Analysing the semantic possibilities of the prefix pere- (over) in the verb pereest’ (to overeat)

the article is devoted to the analysis of the semantics of the prefix pere- in the verb pereest’ (to overeat). The Russian Grammar identifies 10 types of verbal meanings of the prefix pere-, which were correlated with the four main lexical meanings of the verb pereest’ (overeat). For each meaning, we analysed combinability, determined the semantics of the verb's figurative meaning and the peculiarities of its use (the source of discursive material was the National Corpus of the Russian Language). In the first meaning, pere- is a prefix-intensifier, an emotional expression of deviation from the norm. In the second meaning, reflecting the distributive mode of verbal action, the meaning of alternately spreading to a number of objects of influence is emphasised, with the meaning of the verb extending to the absorption of a person by a person in the sense of ‘suppress, bring to a certain state (poverty, illness, death)’. The third meaning of the verb ‘To eat more than someone’ correlates with the type ‘by means of the action named by the motivating verb, to surpass another performer of the same action’ and rarely occurs in speech. In the last considered meaning the prefix pere- corresponds with the prefix pro- in the semantics of the action directed through some object; the process of destruction, separation into two parts is actualised. The study revealed metaphorical units formed due to the multivalence of the prefix pere-, which can add semantic connotations of overcrowding, deviation from the norm, number of objects, negative interpersonal relations to the motivating verb.

prefix pere-, manner of verbal action, gastronomic metaphor, norm, polysemous prefixes