Verb-nominal descriptions in modern oral Russian speech: the experience of analysis

Orlova Mariya Vladimirovna Postgraduate student; Faculty of Philology; Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, sq. 10 mriaorlova@gmail.com

1. Introduction

It is known that in the Russian language, along with verbal lexemes, ambiguous constructions are actively used, which in the Russian linguistic tradition are commonly called descriptive predicates or verb-nominal descriptions (this is the term that will be used in this work), combinations of the verb type of weakened lexical meaning [1: 43], called explicator [2: 42], a compensator [3:158] or an interpreter [4: 11]^[1], + " the abstract name of an action, condition, quality" [2:72]: see take a step, give advice, make a decision, etc. Researchers have repeatedly noted the frequent use of descriptions in the language of the XVII-XIX centuries (see ^[5], as well as in official business style texts throughout the history of the Russian literary language. The literature regularly emphasizes the stylistic labeling of such constructions: according to a common point of view, the description used instead of the one-word correlate serves as its "stylistic variant of book coloring, [...] associated with professional and business features of speech" [2: 73].

As a result of the prevailing understanding of the stylistic specifics of such phrases, their role in oral speech turns out to be practically unexplored. In this regard, it seems extremely urgent to study the descriptions that are reproduced or produced in unprepared oral speech, and compare these combinations in terms of their composition, semantics and functions with the turns characteristic of written texts.

10 Russian-language podcasts^[2] (audio broadcasts distributed on the Internet) recorded in 2020 were selected as the material for the study. The most adequate task for studying the functioning of descriptions in unprepared colloquial speech is the format of the conversational genre, involving a free dialogue between two or more interlocutors. Podcasts differ in the number of presenters (from two to five), as well as in their age (from 20 to 45 years old) and gender (presenters are only women, only men or mixed groups). The study analyzed 10 issues of each of the podcasts (i.e., a total of 100 issues). The article will present the results of the analysis of this material from the point of view of the use by speakers of verb-nominal descriptions with the verbalizers do/do, give/give, conduct/ conduct, conduct as the most frequent verbs in the composition of descriptions that can be combined with a wide range of action names.

The central subject of the analysis is the alleged basis for the use of a description instead of a correlative verb. Since such combinations are often characterized in the literature as constructions characteristic of bookish, written speech, whereas for oral speech, compliance with the principle of saving speech efforts and the use of simplified ways of expressing thought is postulated, it is an important task to find out whether descriptions are really uncharacteristic of spoken speech and what functions they can perform in it.

2. Descriptions that do not have a correlative verb

The obvious reason for using the description seems to be the absence of a verb in the language with which this turnover could be replaced. Often, borrowed words, from which verbs were not formed in the Russian language, act as substantive components in the composition of such combinations:

(1) I made a decomposition, which means my earnings, in order to understand how much I should charge for the session ... ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 10/14/2020)

(2) I'm not trying to compliment the sellers in Pyaterochka or the neighbors there... ("We broke up", issue dated 06/23/2020)

(3) Let's take a break from traveling and call Alfa-Bank. ("The Money came", issue dated 08/28/2020)

Special mention should also be made of combinations in which the position of the substantive component is occupied by a name borrowed in recent years, which has been mastered to a greater or lesser extent by the Russian language. Nouns such as lexemes of the Russian language are not deverbatives and, moreover, usually do not act as producers for new verbs, as a result of which they acquire the ability to express actional semantics only by joining the verbalizer:

(4) We were also not taught how to present ourselves, how to do networking... ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 10/14/2020)

(5) ^[1] I thought that I had been doing a podcast for five years and... ^[2] And I've been doing promotion for zero years. ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 02/13/2020)

(6) [You need] to think about what is important to you, to make a reassessment of your life, that is, to write what you have done in your life ... ("Come on garlic", issue dated 08/05/2020)

(7) So, when I was doing a review of this and, well, everything I found on the Internet that I could reach... ("The Fashion Clan", issue dated 10/15/2020)

(8) I came up with a reality show, can I host a reality show pitch live now? ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 03/19/2020)

Russian Russian is characterized by the fact that nominal lexemes borrowed from the English language are combined with various verbalizers (do /do, hold, lead) and the descriptions formed with their help express various shades of action semantics, which is characteristic of combinations with native Russian or long-mastered Russian nouns. So, in example (8), typical meanings of combinations with verbs of movement (to lead, to conduct, to conduct) are expressed, such as "the ability to last in time", "dynamism", "controllability" [6: 127], allowing such descriptions to be attributed to the taxonomic category of "activities" (cf. normative combinations to conduct work, to trade, to fight, to have a conversation) — about "homogeneity", "futility" as important signs of actions called such constructions, see also [7:12].

Separately, we should focus on two types of phrases with borrowed nouns, which it is possible to distinguish in accordance with their main functions. Russian Russian nouns are used as part of the descriptions of the first type, which, as it seems, have already been sufficiently mastered by the Russian language: even if these lexemes are not yet recorded in dictionaries, they are used extremely often, since they name phenomena that do not have a designation among the native Russian lexemes. These are words such as disclaimer, cuming out, screenshot, pitch (ing), flash mob, hashtag. Russian Russian nouns require transposition into the predicate function to the same extent as native Russian lexemes, and, lacking the typical morphemic structure of a Russian noun, they hardly become productive for verbs, as a result of which transposition occurs due to their inclusion in the description.

The constructions of the second type differ from those described above in that their nominal component is occasional borrowings that have not been mastered by the Russian language and do not denote some fundamentally new reality for which a special name is needed. For such nouns, as a rule, it is possible to find equivalents among native Russian names or borrowings that have long been mastered by the language, and for combinations with them — one-word verbal correlates or combinations similar in meaning, cf. to do dutis ‘to perform duties; to do household chores’, to do networking ‘to make connections’, to do promotion ‘to promote; to engage in promotion’, make a reassessment ‘review, reassess’, make a resolution ‘make a decision’, make a research‘, give feedback ’give feedback'.

It seems that the causes of such combinations may be different. In some cases, they reflect the speaker's personal preferences, the influence that active interaction with the English language has on his idiolect. In particular, it seems that frequent collision with the corresponding lexemes in English-language texts, primarily in well-defined contexts and specific stable combinations (see household duties and domestic duties ‘household chores’, New Year's resolutions ‘decisions taken on the eve of the new year’), can lead to a faster activation of these lexemes when choosing the right word in speech.

Contexts of this kind include the only occurrence of a description with an English noun among the analyzed material, which the speaker pronounces in accordance with the rules of English phonetics, without adapting it to the patterns of Russian pronunciation (in the example, it is transmitted in Latin):

(9) Since last week, I have made a great effort to reduce my screen time greatly... ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 09/23/2020)

It seems that in this example, the lexeme effort is quite possible to replace it with the Russian noun effort without loss of meaning, which also forms a description with the same verbal component. In this case, it is really possible to talk only about the specific idiolect of the speaker, who, when selecting lexemes in his speech, draws in parallel from the dictionaries of two languages.

At the same time, when using combinations of this kind, one can assume a conscious strategy of the speaker, for whom the name used in the description and the correlative Russian noun do not act as complete synonyms. Thus, the meaning of the noun networking ‘making acquaintances, forming connections’ can only be partially likened to the semantics of the corresponding Russian combinations, since its meaning is already: it always implies the idea of the usefulness of a relationship to move up the career or social ladder.

The semantics of the lexeme research also does not fully coincide with the meaning of the Russian noun research (the meaning of which is formulated in ^[8] through a reference to the interpretations of the verb explore — ‘to subject (expose) to scientific consideration in order to cognize, find out what-L.’ and ‘carefully examine (examine) someone, something, carefully familiarize (get acquainted) with something. to establish, to find out what-L.’). The use of the noun research, firstly, does not imply the context of the academic activity of the subject, and secondly, weakens the semantic component of an in-depth, thorough, long-term consideration of the issue.

It is also characteristic that in combinations with native and borrowed nouns, apparently, different verbalizers are used. Russian Russian syntax often performs the function of adapting a borrowed word to the most broad-valued verb, the "prototypical" verbalizer to do, the combination with which is presented in context (7). As part of the description with the Russian noun, the study uses a verbalizer that allows a more nuanced description of the situation to carry out, actualizing the idea of the long-term activity of the subject in accordance with some predetermined plan.:

(10) There are so many studies that are currently being conducted about phones, except that they are only conducting about coronavirus now. ("As it happened", issue dated 10/30/2020)

Russian Russian dictionary In other cases, the original noun is used as part of the description, which does not have a correlative verb in the vocabulary of the Russian language (including those that lost it during the development of the Russian language, cf. speech, etc.-Rus. speech):

(11) In some remote part of Russia, in general, shamans gathered and decided to hold a ceremony against the coronavirus ... ("Culmination", issue dated 09/01/2020)

(12) This is where I'm talking about the family resource. ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 10/14/2020)

In some cases, a formally correlative verb exists for the substantive component of the description, but expresses a fundamentally different meaning, and therefore it is impossible to replace the description with a one-word correlate, cf. notice and make a remark, observe and make observations, talk and negotiate:

(13) That is, in order for us to really make some kind of remark to the children, we need them, I don't know, just yelling there, laughing... ("Give birth first", issue dated 02/25/2020)

(14) It seems to me that holidays in general are precisely the time of such subtle observations that you may not do at other times. ("Give birth First", issue dated 01/21/2020)

(15) We have been negotiating for a week on what terms we are moving in together. ("We broke up", issue dated 06/02/2020)

In some cases, the semantics of a noun is in principle identical to the semantics of a producing or derived verb, but the noun is much more conventional than a little-used verb. Thus, the verb to revise in modern language is used mainly in the literal sense and is not reinterpreted as a designation of a household situation, unlike the noun revision:

(16) Because, realistically, if I had conducted an audit of my apartment, I would have collected a lot of things and decided to sell them... ("The Money came", issue dated 09.10.2020)

In some cases, the use of a description instead of a verbal lexeme leads to a kind of "terminological" nomination of an action, cf. the verb to press and a combination of sports jargon to do a leg press, the verb to reshoot and a combination of movie jargon to do a reshoot, the verb to complicate and a combination with the medical term to give complications:

(17) There were two fuckers who: so, so, damn, I have a workout, I'm late, I urgently need to eat cottage cheese from a container, and you did a leg press, and you did this with dumbbells? ("Diko skuzate", issue dated 06/07/2020)

(18) He was also allowed to make a director's version, but was forbidden to make reshoots... ("Climax", issue dated 05/26/2020)

(19) It must be understood that children can be a source of infection, carry the infection asymptomatically and spread it in a family where there are elderly people, people with chronic cardiovascular diseases, for whom, in principle, this infection can give complications, it is quite difficult... ("First give birth", issue dated 03/17/2020)

The examples above are partly correlated with the stable combination of making an offer, in which the elimination of the actant of the content implies an unambiguous interpretation — interpretation of the situation as a marriage proposal:

(20) But this commit takes place in the traditional form of a marriage proposal, well, literally, that is, like, you just have to make an offer. ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 03/19/2020)

3. Descriptions with the distributor under the name

One of the most frequently mentioned reasons in the literature for choosing an ambiguous expression of an action value is the need to spread using a numeral (or other quantifier word) or a consistent definition that is unable to enter into a subordinate relationship with a verbal lexeme, but can form a combination with a noun (see, for example, [9: 90] and [2: 447]). In this regard, the communicative significance of descriptions seems to be extremely high, since combinations with an adjectival distributor with a name allow the speaker to characterize the situation in those aspects that cannot be reflected in an utterance with a verbal lexeme.

In some examples of this kind, a qualitative adjective is used as a definition for a name, which emphasizes one or another aspect of the situation, expresses its assessment by the speaker:

(21) ^[1] That is, [...] it is not the brain that transmits signals to the body, but the body transmits signals to the brain... ^[2] No, the brain gives defective commands back. ("We broke up", issue dated 06/9/2020)

(22) Vovan, you [...] Google a little bit and don't like to give just rash answers. ("Give birth first", issue dated 02/11/2020)

(23) In general, it seems to me that during these eight days we have not had a single meaningful conversation. ("The Money came", issue dated 08/28/2020)

In other cases, the adjective refers the process or action indicated by the name to a certain class of situations, narrows the range of possible denotations of the name:

(24) ^[1] So maybe... you need to... change the protocol just then? To measure the time required for each child's training... ^[2] To do a blind randomized trial. ("Give birth First", issue dated 01/28/2020)

(25) We do not give advice in principle, and we do not give medical advice three times. ("Give birth first", issue dated 02/04/2020)

Of particular interest is the following context, which reflects the result of an atypical transformation:

(26) I'm just comparing this feeling, when you cleaned up and threw a lot of things out of the closet, for example... for example, you did a once-in-a-season wardrobe analysis [...], then it becomes easier to breathe. ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 09/22/2020)

If in the majority of contexts an expression with a definition with a name can be transformed into a construction with a circumstance with a verb only with loss of meaning, or transformation is in principle impossible, then in this example the opposite situation can be observed: a circumstance once in a season seems to be absolutely normative, whereas a definition once in a season is occasional. It can be assumed that the aspectual characteristic of the situation becomes the decisive factor for the use of the description: the circumstance expressing the idea of repeatability is used once a season with the NSV verbs (to disassemble once a season, to come once a season, etc.), whereas in the context (26) the speaker needs to designate a single action and attribute it to a certain type of situations.

It should also be noted separately descriptions that, as a rule, are not used without definition with a substantive component, such as to lead a life and lead a lifestyle. Despite the correlation of these combinations with the verb to live, descriptions are always used in statements whose task is to give some qualitative characteristic of the existence of the subject:

(27) Therefore, we hope that you will also laugh with our beautiful stories about how we are trying to lead a beautiful life. ("Diko skuzate", issue dated 08/29/2020)

(28) He also began to lead such a sloppy, in short, lifestyle, there, drinking, smoking ... ("Culmination", issue dated 09/01/2020)

In addition, the nominal component can also be propagated using a determinative subordinate clause introduced by a relative pronoun which:

(29) The coolest gift that you or your friends have ever given to anyone? ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 01/23/2020)

(30) I usually have such conversations, even those that relate to the urgent, very generalizing, very global somehow... ("Give birth first", issue dated 03/17/2020)

The ability to spread verbatim determinative adjuncts brings actional nouns closer to the subject and contributes to the "reification" of the designated situation. It seems that in sentences of this type, the phenomenon of "objectification" of the situation is realized more vividly than in combinations with an adjective, since a noun + adjective phrase can (at least theoretically) be put in relation to a verb + adverb phrase, cf. lead a beautiful life in context (27) and live beautifully. On the contrary, sentences with a definite subordinate clause in the name as part of the description cannot be transformed into sentences with a verb, which emphasizes the special status of such a construction and its difference from one-word correlates.

In addition, in some cases, the verb itself acts as a definition that contributes to the "reification" of the situation indicated by the name, which makes up the description together with the noun, in the form of a passive participle. In this case, the syntactic dependence between the components of the description changes, and the verb form becomes a subordinate element.:

(31) This story struck everyone, well, because in a sense it's just a rape done for the sake of an investigation, which, we assume, could have been done by much simpler means. ("So it turned out", issue dated 05.11.2020 "Where do the boundaries of my body end?", 2:08)

Descriptions with numerals and other quantity designations also perform an important communicative function, since they allow quantifying an action, representing it as a point on the time axis among others:

(32) I'm terribly stuck with "hario", and I can't finish the portion that is offered, that is, if they pour me some, in general, I take a few sips there, and, as it were, soryan ... ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 02/27/2020)

(33) Do you understand that a prosthesis is essentially a glass that is put on the arm [...], and it can make only two movements ... ("Poepizodny klan", issue dated 10/15/2020)

(34) In short, now that time has passed, [...] I realize that I have made a lot of mistakes. ("Diko skuzate", issue dated 08/11/2020)

It seems that the phenomenon of "reification", "objectification" of an actional situation when using a description with a numeral is realized especially intensively, since the very essence of the grammatical meaning of actionality implies a fundamental incalculability, in contrast to grammatical objectivity as the categorical semantics of a noun. Combinations with a numeral in a name can be characterized as the next step in the quantification of an action situation after quantitative methods of verbal action (when used, "the action is specified in relation to the one-act or multiplicity of its commission" or "presented as indefinitely prolonged, repeatedly repeated" [10: 596]). In the second case, the action specificity of the situation is still reflected in the statement, although it receives a quantitative assessment, in the first case, the situation acquires grammatical characteristics of the subject.

4. Descriptions with subject meaning (cases of incomplete grammaticalization)

A group of contexts with verbalizers from the do/do type pair is also characteristic, in which the background semantics of object creation inherent in verbs in their nominative meaning is actualized. In this case, the name embodies the meaning of processality, work on some material, and at the same time denotes the result of this action:

(35) Anyway, before anyone, even the coolest one, starts doing design, I need to tell you what to do and how. ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 08/27/2020)^[3]

(36) We made repairs in the kitchen, we painted the walls... ("We broke up", issue dated 05/12/2020)

In other words, when nominating a situation with the help of a verbal lexeme, some separate (repaired) object acts as the implied material result of the subject's actions, when using a description — a new state of space. This observation allows us to conclude once again that the communicative significance of descriptions consists, among other things, in their ability to create a fundamentally different idea of a situation compared to a verb, in which it loses some of its temporal characteristics, but acquires a spatial dimension and can well be compared with material objects.

It seems that in contexts with combinations that include the verbs to do/to do and the designations of written texts, the opposition of an action and its result can be neutralized. In some cases, ambiguity is removed due to the elements of the context, in others it is communicatively insignificant and therefore persists. So, the situation called in the context (37), in which two descriptions with the verb to do are used, can be represented both in the procedural and in the effective aspect:

(37) He had a treasured notebook in which he made notes, notes, how he would edit this film.^[4] ("Climax", issue dated 06/05/2020)

Special attention should be paid to contexts in which the substantive component of the description traditionally does not denote the genre of the text and has an action semantics. The nouns appearing in these statements, speech, review, investigation, comparison, are presented as pure syntactic derivatives from the verbs to speak, review, investigate, compare:

(38) I was making a speech just for the Zoomer summit about this blurring of the norm... ("Pop cultural weapon", issue dated 09/16/2020)

(39) I just shoveled it recently, just when I was reviewing her last album, and I was also digging there... ("Pop culture weapon", issue dated 09/16/2020)

(40) The journalists of the "Project" publication did a big investigation, talked to a bunch of people, made a podcast [...] about the people he molested. ("It just so happened", issue dated 04.11.2020)

(41) It is not quite right to make such comparisons on a long horizon... ("The Money came", issue dated 09/08/2020)

At the same time, it seems possible to talk about the actualization in contexts (38-41) of the subject semantics of the name, which, as it seems, is the key factor determining the use of a turnover with verbs to do/do in a statement. In modern reality, the nouns review and investigation denote the genre of the text (subgenre of the article) or its analogue in video format^[5], cf. the use of one of these lexemes in a context where it is controlled by the verb to write: Some have fantasy, and some do not. But we all want to write an interesting review that will help people who want to buy the game. (How to write an interesting review correctly. 02.12.2017. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=879388504 )

The specificity of the meaning of the noun investigation in example (40) is clearly revealed in comparison with the use of the same lexeme as part of the description with the verb to conduct:

(42) Do you mean that banks actually conduct such investigations themselves? ("The money has come", issue dated 09/25/2020 "Phone scammers! Why did it become so much?", 16:58)

It is obvious that the verbalizer does not have a pronounced semantics of processality and is devoid of the semantics of creating a material object, which is uncharacteristic for it in nominative, ungrammatized use. In the context of (42), the noun investigation, it seems, should be considered precisely as a typical syntactic derivative of the verb investigate, and it can be assumed that the nomination of an action by means of a description is primarily related to the need to use an agreed definition in the utterance — the anaphoric pronominal adjective similar.

Such a word-formation phenomenon as a diminutive suffix acts as an extremely characteristic marker of the subject semantics of a name. In their main meaning, being used to nominate a smaller object, diminutives additionally "reify" the action, represent it as an object of real reality:

(43) I'm doing household chores here in the village. ("Diko skuzate", issue dated 08/11/2020)

(44) Yes, let's make a reservation again that we will insert English phrases and translate it to you. ("Pop Culture Weapon", issue dated 30.09.2020)

It can be noted that expressive suffixes are generally less characteristic of the morphemic composition of actional nouns than for the structure of names with an objective meaning. So, in the section devoted to valuation names in ^[11], 10 suffixes are given that can form derivatives with appropriate coloring, and all of them are used mainly to form subject names, cf. detail, set, poster, potato (if, however, there are also such less typical derivatives as a smoke break and a leftover) [11:68]. It can be assumed that the speaker's attitude to the subject really often turns out to be more personal, subjective than the attitude to an action presented as a fact — on the one hand, distracted from its actionality, on the other hand, not possessing a sufficient degree of objectivity. Action names with diminutives or other emotionally colored suffixes in the descriptions are really rare, and their appearance certainly indicates the representation of an action as a special kind of "object".

5. Descriptions in which the meaning of uncertainty is expressed

The appearance of a number of verb-nominal descriptions in modern oral speech seems to be due to the preference for the absolute use of the predicate word, since the main meaning of the context is directly related to the idea of a hypothetical and, as a result, indefinite nature of the action, non—referential use of the predicate - by analogy with the non-referential use of subject nominal groups, "which do not designate any individualized objects" [12: 94]. In some cases, this is additionally emphasized by the marker of the non—referential status of the predicate - a quantifier word consistent with the nominal component of the OP:

(45) In this situation, as it were, you can't pretend that nothing happened, and someone has to make a choice. ("As it happened", issue dated 10/15/2020)

(46) That is, some voice must appear to him, apparently, and tell him some tasks... well, that is, give him some orders, instructions, let's say. ("Poepizodny klan", issue dated 05.11.2020)

In other contexts, the idea of the lack of specificity of the content of the action, its obscurity for the speaker and the interlocutor, and its potential relevance to completely heterogeneous situations is not explicated in the context, but is obviously implied:

(46) It seems to me that these are generally very related things, making a decision to make a choice is courage. ("As it happened", issue dated 10/15/2020)

(47) If he is really interested in this, he will then check and say: "Mom, well, you... actually told me some nonsense," but my task is to give an answer ... ("It so happened", issue dated 09.10.2020)

Obviously, the non-referential use of turnover becomes possible due to the fact that when denoting an action with the help of a description, it becomes possible to eliminate the mandatory semantic valences of the predicate (for the "reduced diathesis" of such constructions in comparison with correlative verbs, see [13:46]). In addition, the elimination of the actant from the utterance and the "objectless" representation of the situation can be additionally emphasized by the passive form of the verb. In this case, the situation is presented as abstractly as possible, in a distraction from all its main participants:

(48) It wasn't just that filming was carried out there, but that the filmmakers [...] in the credits they are literally there in a pretty font like this: thank you Uygur Autonomous Okrug ... ("Pop cultural weapon", issue dated 09/23/2020)

The passive use of the description makes it possible to isolate the idea of an action as such from the real contexts of its implementation as much as possible. Thus, the statement indicates only the fact of the actionality of a certain situation (with the help of a verbalizer) and the nature of a specific action (with the help of a noun).

The possibility of absolute use of the construction becomes especially important in the case when it is necessary to name the most generalized situation (for a "more generalized meaning" of the description compared to the verb, see [14: 90]), to use a predicate belonging to the T-class "activity". In this case, a noun in the form of mn.ch. (49-50) or an uncountable name (51) is used as a substantive component of the description:

(49) On Katya's advice, I made regular donations to five foundations. ("The money came", issue dated 04.09.2020)

(50) Therefore, in order to make forecasts for the thirtieth to thirty—fifth, in short, it is necessary to proceed from inflation of four percent per year... ("The Money came", issue dated 08.09)

(51) We just do advertising very effectively, it seems to me. ("The Money came", issue dated 09/25/2020)

In such cases, the relationship between the verbal lexeme and the description correlating with it can be conditionally represented as follows: a set of actions called a full-valued verb and aimed at various objects receives a single nomination using a description with a substantive component derived from the corresponding verb and used absolutively.

It seems that the form of the mn.h. nominal component of the description may indicate a vague reference of the noun in cases where the context does not indicate the constant activity of the subject, but some discrete situations:

(52) And yes, I read in a book [...] about Vilnius that there is a street where if you walk, it gives you answers to your questions. ("Diko skuzate", issue dated 07/26/2020)

(53) And such an interesting niche has crystallized for them, when these are the dudes who give the main character [...] advice, share wisdom ... ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 01/29/2020)

The numerical form of the nominal component seems to be extremely significant for the general semantics of the construction: it seems that when used in the plural description of a name, "the noun loses its abstract character and no longer denotes an action in an abstracted form, but the result of the action or its content, the essence of the action, i.e. the meaning of the noun becomes more "objectified"" [15:60]. The fact that descriptions are "unequal in terms of semantic information with verbs of the same root as them, since the objectified form of processes, states, facts, qualities, etc., as a rule, carries additional information characterizing them in an effective aspect" [16: 139] has been repeatedly noted in the literature. The ability of the plural form to imply the idea of a greater materiality of the result of an action seems quite understandable: it is obvious that a prototypical predicate name, expressing the semantics of actionality, which does not have numerical characteristics inherent in objectivity, should not be countable.

6. Descriptions equivalent to the verb

It should be noted separately that there are few cases in which the transformation of a sentence with a description into a synonymous sentence with a verbal lexeme is still possible. As such examples, it seems legitimate to consider cases when all the components of the original sentence are preserved and at the same time all the semantic valences of the full—sign verb are filled in (or a conventional ellipsis is noted that does not lead to distortion of the meaning of the utterance - in such contexts the verb is underlined). During transformation, the case form of the actants in the predicate, as a rule, changes, which is associated with different verb and description controls: cf. make a film adaptation of what and film what, give inspiration to whom and inspire whom, perform surgery to whom and operate on whom, etc. In total, 14 such contexts were found in the studied material, represented by 11 different combinations:

(54) We have to make a call to Alfa-Bank now. ("The Money came", issue dated 09.10.2020) ® We have to call Alfa-Bank now.

(55) Yes, we also make mistakes, of course, we make mistakes first and then we discuss. ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 09/16/2020) ® Yes, we are also wrong...^[6]

(56) I look, for example, a person makes an advertisement for his course and after two stories starts a paid advertisement ... ("Let's go for garlic", issue dated 09/16/2020) I look, for example, a person advertises his course…

(57) And if you don't do workouts every day, that's fine too. ("Diko skuzate", issue dated 06/07/2020) And if you don't train every day…

(58) Yes, it seems to me that you can just make a film adaptation of "Blind Man's Buff" in Nizhny Novgorod and do everything there. ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 03/12/2020) ® Yes, it seems to me that you can just film "Blind Man's Buff" in Nizhny Novgorod…

(59) I am not only a mom, but it gives me so much inspiration that I actually do this for my family. ("Let's have garlic", issue dated 10/14/2020) ® I'm not only a mom, I'm so inspired by it...^[7]

(60) No one gives you a guarantee that your partner will hear you. ("We broke up", issue dated 05/11/2020) ® No one guarantees that your partner will hear you.

(61) I promised myself, I just swore to myself that there would be no more second jobs. ("Wildly scuse", issue dated 08/11/2020) ® I promised myself, I swore to myself that there would be no more second jobs.

(62) Everyone thought that, okay, they would take a ride even with the script at all, but maybe they would give at least just Lupita a nomination, because, well, really ... ("Pop cultural weapon", issue dated 08/12/2020) ® ... maybe they would nominate at least just Lupita…

(63) If a partner reacts, as it were, aggressively, [...], then this is actually a reason to wonder if I made a promise to love someone. ("We broke up", issue dated 06/02/2020) ® ... this is actually a reason to wonder if I promised to love him.

(64) Girls, girls, women [...] are constantly faced with the fact that people around them consider it proper to evaluate their appearance, and, accordingly, to evaluate them as people themselves. ("Blitz and Chips", issue dated 02/13/2020) ® ... people around consider it proper to evaluate their appearance, and accordingly, evaluate them as people.

(65) ^[1] We won't even give any recommendations at all? Live as you want? ^[2] And what recommendations can we give? ("We broke up", issue dated 05/12/2020) Do we recommend anything at all? [...] And what can we recommend?

(66) Do you remember the other day we discussed the case of a Muslim couple who wanted a woman to have surgery performed by female doctors? ("It just so happened", issue dated 11/05/2020) ® Do you remember recently we discussed the case of a Muslim couple who wanted a woman to be operated on by female doctors?

Giving a summary assessment of contexts like (54)-(66), it seems especially important to answer the question of what factors determine the appearance of descriptions in these sentences, despite the theoretical possibility of replacing the turnover with a verbal lexeme. Here, it seems, two key aspects can be distinguished: semantic modifications, which are introduced into the sentence, on the one hand, by the nominal component of the description, on the other hand, by the verbalizer. As noted above, verbalizing verbs actualize certain components of their nominative meaning in the description, which gives the combination the background character of a metaphor (for the "hidden comparison" assumed by the internal form of descriptions, see [7:17]). For example, in the combinations of making an advertisement and making a film adaptation, the meaning of creating a material object is realized, in the description to give a nomination (cf. even more "objective" to give a prize) and to make a promise — the idea of transferring an object, a gift (in this sense, the use of this description in the context of reasoning about romantic relationships is very characteristic).

Speaking about the influence of the action name on the general semantics of the utterance, it should be noted the ability to "reify", "objectify" an action situation, which nouns are able to realize in combination with a verbalizer. When using a description instead of a verb, a certain situation is highlighted on the time line, as if "withdrawn" from the flow of events and considered separately, being presented as a kind of object. So, in the context of (54) the call is mentioned as one of the components of the release, its separate part, in the example (61) the oath is understood as some internally pronounced and further "carved in stone" text, in the context of (64) the noun evaluation denotes a certain established opinion, a stable stereotype about another person, etc. Thus, the description, while maintaining its actionality, turns out to be on the "actionality scale" closer to the meaning of objectivity.

By the "scale of actionality" we mean some conditional gradation of the actional vs. objective conceptualization of a denotative situation, which allows the speaker to present the situation more as a process for which the defining characteristic is the ability to unfold in time, or as a kind of "object", a fait accompli or a set of facts close in their completeness, "impenetrability" and limitations to the denotations of subject names. The scale of actionality, in our opinion, could look like this:

Fig. 1. The scale of the action of predicates

Comments on the notation on the scale of the actionality of predicates:

(1) GP-NSV (verbal predicate of the imperfect form): He steps forward.

(2) GP-SV (verb predicate of the perfect form): He strode forward.

(3) K-SRS (quantitative methods of verbal action): He stepped forward.

(4) OP-ed. (descriptions with a substantive component in the form of units): He took a step forward.

(5) OP-op. (descriptions with definition with a substantive component): He took a confident step forward.

(6) OP-mn. (descriptions with a substantial component in the form of mn.h.): He was making steps in our direction.

(7.1) OP-places. (descriptions with a personal or relative pronoun replacing the position of the name; descriptions with a name replaced by a pronoun in a further context): The step forward he took was confident. He took a step forward, which seemed confident to me.

(7.2) OP-repeat. (descriptions with a substantive component that is used independently in a further context): He took a step forward, and that step seemed confident to me.

(8) OP-numeral. (descriptions with a numeral or other quantifier word with a substantive component): He took two steps forward.

Of course, the proposed gradation of the actionality of predicates seems conditional, can be disputed and refined, but the general principle underlying it can hardly be questioned. The closer a certain form of predicate is to the left pole of the scale, the more unconditionally the action character of the situation it calls is confirmed, the further it shifts from this pole to the right — the more the action parameters of the situation are erased and lost for communicants and its reinterpretation as a kind of "subject" is emphasized more vividly.

In addition to various indicators of quantitative significance^[8] (specific verb forms, noun number forms, vocabulary with quantitative semantics), the representation of an action situation as a manifestation of pure duration is also hindered by some contextual factors that actualize the background idea of "spatiality", the observability of the situation as some object enclosed within certain boundaries. Such means of context include definitions in the name, especially those that are applicable to the subject vocabulary (and to a lesser extent, those that are used primarily with names with an abstract meaning), as well as the correlation of the noun with the pronoun used in the preceding or subsequent text, the main function of which is to replace the word with the subject categorical in the statement semantics.

Returning to the scheme proposed in Fig. 1, it can be seen that its leftmost pole corresponds to the predicate expressed by the verb in the form of NSB. It is known that the main meaning of this species form is non-selectivity, that is, the meaning is unrelated "neither to the real nor to the potential limit" [19: 60]. The fundamental absence of a limit for an action, the inability to isolate an initial or final boundary from it, make it possible to see the connection between the grammatical meaning of NSV and the concept of pure duration. The limitation of the action by the limit, characteristic of the verbs of SV, on the contrary, contributes to the "objectification" of the action, its isolation on the "time line" (that is, in some metaphorical space) and consideration as some independent fact.

To an even greater extent, the quantitative meaning is expressed when using verbs that represent various quantitative methods of verbal action: one-act, multiple, intermittent—softening, etc.^[9] The quantitative characteristic of the situation in this case is concretized, the action becomes the object of a kind of calculus or measurement - operations that do not have a pure duration.

The constructions that have become the object of our research in this work — verb-nominal descriptions (4) — are the result of an even more significant "objectification" of the action situation in the speaker's speech, since their semantic component uses the word of a part of speech, the categorical meaning of which is objectivity. The separability of a situation on a time line, its representation as a countable object of observation, can be emphasized by the use of a definition (5) in the name, the plural form of the name (6), use in the context of a pronoun (7.1) or repeated use of the same name not as part of a description (7.2), as well as the use of quantifier words (8).

7. Conclusion

The degree of significance of a factor for the perception of a situation as an observed object is probably impossible to reliably measure, but it seems that various kinds of psycholinguistic experiments could be useful in this regard. It is also obvious that the cases indicated on the scale may overlap: for example, the substantive component of the description, which has the form of a mn.h. or used with a quantifier word, can be spread using a definition and replaced by a pronoun or repeated in the subsequent text, cf. He took two confident steps forward, and the sound of these steps spread throughout the hall. Thus, it should be repeated once again that the proposed scheme is a convention, a methodological tool that allows you to evaluate the conceptualization of the so-called situation in terms of actionality vs. objectivity.

It seems excessive to assert that speakers who use descriptions in their speech are aware of the ability of the name to "objectify" the situation called and are guided by this very consideration when constructing an utterance. Rather, it would probably be noted that the above—described feature of descriptions can also be understood as the reason for choosing in favor of description when making an action value (but the reason is not fully realized and not internally articulated by the speaker himself - a kind of verbal intuition, a habit formed as a result of linguistic experience, generation and perception of texts in natural language language), and as a consequence, the semantic effect produced by the description (read by the listener and simplifying communication, but probably not clearly realized by him — as well as by the speaker).

Anyway, as a result of the analysis, it seems possible to conclude that the choice of verb-nominal description as a special way of denoting an action is not only regularly found in oral speech, but also is not accidental. The analysis of the above contexts demonstrates the functional and semantic specificity of such combinations and the high communicative significance, which should not be underestimated, considering them exclusively as a feature of the official business or book style.

^[1] In this paper, in our opinion, the most transparent term "verbalizer" will be used, which gives an unambiguous idea of the functions performed by the verb as part of the description.

^[2] Podcasts "Let's go for garlic", "Money came", "Wildly skuzate", "Climax", "We broke up", "Pop cultural weapon", "Poetic clan", "Give birth first", "So it happened", "Blitz&Chips».

^[3] See, however, the occasional verb to design, which appears, among other things, on the Moscow metro diagram: https://www.artlebedev.ru/metro/map4/

^[4] Cf. possible retaliatory remarks: And it took up a lot of his time? vs. And then he used them?

^[5] It seems likely that due to the prevalence of the video format of various conferences, round tables, public lectures, etc., the lexeme performance in example (14) also expresses, among other things, the meaning of the final result of the work, that is, some finished product. This is also evidenced by the change in the valence of the predicate: cf. to speak where (the valence of the place) and to make a speech for what (the valence of the goal).

^[6] It seems that the second case of using the same description in this sentence undergoes a weaker transformation, since with a homogeneous predicate we discuss, an elliptical complement with an object value is clearly assumed to replace the noun of the error: *we are the first to make mistakes and then discuss (them).

^[7] The possibility of making the proposed transformation is evidenced by the use of a particle in the nominal component of the description, namely, with the help of which the emphasis is placed on the noun: cf. it gives inspiration, not just joy. However, since this particle in oral speech can have a largely desemanticized use, and the transformed sentence looks quite correct, it seems possible to consider the sentences as synonyms.

^[8] Quantification in this case means, of course, not the grammatical category of number, which prototypical predicative lexemes — verbs — in principle do not possess, but a functional category in the understanding of A.V. Bondarko and his followers, which finds expression at various levels of language. Quantification as "a set of properties indicating the magnitude of a thing, its size; objective certainty of an object, by virtue of which it can be divided into homogeneous parts" [17: 218], as well as "similar properties of aggregates of things that are considered homogeneous" [18: 162], is an inherent property of objectivity: observable objects can be counted, measured, and compared with each other by various quantitative parameters.

^[9] A complete list of quantitative and temporal SRS is presented in ^[7]. The classification of methods of verbal action by the type of meanings expressed by them was subsequently criticized in works on aspectology (see, for example [20:104]), however, for our study, a specific classification is not of fundamental importance: the ability of the verb form to characterize the situation in a quantitative aspect seems essential.