Abstract
The article examines color verbs in -sja and their non-sja counterparts (such as belet'sja and belet'). The data analysis reveals that the color verbs in -sja represent a deictic feature of "distance" between the speaker/narrator (PS) and the described object (Pn c). Color verbs (both with and without -sja) may be used in existential as well as descriptive statements, with VS and SV word order respectively. The analysis of examples with human Pn c demonstrates that the object is perceived as a silhouette. All of these findings, however, even though they are part of the competence of native speakers of Contemporary Standard Russian (CSR), represent the state of the past. In CSR, preference is given to the non-sja counterparts of the color verbs.
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Israeli, A. The Speaker as Observer: Russian Color Verbs in -sja and Deixis. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 45, 253–270 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009686010420
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009686010420