Polyprefixal verbs with semantics of accumulation in psycholinguistic experiment

Prefix НА- along with other productive secondary prefixes is anadditional means of semantic expansion of the verb. Russian polyprefixal composites with this prefix are an open dynamic system that isconstantly updated with new units. Such verbs operate mainly in colloquial speech and are characterized by high expressiveness.According to most researchers, the secondary prefix HA- attached to the verb appears only in one meaning - cumulative. This meaningis semantically close to the meanings of repeated action, multi-object and / or multi-subject features, intensity. Despite the currentstudies (as well as individual comments) devoted to the description of polyprefixal verbs, it seems urgent to use the psycholinguisticexperiment to fill the existing gaps in research of the polyprefixal units. The experimental study of verbs with the prefix HA- aims toidentify the perception of the considered units by the Russian speakers. Thus, a series of psycholinguistic experiments (forming, directedassociative, free (chain) associative) among respondents with humanitarian, medical and technical education, the age of the subjectsranged from 17 to 40, was held. As part of the experiment informants were to correlate the verb with the prefix HA- with acorresponding meaning (cumulative, distributive deminutive, and others) given in the questionnaire. To identify the psychologically realmeaning of polyprefixal verbs with cumulative semantics and meanings of certain verbs experiments were designed and carried outaimed at selecting similars (reactions with a similar or identical meaning in relation to the proposed units) and opposites (with oppositereactions to the word-stimulus meanings), and a free association experiment. The results of the experiments show that the cumulativesemantics is recognized by the Russian speakers, but is diffuse, as in some cases respondents correlated the meaning of accumulationwith the meaning of distribution. Furthermore, we can say that the perception of the action denoted by the composites is closely relatedto its evaluation as positive or negative, as the semantics of the analysed units has semes of estimation of the measure of action and itsusefulness, usability, suitability or harm to humans. Thus, the psycholinguistic experiment allowed to identify and describe both thenuclear and peripheral meanings of polyprefixal verbs indicated by the prefix HA- revealed the development of polysemy of the unitsand a high degree of their use in modern Russian.

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