Replication Data for: Redundancy and rivalry in language. A case study of Russian diminutives

Dataset:The dataset includes examples of different diminutive constructions: morphological diminutives where the diminutive is expressed via suffixation (e.g. dom-ik 'house-dim'), analytical constructions with adjectives meaning 'small' (e.g. malen'kiy dom 'small house') and combinations of morphological diminutives with adjectives meaning 'small' (e.g. malen'kiy dom-ik 'small house-dim'). The data were culled from the Russian National Corpus (www.ruscorpora.ru) in Spring 2017. The dataset covers the period from 1776 to 2012 and consists of 978 examples (only one example per author). The entire dataset is in Russian.
Abstract: In the present study of Russian diminutive constructions, I follow Goldberg’s idea about sematic or pragmatic differences that always accompany syntactic differences (Goldberg 1995: 67). My manually checked database comprises almost 1000 examples culled from the Russian National corpus (www.ruscorpora.ru) and includes three types of diminutive constructions: 1) morphological diminutives of the type dom-ik ‘houseDIM’, 2) analytical diminutives such as malen’kij dom ‘small house’ and milyj dom ‘nice house’ and 3) a mixed type where morphological diminutives occur with adjectives, such as malen’kij dom-ik ‘small houseDIM’. My analysis reveals differences between morphological and analytical diminutives, which are not freely distributed across the examples. While morphological diminutives rarely refer to size only, adjectives are often used for further specification and in order to avoid ambiguity. The variation in Russian diminutives sheds light on an important theoretical question of redundancy and its role in language. The results of the present study indicate that redundancy is motivated, has a function and helps language users avoid ambiguity.

数据集：本数据集涵盖三类不同的指小构式（diminutive constructions）：通过后缀派生实现指小功能的形态型指小构式（例如dom-ik，即“house-dim”）、以表“小”义形容词构成的分析型指小构式（例如malen'kiy dom，即“小房子”），以及形态型指小构式与表“小”义形容词结合的混合型指小构式（例如malen'kiy dom-ik，即“small house-dim”）。本数据集的数据于2017年春季从俄罗斯国家语料库（Russian National Corpus，www.ruscorpora.ru）中遴选采集，覆盖1776年至2012年的语料范围，共包含978条示例（每位作者仅提供一条示例），全部语料均为俄语。
摘要：在本次俄语指小构式研究中，本文遵循Goldberg提出的“句法差异必然伴随语义或语用差异”的观点（Goldberg，1995：67）。本文经人工校验的语料库包含近1000条从俄罗斯国家语料库（www.ruscorpora.ru）中遴选的示例，涵盖三类指小构式：1）dom-ik型（即“houseDIM”）的形态型指小构式；2）分析型指小构式，例如malen’kij dom（即“小房子”）与milyj dom（即“宜人的房子”）；3）形态型指小构式与形容词结合的混合型构式，例如malen’kij dom-ik（即“small houseDIM”）。本研究分析发现，形态型与分析型指小构式存在非自由分布的差异：形态型指小构式极少仅用于表达尺寸义，而形容词常被用于进一步限定语义以规避歧义。俄语指小构式的变异现象为探讨语言中冗余性的本质及其功能这一重要理论问题提供了研究视角。本研究结果表明，冗余性具有理据性与功能性，可帮助语言使用者规避歧义。