HOW MANY MEANINGS DOES THE RUSSIAN VSE-TAKI (‘STILL, NEVERTHELESS’) HAVE?


2019. № 2 (20), 201-209

Federal research center Informatics and management/ Pushkin State Russian Language Institute 

Abstract:

In the book of V.Yu. Apresyan (“Concession: mechanisms of formation and interaction of complex meanings in a language”, Moscow, 2015) and in Active dictionary of the Russian Language the word всё-таки (vse-taki) has three meanings: a concessive meaning, an argumentative meaning and a trivial meaning. Our analysis suggests that всё-таки (vse-taki) has other meanings as well. The concessive meaning of всё-таки(vse-taki) arises only in the context of the conjunctions но, а, и, хотя. Outside this context the meaning of все-таки (vse-taki) is a script that includes three stages: at the beginning there is an initial positive opinion about the state of affairs; then the opposite opinion arises; but in the end («все-таки») the initial meaning prevails. Here все-таки (vse-taki) means ‘eventually’. A compensatory всё-таки (vse-taki) can also be differentiated — when “concessive” means ‘in a small amount’. Trivial всё-таки (vse-taki) is cognate to the meaning ‘eventually’.