Interaction of locative adverbials with the meaning of the predicate

A whole series of locative adverbials group around the concept of distance between two points, for example, na tri kilometra (≈ ‘by three kilometers’ or ‘three kilometers away/further’), v trёh kilometrah (≈ ‘at the point three kilometers away’), za tri kilometra ( ‘three kilometers away from here’), na rasstojanii (protjaženii) trёh kilometrov (≈ ‘at a distance of three kilometers’), na pušečnyj vystrel (≈ ‘at a cannon shot’), na bezopasnoe rasstojanie ( ‘to a safe distance’), blizko ( ‘close’), vblizi ( ‘close by’), vplotnuju ( ‘next to’), daleko ( ‘far’), vdaleke ( ≈ ‘far off’), etc. Although the value of this distance is typically quite transparent, the points delimiting it are often left implicit. We study some types of sentences in which the identification of these points is non-obvious or even ambiguous. Depending on the choice of these points, two types of adverbial interpretation should be distinguished—source-oriented and goal-oriented interpretations. The factors shaping each interpretation depend on both the verb’s meaning and the adverbial’s nature. Several specific adverbials demonstrating unusual properties are described. The adverbial na pušečnyj vystrel ( ‘at a cannon-shot distance’) has opposite meanings in a number of uses. The adverbial na bezopasnoe rasstojanie ( ‘to a safe distance’) behaves differently with goal-oriented and source-oriented verbs: in the first case, it falls within the scope of the inchoative seme present in the verb’s meaning, while in the second case it lacks this capacity. Finally, it is shown that the expression bolee čem N ( ‘more than N’) has three types of interpretation in combination with goal-oriented verbs, in one of which it is paradoxically synonymous with the expression menee čem N ( ‘less than N’).

adverbials, combinability, Russian, scope, spatial semantics