The Statistic Verification of a Semantically Based Hypotheses: Russian Verbs of Volition: Хотеть and Хотеться

21 Pages Posted: 15 May 2015

See all articles by Anastasia Bonch-Osmolovskay

Anastasia Bonch-Osmolovskay

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

Date Written: April 15, 2015

Abstract

This paper investigates the semantic distribution of two morphological forms of the Russian verb of volition хотеть. Three hypotheses for semantic grounds for the grammatical distribution are proposed. The hypotheses are checked by statistical analysis of distribution of the infinitive made on the data obtained from the National Russian Corpus. The analysis reveals groups of verbs which show more deviation in their behavior when used with one of the volition verbs than would be expected. The results of the analysis do not favor any of the preliminary hypotheses. A close-up look at the semantics of the constructions with the infinitives that show non-standard behavior helps to understand the semantic opposition realized by the two constructions.

Keywords: Russian language, construction grammar, desiderative constructions, quantitative methods in linguistics

JEL Classification: Z

Suggested Citation

Bonch-Osmolovskay, Anastasia, The Statistic Verification of a Semantically Based Hypotheses: Russian Verbs of Volition: Хотеть and Хотеться (April 15, 2015). Higher School of Economics Research Paper No. WP BRP 22/LNG/2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2606642 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2606642

Anastasia Bonch-Osmolovskay (Contact Author)

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) ( email )

Myasnitskaya street, 20
Moscow, Moscow 119017
Russia

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