Structural Semantic Patterns with Negative Prefixes: A Case Study in English and Armenian

The aim of this article is to provide a general overview of the unique architecture of verb compounds in English and Armenian. It is well acknowledged that contrastive study can be used to get new insights into this or that linguistic phenomenon and the findings can prove to be useful both for the source and the target language. What is needed for cross-lingual comparison is structure perspectively, i.e., taking the meaning not the form as the starting point. Our research question is two-fold: How are semantically structured verb compounds in negative prefixes and How are these patternings rendered from English into Armenian.

number of minor ways of forming words such as back-formation, sound interchange, distinctive stress, sound imitation, blending, clipping and acronymy are traditionally referred to word formation.
It has been widely documented that affixation is one of the productive word formation means in languages. So far, we have been speaking about negative prefixes in verb compounds, in the first stage of our analysis we shall dwell upon prefixation. Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to different types of bases. Derived words formed by affixation may be the result of one or several applications of word-formation rule and thus the stems of words making up a word-cluster enter into derivational relations of different degrees. The zero degree of derivation is ascribed to simple words, i.e., words whose stem is homonymous with a word-form and often with a root-morpheme, e.g., atom, haste, devote, anxious, horror, etc. Derived words whose bases are built on simple stems and thus are formed by the application of one derivational affix are described as having the first degree of derivation, e.g., atomic, hasty, devotion, etc. Derived words formed by two consecutive stages of coining possess the second degree of derivation, etc., e.g., atomical, hastily, devotional, etc. In conformity with the division of derivational affixes into suffixes and prefixes affixation is subdivided into suffixation and prefixation.
A careful study of a great many suffixal and prefixal derivatives has revealed an essential difference between them. In Modern English suffixation is mostly characteristic of noun and adjective formation, while prefixation is mostly typical of verb formation. The distinction also rests on the role different types of meaning play in the semantic structure of the suffix and the prefix. The part-of-speech meaning has a much greater significance in suffixes as compared to prefixes which possess it in a lesser degree (Qurik, 1997, p. 56).
The problem of morphological/affixal negation can be studied both from a diachronic or synchronic approach but in the frame of our investigation we shall be concerned primarily with the present state of affairs.
For practical reasons we shall proceed by examining the various negative prefixes one after another, their structure and try to find their closest Armenian equivalents in each type. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sll Studies in Linguistics and Literature Vol. 4, No. 4, 2020 156 Published by SCHOLINK INC.

Semantic Structure of Verbal Compounds in Negative Prefixes in English
The group of negative prefixes is so numerous in English that some scholars even find it convenient to classify prefixes into negative and non-negative ones (Arnold,p. 98). In present-day English are distinguished five negative prefixes and a suffix which are all used in the affixal negation of adjectives: un-, in-, im-/, il-/, ir-/, non-, dis-, and -less, of which un-goes back to OE times, and-is of Greek origin, forming desubstantival adjectives, and in-, non-, dis-, came into use in English after the Norman Conquest, when with the absorption of great number of Romance words negated in this way, this new formative pattern came to be established outsing most of the traditional English means of word-formation by prefixes (Oxford English dictionary, p. 40). They give contrary, contradictory, reverse or opposite meaning (Arnold,p. 98).

Un-
The meaning is quite different when un-is used with verbal stems. In that case it shows action contrary to that of the simple word: bind-unbind, do-undo, pack-unpack (Arnold,p. 99).

It's quite visible that in all these examples un-forms reversal and removal verbs on the basis of verbal and nominal base.
Un-is similar to in-(with its variations im-, il-, ir-, i-). The latter is of Latin origin. In general, words take un-when they are of English (Germanic) origin and in-if they come from Latin.

Latin-in-(adverb and preposition) is used in combinations with verbs or their derivatives (less)
commonly with other parts of speech, with the sense "into, in, within, on, upon, towards, against" and expresses onward motion or continuance, sometimes intensive, sometimes transitive.

Dis-
In general dis-forms reversative verbs with Latinate verbal basis (disconnect, disappear) (is the reverse of appear), dishouse (to throw out) and verbs meaning "not+V" as disagree (not to agree), dislike (not to like).
A feature that it does not share with that it rivals de-and un-.

De-
De-attaches to verbs and nouns to form reversal and removal verbs which are frequently nominalized or adjectivalised (deselect, decompose, decode). It mainly coins verbs with the suffix -ify, -ize, -ate: The derivation in de-belongs to a more formal register or to the scientific-technical data, that's why it occurs mainly in many neologisms.

Non-
No verbal patterning was manifested.

Semantic Structure of Verbal Compounds in Negative Prefixes in Armenian
Identifying Armenian as the target language, in the next step of our investigation we aim at establishing the set of negative prefixes in Modern Armenian, namely to the consideration of verbal compounds with negative prefixes. Negative type of prefixes is commonly used to alter the meaning of a term from positive into negative, and this phenomenon is the same for both languages.
1) Ան -not a single word with a verbal forming prefix ան-was established in Armenian.
2) Չ + verb roots Չ-with verbs functions as a highly productive prefix in conjugation to negate verbs in the infinitive, subjunctive, aorist and auxiliaries in compound tenses and moods, as well as copular verbs in the present and imperfect tenses.
As G. Grigoryan states, the prefix is highly productive in scientific terminology in political discourse (Գրիգորյան, p. 130).
1. Today the prefix Դժ-has not displayed any verbal compound.
Aiming to reveal the semantic dimensions of negative prefixes, we firstly, analyze them at vertical level and secondly, at horizontal level. Such an approach makes it possible to account for a wide spectrum of functional traits of prefixes and deal with data of very different kinds. We made use of the English sentences containing the prefixed words along with the parallel sentences in Armenian. Such a strategy helps us to extract the aligned bilingual sentences containing the searched item.
Un+v is rendered morphologically but with the help of another negative prefix.
Joining to verbal stems un-shows action contrary to that of simple word, such as in unableչկարողանալով, չի կարող. In the first example the word unable finds its irregular correspondence (in-ոչ), and the second one is paraphrased; being patterned syntactically.
1) Mrs. Bennet deigned not to make any reply, but unable to contain herself, began scolding one of her daughters. "Don't keep coughing so, Kitty, for Heaven's sake! Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces (Austen, p. 6).
"About a month", said Elizabeth; and then, unwilling to let the subject drop, added, "He is a man of very large property in Derbyshire, I understand" (Austen, p. 96).
From the illustrated examples it could be deduced that the verb finds its equivalents either applying its synonym (դժգոհել) or paraphrase (դժգոհություն պատճառել): 1) I won't tell you that I am dissatisfied with what I have done of him, or that his beauty is such that art cannot express it (Wilde, p. 9).
Ես չեմ ասում, թե գոհ չեմ իմ աշխատանքից, չեմ ուզում քեզ հավատացնել, թե այդպիսի գեղեցկությունն անհնար է պատկերել արվեստի մեջ (19): 2) She said no more, and they went down the other dance and parted in silence; and on each side dissatisfied, though not to an equal degree for in Darcy's breast there was a tolerable powerful feeling towards her, which soon procured her pardon, and directed all his anger against another (Austen, p. 118).
"I suppose in about a fortnight we will be told that he has been at San Francisco. It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and posses all the attractions of the next world" (Wilde, p. 209).

Conclusion
The findings of our research strongly suggest that the majority of prefixes in English affect only the lexical meaning of words, whereas in Armenian they can coin new parts of speech. An exhaustive comparison based exclusively on the literature itself offers diverging overview of negative prefixation.
Morphological translations in Armenian reflect linguistic similarities in the use of negative affixes and also point out dissimilarities between the two languages.
Analyzing the translations of all English negative affixes it becomes obvious that morphological translation is very useful strategy for rendering and when morphological translation is not appropriate for the given context, translator uses non morphological strategy, which includes paraphrasing, synonymy, zero translation, substitution, etc.
Un + derivatives of present participle are less numerous and un + substitution + ed involves privation and has a fairly regular equivalents in Armenian. Dis + verb patterning is mainly paraphrased in Armenia translations. De-generally belongs to a more formal register and non-morphological translation strategy is productive in this case.
The large number of paraphrases points to the possible difficulties encountered by translators to render English negative affix (prefix) into Armenian.
Translator's choices in translation strategies probably mirror some of the specific features of English negative morphology that can or cannot be easily rendered into Armenian.