/Image_001.png)
UDK 81.37
Shustova S.V., Smirnova E.A., Osheva E.A.
SYSTEMACITY
and caTegorisaTion
IN FUNCTIONING OF VERBS
Shustova Svetlana Viktorovna, Doctor of Philology, Professor
Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Humanities Perm Institute of Economics and Finances
Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics Perm State National Research University
Smirnova Elizaveta Alexandrovna, PhD in Philology, Senior Lecturer
Department of Foreign Languages
Higher School of Economics at the National Research University, Perm
Osheva Elena Anatolyevna, PhD in Philology
Department of the English Language, the Institute of Foreign Languages The State University of Management, Moscow
/Image_002.png){kind=small}
АBSTRACT
T
he article focuses on the issues of systemacity in language, the category of causation, functioning of causatives of the informative-modificative class. In this article, the causation is examined from the perspective of functional approach, suggested by A. Bond- arko. A verb of causative semantics is related to a more general class on the basis of its essential properties. In the centre of our attention is a lexical causative of interpersonal
K
semantics which is the core of the functional-semantic field of causation.
/Image_003.png){kind=small}
Шустова С.В., Смирнова Е.А., Ошева Е.А.
/Image_004.png)
Шустова Светлана Викторовна, доктор филол. наук, профессор рекламы, связей с общественностью и гуманитарных дисциплин
факультет теоретической и прикладной лингвистики; Пермский институт экономики и финансов
Пермский край, г. Пермь, ул. Большевистская, 141, 614068, Россия
Смирнова Елизавета Александровна
кандидат филол. наук, старший преподаватель факультета иностранных языков
Национальный исследовательский университет, Высшая школа экономики Пермь
Ошева Елена Анатольевна
кандидат филол. наук, старший преподаватель кафедры английского языка института иностранных языков и лингвокоммуникаций в управлении Государственный университет управления; Москва, Рязанский проспект, 99, 109542, Россия
/Image_005.png){kind=small}
АННОТАЦИЯ
С
татья рассматривает вопросы систематизации в языке, категорию каузации, функ- ционирования каузативных глаголов информативно-определительного класса. Каузация рассматривается с точки зрения функционального подхода, предложенного А. Бондарко. Глагол каузативной семантики связывается с более общим классом на ос- нове существенный признаков. В центре исследования стоит лексический каузативный глагол межличностной семантики, являющийся ядром функционально-семантическо-
K
го поля каузации.
/Image_006.png){kind=small}
Introduction
In contemporary linguistics, language is seen as a system which has a level structure. “Systemacity implies not a simple stratification of levels but their strict hierarchical organiza- tion, which is subdominant when performing the whole language system’s general function of speech composition [10, p. 5]. D. Nasilov be- lieves that functional grammar emphasizes the differentiation between language as such and mental, extra-language content or language meanings and senses, contents, tasks, aims,
i.e. the presence of a dialectical connection be- tween language and thought but not their iden- tity [10, p. 44]. Language, being a sign system, is not directly connected with a communicative situation. Language acts as a tool of thought and speech – as an activity conducted with this tool [2, p. 146]. Within this framework, it is necessary to highlight the fact that interaction of semantics and syntax remains one of the cen- tral problems of contemporary linguistics. The emphasis is put on cognitive and semasiological aspects, some basic issues, the correlation be- tween language and speech, a linguistic mean- ing and an actual sense. Conceptualization of verbalization and understanding processes, according to N. Boldyrev, are connected with a dynamic categorization process: categorization of events (when composing sentences) and cat- egorization of linguistic units (when analysing and understanding them). Categorization in this case means mental relating of an event or, in our situation, a verb of causative semantics, to a more general class based on some particu- lar ideas of its essential properties, of event cat- egories [4, p. 6].
Functional grammar deals with the study of senses, contents, realized in utterances and subsequent analysis of language elements and their properties used for transferring those senses. [15, pp. 13-14]. E. Dal points out that if we imagine language as a multitude of pairs “meaning –form”, the best organized language will be the one where each form has only one meaning, and vice versa – the worst-organized language is the one where any form can have any possible meaning… Natural languages are located somewhere in the middle of the spec- trum and for their functioning as a means of communication (a system of means) a certain degree of order is necessary. Even if we cannot
set a universal measure of how well or badly organized a language is, it might be useful to consider whether the diachronic processes un- der examination are increasing the order in that system or decreasing it [7, p. 42]. … An orga- nized system needs active maintaining, other- wise it will go into destruction, in other words, return to disorder [7, p. 43].
Self-organization of language can occur not in spite of the tendency to disorder but as a re- sult of its increase. A non-equilibrium order can exist only in dissipative systems when there is an infl of energy. In the context of dissipa- tion, which is traditionally thought as a sign of structure disintegration, its variability, order arises. Referring to language, dissipation means an outfl of obsolete elements and structures which are replaced with an infl of new ones [2, p. 149].
Ch. Bally noted that languages are constantly changing but they can only function when they are not changing [3, p. 29]. Language as a sys- tem of signs exists in time and functions to ac- tualize discourse. Changes which take place in a language should be seen as a realization of the potential behind the system. Language is a sys- tem of systems (subsystems). One of such sub- systems in the fi of functional grammar is the functional-grammatical category of causation. Causation is a specific way of objective reality refl The subject matter of causation is not the transfer of knowledge, not affirmation or negation of something but stimulation of an action or a change of the object’s state.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 explores the lexico-grammatic group of in- formation-modifying verbs. Section 3 outlines the concept of functional potential and presents the main types of information-modifying caus- atives basing on empirical evidence. Section 4 deals with some functioning peculiarities of information-modifying verbs. In Section 5, we conclude our discussion.
Information-modifying verbs as ex- amples of interpersonal causatives
Causation is a fact of interpersonal co-op- eration and is examined from the perspec- tive of functional approach, suggested by A. Bondarko [see, for example, 6]. The peculiar-
ity of this approach is the use of the principle “from functions to means” as a leading one and “from means to functions” as a supporting one. The research subject of functional grammar is functioning of grammatical units and lan- guage means which interact with them in an utterance. What is meant here is a special, in its organization, system which is formed with meanings of grammatical forms, lexis, context, system of regularities and rules of functioning of language means which aim at actualization of an utterance sense.
A grammatical system of a language is not only a systematic-structural entity with signs of a static character, it is also a dynamic enti- ty developing on the basis of functioning of the system elements in a context and communi- cative situation. According to A. Bondarko, a grammatical structure is characterized by the presence of a centre (where specific attributes, which distinguish grammar from lexis, are con- centrated) and periphery (lexico-grammatic classes of different degrees of grammaticaliza- tion). Having examined the categoric situation of causation, we have concluded that the core of the functional-semantic field of causation is a lexical causative of interpersonal semantics. The verb choice is not random because the ag- gregate of its categoric meanings is various; the events, the verb denotes, are heterogeneous.
We focus on information-modifying verbs of the German and English languages com- bined into a separate subsystem on the basis of their semantic-syntactical properties. The lexico-grammatic group of information-mod- ifying verbs refers to the sphere of interper- sonal causatives, a semantic structure of a sen- tence with such verbs comprises the following components: 1) the causator; 2) the object of causation; 3) the way/means of causation.
A system meaning of a verb has a qualifying, generic meaning, although it is closely connect- ed with the conditions, the verb is functioning in, and can change under the infl of those conditions. A categoric meaning of a verb is a process meaning which is intrinsic to a verb re- gardless its lexical meaning: actions, states, re- lations are present in verbs as a process taking place in the course of time. N. Boldyrev stress-
es, that the final version of a categoric mean- ing, i.e. mental reference of this or that category to an action, property, relation is possible at a functional level [4, p. 9]. That is the essence of the categorization process. A categoric meaning of a verb is not strictly fixed on the system-par- adigmatic level, it is notable for its movability, dynamism and not necessarily integrates only something invariable-generic [4, p. 9].
By using the example of functioning of caus- ative verbs of information-modifying class we will demonstrate their peculiarities. The fol- lowing groups can be distinguished among the verbs of an information-modifying class:
causatives of proving: German: be- gründen, belegen, beurkunden, beweisen, er- weisen, nachweisen, überzeugen, argumentie- ren, ausreden, beteuern, bezeugen, hinweisen; English: to prove, to argue, to found, to base, to persuade, to admonish, to assure, to con- vince. German: Wir werden ihm die Мaske von der Fratze reißen und dem Neurer beweisen, wozu das alte Handwerk in der Lage ist [Süs- kind]; Wir werden ihm Fehler nachweisen und sie ausmerzen und es ihm auf diese Weise unter die Nase reiben: Du bist ein Pfuscher, Pelissier [Süskind]; English: He proved a hugely important thing: what this large group detested was not politics, as it seemed, but the politicians [Leipzig University Corpus (LUP)]; Murphy persuaded city council to pressure the Newfoundland Liquor Corp. to hold a pub- lic meeting over the transfer of a licence for the nearby club space [LUP]; He assured the gov- ernor that the vehicles would be put into judi- cious use to realize the purpose for which they are meant [LUP];
causatives of displaying: German: aufweisen, aufzeigen, demonstrieren, hindeu- ten, informieren, hinweisen, zeigen, erklären, aufklären, kommentieren; English: to display, to point out, to indicate, to show, to enlighten, to explain, to inform. German: Madame Ar- nulfi nachdem sie lange über die schlechten Zeiten und über ihre prekäre wirtschaftliche Lage geschrieben hatte, erklärte, dass sie sich zwar eigentlich keinen zweiten Gesellen leisten könne [Süskind]; Nahmhafte Meeres- forscher an Bord informieren auf der Fahrt
zur Tauchstelle über die “Titanic”, die Tiefsee und die Tauchtechnik [Zeit]; English: George had explained to her that he had always wanted to get married [Corpus of Contempo- rary American English (COCA)]; Lucia also in- formed us that lactic acid plays a key role in the fermentation of grapes, just as it does in cycling [COCA];
causatives of confi ng: German: bekräftigen, bescheinigen, bestärken, bezeu- gen, erhärten, behaupten, bejahen, bestätigen, billigen, genehmigen; English: to confi to testify, to give evidence, to acknowledge, to ap- prove, to avow, to claim, to grant. German: Sie bestätigt, dass nicht in den Ereignissen der Wert erzählischer Werke besteht, sondern in den Gestalten, und in diesem kurzen Roman,
..., kommen viele Getsalten herauf [Spiegel]; English: In December, he confi news reports that he was separating from Susanne Bartsch, the nightclub promoter and his wife of 15 years [COCA]; She gives evidence here today that the person who committed the murder has said that her son, Jeff, had noth- ing to do with it, and yet, he may be executed [COCA]; Radio rival Edgar Bergen acknowl- edged him as “the greatest living comedian” [COCA]; The council approved a $303 mil- lion plan to build and improve San Diego li- braries over 10 years, including a new main library downtown [LUC]; The government, led by Thaksin’s allies, consistently avows its loyalty to the crown [LUC]; However, Ja- cob claimed he had been at the residence look- ing for a friend on June 30, his lawyer Deon Geldenhuys told the court [LUC];
causatives of disproving: German: bestreiten, enkräften, einwenden, entgegnen, widerlegen, widersprechen, aufbegehren; En- glish: to disprove, to dispute, to question, to contradict, to object. German: Ich will seine gute Absicht gar nicht bestreiten, ... [Böll]; English: We disproved the Paris Hilton hy- pothesis [LUC]; Romney’s supporters strong- ly disputed the notion that Romney’s stand- ing here is weak [COCA]; Senior council offi- cials objected to the deal because the Proton type of vehicle was unknown in Zimbabwe [LUK].
This class of lexemes represents interper- sonal verbs which function as full causatives denoting “canonical” causative relations, i.e. “stimulating a person to act or change state”. The class division is based on the characteris- tics of subject-object relationship and the na- ture of the subject and object interaction. Gen- erally the meaning of causatives is actualization of transformation of an object’s mode of being. Interpersonal verbs are seen in this paper as true causatives and represent a lexico-gram- matic class of lexemes because they possess their own lexical meaning, i.e. contain a certain set of integral and differential semantic com- ponents and a broad functional potential. The seme of “causation” is seen as a categoric seme.
Functional potential of informa- tion-modifying verbs
Let us discuss the concept of functional po- tential of a language unit. A language unit pos- sesses a set of potencies which are realized in its functioning, that is why, according to A. Bondarko, a linguistic unit’s function can be studied in two aspects: potential and resulta- tive [6, p. 17]. Functions of linguistic means and their combinations can act, firstly, as existing in a language system potential assignments, purposes; secondly, as processes and results of these potencies realization in speech [6, 13, 14]. Function in a potential aspect is understood as a linguistic unit’s ability to fulfill a particular assignment and function correspondingly. A resultative aspect presupposes interaction be- tween this unit and the environment in the pro- cess of its functioning, i.e. an assignment which has fulfi its purpose in speech [6, p. 17].
Thus, following A. Bondarko, we consid- er functional potential to be a complex of po- tencies possible for a particular linguistic unit and programming its behavior in speech [5, p. 11]. Functional potential comprises evocative, stylistic, semantic, valency, pragmatic poten- tials [6, 13, 14]. A. Bondarko points out that a transformation of a potential function into a resultative one is always accompanied by some development [6, p. 18], consequently it is fair to assume that in the process of functioning a linguistic unit can fulfill more assignments than it is anticipated initially. There is an in-
verse relation: when the number of realizations of a linguistic unit increases, the number of its potencies rises as well, i.e. its functional poten- tial grows. The realisation of linguistic units’ potencies is infl but the environment where they function. Environment is seen as a multitude of linguistic elements acting as sur- roundings towards the initial system and in the interaction of these elements the system fulfills its function [6, p. 9]. To summarise, to defi
a functional potential of a linguistic unit it is necessary to study it not in isolation but in its functioning environment [15, pp. 5-6].
In their semantic potential informa- tion-modifying verbs have the meaning of “ac- quiring by a receiver some knowledge about the facts which he was unaware of before”. These verbs can be seen as mental predicates because almost all speech acts leave some mental trace in a receiver’s mind [8, pp. 82-83]. Predicates of mental impact are those which denote speech acts aiming at causation of a steady mental re- sult towards the object of causation. Achieving the causation aim is predominated by the con- tent (or aim) of infl the object by the causator. According to the nature of the mental result we can differentiate between the follow- ing types of impact aims: 1) causing the object to understand; 2) causing the object to know; 3) causing the object to reckon.
The first type is refl in the function- ing of causatives of displaying and proving: “to make something that used to be unclear under- standable”. The second type is shown by func- tioning of causatives of proving: “to replace the object’s opinion with either awareness or un- awareness which is closest to awareness”. The third type is actualized by causatives of disprov- ing, proving and confirming: “to replace the ob- ject’s opinion with another one”.
Causation of understanding refers to the cases when we deal with a lack of understand- ing of any kind: 1) intellectual: English: ex- plain why PV is considered an inexhaustible resource [COCA]; 2) psychological: German: Ich konnte es ihm nicht erklären, und ich habe bis heute keine Erklärung dafür gefunden [Böll]; English: Then teachers explained how they would respond when students were hav-
ing a diffi time with self-control, or behav- ing inappropriately [COCA]. Substitution of “to explain” with “to say” is impossible in the sim- plest cases: German: Ich kann mir das Zischen nur so erklären, dass das Hauptwerkzeug des Tieres nicht seine Krallen sind, ... [18]; English: to explain smb.’s viewpoint [11].
Causation of knowledge refers to the cases when truth in general is focused on as well as truth in a receiver (the focus is on the change of a causation object’s mental state): German: Es gibt Amerika: Bellow beweist es auf eine so eindringliche und einmalige Weise, wie Faulkner, Heminguag, Thomas Wolfe und Cummings es bewiesen haben [Böll]; English: Several of his former ministers including three who are now running against him use the president’s own words to try to prove that he is older than he says he is [COCA]; Wrongful conviction cases are seldom open-and-shut – usually they depend on DNA or other new evi- dence that undermines the government’s case, but does not always prove someone is inno- cent [COCA].
Causation of reckoning implies infl
on the mental state and is focused on a change of the object’s opinion to make him eventually change his intentions and perform a necessary action. In this case it is the mental state that is affected, subsequently there is an impact on particular actions. For example, German: Und so hatten sich beide bei ihrer kurzen Begeg- nung gegenseitig von ihrer Arglosigkeit über- zeugt, zu Unrecht und zu Recht ... [Süskind]. The causative überzeugen in the German lan- guage means an impact on the object’s men- tal state and does not fi a delivery in terms of performing of an action: überzeugen: 1 jmd. ~ jmdn. zu einer anderen Ansicht bekehren [18]. By contrast, the English equivalent of the German verb überzeugen is the verb to con- vince, involves the meaning of an action re- sult, i.e. a change of the object’s mental state which can be seen in its semantic potential: «1 Cause (someone) to believe fi in the truth of something; 2 Persuade (someone) to do something» [11], as well as in some examples of its functioning: We started calling up bands and somehow convinced them to come down
to perform [LUC]; But the conference presi- dents convinced Tranghese that all 16 squads deserved to converge on the Garden, so next March there will be an extra day [LUC].
Causative verbs of reckoning comprise “opinion” (“rational evaluation”) as one of their attributes and form a special type of a causative situation in which a caused event is a mental act. A rational evaluation may be of three types: 1) alethic (denotes a judgment’s degree of corre- spondence to the facts); 2) deontic (evaluation of an action as appropriate, allowed or prohib- ited; 3) axiological (characterizes some objects and events as good or bad ones [17, p. 6].
The spread of knowledge and understanding of facts take place for the benefit of the object and the spread of opinions – for the benefit of the causator. Causation of understanding: the object is the speaker’s associate (supporter), he wants to understand what the causator is trying to make clear (understandable) for him. The object it trying to replace misunderstanding with understanding. Causation of knowledge: the object appears to be a non-believer and in the causation process the object is an opponent: the person values his opinion and does not want to change it [8].
Causatives of proving and disproving function in the situation of an argument more frequently, for example, German: “In diesem Fall kann der Botschafter lediglich auf Unter- lassung klagen”, so der Jurist, ”allerdings hat er nur Aussicht auf Erfolg, wenn die Dame die Behauptungen über die privaten Treffen nicht beweisen kann” [Spiegel]; English: His wife convinced him not to [LUC].
For causatives of proving, the causatives of the “convince” type in particular, – German: überzeugen; English: to admonish, to convince, to persuade – the arguments are explanation of a reason. For the causatives of the “prove” type
– German: beweisen; English: to prove – the arguments have a mental character. The caus- atives of the “convince” type can affect not only the object’s mind but also his will and emotions. For example,
infl on the object’s mind: German: King ist es in einem Fall bereits gelungen, ein argentinisches Gericht mit biologischem Be-
weismaterial zu überzeugen [Kafka]; En- glish: “But I believe they can be persuad- ed that the mission is actually in Europe’s own strategic and humanitarian interest.” [LUC];
infl on the object’s emotions: Ger- man: Wie setzten sie sich nicht, wie fi sie nicht hin, sondern sahen einen mit Blicken an, die noch mehr, wenn auch nur aus der Ferne, überzeugten! [18]; English: But his mother, Nancy Blake, convinced him to give it a try [LUC];
infl on the object’s will: German: Bringen Sie mich hinaus, schnell, bringen Sie mich hinaus – sonst überzeugt er mich noch [Zeit]; English: On Monday, prosecutors charged that Stryker and Chambers persuad- ed another man to lie about who he saw with Goudey around the time she was last seen alive [LUK].
Infl on the object’s will can be accom- panied by a reference to a benefi for the object which makes the argument highly-persuasive. “Infl not the mind with arguments, but the will with incentives, then both the opponent and the listeners, provided they have the same interests, will instantly agree with your opin- ion even if it was borrowed from a lunatic asy- lum. Indeed, a lot of will mostly weighs more than a centner of speculation and persuasion” [Schopenhauer, cited from 12, p. 114]. When being persuaded, the object is exposed to a comprehensive infl Causatives of proving and disproving function in the situation, where the characteristic of “veracity” is especially rel- evant. The group of verbs with the semantics of “to persuade” in the class of causatives of prov- ing displays particular characteristics, however. It is possible to persuade with fallacies.
Causation of knowledge and understanding differs from causation of opinion by the means and manner of presentation. Consistency, log- ic, persuasiveness, cogency of arguments are especially relevant for causation of knowledge and understanding. For example, German: Die Konkurrenten BMW und Daimler-Chrys- ler beweisen bereits Sportgeist mit ihrem Engagement in der Formel 1. Der bisherige Hauptsponsor Opel war nach Vereinsanga- ben vor einigen Wochen, vorzeitig aus dem
Vertrag ausgestiegen [Spiegel]; English: We believe, based on the evidence we collected, that we could prove his guilt to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt [LUC]. Meanwhile, such aspects as emotionality, stylistic connotations, intonation patterns and presentation tone play a key role for causation of an opinion: German: Oh, vital sind wir, wir haben es bewiesen, wir ordneten den Dschungel, kauften uns ir- gendeine Art von Knigge oder ließen uns von denen ... [Zeit]; English: He pointed out how he had tried repeatedly to persuade Thomas to change his attitude but to no avail, thus sep- arating his good name from his son’s bad one [COCA].
Acting of causatives of proving, which in- clude the group of the German beweisen and the English to prove, is retrospective; and the group of the German überzeugen and the En- glish; to convince, to persuade is prospective. Causatives of proving of the German group überzeugen and the English to convince, to persuade show peculiarities of functioning in comparison to their synonyms: German: versi- chern; English: to assure. There are some sense differences among these causatives, i.e. the de- gree of categoricity actualization. Causatives of the German group überzeugen and the English to convince, to persuade consist of a “stron- ger”, more categorical opinion in their seman- tic potential than the German verb versichern and the English to assure. Epistemic states, expressed by these causatives, can be opposed one against another.
Functioning peculiarities of infor- mation-modifying verbs
In the case of causatives of proving func- tioning as predicates: German versichert, über- zeugt; English convinced, persuaded, assured the following peculiarities occur:
Combination with a negation.
In the German language there are no cases of versichert, überzeugt functioning in struc- tures with a negation. In the English language persuaded, assured do not occur in structures with a negation either. A negation has been de- tected in the structures with convinced: But he’s not convinced the state’s law is mak- ing a difference [COCA]; But the detectives
are not convinced he’s the murderer [COCA].
Occurrence of gradation.
In the English language there are some cases when the degree of categoricity is characterised
/ graded: Physicians and nutritionists are in- creasingly convinced that the dietary habits adopted by Western society over the past one hundred years make an important etiologic causative contribution to coronary heart dis- eases angina, hypertension, diabetes, and some types of cancer [COCA]; I was repeatedly as- sured, by sophisticates and illiterates alike, that the king was (or used to be) on the CIA payroll, proof more of his fiscal savvy than his political corruption [COCA]; If big news breaks after the close of trading, late traders are virtually as- sured of a quick profit or of avoiding a loss [COCA]; As they scour the history of Al Qaeda for clues about its future, American officials say they are increasingly persuaded that the group gained its new operational abilities and ruthlessness in 1998 [COCA]; It took them two days, but they finally persuaded her to give the World 600 a try [COCA].
In the German language there are no exam- ples of gradation with versichert. By contrast, there are quite a lot such examples with über- zeugt, for example, ... und Bendrix ... ist fest überzeugt, dass sie einen neuen Liebhaber hat ... [Böll]; ... ich bin übrigens fest über- zeugt, mein Leben schlecht genutzt zu ha- ben [Böll]; Und wenn die Methode auch nicht genügte, Grenouilles Nase vollkommen zu überzeugen, ... [Süskind].
The German fest, vоllkommen and the En- glish fi are used to express a high degree of the state of conviction. When repeatedly is used an indefinite frequency of an action is ac- tualized which testifies that there is not action limit of the verb assure in the English language. The absence of an action limit of this verb is also exposed in functioning of virtually. The adverbs repeatedly, virtually, instantly rather actualize an emotional evaluation.
Compatibility with a non-propositional object.
In the English language there are no such constructions with persuaded however, there are some rather rare examples with convinced:
We don’t take a case on unless we are con- vinced of the person’s innocence [COCA]; However, Daviss isn’t convinced of Rosen’s conclusions [COCA]; assured: For example, investors who earlier settled with Prudential in class actions for a small fraction of their in- vestment are excluded from sharing in a fund of $371 million set up in October to repay some losses by customers who had been falsely as- sured about the safety and returns of the partnerships [COCA]; If someone is making the same thing over and over, Santiago says you can be assured of the quality [COCA]; He said he would send Eddie a text message when they could return, when he was as- sured of the project’s future [COCA].
In the German language a non-proposition- al object and versichert are not compatible, but they are compatible with überzeugt, for exam- ple: Und so hatten sich beide bei ihrer kurzen Begegnung gegenseitig von ihrer Arglo- sigkeit überzeugt, ... [Süskind]; Doch der De- tektiv spürt nichts Handgreifl es auf: einige Kirchenbesuche, Zusammenkünfte mit Richard Smith, einem Hydepark –Fanatiker, der durch ein Feuermal im Gesicht entstellt ist, und von dessen Harmlosigkeit sich Bendrix selbst überzeugt [Zeit].
It is no coincidence that there is the prohi- bition on the use of combinations of non-prop- ositional objects and the English persuaded and the German versichert. Possible objects of these predicates can be the objects which are enclosed in thought and thought is an entity of a propositional nature.
Type of secondary proposition if any. There are no examples of secondary prop-
osition for the predicates versichert (German) and assured (English). There are some rare examples with the English persuaded: Ker- stin was admitted to hospital in Amstetten, west of Vienna, in an unconscious state after Elisabeth persuaded Fritzl that she needed medical attention [LUC]; But I believe they can be persuaded that the mission is actual- ly in Europe’s own strategic and humanitari- an interest [LUC]. The presence of secondary proposition is typical of the German überzeugt;
and the English convinced: German: Ich war überzeugt, dass jede Bewegung und jed- er Gedanke gezwungen seien, dass man sich daher vor ihnen hüten solle [18]; En- glish: But Craig said he was convinced that the federal investment, which the Treasury may be able to recoup, would bring stabil- ity to fi markets [LUC]; The pro- fessor says he’s convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously [LUC]. In such a case we are talking about verifiable propositions, i.e. prototypical situations.
5. Conclusions
To conclude, a word’s meaning is linked with its functional categorisation, i.e. lexical and grammatical categorization simultaneously within one utterance. In this case a sentence is taken as an utterance unit as an independent linguistic component of the functional level. According to N. Boldyrev, functional categori- zation is based on the principles of actualiza- tion (realization of a system (inherent) mean- ing) re-categorisation (re-thinking of the inher- ent meaning), poly-categorisation (realization of several meanings simultaneously) and also grammatisation (desemantization and decat- egorisation (neutralisation) of the inherent meaning [4]. Efficiency of these principles de- pends on the integrative work of functional cat- egorization factors: lexical meaning of a word, meaning of its grammatical form, general struc- tural meaning of the sentence-utterance, the closest linguistic context in the form of all the elements of the sentence-utterance; (unlike the system-paradigmatic meaning these factors act not a predicting opportunities of verb seman- tics but as real connections in particular types of structures, particular lexical-grammatical composition. As for the cognitive mechanism of functional word categorization, it is realized via conceptual characteristics of a correspond- ing category, i.e. its prototypical characteristics [16]. Every language subsystem, the category of causation included, is closely connected with language in its broad meaning being its com- ponent and when exploring a language area we also perceive language itself.
REFERENCES:
Amatov A.M. 2003. Cause-and-effect Con- nections on Different Language Levels. Mos- cow: Moscow Pedagogical University. 220 p.
Amatov A.M. 2010. System Arrangement of a Natural Language: Determinism or Chaos. Tomsk state pedagogical university bulletin. No 7(97). Pp. 146-150.
Bally Ch. 2001. General Linguistics and Is- sues of the French Language. Moscow: URSS.
Boldyrev N.N. 2009. Functional Categoriza- tion of the English Verb. 2nd edition. Moscow: Librokom. 144 p.
Bondarko A.V. 1971. Aspect and Tense of the Russian Verb (meaning and use). Moscow: Prosveschenie. 239 p.
Bondarko A.V. 2013. Principles of Functional Grammar and Issues of Aspectology. Mos- cow: Librokom. 208 p.
Dal Oesten. 2004. The Growth and Mainte- nance of Linguistic Complexity.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Glovinskaya M.Ya. 1993. Russian Speech Acts with the Meaning of Mental Pressure. Log- ical analysis of language. Mental actions. Moscow: Science.
10. Great English-Russian Dictionary: in 2 vol- umes. 1972. Ed. by I.R. Galperin. Moscow.
11. Nasilov D. M. 2001. [“Meaning” and “Func- tion” in A.V. Bondarko’s Functional Gram- mar. Research in linguistics: collection of works for A.V. Bondarko’s 70th jubilee. St-Pe- tersburg: St. Peterburg University Press. Pp. 44-50.
12. Oxford Dictionary. URL: http:// oxforddictionaries.com (date of access: Jan- uary 25, 2015).
Povarnin S.I. 1990. Dispute: on the Theory and Practice of Dispute. Issues of philosophy. No. 3.
Shustova S.V. 2011. Potential of Causative Verbs in the Dynamic-Functional aspect. Perm: Perm state University. 421 p.
Shustova S.V. 2013. On the Issue of Func- tional Potential of a Linguistic Unit (the case of semantic and syntactic valency). Historical and social-educational idea. No. 3. Pp. 161- 164.
Smirnova E.A. 2014. Functional Potential of English Verbs with Incorporated Actants. Perm: Prikamsky Social Institute.
Vinogradova S.G. 2002. Categorial and Sub- categorial Meanings of English Existential Verbs in a Poetic Text. Tambov: Tambov State University.
Voronova S.K. 1991. Semantics and Syntax of Constructions with the Causation of Opin- ion Verbs in the Contemporary English Lan- guage. St Petersburg.
Wahrig G. 2000. Deutsches Wörterbuch.
Bertelsmann Lexicon. Verlag
daTa sourses
1. Böll Heinrich. 1985. Zur Verteidigung der Waschküchen. Schriften und Reden. 1952-1959. Köln: Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch. 335 p.
Corpus of Contemporary American English. URL: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ (date of access: December 25, 2014)
Die Zeit http://www.zeit.de/index (date of ac- cess: December 25, 2014)
Der Spiegel http://www.spiegel.de/ (date of ac- cess: December 25, 2014)
Leipzig University Corpus. http://corpora.infor- matik.uni-leipzig.de/ (date of access: Decem- ber 25, 2014)
Süskind Patrik. Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders. Zürich: Diogenes Verlag AG Zürich, 1994. 320 p.
/Image_007.png){kind=small}