Before examining the objective and subjective sides of pa-verbs, we should remind ourselves of the general aspectual features of pa-verbs as perfective verbs.
As other perfective verbs, pa-verbs cannot designate an action in its continuity or simultaneity to another action. More importantly, although pa-verbs usually do not form an aspectual opposition in the strict sense of the term, they specify the action named by the base verb as a short-term or one-time action. In diminu- tives, the real size of the object sometimes has no importance, and diminutives mainly manifest the subjective attitude of a speaker to the object or, more broadly, to the realia named in the sentence around and through this object. Here questions arise – what is then the subjective side of pa-verbs and how does it manifest itself?
The answer is to be sought in the attenuativity of pa-verbs. The subjective side of pa-verbs is just the same as that of diminutives – a subjective attitude of the speaker toward the action of itself and the realia designated in the sen- tence. When real short duration of the action becomes less important because of the unmeasurability of the action, this subjective side comes to the foreground, based on an aspectual characterization.
Returning back to Latvian pa-verbs, the greater importance of the subjective side of pa-verbs is supported by a short comment by Freimane (1993: 158) referring to the prefixes pa- and pie- which name “an incomplete and short-term action” and
“give to a verb a nuance of non-serious attitude”, with such examples as parakstu- rot stāvokli ‘to characterize situation’, paturpināt sarunu ‘to continue the conversa- tion’, piepalīdzēt darbā ‘to help in work’. Freimane’s comment reminds us not only of the constraint against double-prefixed verbs, but also of certain negative features of the subjective evaluation conveyed by diminutives. Most of the following examp- les show that both objective and subjective sides are combined in a single pa-verb.
The “non-serious” attitude manifests itself in the context. Here is a very compact example from an advertisement for help. The pa-verb in example (6) can denote working for a while, but what is really implied here is rather a non-serious attitude to work that can be interpreted further as unreadiness for serious work or the feeling of a trial. This subjective attitude is motivated by contrastive base verb and another prefixed verb.
(6) Nevēlam-ās īpašīb-as: Vēlm-e nevis strādāt, bet undesirable-nom.pl feature-nom.pl wish-nom.sg not work:inf but pa-strādāt /piestrādāt.
-pa-work:inf earn:inf
‘Undesirable features: the wish not to work, but to work unseriously/
make a bit of money on the side.’ (http://www.vakance.lv/rus/open.
php?id=21766&SID=wbnugldm – accessed on April 10 2013).
In example (7), the objective side of the action named by the pa-verb is indeed an attenuative – ‘a little’. And thanks to the adverb dažreiz ‘sometimes’, we see that this action is repeated regularly. It is important to note that the interviewer uses the imperfective base verb lasīt ‘to read’ in order to ask whether the interviewee generally reads negative comments about himself on the Internet, but the latter, not repeating in his response the base verb, uses the pa-verb, expressing his own subjective attitude to comments that are not at all pleasant for him.
(7) – Vai tu tos lasi?
q you they:acc read:prs.2sg
– Dažreiz pa-lasu, bet pats nekad nek-o sometimes pa-read:prs.1sg but oneself never nothing-acc ne-esmu komentējis.
neg-be:prs.1sg comment:pst.pa.nom.sg.m
‘– Do you read them (negative comments on the Internet)?
– Sometimes I have a bit of a read, but I have never commented anything myself.’ (K: Sep/2009)
Next, we have examples from an interview with a married couple. In example (8), the wife is asked about her mutual relation with her husband, while in example (9), the husband is asked about the education of their children. Here we see both base verb lutināt ‘to spoil’ and its pa-verb. As there is no temporal accusative, these pa-verbs can be interpreted as attenuative. The objective side is to be aspectually formulated as follows – pa-verbs as perfective verbs here specify the action as contrasted with the action named by base verb. Palutinu in example (8) is a form of the first person and is contrasted to the form of the base verb lutina. Palutina in example (9) realizes a coordination with another attenuative pa-verb – pažēlo
‘pity’. Emotionally, attenuativity may come from conjugal affection and parental affection toward children.
(8) – Kur-š kur-u vairāk lutina?
who-nom.sg.m who-acc.sg more spoil:prs.3
– Liene: Ir reiz-es, kad viņ-š mani vairāk lutina, Liene be:prs.3 time-nom.pl when he-nom I:acc more spoil:prs.3 un ir reiz-es, kad es viņ-u pa-lutinu.
and be:prs.3 time-nom.pl when I.nom he-acc pa-spoil:prs.1sg
‘– Which of you spoils the other more?
– Liene: At times he spoils me more, and there are times when I spoil him.’
(NRA: 17.02.2007)
(9) – (…) vien-s sav-as atvas-es vairāk one-nom.sg.m own-acc.pl offspring-acc.pl more
audzina, norādot, ko drīkst, ko
bring.up:prs.3 indicate:idp what:acc be.allowed:prs.3 what:acc ne-drīkst, bet otr-s vairāk pa-žēlo
neg-be.allowed:3 but the.other-nom.sg.m more pa-pity:prs.3 un pa-lutina. Kā ir jūsu ģimen-ē?
and pa-spoil:prs.3 how be:prs.3 your family-loc.sg – Normunds: Es ne-gribē-tu teikt, ka vien-s
Normunds I.nom neg-want-sbjv say:inf that one-nom.sg.m
lutina vairāk, otr-s mazāk. Bet (…) es spoil:prs.3 more the.other-nom.sg.m less but I.nom vairāk pa-lutinu.
more pa-spoil:prs.1sg
‘– One brings up his offspring, indicating what is allowed and what is not allowed, but the other pities and spoils more. How is it in your family?
– Normunds: I wouldn’t say that one spoils more and the other less. But I spoil more.’ (NRA: 17.02.2007)
Prefixation of verbs of foreign origin reflects the word-formation system of verbs with stems of Latvian origin. Here are some examples with base verbs of foreign origin and their pa-verbs. In example (10), we can regard the base verb trenējos ‘I trained’ as an imperfective and the pa-verb patrenējos ‘I (pa-)trained’ as a delimi- tative accompanied by temporal accusative trīs dienas ‘three days’. The analysis of the objective side is to be given as follows: These two actions of the same quan- tity are represented in different aspects and the speaker locates himself in and outside of the process of action. The base verb is coordinated with an aspectually neutral prefixed verb atpūtos ‘I took a rest’, while the perfective pa-verb is coor- dinated with the non-prefixed, but here semantically telic verb braucu uz turnīru
‘I went to the tournament’, and a sequence of two actions is thus represented. In contrast with the same quantity of training expressed by both verbs, the pa-verb here shows a difference in quality of training and the speaker’s non-serious or casual attitude to his conclusive training before matches. This is an example of the delimitative pa-verb combined with attenuativity.
(10) Man-am treniņdarb-am ne-bija īst-as sistēm-as.
my-dat.sg.m training-dat.sg neg-be:pst.3 real-gen.sg system-gen.sg Trīs dien-as trenējos un tad div-as three:acc.pl day-acc.pl train:pst.1sg and then two-acc.pl.f dien-as atpūtos ar draug-iem. Tad vēl day-acc.pl take.a.rest:pst.1sg with friend-dat.pl then more trīs dien-as pa-trenējos un braucu
three:acc.pl day-acc.pl pa-train:pst.1sg and go:pst.1sg uz turnīr-u. (…) Pēdēj-ās trīs
to tournament-acc.sg last-loc.pl.f three:loc.pl
dien-ās es nopietni trenējos un, lūk, rezultāt-s.
day-loc.pl I.nom seriously train:pst.1sg and see result-nom.sg ‘There was no real system to my training. I trained three days, then I took a rest for two days with my friends. Then I trained three days more and went to the tournament. For the last three days I trained very seriously, and see, there’s the result.’ (D:28.04.2010)
In examples (11) and (12), the difference between verbs paironizēt ‘to (pa-)ironize’
and ironizēt ‘to ironize’ is not motivated by the real duration of the speech act, but just by the speaker’s tone. A subjective attitude to the utterance is intensified by the colloquial word superduper. This example is a case where attenuativity some- times renders pa-verbs synonymous with their base verbs, differentiated only in the expression of a subjective attitude (saki!/pasaki! ‘say!’, došu/padošu ziņu ‘I will let you know’ (literally: ‘I will give you news’), grūti teikt/pateikt ‘it is difficult to say’, godīgi teikšu/pateikšu ‘I will say honestly’).
(11) “Es ne-izmantoju kaut kād-as superduper lak-as”, I neg-use:prs.1sg any.kinds-acc.pl superduper lacquer-acc.pl
pa-ironizē Ann-a.
pa-ironize:prs.3 Anna-nom
‘“I don’t use any superduper lacquers”, ironizes Anna.’(D.02.02.2009)
(12) “Mēs esam tie kas taisa
we.nom be:prs.1pl those:nom who:nom make:prs.3 skaist-as bild-es”, ironizē Ann-a.
beautiful-acc.pl picture-acc.pl ironize:prs.3 Anna-nom ‘“We’re the ones who make beautiful pictures”, ironizes Anna.’
(D.02.02.2009)
In example (13), the semantics of arestēt ‘to arrest’ seems to be not connected with attenuativity even in the presence of the adverb drusciņ ‘a bit’. Here the author expresses his subjective attitude to the event, using the pa-verb together with diminutives like lietiņas ‘things’ and procesiņš ‘trial’ and an unusual verbal form iešūpāt with the suffix -ā- occasionally derived from iešūpot ‘to set in motion’.
(13) (…) prokuror-iem un KNABist-iem derē-tu prosecutor-dat.pl and people.in.KNAB-dat.pl be.useful-sbjv
pieķert arī daž-as cit-as liet-iņ-as
catch:inf also some-acc.pl other-acc.pl thing-dim-acc.pl – kaut vai bijuš-o kolēģ-i Šabansk-u
if only former-acc.sg.def colleague-acc.sg Šabanska-acc.sg tā drusc-iņ pa-arestēt. Un par laikrakst-a just a.little.bit-dim pa-arrest:inf and about newspaper-gen.sg
“Diena” privatizācij-as liet-ām proces-iņ-u Diena privatization-gen.sg matter-dat.pl trial-dim-acc.sg iešūpāt.
set.in.motion:inf
‘Public prosecutors and people in the Corruption Prevention and
Combating Bureau should catch also some other things – at least to arrest
a little bit former colleague Šabanska. And to set in motion a trial about the privatization of the newspaper “Diena”.’ (VZŽ: 23.03.2007)
As we know, double prefixation is a rare phenomenon, and as far as we have seen in the Newspaper Library, uses of double-prefixed pa-verbs are rather occasional and far from frequent: for verbs with the lexicalized prefixes like pa-pie-dalīties
‘to participate’ (two articles), pa-iz-mantot ‘to make use of’) (two articles), pa-iz- meklēt ‘to investigate’ (one article), pa-iz-klaidēties ‘to enjoy oneself’ (one article), pa-no-darboties ‘to be engaged’ (one article), pa-aiz-mirsties ‘to forget oneself’
(one article), pa-aiz-vainoties ‘to take offence (one article), and perfective verbs like pa-uz-būvēt ‘to build’ (one article), pa-no-demonstrēt ‘to demonstrate’ (one article), pa-no-lemt ‘to decide’(one article), and so on. It is notable that in most of cases, the texts are satirical, often addressed to politicians. Pa-verbs are accom- panied by other stylistically expressive words, including diminutives.
In example (14), with papiedalīties and paizklaidēties, base verbs have a prefix already lexicalized and the meaning of the verb without the prefix differs (cf. dalīties ‘to share’). As to izklaidēties, its presumable unprefixed base
*klaidēties is not used in practice. Short duration of actions is to be found for both pa-verbs – participation in meetings between times can be interpreted as short term and there is little time left to enjoy his presidential status before the end of his term. In contrast to the neutral base verb piedalīties for serious presidents, the pa-verb papiedalīties is addressed to a president who does not execute his duties. It is worth noting that the critical tone of the text is actualized not only by colloquial words such as funktierēt ‘to think’ and dembelis ‘demob’, but also by the relative mood. The relative mood indicates that the information is received by another person and show the speaker’s distance to what he has heard.
(14) (…) nopietn-i prezident-i (lūdzu par kompliment-u!) serious-nom.pl president-nom.pl please for compliment-acc.sg
mēdz piedalīties nopietn-os pasākum-os, bet mūsu tend:prs.3 participate:inf serious-loc.pl event-loc.pl but our
gadījum-ā… (…) Prezident-a aparāt-s funktierējot, case-loc.sg president-gen.sg apparatus-nom.sg think:evid ka Ulmanis hokejskatīšan-ās starplaikos varē-tu that Ulmanis watching.hockey-gen.sg betweentimes can-sbjv arīdzan kād-ās valstiski svarīg-ās tikšan-ās also some-loc.pl nationally important-loc.pl meeting-loc.pl pa-piedalīties. (…) Lai pa-izklaidējas pirms dembeļ-a.
pa-participate:inf let pa-enjoy.oneself:prs.3 before demob-gen.sg
‘Serious presidents (please take it for a compliment!) tend to participate in serious events, but in our case… It is said that the presidential administration thinks that in between times watching hockey Ulmanis could also participate in some nationally important meetings. Let him enjoy himself before his demob.’ (JA: 13.04.1999)
In example (15), where the author ironizes about the corruption of deputies, we see a contrast between the neutral base verb izmantot ‘to make use, exploit’, included in a paragraph of the Ethics Code for Deputies, and the pa-verb paiz- mantot ‘to (pa-)make use’, used in the description of the deputies who continue to make use of their status. In example (16), the author criticizes a politician for his vocabulary abusing journalists, and he uses a pa-verb papielietot ‘to (pa-)use’
together with the diminutive of vārds ‘word’. In example (17), the pa-verb intensi- fies the author’s negative attitude toward bureaucrats designated by puiši ‘boys’.
(15) Beidzot oficiāli tika atļau-t-a korumpošan-ās, un finally officially aux permit-pst.pp-nom.sg.f corruption-nom.sg and
vien-s no punkt-iem skanēja šādi: ôPar one-nom.sg.m of paragraph-dat.pl sound:pst.3 like.this As
pašcieņ-as trūkum-u atzīsta-m-a deputāt-u self.respect-gen.sg lack-acc.sg consider-prs.pp-nom.sg.f deputy-gen.pl pērkamīb-a un ļaušan-ās sevi izmantot corruptibility-nom.sg and allowing-nom.sg oneself:acc make.use:itf
kād-u savtīg-u intereš-u nolūk-os.ằ
some-acc.sg selfish-acc.sg interest-gen.pl purpose-loc.pl Deputāt-i strīp-ām vien devās uz Ētik-as deputy-nom.pl line-dat.pl just go:pst.3 to ethics-gen.sg komisij-u, kur atzinās, ka sirgst no
Commission-acc.sg where confess:pst.3 that ail:prs.3 from
pašcieņ-as trūkum-a, ļāva sevi vēl
self.respect-gen.sg lack-gen.sg allow:pst.3 oneself:acc more mazliet pa-izmantot (…).
a.little pa-make.use:inf
‘Finally corruption was officially permitted, and one of the paragraphs read as follows: “The corruptibility of deputies and their allowing them- selves to be used for the furtherance of selfish interests is to be considered as a lack of self-respect.” Lines of deputies went to the Ethics Commission, where they confessed that they are ailing from a lack of self-respect, and allowed themselves to be a little further exploited.’ (NRA: 13.10.2003)
(16) Un kād-us tik Vārd-iņ-us bijuš-ais
and which-acc.pl just word-dim-acc.pl former-nom.sg.def ķīmiķ-is pa-pielietoja! Brangi!
chemist-nom.sg pa-use:pst.3 jolly.good
‘And oh what kinds of words the former chemist used! Jolly good!’
(JA: 06.09.1999)
(17) Un vēl atceras, kad tie puiš-i
and still remember:prs.3 when that:nom.pl.m boy-nom.pl iedomājas par taut-as sīkaj-iem graš-iem fancy:prs.3 for people-gen.sg small-dat.pl.m groat-dat.pl gaism-as pil-i pa-uzbūvēt.
light-gen.sg castle-acc.sg pa-build:inf
‘And still one remembers when those boys get into their heads the idea of building a Castle of Light with the nation’s small coins?’ (JA: 24.03.2000) Thus, formally, by attenuating verbs with the prefix pa-, the speaker reflects his/her subjective attitude to the action or a phenomenon related with it. For examples (6)–(13), it is rather the context that actualizes the subjective side of attenuativity, which can remain covert behind the more objective aspectual interpretation. For pa-verbs in examples (14)–(17), the subjective attitude is more evident, because pa-verbs are highlighted not only by their structure (double pre- fixation) or semantic oddity (for paarestēt lit. ‘to arrest a little’), but also other pejorative words used in the text. Even using the intensifier of attenuativity like mazliet ‘a little’, the speaker seems not to attenuate the action, but just to mani- fest his/her subjective attitude and enhance irony.
In example (18), we see a double-prefixed verb used by a journalist, while example (19) cites the same utterance of the same journalist criticizing politi- cians in the article quoted in example (18), but here, the prefix pa- is omitted (see Horiguči 2011 for similar examples of the ‘disappearance’ of the perfec- tivizing prefix no-). The subjective side of attenuativity would not change the propositional content of the sentence. This is especially true for double-prefixed verbs with pa-, where the prefix can be omitted because of the structural oddity and the subtlety of subjective attitude.
(18) Jo reizi četr-os gad-os pa-apčakarēt cilvēk-us because once four-loc.pl year-loc.pl pa-fool:inf man-acc.pl
ar dažād-u stendzeniek-u un Co.
with different-gen.pl man.like.Stendzenieks-gen.pl and companies
palīdzīb-u viņ-i ir iemanījušies
help-acc.sg they-nom be:prs.3 contrive:pst.pa.nom.pl.m gluži labi.
quite well
‘Because once every four years with the help of various Stendzenieks-like people and companies they have got the knack of fooling people quite well.’ (AP: 01.08.2008)
(19) Jo reizi četr-os gad-os apčakarēt cilvēk-us because once four-loc.pl year-loc.pl fool:inf man-acc.pl
ar dažād-u stendzeniek-u un Co.
with different-gen.pl man.like.Stendzenieks-gen.pl and companies palīdzīb-u viņ-i ir iemanījušies
help-acc.sg they-nom be:prs.3 contrive:pst.pa.nom.pl.m gluži labi.
quite well
‘Because once every four years with the help of various Stendzenieks-like people and companies they have got the knack of fooling people quite well.’ (NRA: 02.08.2008)