A Theory of Lexical Prefixation, Argument Structure and Asymmetric Entailment

The article offers a few generalizations about the meaning of lexical prefixes in Russian and addresses their theoretical implications. Lexical prefixes are one of the two main classes of Slavic prefixes, which have been explicitly identified in the literature at least since Babko-Malaya 1999. The generalizations, which are based on the data on asymmetric entailment from prefixed to prefixless configurations, connect the argument structure of a lexical prefix to the type of its interpretation. I assume that the verb phrase projected by a verb with a lexical prefix denotes a relation between events and result states. Prefixes possess argument structure and fall into two types, monadic and dyadic, depending on the number of their individual arguments. Monadic prefixes denote result states directly. Dyadic prefixes describe a spatial relation between Figure and Ground. This relation is further identified as the result state of an eventuality denoted by the verb stem. Combining the projection of a prefix with the verb stem is subject to regular rules of semantic composition. Additionally, semantic operations from a very limited repertoire can be utilized, in particular, causative shift and existential closure. Causative shift takes a description of result states and makes a relation between states and causing events out of it. Existential closure binds the internal argument of the verb stem and outputs a predicate of events. After existential closure, the stem and the projection of a prefix are put together by the rule of construal known as event identification.