STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF CONSTRUCTIONS ORGANIZED BY PREDICATES OF REGRET IN MODERN ENGLISH

STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF CONSTRUCTIONS ORGANIZED BY PREDICATES OF REGRET IN MODERN ENGLISH

Author:  A.V. Semkova, T.A. Nikolaeva

Affiliation:  North-Eastern Federal University

Abstract:  The article deals with the analysis of prototypical and non-prototypical constructions organized by the verbs denoting “regret” in Modern English. Analysis shows that all the constructions expressing regret are semantically close. It is the prototypical situation of regret that semantically binds these constructions together, as it is an extra linguistic domain potentially existing in the speaker’s mind. It is verbalized through constructions with the predicates of regret. Figure and ground dimensions are observed in the model of the prototypical situation of regret. Constructions that categorize the prototypical situation are not semantically equivalent to each other. Prototypical constructions verbalize the situation in the best way and without the mixture of other dimensions. They are the most common and the most frequently used by the speaker. Non-prototypical constructions categorize the prototypical situation differently. On the one hand, the ground dimensions make figure in such construction, because the speaker’s attention is concentrated upon them. On the other hand, non-prototypical constructions may categorize some additional dimensions observed in different prototypical situations, for example, “unwillingness”, etc. Prototypical approach to grammar study enables to analyze even the most unusual sentences regarded as exceptions in traditional grammar and systemically describe the corpus of constructions verbalizing regret.

Keywords:  categorization, prototypical situation, prototypical construction, non-prototypical construction, figure, ground, dimension.

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Pages:  148-153