Slovak Nouns with the Meaning of Short Duration in Genitive Constructions: on the Specifics of their Compatibility

Abstract

The article explores the semantic differences between three Slovak substantives expressing a short duration: chvíľa, okamih, and minúta. The study was conducted using the material of the Slovak national corpus and is based on the analysis of collocations of the lexemes in question. The statistical parameters that were used are the data on absolute frequency and the indicators of the measure of association (t-score). We have analyzed the potential factors that could restrict the compatibility of the nouns chosen inside a genitive construction, as well as possible contextual differences in situations where restrictions on the compatibility are absent. Genitive constructions can have two possible meanings: partitive (part/whole relation) or temporal proper. In the first case, minúta differs from chvíľa and okamih in that it has a specific target content. In the second case, each of the substantives is characterized by its basic compatibility area: for chvíľa, it is combination with nouns denoting a period or a break not limited by a strictly initial or final phase; for okamih, combination with actions denoting a start or an appearance; for minúta, central role is given to genitive constructions with fixed final phase substantives. In combination with život and smrť substantives, contexts with chvíľa focus on describing the situation directly from the position of the subject of perception, whereas contexts with okamih usually have it viewed by an outside observer.

Thus, Slovak substantives of short duration form a system that is fundamentally different from the one used in the Russian language. In the Slovak system, personal time is opposed to social, and then the personal time is divided into irrational (chvíľa) and rational (okamih) time.

DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2018.7.2.12