Download Беспорядки (disturbances) vs. волнения (unrest): Towards

Беспорядки (disturbances) vs.
волнения (unrest): Towards the Delimitation
of Synonyms
LUDMILA PÖPPEL
Stockholms universitet, [email protected]
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the combinability of the
near-synonyms беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest). Their
combinatorial properties are investigated using extensive corpus data –
Sketch Engine and the Russian National Corpus (RNC). Investigating combinatorial features through the use of text corpora can help identify semantic
differences that are not intuitively obvious. I will demonstrate how combinatorial properties were discovered, since analysis of these materials has revealed a number of combinatorial preferences. In future studies my findings
will serve as the basis for identifying semantic and pragmatic distinctions
between these near-synonyms.
Keywords: lexical semantics, near-synonyms, corpus-based analysis, contextual behavior, syntactic preferences, lexical co-occurrences
1. Preliminary remarks
This paper addresses problems connected with the delimitation of synonyms,
which is an important area of contemporary lexical semantics. Synonymy
has been investigated from different theoretical perspectives and with the
help of various tools at the disposal of present-day linguistics. The appearance of large text corpora has enabled us to describe more precisely the differences between synonyms. Synonyms can be differentiated according to
various parameters that may be semantic (i.e. they are distinguished by semantic features) and/or combinatorial. These latter differences are often
168
Ludmila Pöppel
connected with semantic distinctions, so that investigating combinatorial
features through the use of text corpora can help identify semantic differences that are not intuitively obvious.
On the basis of the Russian National Corpus (RNC) and Sketch Engine, I
will demonstrate how combinatorial properties were discovered, since analysis of these materials revealed a number of combinatorial preferences.
The present study is not concerned with events in the real world. It is obvious that one and the same event can be called смута (turmoil), беспорядки (disturbances), волнения (unrest), or even революция (revolution), бунт
(mutiny), мятеж (rebellion), or восстание (uprising). What is interesting
to study from a linguistic perspective is not what distinguishes actual events
or what a real event should be like for it to be called беспорядки (disturbances) or волнения (unrest). The important issue is to determine the features
on which the speaker wants to focus through the use of one or another word;
that is, which features of each word are being profiled.
2. Goals, method, data
My goal here is to present an analysis of the combinability of the nearsynonyms беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) that can be used
in future studies to identify the semantic differences between these words.
Combinatorics will be investigated in various semantic structures on the
basis of extensive corpus materials.
The method consists in an analysis of the contextual behavior of the nearsynonyms беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest), i.e. both syntactic preferences and lexical co-occurrences.
The empirical data have been collected from the corpus query system
Sketch Engine, subcorpus, ruTenTen [2011], which contains 18,280,486,876
tokens/14,553,856,113 words (31.05.2016) and the Russian National Corpus
(RNC). All statistical data are from Sketch Engine, while examples are from
the RNC. The words беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) were
submitted to Sketch Engine and to the RNC and searched for lexical cooccurrences. The findings were processed manually to avoid information
noise.
3. Previous research
Constructive features of near-synonyms have been investigated on the basis
of extensive corpus data (cf. Divjak & Gries 2006, Janda & Solovyev 2009).
I also consider previous research of the near-synonyms революция (revolu-
Беспорядки (disturbances) vs. волнения (unrest)
169
tion), переворот (coup), восстание (uprising), мятеж (rebellion) (Dobrovol’skij & Pöppel 2012a, 2012b, 2013a, 2013b). Pöppel (2014) examines
conceptual-semantic differences between смута (turmoil), беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest). The results have shown that смута (turmoil) is construed as representing a category of conceptual taxonomy that
differs from беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest). In contrast to
беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest), смута (turmoil) is a syntactic subject more frequently than it is an object. Underlying these seemingly purely superficial differences there are conceptual peculiarities and therefore deep semantic distinctions. Смута (turmoil) is conceptualized as a kind
of self-generating state that is not subject to regulation or control, while
беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) are conceptualized not as
self-generating but mostly as an activity or state caused by something else.
Pöppel (2014) notes certain conceptual distinctions between the nearsynonyms беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) that were investigated using the RNC and Google Books. In the present study more extensive corpus data is used which allows to identify more combinatorial preferences.
4. Lexical co-occurences
To identify the combinatorial differences between беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) I examined the combinability of these words
with adjectives, transitive and intransitive verbs, and certain nouns. Analysis
of the corpus materials resulted in the combinatorial distinctions shown below.
4.1. Combinability with adjectives
First, the co-occurrences of the two near-synonyms with adjectives. Tables 1
and 2 show the data from Sketch Engine.
The word беспорядки (disturbances) combines most frequently with the
adjective массовые (mass; 20230), with уличные (street; 2118) a distant
second. Other words with high combinability are гражданские (civil; 736),
студенческие (student; 686), and политические (political; 617). There are
also collocations with the adjectives аграрные (agrarian; 336), масштабные (large-scale; 167), крестьянские (peasant; 110), ночные (night; 110),
стихийные (spontaneous; 90), народные (popular; 86) and вооруженные
(armed; 3). This group is followed by adjectives such as многочисленные
(numerous; 56), воскресные (Sunday; 18) and столичные (capital city; 11).
170
Ludmila Pöppel
The word волнения (unrest) collocates most frequently with the adjective
народные (popular; 6119). The intermediate group includes массовые
(mass; 2679), студенческие (student; 2278), крестьянские (peasant; 1882),
политические (political; 1045), гражданские (civil; 720), уличные (street;
219), стихийные (spontaneous; 140) and аграрные (agrarian; 118). All
other adjectives are rather rare.
Таble 1. Беспорядки (disturbances): combinability with adjectives
adjective
массовые (mass)
уличные (street)
гражданские (civil)
студенческие (student)
политические (political)
аграрные (agrarian)
масштабные (large-scale)
крестьянские (peasant)
ночные (night)
стихийные (spontaneous)
народные (popular)
вооруженные (armed)
многочисленные (numerous)
воскресные (Sunday)
cтоличные (capital city)
Total
беспорядки (disturbances)
20230
2118
736
686
617
336
167
110
110
90
86
73
56
18
11
25444
Table 2. Волнения (unrest): combinability with adjectives
adjective
народные (popular)
массовые (mass)
студенческие (student)
крестьянские (peasant)
политические (political)
гражданские (civil)
уличные (street)
стихийные (spontaneous)
волнения (unrest)
6119
2679
2278
1882
1045
720
219
140
Беспорядки (disturbances) vs. волнения (unrest)
аграрные (agrarian)
масштабные (large-scale)
многочисленные (numerous)
вооруженные (armed)
столичные (capital city)
ночные (night)
воскресные (Sunday)
Total
171
118
51
30
17
3
2
0
15303
4.2. Беспорядки (disturbances) и волнения (unrest)+ Ngen
The word беспорядки (disturbances) almost never co-occurs with a genitive
attribute. Only 14 such collocations were discovered; cf. беспорядки студентов (student disturbances; 6) and беспорядки крестьян (peasant disturbances; 5). For волнения (unrest) I found 520 collocations with a genitive
attribute, among which the most frequent are волнения крестьян (peasant
unrest; 229) and волнения рабочих (worker unrest; 173). The other word
groups – for example, волнения студентов (student unrest; 58), волнения
солдат (soldier unrest; 29) – occur relatively rarely.
Table 3. Беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest)+ Ngen
беспорядки
(disturbances)
волнения (unrest)
Ngen
5
2
6
1
0
0
229
173
58
29
16
15
Total: 14
Total: 520
крестьян (of peasants)
рабочих (of workers)
студентов (of students)
солдат (of soldiers)
крепостных (of serfs)
военных (of servicemen)
4.3. Combinability with verbs
Tables 4–6 show the two constructions SUB+V and V+OBJ that were investigated. The first case concerns combinability with an intransitive verb and a
noun functioning as the subject, while in the second a transitive verb denotes
an action or activity directed at an object in the semantic role of Theme, with
172
Ludmila Pöppel
a noun in the role of this object. Often such instances have to do with transitive verbs with a Theme as the direct object, but less frequently we find
verbs with prepositional government of the type призывать к
(call/appeal/urge to), where the accusative valence is filled by the Addressee
rather than the Theme.
Table 4. Беспорядки (disturbances) SUB+V
verb
начинаться/начаться (begin)
происходить/произойти
(happen/take place)
вспыхивать/вспыхнуть (flare
up)
возникать/возникнуть (arise)
Total
беспорядки (disturbances)
2348
1108
614
237
4307
Table 5. Волнения (unrest) SUB+V
verb
начинаться/начаться (begin)
происходить/произойти
(happen/take place)
вспыхивать/вспыхнуть (flare
up)
возникать/возникнуть (arise)
Total
волнения (unrest)
2180
871
340
157
3548
The word беспорядки (disturbances) combines most frequently with four
intransitive verbs – начинаться/начаться (begin; 2348), происходить/произойти (happen/take place; 1108), вспыхивать/вспыхнуть (flare
up; 614) and возникать/возникнуть (arise; 237). The combinability of волнения (unrest) with intransitive verbs is similar – начинаться/начаться
(begin; 2180), происходить/произойти (happen/take place; 871), вспыхивать/вспыхнуть (flare up; 340) и возникать/возникнуть (arise; 157).
Беспорядки (disturbances) vs. волнения (unrest)
173
Table 6. Беспорядки (disturbances) V+OBJ
verb
устраивать/устроить
(create/cause)
провоцировать/спровоцировать
(provoke)
прекращать/прекратить (halt)
вызывать/вызвать (cause)
организовывать/организовать
(organize)
приводить/привести к (lead to)
подавлять/подавить (crush)
остановить/останавливать
(stop)
пресекать/пресечь (cut short)
учинить/учинять (create/cause)
призывать/призвать к (call to)
разжигать/разжечь (foment)
подстрекать к (incite)
погасить (suppress)
контролировать (control)
Total
беспорядки (disturbances)
1766
843
352
243
185
154
142
127
120
94
76
35
21
8
5
4044
Most common in this group are co-occurrences with the verbs устраивать/устроить (create/cause; 1766) and провоцировать/спровоцировать
(provoke; 843), followed by an intermediate group consisting of the verbs
прекращать/прекратить (halt; 352), вызывать/вызвать (cause; 243),
подавлять/подавить (crush; 142), остановить/останавливать (stop;
127), пресекать/пресечь (cut short; 120) and учинить/учинять (create/cause; 94).
174
Ludmila Pöppel
Table 7. Волнения (unrest)V+OBJ
verb
вызывать/вызвать (cause)
провоцировать/спровоцировать
(provoke)
подавлять/подавить (crush)
приводить/привести к (lead to)
прекращать/прекратить (halt)
устраивать/устроить
(create/cause)
погасить (suppress)
организовывать/организовать
(organize)
остановить (stop)
разжигать/разжечь (foment)
подстрекать к (incite)
учинить/учинять (cause/create)
призывать/призвать к (call to)
пресекать/пресечь (cut short)
контролировать (control)
Total
волнения (unrest)
427
174
129
81
54
41
26
24
18
13
4
3
0
0
0
976
Волнения (unrest) combines most typically with the verbs вызывать/вызвать (cause; 427), провоцировать/спровоцировать (provoke;
174) and подавлять/подавить (crush; 129). The intermediate group consists of the verbs приводить/привести к (lead to; 81), прекращать/прекратить (halt; 54) and устраивать/устроить (create/cause;
41).
4.4. Беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) in the
position of genitive attribute
In the position of genitive attribute беспорядки (disturbances) collocates
most often with the nouns участник (participant; 1828), зачинщик (instigator; 945), начало (beginning; 686), организатор (organizer; 565), волна
(wave; 530), and the prepositional group в ходе (in the course of/during;
1163). Less frequent are co-occurrences with место (place; 132), виновник
(perpetrator; 123), период (period; 78), год (year; 60) and месяц (month;
Беспорядки (disturbances) vs. волнения (unrest)
175
36). Collocations with the words конец (end; 8), годы (years; 7) and эпоха
(epoch; 6) are exceptions. In comparison with the word беспорядки (disturbances) the combinability of волнения (unrest) with nouns is less frequent. The most common such words are начало (beginning; 370), участник (participant; 236), организатор (organizer; 132), период (period; 127),
and the prepositional group в ходе (in the course of/during; 132).
Table 8. Frequency co-occurrence in the position of genitive attribute
в ходе (in the course
of/during)
начало (beginning)
окончание (conclusion)
конец (end)
период (period)
год (year)
годы (years)
месяц (month)
эпоха (epoch)
участник (participant)
зачинщик (instigator)
организатор (organizer)
виновник (perpetrator)
волна (wave)
место (place)
беспорядков (disturbволнений (unrest)
ances)
1163
132
686
35
370
14
8
78
60
7
36
6
1828
945
565
6
127
57
9
19
5
236
43
132
123
26
530
132
34
22
4.5. Frequency co-occurrence with place adverbials
In this group the word беспорядки (disturbances) combines most conspicuously with the construction на улицах (in the streets; 278). All other cooccurrences are rare or non-existent.
176
Ludmila Pöppel
Table 9. Frequency co-occurrence with на улицах (in the streets), на улице
(in the street), на площади (on the square), на станции (at the station)
беспорядки
(disturbances)
волнения
(unrest)
на улицах
(in the
streets)
278
на улице
(in the
street)
13
на площади
(on the
square)
32
на станции
(at the station)
6
33
7
17
0
5. Results
The analysis of the data from Sketch Engine reveals a number of combinatorial differences between the words беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения
(unrest). The most common collocation with adjectives is массовые беспорядки (mass disturbances; 20230 examples), which is many times more frequent than all other such groups, whereas массовые волнения (mass unrest)
occurs significantly less often (2679 examples). The word волнения (unrest)
combines frequently with the adjective народный (popular; 6119), while
occurrences of народные беспорядки (popular disturbances) are rare (86).
In this group I also found significant differences between the collocations
крестьянские волнения (peasant unrest; 1882) and крестьянские беспорядки (peasant disturbances; 110), студенческие волнения (student unrest;
2278) and студенческие беспорядки (student disturbances; 686), уличные
беспорядки (street disturbances; 2118) and уличные волнения (street unrest;
219).
A number of differences were also found between беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) in combination with a genitive attribute. Беспорядки (disturbances) practically never co-occurs with a genitive attribute.
Only 14 such examples were found in the corpus: for example беспорядки
студентов (student disturbances; 6), беспорядки крестьян (peasant disturbances; 5). Волнения (unrest) occurs significantly more often with a genitive attribute. A total of 520 such collocations were found, of which the most
common were волнения крестьян (peasant unrest; 229) and волнения рабочих (worker unrest; 173).
In the construction V+OBJ 4044 examples were found with the word
беспорядки (disturbances) and 976 with волнения (unrest). Especially obvious are the combinatorial differences with the verbs устраивать/устроить
(create/cause; 1766 examples with беспорядки and 41 with волнения). In
Беспорядки (disturbances) vs. волнения (unrest)
177
the position of object, беспорядки (disturbances) и волнения (unrest) combine with nouns denoting a period of time, with no significant combinatorial
differences between them.
Беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest) often appear in the position of subject in combination with the verbs начинаться/начаться
(begin),
происходить/произойти
(happen/take
place),
вспыхивать/вспыхнуть (flare up) and возникать/возникнуть (arise). Cf. (1)
and (2).
(1)
В сентябре 1955 г. начались беспорядки среди призывников,
направляемых в Алжир. [Егор Гайдар. Гибель империи (2006)]
[In September 1955 disturbances began among draftees being sent
to Algiers.]
(2)
Интересно, что в 32 губерниях из 50 начались волнения крепостных. [Александр Горянин. Загадки крепостного права //
«Знание–сила», 2012]
[It is interesting to note that serf unrest broke out in 32 of the 50
provinces.]
In combination with transitive verbs, беспорядки (disturbances) occurs
much more often than волнения (unrest) in the position of object, 4044 and
976 examples, respectively. Cf. (3) and (4).
(3)
И действительно – в городе перекрыто движение, милиция на
посту, армия готова подавить беспорядки […]. [Олег Дивов.
Выбраковка (1999)]
[And indeed, city traffic has been cordoned off, the militia has been
deployed, the army is prepared to crush any disturbances.]
(4)
А что же Франция? Чтобы быть уверенной в нейтралитете этой
страны, Испания постоянно подтачивала ее изнутри, разжигая
волнения и мятежи. [Sketch Engine]
[And what about France? To be sure of the neutrality of this
country, Spain constantly undermined it from within, fomenting
unrest and rebellions.]
With the exception of беспорядки на улицах (disturbances in the streets),
which occurs 278 times, collocations with place adverbials are atypical.
178
Ludmila Pöppel
6. Conclusions
Analysis of the corpus data reveals that despite the apparent similarity of the
near-synonyms беспорядки (disturbances) and волнения (unrest), there are
many combinatorial differences between them. A future investigation will
analyze possible distinctions from the point of view of semantics and pragmatics. Intuitively, these words have different evaluative potential, which
may help explain differences in their combinability. This aspect, however,
demands separate and thorough analysis and study.
Bibliography
Divjak, Dagmar & Gries, Stefan Th. 2006. “Ways of Trying in Russian: Clustering
Behavioral Profiles”. In: Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 2, 1, 23–60.
Dobrovolskij, Dmitrij & Pöppel, Ludmila. 2012a. “Lexical semantics and official
propaganda: революция (revolution), переворот (takeover of power), восстание
(uprising)”. In: Die Welt der Slaven, XVII, 1, 134–145.
Dobrovolskij, Dmitrij & Pöppel, Ludmila. 2012b. “Pеволюция (revolution),
переворот (coup), восстание (uprising): semantics and pragmatics”. In: ScandoSlavica, 58, 1, 77–100.
Dobrovolskij, Dmitrij & Pöppel, Ludmila. 2013a. “The semantic field of POWER
and political propaganda: революция (revolution) vs. переворот (coup) and
восстание (uprising) vs. мятеж (revolt)”. In: Beatrix Kreß (ed.) Totalitarian Political Discourse? Tolerance and Intolerance in Eastern and East Central European Countries. Diachronic and Synchronic Aspects (Hildesheimer Schriften zur
interkulturellen Kommunikation, 5). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 71–88.
Dobrovolskij, Dmitrij & Pöppel, Ludmila. 2013b. “Lexical synonymy within the
semantic field POWER”. In: Irina Kor Chahine (ed.) Current Studies in Slavic
Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 281–295.
Janda, Laura A. & Solovyev, Valery D., 2009. “What constructional profiles reveal
about synonymy: a case study of Russian words for SADNESS and HAPPINESS.” In: Cognitive Linguistics 20, 2, 367–393.
Pöppel, Ludmila, 2014. “Delimitation of synonyms within the semantic field POWER: смута (turmoil), беспорядки (disorders), волнения (unrest/tumult)”. In:
Martine Dalmas & Elisabeth Piirainen (eds.) Figurative Sprache. Figurative
Language. Langage figuré. Festgabe für Dmitrij O. Dobrovol'skij (Stauffenburg
Lingvistik, 83). Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 233–242.