Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
ISSN 2307–1753 [16+]
Founder — Institute of Philology, SB RAS
Critique and Semiotics
Digital network scientific journal
for specialists in philology and semiotics
DOI: 10.25205/2307-1737
Roskomnadzor certificate number Эл № ФС 77-84784 
Kritika i Semiotika (Critique and Semiotics)
По-русски
Archive
Submission requirements
Process for Submission and Publication
Editor′s office
Editorial Board and Editorial Council
Our ethical principles
Search:


Email: silantev@post.nsu.ru

Article

Name: Existence as a Component of Semantics and Communicative Paradigmatic of Existential Sentences

Authors: Ilya M. Plotnikov

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Issue 1, 2024Pages 337-360
UDK: 81'367 + 81'37DOI: 10.25205/2307-1753-2024-1-337-360

Abstract:

This paper examines the use of the term existence in describing semantics and communicative variation of constructions expressing spatial relations. In the first part of the paper, the semantic status of existence is examined, arguing that the senses of existence, contrary to current tradition in Russian linguistics, can be considered separately from the sense of spatial relations. In the second part of the paper, existence is shown to be an obligatory implicit component of all utterances describing specific objects, which can manifest itself as existential presupposition or part of the assertion. In the latter cases, existence can be viewed as one of the components of communicative variation of sentence as a linguistic unit, secondary to its primary meaning. In the third part of the paper, this approach to notion of existence is applied to the analysis of the syntactic structures that expresses spatial relations. A list of main communicative variants of this structure is examined to demonstrate that in every variant the existence of its subject can be represented as a given or new piece of information to the addressee. Three main senses in which existence and location are attested in describing these variants are discussed, including a purely semantic approach, an approach based on the position of rheme in functional sentence perspective, and an approach based on formal variants of the structure. All three approaches lead to different way of categorizing communicative variants while using the same terms, making their use for typological application difficult.

Keywords: existence, location, existential proposition, typical syntactic existential structure, communicative syntax, semantic syntax, pragmatics

Bibliography:

Adamec P. Poryadok slov v sovremennom russkom yazyke [Word order in modern Russian language]. Prague, Academia, 1966, 101 p. (in Russ.)

Arutyunova N. D. Predlozhenie i ego smysl [Sentence and its meaning]. Moscow, Nauka, 1976, 383 p. (in Russ.)

Arutyunova N. D., Shiryaev E. N. Russkoe predlozhenie. Bytiynyi tip: struktura i znachenie [Russian sentence. Existential type: structure and meaning]. Moscow, Russkii yazyk, 1983, 198 p. (In Russ.)

Creissels D. Existential predication in typological perspective. 2014. URL: http://www.deniscreissels.fr/public/Creissels-Exist.Pred.pdf

Koshkareva N. B. Typical existential-spatial syntactic structures and their semantics in the Khanty and Nenets languages. Vestnik NSU. Series: History and Philology, 2018, vol. 17, no. 9, pp. 53–65. (in Russ.) DOI 10.25205/1818-7919-2018-17-9-53-65

Koshkareva N. B. Tipovye sintaksicheskie struktury v yazykakh raznykh sistem kak otrazhenie edinits yazyka i rechi [Typical syntactic structure in languages of different systems as reflection of language and speech units]. Siberian Journal of Philology, 2015, no. 2, pp. 14–26. (in Russ.)

Kovtunova I. I. Sovremennyi russkiy yazyk: Poryadok slov i aktual’noe chlenenie predlozheniya [Modern Russian: Word order and actual articulation of a sentence]. Moscow, URSS Publ., 2002, 240 p. (in Russ.)

Lambrecht K. Information structure and sentence form. Cambridge, Cambridge Uni. Press, 1994, 388 p.

Mehlig H. R. Oppozitsiya “est' vs. nulevaya forma” v russkikh bytiynykh predlozheniyakh pri otnesennosti k konkretno-predmetnym referentam: sopostavlenie s sootvetstvuyushchei konstruktsiei s glagolom haben v nemetskom yazyke [The opposition “est' vs. zero form” in Russian existential sentences when referred to specific subject referents: Comparison with the corresponding construction with the verb haben in the German language]. In: Sokrovennye smysly. Slovo. Tekst. Kul'tura [Inner meaning. Word. Text. Culture]. Collection of articles in honor of N. D. Arutyunova. Moscow, LRC Publ., 2004, pp. 437–450. (in Russ.)

Paducheva E. V. Vyskazyvanie i ego sootnesennost' s deistvitel'nost'yu: referentsial'nye aspekty semantiki mestoimenii [The utterance and its correlation with reality: referential aspects of the semantics of pronouns]. Moscow, LKI, 1985, 296 p. (in Russ.)

Plotnikov I. M. Communicative variation of the typical existential syntactic structure in the Surgut dialect of Khanty. Siberian Journal of Philology, 2023, no. 2, pp. 269–285. (in Russ.) DOI 10.17223/18137083/83/21

Sereedar N. Ch., Skribnik E. K., Cheremisina M. I. Strukturno-semanticheskaya organizatsiya predlozhenii nalichiya, lokalizatsii, kolichestva i otsutstviya v tyurkskikh yazykakh Yuzhnoi Sibiri [Structural and semantic organization of sentences of presence, localization, quantity and absence in the Turkic languages of Southern Siberia]. Novosibirsk, NSU Press, 1996, 82 p. (in Russ.)

Shmeleva T. V. Semanticheskii sintaksis: Tekst lektsii iz kursa “Sovremennyi russkii yazyk” [Semantic syntax: Text of lectures from the course on the Modern Russian language]. Krasnoyarsk, KSU Press, 1988, 54 p. (in Russ.)

Yanko T. E. Kommunikativnye strategii russkoi rechi [Communicative strategies of Russian speech]. Moscow, LRC Publ., 2001, 383 p. (in Russ.)

Institute of Philology
Nikolaeva st., 8, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
+7-383-330-15-18, ifl@philology.nsc.ru
© Institute of Philology