Ho letto, mangiato e pure dormicchiato. I suffissi valutativi verbali in italiano tra semantica e pragmatica: un confronto con gli aktionsart in russo

This study analyzes the Italian verbal suffix -[v]cchiare, com¬paring it with the Russian prefix-suffix patterns (na-…-yva-t’, pod-…-y¬va-t’, and pri-…-yva-t’) that express the intermittent-attenuative mode of action. The research adopts a contrastive corpus-based approach, utilizing parallel and comparable corpora to identify semantic and pragmatic equiva¬lences between the two languages. The analysis reveals that both the Italian suffix and the Russian prefix-suffix combinations convey semantic features of iterativity, discontinuity, and reduced intensity, while also highlighting restrictions related to the actional class of the verbal base in Italian and to the aspectual properties of base and derived verbs in Russian. Specifically, Italian verbs with the suffix -[v]cchiare are compatible with the perfective aspect, as they can be conjugated in tense forms associated with perfecti¬vity (such as the passato prossimo and passato remoto), whereas their Russian counterparts fall in the category of imperfectiva tantum. On the pragmatic level, the morphological patterns in Italian and Russian convey meanings related to approximation, mitigation, politeness, and understate¬ment. Examples of real-world usage demonstrate how linguistic and extra¬linguistic contexts shape the interpretation of these verbal forms, activating inferences that link them to intersubjective pragmatic functions directed towards both the speaker and the interlocutor.