6 Verbal reconstruction
Unlike single operations and states, the operational structures formed by coupled quantitative and elective states are not directly detectable in speech. Their existence is substantiated by means of a technique, making possible the verbal reconstruction of sentence operational structures, that is, their representation through lexical means. In this case, the operational structure subjected to verbal reconstruction must be equivalent to the operational structure of the original sentence and, therefore, the verbal reconstruction must reproduce the meaning of the original sentence. The words by which verbal reconstruction is to be carried out are “existential” and process nouns and the verbs to be and to have . The process nouns are those that have the hypernymic base ʻprocessʼ and are integrated with verbs likeaccomplish, fulfil, proceed, undertake introducing nouns which can denote events but not things. The existential nouns, also formed with verbal information, are those that have the hypernymic base ʻtimeless objectʼ and are integrated with the verb exist and denote only things.
As an example of verbal reconstruction, we will take Russian sentences with transitive verbs. We will not present their operational structures, as this would lead to unnecessary complication of the article and an increase in its volume. With these examples we will just show that the verbal reconstruction of the operational structure of a sentence reproduces its meaning. For instance, the operational structure of Russian sentences such as
(7) Она имеет кольцо ʻShe has a ringʼ
has the verbal reconstruction «она не есть атрибут: кольцо есть атрибут» ʻshe is not an attribute: the ring is an attributeʼ, whereатрибут ʻattributeʼ is an existential noun. The operational structure of Russian sentences such as
(8) Никарагуа все еще производит свой собственный кофе ʻNicaragua still produces its own coffeeʼ
has the verbal reconstruction «производство не имеет Никарагуа: производство имеет кофе» ʻproduction has no Nicaragua: production has coffeeʼ, where производство ʻproductionʼ is taken as a process noun (cf. the existential noun product ). And the operational structure of Russian sentences such as
(9) Джеймс толкает Сандру ʻJames pushes Sandraʼ
has the verbal reconstruction reading «Джеймс не имеет толчок: Сандра имеет толчок» ʻJames has no push (as a fait accompli): Sandra has a pushʼ, where толчок ʻpushʼ is taken as an existential noun.
So, an approach with verbal reconstruction allows us to see how sentence meaning is structured not by analyzing semantic content but through operational structures. This approach allows us also to group speech items on the basis of operational structures and not on a semantic one; at the same time, these groups are then determined by semantically distinctive features. For example, the transitive verbs in sentences like (8) have no information about actions that are performed by the subject to produce the object (the listener doesn’t know what Nicaragua does to produce coffee). In sentences like (7), the existential noun “attribute” is also the verb’s object: «Она имеет атрибут» ʻshe has an attributeʼ. And the existential noun in sentences like (9) becomes the object’s attribute: «Сандра имеет толчок» ʻSandra has a pushʼ.
There is one more circumstance that convinces us of the operational structures’ real presence in speech. It is that one can see the grammar as a whole all the parts of which are linked by uniform relations of the states forming operational structures. The interconnection of many grammatical facts is being discovered within the framework of the theory by reducing them to a common basis This is also an important indicator of its truth.