Verbs, particles, prefixes and lexical aspect

Abstract

In this thesis I elaborate on a few notions in order to show what is the function of the particle and the prefix in the event structure of contact through motion verbs I demonstrate that although both particle and prefix essentially change the lexical aspect of the verb and often add a resultative meaning to it, this is not always the case. I show that contact through motion verbs augmented with particle that take surface as a direct object are still conceptualized as verbs of contact with the surface and that their event structure, at least for some speakers, does not change as the particle is bleached. I also demonstrate that in Polish prefixed contact-through-motion verbs taking surface as a direct object have simple event structures and that prefix adds directional meaning modifying the 'touching' component of the verb's meaning. On such an approach verbs augmented with particles/prefixes are associated with the Incremental Theme semantic role, which argues against Levin (2005). My analysis also opposes the analysis of Spencer and Zaretskaya (1993) that a prefix, while added to contact-through-motion verbs in Slavic, has the semantic function of Resultative Phrase as well as those of Svenonius (2004) and Ramchand (2008) that treat prefixes as resultative heads.