Lexicalized forms of Russian perception verbs: Structural, cognitive, and sociolinguistic aspects

The present study focuses on the lexicalized forms of the Russian perception verbs drawn from the modern dictionaries of Standard Russian. They are supplied with definitions as well as usage examples from the Russian National Corpus. The paper presents a detailed overview of the forms concerned, encompassing both their formal and semantic features. Most lexicalized forms, the way they are listed in the dictionaries, allow for certain variation in what concerns their grammatical meaning (number, person, mood) and optional extra elements. The form thus can be seen as a generalization over its particular instantiations. The lexical meaning of the forms concerned is quite diverse, ranging from cognitive to communicative to modal and expressive senses. The data at hand refute the notorious claim about the distinction between the words of seeing and hearing, the first being claimed to develop predominantly cognitive meanings and the latter, communicative ones. Given the unpredictability and non-compositionality of the lexicalized forms in both formal and semantic aspects, each can be argued to be a construction, in the special sense accorded to the term in construction grammar. Manifold relations between the lexicalized forms are identified, including taxonomic relations between the form and its instantiations, paradigmatic links between particular instantiations of a single form, as well as homonymy, polysemy, complete and partial synonymy between forms. Besides, there are indirect links between lexicalized forms of the same verb (via the verb in question); the verbs thus can be visualized as clusters of lexicalized forms. The final section of the paper is a case study of the form smotri(te) derived from the Russian verb smotret’ (‘look’) which has recently become quite frequent in both institutional communication and everyday discourse. The author expands on possible explanations of the fact, citing sociolinguistic and structural reasons as well as the overall impact of the English language.