Some Latvian constructions involving prefixed verbs with the prefix echoed by a preposition or an adverb

The article provides a brief outline of some Latvian constructions involving prefixed verbs where the verbal prefix is repeated by a preposition of the same or nearly identical phonological shape (synharmonism, for instance uzlikt x uz galda) or by a preposition with a semantically close meaning to the prefix but in a different shape or by an adverb (correlation, example uzlikt virsū), viewed from a construction-grammar perspective. Construction is understood as „a form-meaning pair (F, M) where F is a set of conditions on syntactic and phonological form and M is a set of conditions on meaning and use” (Lakoff 1987, 467). Synharmonic and correlative constructions are productive and entrenched in speakers’ mental lexicon as patterns that subsequently come to be perceived as cognitive images (Gestalt). These constructions in Latvian are not fully predictable and depend on the valency of the verb. Most frequently they involve verbs of motion or situation in space that are not used in a figurative sense (constructivity restraint). Synharmonism or correlation can be optional but in some cases its absence yields clumsy or even ungrammatical sentences. There is a symbolic multi-level relation between the prefixed verb and prepositional phrase or adverb that follows (cf. the representation of the construction as a form-meaning pair in Ziem und Lasch 2013, 14). It is possible to represent such constructions spatially, i.e. as spatial signs with a prototypical (form-meaning) structure that are part of the lexicon-grammar continuum that, in turn, constitutes language as a taxonomically organized network of constructions, the so-called constructicon. Prefixed verbs in Latvian often show perfective Aktionsart but it need not always be the case, as the aspectual meanings fully depend on the speaker’s intention. Synharmonism and correlative explication of the kind described above is also found in other Indo-European languages and their wide distribution seems to prove the point that such constructions are useful in rendering an utterance clearer and more readily perceivable