POLYCATEGORIAL SEMANTIC COMPLEX (USING THE CATEGORIES OF TAXIS AND INSTRUMENTALITY)

Abstract

This article examines the taxis polycategorial semantic complex in German, specifically the instrumental-taxic and medial-taxic semantic subcomplexes of simultaneity. Using utterances with instrumental prepositions selected from the Leipzig National Corpus and the Electronic Dictionary of the German Language, the phenomenon of intercategorial inclusion of the functional-semantic categories of taxis and instrumentality is analyzed. The paper demonstrates that the syncretic unification of these fields determines the actualization of instrumental-tactical meanings in constructions with prepositional deverbatives. A polycentric structure of the functional-semantic field of instrumentality is revealed, including two microfields: objective and non-objective instrumentality. Using numerous contexts as examples, prototypical elements of instrumental-tactical constructions are demonstrated – the prepositions mit, durch, unter, mittels, per, actional and procedural deverbatives, as well as verbs of physical and mental influence. Particular attention is paid to the differentiation of three types of instrumental situations: regulative, performative, and resultative, each of which exhibits syncretism with other categories – modality, causality, and conditionality. This article contributes to the development of functional grammar theory by offering a systematic description of the mechanisms for actualizing taxis meanings in their interaction with instrumental and medial semantic components in the German language. Prospects for research relate to the development of the concept of a taxis polycategorial semantic complex through the inclusion of additional functional-semantic categories.