Verbu desemantizēšanās un konstrukcijas „ņemt/sēdēt un V” aspektuālās pazīmes
Desemantization of verbs and aspectual features of the construction “take/sit and V”

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to examine two Latvian verbs ņemt ‘take’ un sēdēt ‘sit’ which, being desemanticized, form a construction with the conjunction un ‘and’ and the other verb to express various aspectual features. Each construction has respectively perfective and imperfective semantics designated by ņemt and sēdēt and are used together with a verb of the respective aspect. While the ņemt-construction implies an unexpected introduction of a new situation, the sēdēt-construction emphasizes a longer term of the action, indicating the subject’s obvious posture and representing the situation denoted by the second verb in a more evident way. Desemantization degree is higher for the verb ņemt than the verb sēdēt. Its aspectual counterpart is the prefixed verb paņemt, which is significantly less attested in the construction, since it keeps its lexical meaning. Due to a subjective meaning, especially for the ņemt-construction, the constructions would not become stylistically neutral and fully grammaticalize. However, both constructions represent an undirect and non-random aspectual expression thanks to the verbs’ semantic interaction with the other verbs.

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