ON THE CONSTRUCTIONS WITH PHASE VERBS IN SERBIAN AND HUNGARIAN LANGUAGES

Abstract

In the Serbian language, the rule says that only imperfective  verbs can  function as the complements of phase verbs. In contrast, in the Hungarian language, the verbal complement of phase verbs can be perfective. This characteristic of the Hungarian language often results in an interfering phenomenon in Hungarian-Serbian bilingual speakers, which is reflected in the use of perfective instead of imperfective verbs as the complements of phase verbs.

This research starts from Hungarian structures with pervective verbs which mark the beginning of the action and those which mark the completion of the action, realized with phase verb (el)kezd/(za)početi, and searches for their adequate translation. It has been noticed that the translation of such Hungarian constructions requires certain formal interventions, which can lead to semantic deviations. It was found that there are two basic possibilities: 1) deleting the phase prefix of a Serbian verb, which returns the verb to its original imperfective form (kezd megszeretni – *počinje da zavoli → počinje da voli) and 2) adding a suffix for imperfectivization of a perfective verb (kezd elvirágzani –*počinje da precveta → počinje da precvetava). Which of them will be realized depends on the formative possibilities of the verbal complement. In addition to the mentioned translation solutions, the need to translate the complex Hungarian structure with a verb the semantics of which covers the connection between the Hungarian phase verb and the complement was also noticed. This happens in a situation when in the Hungarian language the verbal complement has both phase semantics, but also an additional nuance of meaning. Then the translation is usually reduced to a Serbian verb which contains a phase element in its semantic potential (kezd elindulni – *počinje da kreće → kreće; kezd nekiállni – *počinje da se laća → laća se).