Abstract:
In this paper we dealt with the prefixed verbs with distributive meaning in contemporary Serbian and Croatian languages. In the Serbian and Croatian word formation literature this meaning is often related with two verb prefixes po- and iz-, but there is also a small set of distributives with the prefix raz-. First, we tried to define precisely the range of distributives on the morphological and semantic grounds. We argued that prefixed verb could be considered as distributive if its derivational base labels action which has several spatially distinguished realizations. This kind of definition covers the distributives with obligatory plural argument as well as the distributives which denote action that took place on the different spots in the same space (cf. pootvarati sve prozore “to open all windows” and izljubiti nekome lice „to kiss someone all over their face“). We found that there are several types of cognitive generalizations that could explain how the prefixes po-, iz- and raz-, all of which primarily denote some kind of physical experience, develop distributive meaning. The first generalization is from the matter to the group entity, the second is from the surface to the group entity, and the last from the diffuse trace of matter to the group entity.
