The lexical and superlexical verbal prefix iz- and its role in the stacking of prefixes

Abstract

In this paper I show that there are two distinct iz- prefixes in Serbian: a lexical, and a superlexical one. I show that there are criteria for the distinction between the two types of verbal prefixes (restricting my claims to the superlexical prefixes that stack after the secondary imperfectivization). I focus on the lexical iz- occurring with transitive verbs and show that it can be analyzed along the same lines as the English resultative particles up and out. I also consider the role of the lexical iz- as a perfectivizer and point to the distinction between the notion of telicity and overtly marked boundedness on the lexical level. It also follows from the discussion below that a more elaborate event structure would be necessary for the analysis of superlexical iz-.