Implikativna svojstva ingresivnog aspektualizatora početi u romanima Besnilo i Sentimentalna povest Britanskog carstva Borislava Pekića

Abstract

This paper addresses constructions comprized of the ingressive aspectualizer početi followed by a verb complement. The verb početi is a phase verb which refers to the initial phase of its durative complement, but it is also considered an implicative verb, i.e. a verb which implies the truth or falsity of what is stated in the complement clause they introduce (see Karttunen 1971; Batistić 1979). Despite the fact that it can be classified as an implicative verb, početi can also have non-implicative properties depending on the aktionsart of the verb in the complement position. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to check aktionsart combinations with which this ingressive aspectualizer has implicative, i.e. non-implicative features. As regards the theoretical framework, we relied on Vendler (1957), as well as Novakov (2005, 2016a, 2016b) and Lazović (2020), especially when referring to the notions such as telicity and boundedness which are of great relevance for our analysis. We hypothesized that the verb početi would have an implicative meaning followed by a state, activity, achievement, and semelfactive, i.e. a non-implicative meaning followed by an accomplishment. A total of 53 sentences were analyzed, taken from two novels by Borislav Pekić – Besnilo and Sentimentalna povest Britanskog carstva. The results revealed that the verb početi did not allow perfective complements as a result of which it could not combine with achievements and semelfactives denoted by perfective verbs only in the Serbian language. Finally, the verb početi had implicative propertities in all the examples analyzed in this paper, i.e. when combined with states, activitites, and accomplishments.