Getting out: A preliminary analysis of вы- and из-

Abstract

This article explores the Russian aspectual prefixes вы- and из- from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. It is shown that the two prefixes have very similar meanings that occupy overlapping parts of the same category network. The meanings attested in natural and specialized perfectives occur in the same network, but natural perfectives occupy a subset of the nodes of the specialized perfectives. It is argued that a network approach to linguistic categories facilitates a precise analysis of the semantics of Russian verbal prefixes.