The study deals with prefixed verbs with při- and pře- which imply a preceding action, namely one identical or similar to the action denoted by a given verb (přisladit čaj ‘sweeten tea (a little more)’; převážit rybu ‘reweigh a fish’). The paper addresses these questions: 1) What factors cause the implication of a preceding action to be perceived with varying strength for different verbs? 2) Does the meaning of a preceding action belong to the realm of semantics or pragmatics? The following findings are formulated: 1) Strength of the implication is affected by the amount of resemblance of the implied action to the action directly denoted: if two identical actions with identical result are concerned (přeočkovat dítě ‘revaccinate a child’) the implication is strong. If the verb expresses a change of state (přeformulovat text ‘reformulate a text’) the implication is weaker. 2) The character of the implied meaning is also a factor: if the implication is strongly determined by pragmatics (přisolit ‘add (more) salt’) it is merely loosely associated with the verb. If the implication is not dependent on pragmatics (převážit kapra ‘reweigh a carp’) it seems to be part of the lexical meaning and is strong.
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