process of change (ohraniti/ohran- jati (‘to preserve’), spremeniti/spreminjati (‘to change’), uresničiti/uresničevati (‘to realize’), uničiti/uničevati (‘to destroy’), ukiniti/ukinjati (‘to cancel’), prenehati (‘to cease’): xPv/V (((xE-) T (xE+)) T ((xE+) T (xE-)))). Verbs of primary events/proc- esses designate primary changes or the process of change (goditi/dogajati se (‘to happen’), izginiti/izginjati (‘to disappear’), nastati/nastajati (‘to form’), nastopiti/ nastopati (‘to perform’), pojaviti/pojavljati se (‘to turn up’), prenehati se (‘to come to an end’), prikazati/prikazovati se (‘to appear’), pripetiti se (‘to happen’), postati/ postajati (‘to become’), potekati (‘to take place’), spati (‘to sleep’), umreti/umira- ti (‘to die’), uničiti/uničevati se (‘to destroy’), uresničiti/uresničevati se (‘to come true’), zgoditi se (‘to occur’), živeti (‘to live’): xPv/xN (((xE-) T (xE+)) T ((xE+) T (xE-)))). Verbs of state designate e) being/existing (bivati (‘to be/live/exist/dwell’), eksistirati (‘to exist’), obstajati (‘to exist’), nahajati se (‘to be located’), prebiti/prebi- vati (‘to dwell’), stanovati (‘to reside’), stati (stojim) (‘to stand’), ostati/ostajati (‘to stay’); stati (stanem) (‘to cost’), veljati (‘to be worth/valid’), pomeniti (‘to mean’); sedeti (‘to sit’), ležati (‘to lie’), viseti (‘to hang’): xN (xE+ ∩ Mso)). Finally, there are elementary verbs of primary or dependent events that designate both basic life processes and activities (živeti (‘to live’), roditi se (‘to be born’), rasti (‘to grow’), jesti (‘to eat’), piti (‘to drink’), govoriti (‘to talk’), misliti (‘to think’), gledati (‘to watch’), hoditi (‘to walk’), iti (‘to go’), premikati se (‘to move’), gibati se (‘to move) etc.: xN/Pv) as well as natural processes (goreti (‘to burn’), svetiti (se) (‘to glow’); zmrzovati (‘to freeze’), grmeti (‘to thunder’), bliskati se (‘(of lightning) to flash’): αPv/N ((y/wE-/+) T (y/wE+/-))). 2.3.1 Specialised verbs of physical and mental state (prebivati (‘to dwell’), stano- vati (‘to reside’), počivati (‘to rest’), bati se (‘to be afraid’), norčevati se (‘to mock’), smejati se (‘to laugh’), čustvovati (‘to have feelings’), obžalovati (‘to regret’), e.g. Prebiva/Stanuje v bloku/na deželi/pod goro (‘S/he lives/resides in a block of flats / in the countryside / at the foot of a mountain’) (M), Boji se staršev (‘S/he is afraid of his/her parents’) (Ra), Norčevati se iz njega (‘To mock him’) (Ra), čustvovati Vsak čustvuje (svet (Vs)) (‘Everyone emotionally experiences the world’), Obžaluje de- janje (‘S/he regrets what s/he has done’) (Vs) overlap in terms of valency with ba- sic state verbs (bivati (‘to be/live/exist/dwell’), prebivati (‘to dwell’), obstajati (‘to exist’), nahajati se (‘to be located’), manjkati (‘to be missing’), stati (stojim) (‘to 278 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) stand’), držati se (‘to hold’), tičati (‘to stick (somewhere)’), zijati (‘to gape’), stikati se (‘to converge’), dotikati se (‘to touch’); sloneti (‘to lean’), viseti (‘to hang’), sedeti (‘to sit’), ležati (‘to lie’); pripadati (‘to belong’), obsegati (‘to encompass’), vsebovati (‘to include’), pomeniti (‘to mean’), stati (stanem) (‘to cost’), veljati (‘to be worth/ valid’), zazna/va/ti (‘to perceive’), čutiti (se) (‘to feel (oneself)’), zdeti se (‘to seem’), e.g. Bival je v isti hiši/na deželi/pri teti (M) (‘He resided in the same house / in the countryside / with Aunt’), Biva umetnost (Ra) (‘S/he lives art’), Biva iz bistvenih sestavin (Vs) (‘S/he exists out of essential ingredients’), Čuti pod prsti utripanje žile (‘S/he feels the throbbing of a vein beneath his/her fingers’) (Vs), Psi so čutili ljudi/ potres (Ra) (‘The dogs felt/sensed people/an earthquake’), Čutila je bližino/nevarnost (Ra) (‘She felt/sensed the closeness/danger’) etc. 2.3.2 Specialised verbs of dealing with/creating can, with regard to their predomi- nant semantic features, be divided into: 2.3.2.1 Verbs of enabling the coming into being/existence of something (or- ganizirati (‘to organize’), opremljati (‘to decorate’), osredotočati se (‘to focus’) etc., for example organizirati – Tako delo (Pr) je potrebno dobro organizirati (‘Such work has to be thoroughly organized’); Organizirajo stavko/spopad/tekmovanje (R) (‘They organize a strike/a duel/a competition’); Organizirajo kmete (‘They organize the peasants (Pr) (za sodelovanje z zadrugo (‘to enter the agricultural cooperative’) (C)); Organizirajo (jim (Pre)) prenočišče (R) (‘They are organizing accomodation for them’); organizirati se – informal Organiziral se je k socialistom (Cd) (‘He entered the Socialists’), which overlap in terms of valency with basic verbs of enabling the coming into being/existence of something (pripravljati/pripraviti (se) (‘to prepare (oneself)’) Pripravlja se k učenju (C) (‘He is about to study’), Pripravlja slušateljem (Pre) gradivo (C) (‘S/he is preparing the material for the students’), napravljati (‘to make’) Napravlja otroka (C) (‘He is making a baby’), Napravlja se (Pr) (za nastop (C) (‘He is preparing / making ready for a performance’), omogočiti/omogočati (‘to enable’), povzročiti/povzročati (‘to cause’), prirejati (‘to adapt’), prizadevati si (‘to strive’), lotiti/lotevati se (‘to begin’) etc. 2.3.2.2 Verbs with an emphasised semantic component of motion (nesti/nositi (‘to carry’), lepiti (‘to paste’), postaviti (‘to place’), čolnariti (‘to move in a boat’), transportirati (‘to transport’), tovoriti (‘to transfer’), kopičiti (‘to accumulate’), e.g. Sol (Pr) so tovorili povsod / iz kraja v kraj (Md/IMd/CMd) (‘Salt was transported eve- rywhere / from place to place’), which overlap in terms of valency with basic verbs of dealing with/handling involving motion or independent motion deti (‘to put’), namestiti (se) (‘to set’), umestiti (‘to place’), vstaviti (‘to insert’), postaviti (‘to posi- tion/put’), spraviti (‘to store’), pustiti (‘to leave’), vzeti (‘to take’), položiti (‘to lay’) Položi kravam (Pre) seno (Pr) (‘Lay down hay for the cows’), Položil je denar (Pr) za varščino (C) (‘He put in money for bail’), odstraniti (‘to remove’) Odstranil mu (Pr) je odlikovanja (Pr) (‘He removed his medals’), Odstraniti navlako (Pr) z dvorišča/iz sobe (IM) (‘To remove the rubbish from the backyard / the room’)). 2.3.2.3 Verbs with an emphasised semantic component of co-occurrence/be- longing (zgrabiti (‘to grab’), čakati (‘to wait’), sodelovati (‘to cooperate’), pestovati (‘to nurse’), pustiti (‘to abandon’), pomagati (‘to help’), nabrati (‘to gather’), sprejeti A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 279 (‘to accept’), reševati se (‘to save oneself’) etc., e.g. čakati – Pacienti čakajo (na) zdravnika (Ra) (‘The patients wait for the doctor’), Čaka na ugodno priliko (Vs) (‘S/he is waiting for a chance’), Sodelujejo z različnimi organizacijami (S) (‘They cooperate with different organizations’), Sodelujejo pri knjigi / pri projektu / na pred- stavitvi (Ra/M) (‘They collaborate on a book/a project/a presentation’), which overlap in terms of valency with basic verbs of dealing with/handling (ravnati (‘to handle’) /Negospodarno/ ravna z odpadki (Vs)/s stroji (S) (‘S/he handles waste/machines (un- economically), povzročati/povzročiti (‘to cause’) Jed povzroča žejo/bolezen (R) (‘The dish causes thirst/illness’), uresničevati/uresničiti (‘to realize’) Uresničuje načrte (Pr) (‘S/he is realizing plans’), pripravljati (‘to prepare’) Pripravlja tekmovalce (Pr)/leta- lo (Pr) (‘S/he is preparing the competitiors/the plane’), izvesti/izvajati (‘to perform’), izdel/ov/ati (‘to make/manufacture’), opraviti/opravljati (‘to do’), napraviti/naprav- ljati (‘to make’), izpolniti/izpolnjevati (‘to fulfil’), uveljaviti/uveljavljati (‘to assert’), pridobiti/pridobivati (‘to acquire’); učinkovati (‘to affect’) Učinkuje na snov (Pr) s segrevanjem (Ra) (‘It affects matter with heating’), Učinkuje na učence (Ra) z znan- jem (Vs) (‘S/he has an effect on the students with knowledge’), vplivati (‘to influ- ence’) Vpliva nanj (Ra) z besedo (Ra) (‘S/he influenced him with words’), uvajati (‘to introduce’) Uvaja novinca (Ra) (‘S/he is introducing/initiating a new guy (to the job)’), Uvaja predpise (Vs) (‘S/he is introducing new regulations’), upravljati (‘to manage’), obvladovati (‘to control’), nadzorovati (‘to supervise’), seznanjati (‘to ac- quaint’); the components of co-occurrence/belonging partially overlap in terms of va- lency with basic verbs of primary events and processes that emphasise the subject as the bearer of the events/processes (xN) and a) designate primary general processes, e.g. dogajati se (‘to occur’), goditi se (‘to happen’), potekati (‘to take place’), vršiti se (‘to proceed’), izvrševati se (‘to carry out’), trajati (‘to last’), nadaljevati se (‘to continue’): αPv/αN (xE+)) and b) events and phenomena, e.g.. pripetiti se (‘to hap- pen’), pojaviti/pojavljati se (‘to appear’), prikazati/prikazovati se (‘to show’), nas- tati/nastajati (‘to form’), postati/postajati (‘to become’), propasti/propadati (‘to de- cay’), miniti/minevati (‘to pass’), izginiti/izginjati (‘to disappear’), izgubiti/izgubljati (se) (‘to lose’), spremeniti/spreminjati se (‘to change’), dogajati se (‘to happen’) Te stvari so se dogajale (zvečer / v manjših krajih (Čp/d) (‘These things used to happen in the evening / in small towns); similarly with: potekati (‘to take place’), nastajati, pojavljati se, izginjati, minevati etc.), the semantic component of belonging exposes a partial valency overlap with basic verbs of dealing with/handling involving motion (deti, namestiti (se), umestiti, vstaviti, postaviti, spraviti, pustiti, vzeti, položiti Položi kravam (Pre) seno (Pr), Položil je denar (Pr) za varščino (C), odstraniti Odstranil mu (Pr) je odlikovanja (Pr), Odstraniti navlako (Pr) z dvorišča/iz sobe (IM)). 2.3.2.4 Verbs with an emphasised semantic component of change of properties (aktivirati (‘to activate’), kisati (‘to sour’), adjektivizirati (‘to adjectivize’) Adjektiv- izira samostalnik (Pr) (‘S/he is adjectivizing a noun’), opredmetiti (‘to realize’) Opred- metijo ideje (C) (‘They realize ideas’), oživiti (‘to resuscitate’) Oživijo ponesrečenca (C) (‘They resuscitate the injured’), udejanjiti (‘to fulfil’) Udejanjajo sklep (R) (‘They fulfil a decision’), spoprijeti se (‘to deal with / fight) Fantje so se spoprijeli /med se- boj (Pr) / (‘The boys fought (each other)’), vživeti se (‘to get accustomed to’) Otrok se je vživel (v družino (C)) (‘The child has got accustomed (to the family)’), boga- teti (‘to become rich’) Hitro bogatijo (‘They are quickly becoming rich’), bakreneti 280 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) (‘to turn copper’) Drevje bakreni (‘The trees are becoming copper-coloured’), babiti se (‘to wench’) Babi se (‘He is wenching around’); odpirati/zapirati (se) (‘to open/ close), odpreti/zapreti se (‘to open/close’), ničiti se (‘to nullify’), e.g. Odprejo vrata (Pr/C) (za goste) (‘They open the entrance (for guests)’), Odprejo se (družbi) za ideje (C) (‘They open themselves (to the company) for new ideas’), Pretvarjal se je v čudaka (C/R) (‘He was changing into an eccentric’), Tonili so v mlaki (‘They sinked into a pond’), Zakrivali so z odejo (S) (‘They covered it with a blanket’), Pulili so plevel (Rd) (iz grede Pr) (‘They pulled weed (from the flower bed)’), which overlap in terms of valency with basic verbs of change of properties (spreminjati (se) (‘to change’), tvoriti (‘to form’) Tvori glas (R) (‘Form a sound’), Vprašanje tvori jedro (C) (‘The question forms a rheme’), ustvarjati (‘to create’) Ustvarja dohodek (R)/ stike (C) (‘S/he creates income/contacts’), oblikovati (‘to form’) Oblikuje kip (Pr) (‘S/he forms a statue’), Oblikuje s kladivom (S) (‘S/he forms with a hammer’), Ob- likuje stavke (C) (‘S/he forms sentences’), Oblikuje posode (C)/v posode (C) (‘S/he forms pots’), Oblikujejo (mu (Ra)) svetovni nazor (R) (‘They form (his) world view’), izdel/ov/ati (‘to make’), sestaviti/sestavljati (‘to assemble’), ustvariti/ustvarjati (‘to create’), polniti (‘to fill’), razviti/razvijati (se) (‘to develop’), ohraniti/ohranjati (se) (‘to preserve’), obnoviti/obnavljati (‘to renovate’), menjati/menjavati (‘to change’), pretvoriti/pretvarjati (se) (‘to transform’), prirediti/prirejati (‘to adapt’), urediti/ure- jati (‘to arrange’), uničiti/uničevati (‘to destroy’) etc.) and dealing with/handling (ravnati /Negospodarno/ ravna z odpadki (Vs)/s stroji (S), povzročati/povzročiti Jed povzroča žejo/bolezen (R), uresničevati/uresničiti Uresničuje načrte (Pr), pripravljati Pripravlja tekmovalce (Prd)/letalo (Pr), izvesti/izvajati, izdel/ov/ati, opraviti/opravl- jati, napraviti/napravljati, izpolniti/izpolnjevati, uveljaviti/uveljavljati, pridobiti/pri- dobivati, etc. 2.3.3 Specialised verbs of speech, understanding, thought of the type sporočati (‘to communicate’), signalizirati (‘to signal’), ugotavljati (‘to ascertain’), razumeti (‘to understand’), spoznavati (‘to get familiar with’), preučevati (‘to study’) include ‘monitoring and absorbing information’ (dokumentirati (‘to document’), izvedeti (‘to learn’), dojemati (‘to perceive’), verjeti (‘to believe’) etc.), ‘making sense of and re- sponding to information’ (razumeti (‘to understand’), argumentirati (‘to argue’) etc.) and ‘transmitting information’ (sporočati (‘to communicate’), pokazati (‘to show’), agitirati (‘to agitate’) etc.). These have the same actant roles and the same semantic- syntactic transitivity formulae as the basic verbs of ‘speech, understanding, thought’ and overlap in terms of valency with these basic verbs (govoriti (‘to talk’), misliti (‘to think’), ukvarjati se (‘to deal with’) Ukvarja se z bolniki (Ra)/s trgovino (Vs) (‘S/ he deals with patients/commerce’), obravnavati (‘to treat’) Obravnava problematiko (Vs)/mladostnika (Ra) (‘S/he treats the issue/a juvenile’), uporabljati (‘to use’) Upo- rablja naravna bogastva/govedino (Pr) za preživetje/polpete (C) (‘To use natural re- sources/veal to survive/for steaks’), zaznavati (‘to perceive/sense’) Zaznava svetlobo (Ra) s čutili (S) (‘It senses light with sensorial organs’), ugotavljati (‘to determine/ ascertain’) Ugotavlja rezultate (Ra) (z zadovoljstvom (Ra) (‘S/he ascertains results (with delight), dojeti/dojemati (‘to perceive/comprehend’), baviti se (‘to be busy with sth/dabble’), rabiti (‘to need’), označiti/označevati (‘to mark’), izraziti/izražati (se) (‘to express (oneself)’), kazati (‘to point’), prikazovati (‘to demonstrate’), pokazati A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 281 (‘to show’), predstavljati (si) (‘to imagine’), nameniti/namenjati (‘to intend/destine’), določiti/določati (‘to appoint’), pripraviti/pripravljati (se) (‘to prepare’), obvladati/ obvladovati (‘to control’), etc.). 2.3.4 Specialised verbs with the general meaning of change (rušiti se, prikazovati se, vznikati, odpirati/zapirati (se), e.g. v odpreti/zapreti se, ničiti se, e.g. Odprejo vrata (Pr/C) (za goste), Odprejo se (družbi) za ideje (C), Pretvarjal se je v čudaka (C/ R), Tonili so v mlaki, Zakrivali so z odejo (S), Pulili so plevel (R) (iz grede Pr); as well as the semantic components ‘property’ these also include ‘independent motion of the agent V’ and ‘goal-oriented’, e.g. iskati, najti, e.g. Vznikali so povsod / iz zemlje / na površje (M/IM/CM),) and overlap in terms of valency with basic verbs of enabling the coming into being/existence of something (napravljati se, lotevati se, priza- devati si etc. v Napravlja otroka (C), Napravlja se (Pr) (za nastop (C), omogočiti/ omogočati, povzročiti/povzročati, prirejati, prizadevati si, lotiti/lotevati se), dealing with/handling and independent motion (uresničevati se, uveljavljati se ipd.). The actant roles are the same as those for basic verbs of change of properties. 2.3.5 Specialised verbs of motion of the type korakati (‘to march’), hlačati (‘to stomp’), paradirati (‘to parade’), patruljirati (‘to patrol’), romati (‘to go on a pilgrim- age’), križariti (‘to cruise’), sestankovati (‘to hold a meeting’) are divided in terms of valency into a) right intransitive process verbs (emphasis on the process of motion, e.g. iti (‘to go’), bežati (‘to run (away)’), letati (‘to fly’), begati (‘to lope’), voziti se (‘to take a ride’)) and right transitive b) goal-oreinted verbs (emphasis on the goal/ purpose, e.g. Janez žene Toneta na delo (‘John drives Tony to work’), Janez potiska kolo v popravilo (‘John pushes the bicycle to the repairman’), Pes podi kokoši spat (‘The dog rounds up the hens to go to sleep’)) and c) event verbs (emphasis on the content of the event, predominantly compound verbs, e.g. srečati se (‘to encounter’), sestati se (‘to meet’), iziti pri založbi (‘to get published’), vrniti se domov (‘to return home’), priti v sobo (‘to come to a room’), preiti cesto (‘to cross a road’), pasti z drevesa (‘to fall from a tree’), sukati se okoli (‘to prance around’)). The elementary verb premikati se (‘to move’) and the basic verbs hoditi (‘to walk’) and iti (‘to go’) and their compounds cover the whole transitivity pattern of the verbs of motion. 2.4 Semantic derivational syncretism of valency semantemes and actant roles Verbal compounds from the same verb with the derivational meaning object of the action (O/Pr) or result of the action (R) or instrument of the action (Instr/S) in com- parison with the derivational meaning action (Act/De) or agent of the action (A/V) restricts the arrangement of actant roles or semantic-syntactic transitivity. The hi- erarchical or preferential ordering of actant roles is as follows: with nuclear verb- derived nouns of action/state/property (De/St/L), the agent (A/V) and bearer of the act/state/property (Nd/s/l) the attributive slot can be occupied by all the actant roles, but the priority order is: affected/relational/substantive/phenomenal object of the action (Pr/Ra/Vs/Pod), instrument of the action (Sd), goal of the action (Cd), result of the action (Rd); in every case, non-priority roles that are semantically-syntacti- cally obligatory or non-obligatory are occupied by spatial and temporal actants, e.g. pripravljanje (De) športnikov (Pr)/napitkov (R) (‘the preparation of athletes/bever- 282 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) ages’), igranje (De) nogometa (Vs) s prijatelji (Ra) za nagrado (C) (‘playing foot- ball with friends for a reward’), igranje (De) hokeja (Vs) na travi (M) z žogico (S) (‘playing hockey on grass with a little ball’); bivanje (De/St) doma (M) (‘staying at home’), obseg (St) romana (Vs) (‘the length of a novel’), pripadnost (St) zemlje (Pr) obdelovalcu (Ra) (‘ownership of the land by the cultivator’). In the case of nuclear object (O / Pr = predmet) the attributive slot is most often the instrument of the ac- tion (Instr = instrument / S = sredstvo) or goal of the action (G = goal / C = cilj), and more rarely the substantive, affected or relational object of the action (Vs/Pr/Ra), e.g. iskalnik (Pr) z elektromagnetom (S) za kable (C) (‘electromagnetic detector of cables’), igralo (Pr) s krogi (S) za guganje (C) (‘a playing construction with rings for swinging’), spravljalnik (Pr) žita (Pr) (‘wheat harvester’); in the case of nuclear instrument (Instr / S = sredstvo) the attributive slot is the goal of the action (G/C), e.g. igrača (S) za odrasle (C) (‘a toy for adults’). P, R in S are semantically metonymically linked with De, while V, which can combine the non-current De and V/N, and De, because of causal-consequential links within predicative relations, are semantically separated. The linking or combining of ‘action’ (De) with ‘agent’ (V) is also indicated by the attributive complement be- fore the noun with the meaning ‘agent’ (V), which when transformed can modify the predicate of the verb, e.g. možni kandidat Tone – Tone je možni kandidat – Tone bi lahko kandidiral (‘the possible candidate Tony – Tony is a possible candidate – Tony could stand as candidate’) (see Grepl 1986; 1987: 152). 3 Valency as a developmental category in the sense of changing the semantic feature hierarchy or the removal and addition of valency semantemes The most frequent change to verb valency is from a monovalent to a bivalent verb, which is brought about by the widening of existing fields or the establishment of new ones, as well as the specialisation of particular fields. Some monovalent verbs become bivalent only gradually, through more frequent and wider use, e.g. abstinirati (‘to abstain’) (abstinirati glasovanje (‘to abstain from voting’)), balirati (‘to make bales’) (balirati železne odpadke/hmelj/krmo/seno (‘to make bales of iron refuse’)), blefirati (‘to bluff’) (blefira veselje (‘to bluff/affect joy’)), diplomirati (‘to graduate’) (diplomirati iz zgodovine/na zgodovini, still rarely diplomirati zgodovino (‘to gradu- ate from history’)), fikcionizirati (‘to fictionalize’) (fikcionizirati pot (‘to fictional- ize a journey’)), pamfletirati (‘to write pamphlets’) (pamfletirati dogodke (‘to write pamphlets about events’)). Accusative complements (especially in sporting activities) characterise and semantically emphasise substantive actants or object complements that emphasise valency semantemes or valency primitives obvladati (‘to control’), up- ravljati (‘to manage’), in such a way that the valency semanteme or valency primitive premikati se (‘to move’) is pushed into the background. The same applies with regard to igrati (se) na računalnik (‘to play with a computer’) with the meaning ‘master an apparatus’, surfati (‘to surf’) (surfati po/v mreži (‘to surf the Net’) with the meaning ‘look through data’ etc. A similar accusative complement semantically emphasises the content of an action and in the case of the valency semanteme or valency primi- tive obvladati with compound verbs of the type diplomirati/magistrirati/doktorirati slavistiko (‘to graduate/get a master’s/get a PhD in Slavic languages and literatures’) A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 283 there is predominance of the valency semanteme postati (‘become’) or biti/bivati (‘be’) etc. Only certain compound verbs, with the incorporated actant role bearer or agent of the action, remain monovalent, e.g. diskati (‘to party’) (diskati cel večer (‘to party whole night long’)), klošariti (‘to tap for money’) (klošariti po mestu (‘to tap for money around town’)), samoohranjati se (‘to sustain’) (dobro se samoohranjati (‘to sustain effectively’)). With regard to the affixing of valency semantemes, the use is increasing of verbs of the type zaasfaltirati (‘to cover completely in tarmac’), zamoralizirati (‘to start moralizing’), zamuzicirati (‘to start playing music’), where the colloquial prefix retains only phasality. References APRESJAN, Ju. D., 1967: Eksperimental’noe issledovanie semantiki russkogo glagola. Moskva: Nauka. APRESJAN, Ju. D., 21995: Leksičeskaja semantika. Sinonimičeskie sredstva jazyka. Izbrannye trudy tom 1. Moskva: Vostočnaja literatura RAN. – – 2000: Systematic Lexicography. Translated by K. Windle. New York: Oxford University Press. ČERMÁK, F., 1974: Víceslovná pojmenování typu verbum – substantivum v češtině (Příspěvek k syntagmatice tzv. abstrakt). Slovo a slovesnost XXXV. 287–306. DANEŠ, F. et al., 1987: Větné vzorce v češtině. Praha: Academia. FILIPEC, J., ČERMÁK, F., 1985: Česká lexikologie. Praha: Academia GREPL, M., KARLIK, P., 1986: Skladba spisovné češtiny. Praha: SPN. GREPL, M. idr., 1987: Mluvnice češtiny (3 – Skladba). Praha: Academia. HELBIG, G., SCHENKEL, W., 1969: Wörterbuch zur Valenz und Distribution deu- tscher Verben. Leipzig: VEB Bibliographisches Institut. KAČALA, J., 1982: Sémantická štruktúra vety a obsah vety. Jazykovedný časopis XXXIII/1. 3–10. – – 1989: Sloveso a sémantická štruktúra vety. Bratislava: VEDA. MERŠE, M., 1995: Vid in vrstnost glagola v slovenskem knjižnem jeziku 16. stoletja. Ljubljana: SAZU. NOVAK, F., 2004: Samostalniška večpomenskost v jeziku slovenskih protestantskih piscev 16. stoletja. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU. PAULINY, E., 1943: Štruktúra slovenského slovesa (Štúdia lexikálno-syntaktická). Spisy Slovenskej akadémie vied a umení 2. Bratislava. SGALL, P. idr., 1986: Úvod do syntaxe a sémantiky (Některé nové směry v teoretické lingvistice). Praha: Academia. Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika I–V 1970, 1975, 1979, 1985, 1991. Ljubljana: DZS. SNOJ, J., 2004: Tipologija slovarske večpomenskosti slovenskih samostalnikov. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU. TOPORIŠIČ, J.,1965–1970: Slovenski knjižni jezik I–IV. Maribor: Obzorja. – – 1967: Poizkus modernejše obravnave glagolskih kategorij. JiS XII. 119–127. – – 1980: O strukturalnem določanju besednih pomenov (ob glagolu BITI). Linguis- tica XX: In memoriam Milan Grošelj Oblata. 151–167. – – 1982: Nova slovenska skladnja (NSS). Ljubljana: DZS. 356. 284 Slovenski jezik – Slovene Linguistic Studies 6 (2007) – – 42004: Slovenska slovnica. Prenovljena in razširjena izdaja. Maribor: Založba Obzorja. 684–685. VIDOVIČ MUHA, A., 1986: Besedni pomen in njegova stiliska. XXII. seminar slov- enskega jezika, literature in kulture. Ljubljana. 79–91. – – 1988: Slovensko skladenjsko besedotvorje ob primerih zloženk. Ljubljana: Znan- stveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete in Partizanska knjiga. – – 1993: Glagolske sestavljenke – njihova skladenjska podstava in vezljivostne last- nosti (Z normativnim slovensko-nemškim vidikom). SR XLI/1. 161–192. – – 2000: Slovensko leksikalno pomenoslovje. Govorica slovarja. Ljubljana: Znan- stveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete. WIERZBICKA, A., 1972: Semantic Primitives. Linguistische Forschungen 22. Trans- lated by A. Wierzbicka and J. Besemeres. Frankfurt: Athenäum Verlag. – – 1996a: Semantics Primes and Universals. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. – – 1996b: Jazyk. Kul’tura. Poznanie. Moskva: Russkie slovari. ŽIC FUCHS, M., 1991: Znanje o jeziku i znanje o svijetu (Semantička analiza glago- la kretanja u engleskom jeziku). Zagreb. Prispelo oktobra 2005, sprejeto junija 2006 Received October 2005, accepted June 2006 Valenčni primitivi – slovarska verbalizacija valence Namen obravnave je predstaviti valenčne primitive kot najosnovnejše po- mensko-izrazne enote predvsem za npr. slovarske pomenske razlage. Nujno je že na začetku ločevanje med semi, ki so opredeljeni kot najmanjše pomensko nedeljive enote leksikalnega pomena in nimajo svojih izrazov oz. načelno niso izrazljivi, in t. i. primitivi (v tej obravnavi valenčnimi primitivi) kot osnovnimi pomensko- izraznimi enotami. Sicer pa se valenčni oz. vezljivostni semi kot kategorialni semi in hkrati kot integralne/univerzalne sestavine leksikalnih pomenov lahko ubesedujejo z neke vrste valenčnimi primitivi, ki so v teh primerih njihovi skladenjskopomenski ustrezniki – to so navadno glagoli kot tipični oz. pomensko temeljni predstavniki posameznih valenčnih skupin, npr. bivati, čutiti; govoriti/reči, misliti, gledati, hoteti, želeti; delovati, deti, vzeti, igrati (se); spreminjati (se); iti, hoditi), posledično sledijo. Subkategorialni semi kot udeleženski semi oz. možne udeleženske vloge, tudi glede na /ne/določnost, vzročnost, /ne/tvornost dejanja so neverbalizirani oz. implicirani v glagolih, npr. Dežuje, Sije, Češe (se), Pluži ceste, Stric čevljari, On rad jadra, in ver- balizirani kot /valenčna/ določila, Dež gre/pada, Sonce sije, Češe (si) lase, Odstran- juje sneg s cest s plugom / Čisti ceste s plugom, ali /modifikacijska/ dopolnila, npr. /Sončno/ je, Stric dela /kot čevljar/, On rad pluje /z jadri/), navadno prenesena raba omogoča t. i. individualne seme, npr. Cvetje dežuje, Oči sijejo, Njegovo vedenje je sončno, Natakar je jadral med mizami / Oblak je jadral po nebu ipd. Z ugotovitvijo relevantnih pomenskoskladenjskih sestavin, vključno z valenčnimi semi, ki so skupne večini pomenom določenega glagola, dobimo prevladujoči splošni skladenjski pomen, ki je za obravnavan glagol tudi najobičajnejši in najpogosteje pomensko- in strukturnoskladenjsko uporabljan. A. Žele, Valency Primitives as Dictionary Realisations 285 Valency primitives as dictionary realisations The purpose of this paper is to present valency primitives as the smallest seman- tic-expressional units, in particular for dictionary explanations. It is first necessary to distinguish between semantemes as irreducible units of lexical meaning which have no realisations of their own and primitives (or in this paper valency primitives) as the semantic-expressional units whose core content or meanings and semantic components can be realised. Valency or transitivity semantemes, as both categorical semantemes and integral/universal components of lexical meaning, can be realised through a particular kind of valency primitive, which in this case function as se- mantic-syntactic equivalents – usually verbs, as the characteristic or basic seman- tic representatives of a specific valency group, e.g. bivati (‘to be/live/exist/dwell’), čutiti (‘to feel’); govoriti/reči (‘to speak/say’), misliti (‘to think’), gledati (‘to watch’), hoteti (‘to want’), želeti (‘to wish’); delovati (‘to act’), deti (‘to put’), vzeti (‘to take’), igrati (se) (‘to play’); spreminjati (se) (‘to change’); iti (‘to go’), hoditi (‘to walk’). Subcategorical semantemes as actant semantemes or possible actant roles – including with regard to (in)definiteness, causality, and passive or active voice – are unrealised or implied in verbs such as Dežuje (‘It rains’), Sije (‘It shines’), Češe (se) (‘S/he combs (herself)’), Pluži ceste (‘S/he ploughs the roads’), Stric čevljari (‘Uncle cob- bles’), On rad jadra (‘He likes to sail’), and lexically realised as valent complements in Dež gre/pada (‘The rain is falling’), Sonce sije (‘The sun is shining’), Češe (si) lase (‘S/he combs (his/her) hair’), Odstranjuje sneg s cest s plugom / Čisti ceste s plugom (‘S/he is removing the snow from the roads with a plough’), or modifying comple- ments in /Sončno/ je (‘It is /sunny/’), Stric dela /kot čevljar/ (‘Uncle works /as a cob- bler’), On rad pluje /z jadri/ (‘He likes to go in a boat /with sails/’), while the figura- tive use usually provides for so-called individual semantemes, such as Cvetje dežuje (‘It is raining flowers’), Oči sijejo (‘The eyes shine’), Njegovo vedenje je sončno (‘His behaviour is sunny’), Natakar je jadral med mizami (‘The waiter sailed among the tables’) / Oblak je jadral po nebu (‘The cloud sailed across the sky’) and so on. By identifying the relevant semantic-syntactical features, including valency seman- temes, that are common to most of the meanings of a particular verb, we arrive at the prevailing syntactic meaning of the verb in question, which represents its most usual and frequent semantic and structural-syntactic use.