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.