The Statistic Verification of a Semantically Based Hypotheses: Russian Verbs of Volition: and

This paper investigates the semantic distribution of two morphological forms of the Russian verb of volition хотеть. Three hypotheses for semantic grounds for the grammatical distribution are proposed. The hypotheses are checked by statistical analysis of distribution of the infinitive made on the data obtained from the National Russian Corpus. The analysis reveals groups of verbs which show more deviation in their behavior when used with one of the volition verbs than would be expected. The results of the analysis do not favor any of the preliminary hypotheses. A close-up look at the semantics of the constructions with the infinitives that show non-standard behavior helps to understand the semantic opposition realized by the two constructions.